flyingkai

Growing up a half-hour outside of DC, I’ve been dragged in for school trips (mostly to the aforementioned Natural History Museum…) about once a year.

1. The Air-and-Space Museum. Their IMAX movies are great for when you’ve gotten tired of all that walking
2. The International Spy Museum
3. The Mall—and the Lincoln Memorial
4. Dupont Circle
5. Lamda Books in Dupont(a great GLBTQ bookstore, with the Human Rights Campain right next door!)
6. Teaism, by the Navy Memorial, for the best chai in the DC area. It’s addictive and I love it. So much.

The year: 2002
The main character: A Shakespeare-obsessed 8th grader(me)
Objective: Revenge on my mother, who made me see Mamma Mia! in London

We stayed at an adorable little bed-and-breakfast within walking distance of lots of the town, and to buses for the rest of it. The walkability of the town was a great feature-and great exercise! I dragged my mom through all of the Shakespeare’s birth place stuff, which I LOVED and she tolerated. We had tickets to see As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (booked way in advance), and it turned out it was in the first few weeks of the show! We sat a few empty seats away from a few people from the production team-every so often, a runner would come and get notes from them to deliver backstage. As I am a technical theatre geek, it was the thrill of a lifetime!

The most surprising bit of our time in Stratford-upon-avon was the International Teddy Bear Museum. My mom dragged me in, but I found it really well-done and fascinating. They had Jim Henson’s(the creator of the Muppets) original Fozzie Bear!

I loved Stratford-upon-Avon, and would love to go back someday. But maybe without a mother who complains through a whole Shakespeare show….

After all of the Tower of London, London Eye type-visits, Portobello Road was a welcome relief from dank castles. My mom had to buy an extra rolling duffle bag to take home all the things we bought! There’s nowhere like it in the world—-it seemed magical.

I was fourteen when my mom and I visited Cardiff—-we had won plane tickets to London at a church thing. At the time, my dad was really into tracing his roots, and found Ivor & his wife, Yvonne, (who share our unusual last name, Betty) on-line and had determined that they were distant relatives. When we told them about our trip, they offered to show us around for the 2.5 days we were in town! Since they were total strangers, we didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived in Cardiff around 8 pm, and caught a taxi to our hotel. Once we were checked in, we called Ivor and Yvonne to let them know we had arrived safely. It was then we found out they had been at the train station to pick us up, but got there just as we left in our taxi. They came by the hotel cafe, and we got to know each other before they offered us a nighttime tour of the city (and their village, Pentyrch).

My mom was freaked about being in a car on the wrong side of the road, but the way these distant relatives took us into their hearts and homes was a real testament to the kindness we found all around us in Wales. We returned to their house after our mini-tour for tea and these delicious wafer-with-a-marshmellow-type-thing-on-top with the whole thing covered in chocolate from Marks and Spencers. Those were one of my favorite things about the entire trip. That night, they deposited us back at our hotel, and we made plans for the next two days.

Those days were amazing, and it was the best part about my trip.

Kai