See it. Say it. Sorted.
Underneath the Lovely London Sky
An unforgettable family vacation
It was a pretty grey Friday when the drive to Halifax with my parents and younger sister happened. We dropped our cats off at Grandma’s house, and my uncle graciously arrived to escort us to the airport to evade outrageous parking fees.
The flight was brutal, especially for someone with varicose veins and regularly wears compression socks. However, the searing pain in my right knee was a forgotten memory by the time we got in the United Kingdom.
We visited my sister and stayed at her home in Newton Abbot for most of the trip, and we had the luxury of her British fiancé being our tour guide, and leading us through the rain at Haytor.
On a later date, we were without our British tour guide, but my sister took us to Wolford Chapel, which is Canadian-owned land. A nearby plaque had the following inscribed: This family chapel on the former estate of Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant – Governor, John Graves Simcoe, was given to the people of Ontario by Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth. At 2 ceremony held on September 27, 1966 the Honourable John P. Robarts, Prime Minister of Ontario, accepted the deed to the chapel grounds from Sir Geoffrey and title to an essental right-of-way from Mr. A. G. Le Marchant. Enough to make a Canadian feel at home, especially with our flag positioned adjacent to the historic building.
We got to Stonehenge, which was a day trip, and it was worth being the only thing we saw that day because of all the rich history we absorbed from it. Even the current conspiracies surrounding its purpose was stimulating for me. I recall one theory involved the alignment of the stones with various stars, and when that alignment was punched into a computer in the early 90s, I believe, the results indicated a pretty damning relationship between the position of the stones, the sun and the moon. It remains to be a great location for inspiration, especially for writers.
We went to Lyme Regis, and it lived up to the hype! Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m fascinated by dinosaurs, so uncovering fossils has always been a fun activity. If you look closely in centre of the photo I took below, it looks like the fossilized footprint of a pretty sizeable dinosaur. Some light research made me believe that it could belong to a Spinosaurus, but that’s the fun part: using your imagination where substantial evidence is lacking.
There were moments when my pop culture-wired brain got to kick in, and a couple came on a boat tour on the River Thames leading to Greenwich Village. It started with the title sequence from BBC’s Sherlock (2010–2017).
Later on, we were introduced to where death-eaters swarmed a certain bridge in the beginning of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (2009).
The grand finale to the trip was a show in the West End, and what a way to go out with a bang with Les Misérables! Everything was phenomenal! The music, the talented actors and singers, the stage work and direction, and the swift movement of set pieces.
Seeing that show has given me the idea for my next article, but it unexpectedly generated an emotional family moment. Just as the lights turn back on, I look to my left to see my oldest sister (the one living in Newton Abbot), in tears. When I see people crying, especially family members, I start crying too. So upon looking down the row to the right, the rest of my family had made eye contact with my oldest sister realizing that this was the last thing we’d get to do together as a family for a while.
It’s always tough having to leave without the whole family because I grew up being the only boy alongside three sisters, and I love them all equally, even if my impending only child status (for only one academic year) is a fun idea. For me, it’s not about saying “goodbye.” It’s about planning the next time we all get together. We have such a short time on this planet, and we need to spend that time with the people we love.
To me, this trip represented something much larger than a vacation of leisure and wonder. It managed to bring my family together all at once in a time where that doesn’t happen very often. I cherish this trip, and it will remain to be one of my favourite family memories of all time.
