London, Day 4

I'll have to come up with more interesting titles for these posts, or both of you will stop reading. Today's activities, like typical London weather, were a mixture of highs and lows. In the morning, after a nice breakfast at Embankment Cafe (where we always seem to end up, even when it's closed), it began to rain. Now, the forecast has been calling for light rain every day since we arrived and it hasn't, so we've started to mostly ignore it. But of course today was the exception. And it wasn't a "light rain", either.

We figured that we should try to toughen the kids up and decided to have a walk over to Buckingham Palace (actually we'd set out in that direction before the rain, and, in the absence of any better plan or a map, soldiered on in the deluge). We'd have made it, too, but for some peace protest or other blocking the way. I suppose we could have found a way around it, but between the rain and the crowds, it just seemed like too much effort. So we just did what any middle class American family would do - we went back to the hotel, watched a movie and had a little snooze.

Watching a movie and having a snooze with Michael is a frustrating endeavor. He's fine for about 20 minutes, which is just long enough for you to close your eyes and start dreaming, when he decides you've had enough rest and wants to play. With everything. He has this incredible ability to ferret out the one thing he's not supposed to have and fixates on getting it while we try to keep him from it. This usually degenerates into tears or tantrum. Oh, and Michael doesn't like it much, either.

So, after a few abortive attempts at napping, we thought we'd have a little lunch. We'd heard that the Smollensky's down the street, part of a high-end steakhouse chain, caters for families at lunchtime, and indeed they do. Perhaps a little too much. The key to successful dining with a child possessed of Michael's, er, inquisitive nature is to install him in some sort of restraining device and to have as little distraction on the table as possible. Despite the extensive kiddie menu, Smollensky's only has high chairs of a size suitable for Cabbage Patch dolls or very premature newborns, and the bags of goodies contained a quantity of little colored pencils which, when lashed together with some vines, could have made a raft big enough to send the entire cast of Gilligan's Island home for the weekend. The clown was a nice touch, too, but he went home early.

The good news, though, is that while we were busy keeping the boy from eating the eraser or grinding his finger into the little pencil sharpener, the clouds broke and, wonder of wonders, the sun shone. So, after lunch, we resurrected our plan to show the kids the house where the Queen lives, with somewhat more success this time (no protest). Unfortunately, with the sun came a mighty wind, and with it, pollen which was exactly the texture of Fiberglass insulation. As you might imagine, this made for rather uncomfortable and slow walking, owing to the frequent stops to remove stuff from the kids' eyes. We did, however, get to see a large number of ducks, geese and other waterfowl in St. James's Park, which runs along the avenue leading to the Palace. And a little girl gave Caroline some bread to feed to the wildlife, which was fun until a flock of pigeons elbowed their way in to the action.

And just as we coughed and sneezed our way up to the Palace perimeter, tears streaming down our faces, with the late afternoon sun glinting off the gilt coat of arms on the Palace gates and beheld the glorious sight that is Buckingham Palace, Caroline started whining about when we were going to do "something fun".

And therein lies the rub. "Something fun" for me is sitting outside a pub in the afternoon sunshine, reading newspaper articles I barely understand and drinking warm beer. "Something fun" for me is getting lost in a maze of narrow, crooked and possibly unsafe streets and stumbling on a really great restaurant. "Something fun" for me involves two trains and maybe a bus to get to a weekend market to buy some green beans from the guy who grew them. "Something fun" for me does not involve anything that moves in a circle, wears a costume or is sticky.

After a festive dinner of Pret a Manger sandwiches in the hotel room (not at all as expensive as the room service ones), we thought we'd score some ice cream from our favorite Cafe in the park (the ice cream is REALLY good), but it was closed, so we settled for hot chocolate and shortbread from Starbuck's. Michael did not find this an acceptable substitute for the promised ice cream, and apparently thought the drink would be better if first poured on his shoes. But we had a nice little run in the park, and by that time the wind had died down, so it was really a pleasant evening. See, I'm developing the distinctly British positive outlook already.