So today, we made our last trek into the city. First stop on the agenda: visit with Michael. Michael is my Aunt Mary’s brother. He lives in London, in Earls Court – a station we were very familiar with. The last time I saw Michael was 25 years ago. He remembered me as a kid. We texted him right before we pulled into the station so we knew where to look for him. He was standing right on the other side of the turnstile. He looked pretty much as I remembered, a little less hair. He kept motioning to me and pointing to the girls to say that he remembered me looking like them. He couldn’t believe I have two daughters about the same age as Denise & I were when we first met him when he lived with my aunt & uncle so many years ago. We walked over to the Costa for some tea and muffins. (the same Costa I met the guy I work with a few weeks ago).
The girls brought some paper to write on which worked out very well as we wrote notes back and forth to each other. My sign language is pretty much where I left off when Michael taught me 25 years ago so writing was WAY faster. I was just amazed at how hard it must be to be deaf on your own in the city. Michael insisted on paying but when they said the tea was ready, Michael couldn’t hear them say it. I guess the Costa employee missed my pathetic attempt of sign language when we were deciding what to order. It was a very nice visit. It was Michael’s last day at his work – he was switching locations and some of his coworkers were throwing him a little goodbye party so he had to go. It was so nice that we got to see each other.
After that, we headed to Madame Tousseauds Wax museum. Since it was now September, we were able to use our Merlin Passes again. Madame Tousseads was pretty packed but because we had our trusty Merlin Passes, we got right in. The museum has 5 floors. You take an elevator to the top floor and then make your way down. When we got off of the elevator, we stepped into the “Hollywood” floor. We got pictures with Harry Potter, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and a few others. The next floor was the sports floor. Not as exciting for any of us so we did not get any pictures. But we did see a bunch of people we (mostly me) recognized – Tiger, Beckham, Ali.
The third floor was all political/historical figures. There we recognized A LOT of people. The girls hung out with Martin Luther King and Obama. They posed with Lady Di, Prince William, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. You have to do a double take when you see the picture, the wax figures look so real. The next floor was a scary floor that they were too young to get into. Then at the bottom, we went to see a 4-D Marvel Comics movie. The girls loved it. Our seats shook when the Hulk walked in the movie. And Spiderman looked like he was swinging right into us. It was a fun museum, so glad we ended up making it to visit. After that, we headed back to Richmond to meet Scott at the house.
Scott took the girls back to the city after a quick dinner to see the Lion King. I opted to stay back at the house to do some work and start packing/cleaning. Scott actually took the bus and the tube into the city – I think a first on his own for the whole summer. When they got to the stop for the Richmond Train station, the girls pressed the button to tell the bus to stop – Scott didn’t even realize it was the correct stop. The girls got off the bus, turned right to go to the tube. Then they automatically knew which gate to go through as well as what track to go to. Scott said it was pretty funny – they knew EXACTLY what to do since we had done it so often throughout the summer. They liked Lion King, although they weren’t as into the music like Wicked or Phantom. Then they all rode the tube back out, decided that the wait for the bus would be too long and took a taxi back to the house.
A great way to end the summer of non-stop activity.
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