July 11: In the queue for Kew, and My Fair Lady

After several early starts, we had no problem sleeping in this morning. With most of us not waking until 10 a.m., it seems we needed the catch-up winks! Today the mercury seemed higher than ever, at 27 degrees as we left for our train, and peaked at 30 degrees during the day.

We took a longer stroll from Pauline & Dave's to Crouch Hill station, a stop on the Overground line (in contrast to the Underground "Tube" network of subway trains). The Overground trains, we found, not only had better views than the subway, but were newer and included air conditioning. The trains were quieter too, and allowed Reid to read a bit of the story of Paddington Bear to the family along the way. We did have an unexpected moment of having to switch trains (we had thought it might be a single line to our destination), but a helpful angel of a transit driver pointed us in the right direction. Nana told us we would meet a few of these angels in our travels...

Our destination today was the Royal Botanical Gardens in the community of Kew (also known as the Kew Gardens). This is a fascinating place, and so much more than a mere fancy garden. It serves as a repository for the conservation of plant species from around the world, particularly endangered ones. At over 15,000 unique species, it is the largest such plant conservatory in the world! It was kind of like a zoo, but for plants! Most of the area (over 250 acres) is an 'arboretum', a conservatory of trees. What plants that could not thrive in the British climate were housed in at least a couple of greenhouses including the Temperate House and the Palm House (for plants from the tropics). There was a lot of messaging throughout the exhibits about the need to preserve and rebuild biodiversity, for the sake of our planet's ecosystems and our human survival. It was pretty inspiring to see so much diversity represented here. (Clearly, God our Creator values diversity in his creation, although I'm not sure he agrees with all the versions of diversity that our culture seems to come up with.)

One of the nifty installations at the Kew was of a pair of apparently-vegetarian trolls having a picnic on the lawn. All of the kids were thrilled with this, but especially this was right up Thane's alley; he has been using his tablet throughout the transit times to draw similar kinds of creatures.

Overlooking a pool, a fountain and the Palm House was the Botanical Brasserie, a lovely spot to have afternoon high English tea during our England trip! Yummy English tea (both hot and iced) with savory and sweet bites, plus the obligatory scones with clotted cream and berry preserve... what is more British than this? (So wonderful to think this was our third such tea in the past 2 months; we previously enjoyed high tea at Heritage Park for Mother's Day, and Grandma Lorraine took Beth & Reid out for high tea for Beth's milestone birthday!) Definitely a special occasion type of outing!

Shortly after the gardens, we made our way back to the trains, this time back to central London (via Overground line to Piccadilly line to Leicester Square station). Thane & Faith, in particular, expressed a desire to go to both McDonald's and Starbucks in each of the non-Canadian countries we visit. I suppose there are subtle interesting differences in the menu offerings around the world, but it's a head-scratcher for us parents. (We did experience something similar when travelling with Youth Singers to China back in 2004; one of the trip highlights for the teens was going to McDonald's in Shanghai.) We all need a balance of new experiences with the familiar, I guess.

We then walked among the crowds to meet up with Pauline & Dave at the London Coliseum in London's famous West End theatre district for a production of "My Fair Lady". This was our thank-you to them for hosting us so excellently. This revival of the show in London was the first in over 20 years, and was to feature the diversity-infused casting of a black actress in the lead role of Eliza Doolittle. (Interestingly, however, that actress must have been ill or something, as a white understudy performed instead. But Eliza's father Alfie was still a black actor, which didn't make sense from a genetic perspective. There is always some suspense of disbelief required in modern theatre productions, I find.) Having recently watched the 1964 movie version of the play, there was also a surprise ending in this version. Instead of coming back to stay with him and live with his pompous and gaslighting ways, Eliza seems to come back merely to express her care and gratitude for Henry Higgins, while at the same time acknowledging she cannot stay with him any longer. She leaves to make her own way in the world as a lady. The production was excellent, and we were all humming classic tunes like "I Could Have Danced All Night", "With a Little Bit of Luck", "Wouldn't it be Loverly", and "On the Street Where You Live", all the Tube ride home.