Great Britain, Part of the Story

To be honest, I'm still a little fuzzy on Great Britain versus United Kingdom versus England. If I remember correct - and this is without checking wikipedia or googling it again - England is the country on the middle, eastern and southern parts of the island of Britain. Scotland is in the north. North Ireland on north side of the island of Ireland. Wales on the western, southern part of Britain. Ireland (the southern part of that island) is its own country. I think that's what it is. Together, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England make up part of the United Kingdom, at least the parts of the UK that are that area of the world. I think that whole area - Ireland, North Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales - all make up Great Britain... You can see why I'm a bit fuzzy on all of this.

I'll double check and post a link or two with more accurate information. The important part is that going to this area of the world, it's more than possible to visit up to 5 different countries. Five! We didn't, but with a couple more days, I think we could have. Easily.


Amy and I both have ancestral roots in this region. In family history searching we've found countless references to County Atrium, Glamorganshire, and Gloucester (those are ones I remember without double-checking). If the kids were older, or we were there without them, we would have taken the chance to visit those sites, and traced our lineage more.

The limited searching we managed happened on Sunday at the Hyde Park Chapel in London. We met the family history consultant there, and talked about John Brayn (or Brain). He is documented as having married Ann Pinnell (or Pinegar) in 1801. Brayn or Brain are probably the same name, but I've never understood the Pinnell or Pinegar difference. The family history consultant was able to confirm one thing: that part of the family tree is all kinds of jacked up, lacking any reliable data to substantiate most the details currently captured. The good news? There might be data on a microfilm - I'll get to check that out when we return stateside!

This chapel though - the Hyde Park Chapel -  was amazing. It houses the London Mission office, a family history center, stake offices, and a visitor's center. It's right across and down the street from museums. It had a Christus statue in the window. It had a great feeling in it, and was totally worth the visit. I'll admit as I left, I wondered what it would take to do something similar in Round Rock Texas.

We'd probably need a few more museums nearby. There are at least 3 huge facilities across the street: The Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Science Museum. We made it to all 3 that afternoon!

Science Museum:

Victoria and Albert Museum, aka V&A

Floating heads! I mean busts!

More!

Tapestries!

Chris Martin!

V&A court

Natural History Museum

Those are actual Dodos! Crazy!

Sorry this is blurry - by the end of this stop, everyone was done being well "still". Or at least the Sheen version of that.

If you've never tried to visit 3 museums in a day, in a foreign country, with 5 kids, you should try it. It won't turn out how you expect. The museums all close around 6pm, but it was around 4pm when it was clear that we were pretty done. It had been a busy, fun Saturday, and with all the walking on Sunday, I assumed we'd have dinner and head home. All 5 kids were acting well, but tired, and ready to sit down. But then we mentioned the Princess Diana Memorial Park, and something about Peter Pan, and all of a sudden, these kids were COMPLETELY revitalized. We headed over, and once we made it in those kids played and played and played!

Lots of people, plenty of kids, and an abundance of places kids could run, explore and imagine adventures resulted in few pictures being taken. But I think these couple do a pretty good job of showcasing the park:

If all parks were made the same way as this park, the world would be a better place. It was truly magical.

To cap the day off, we finally caved to the kids persistent requests for ice cream. There was a place across the street from this park area called "Fenton's". Apparently no relation to the Fenton's of Vacaville, but just as fun for the kids!