Picture it: our first, and last, Latin American wedding before we skip the continent. The pomp. The fashion. The food. The energy. The amazing friends and dancing and hugs and lack of facial coverings. Over the top in the best way.

Three days later our classes were moved online. You know the story. (Luckily the above event wasn't a cause of any spread.)

The idea of this blog is to serve as a time capsule for us to look back on later. The fact that a handful of others may be taking a look in the meantime is icing. But for our time during quarantine this primary reason for being is especially true because the images below and the stories they reflect are not unique. Decades from now we're going to be telling each other what we did during this time, and we'll be surprised and comforted by the similarities between those stories.

​You made multiple batches of enchilada sauce from scratch as well, right?

During the first week of lockdown we were allowed to walk our neighborhood with our family. We didn't realize how much we should've savored stretching the legs.

The government then issued the strictest lockdown orders in the world: all adults could only go out three days a week (males Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, unless they said we couldn't go out on Saturdays which happened more often than not, and females Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) for two hours each day based on the last digit of your national ID card. Children were not allowed outside of their apartments or off their house's property at all. A friend's kid was fined a few hundred dollars for breaking this curfew. Luckily we had a backyard, many of our students in highrise apartments didn't go outside for months. 

Yes, we taught online from March through June. Yes, our children learned online, some better than others, during that time. But we have no pictures of such things for the same reason that movies about The Information Superhighway from the late nineties are all so bad: because the images are very difficult to be compelling, and I'm just not that good a photographer.

Instead you'll see a few collections, loosely organized by themes that you'll identify with.

We played some games. You know, as a family. And online with our extended family (both actual and professional).

Our school had a weekly online trivia that we loved and hosted twice. A category we very much enjoyed was where I  would play a song on a different instrument for each question and players had to name the song (or the movie, or the international sporting event, et cetera). In the two examples below name the TV  show: (answers at the end of the post*). These videos will also serve as a reminder of the diversity of window coverings in our Panama abode.

Yes, we cooked a bit. The Big O made a mean homemade burger, The Little Lady made homemade truly awesome falafel, and The Eldest made amazing enchiladas from scratch (NOTE: we probably don't need to specify homemade at this point...). Sarah baked and baked, and I made sauerkraut (well, the microorganisms actually did the work, I guess) and mozzarella from scratch. Oh, and I spilled a piping hot casserole dish of saucy pasta in the back of the oven. Good times!

We made stuff.

While The Little Lady branched out a bit from her usual viscious-looking dragons and other scary creatures, the boys stuck to what they know best:  creating and using weaponry and corresponding armor.

Look!  Us! (Except I didn't get Sarah that day...oops!)

While we were cooped up in our house for months we still had a few rare opportunities to enjoy the teeming creatures and colorful skies that Panama had to offer.

Only a few weeks into online learning a couple of coworkers flew back to the U.S. on a humanitarian flight to teach from there. We thought that was super weird. And then others joined them. Then administrators.  Hmmmmmmmm...

I'm not sure if you've heard, but the U.S. of A. hasn't really nailed this whole dealing-with-the-coronavirus situation. It hasn't been our finest hour. And Panama was looking at least half-decent. Sure we could only legally leave our property a few times a week to enjoy a mad rush to wait in line at the local Costco-ish big box store, but at least we weren't being screamed at in a Trader Joe's, amIright? Why would we get the heck out of Dodge for that?

So the plan was to stick it out in Panama until we could just jump over to Europe for our next adventure, though we thought we'd do a five day stopover in the U.S. to accept a few (ha!  A few...)  online orders for our new Alpine lifestyle. (While the U.S. may not be able to beat a little virus, we sure do have online shopping figured out!)  But Europe had other plans.

On July 6th Europe banned entry for people from the worst countries. I mean people from countries with the worst outbreaks. Or is that the same thing? 

Given that Panama's airport had been shuttered for months except for humanitarian flights, we realized a while back that we'd have to head back to 'Merica, at least for a little while, just to get out of Latin America. As Sarah said, delaying that flight was playing chicken with the U.S. Embassy.

But then it wasn't looking like we could make the jump across the pond once Stateside. Changes to the Swiss entry visa policies meant our new school might figure out a way to get us on a plane in a few days, weeks, or months. The uncertainty pointed us towards biding our time in the freedom of home; specifically, my home, with my parents, in beautiful Riverside, California! 

And so, with one week's notice, we boarded a (freaking 3am) humanitarian flight and said a temporary goodbye to Latin America on July 1.

14 days after flying in we felt safe enough to move in with my folks. Sarah and I spent most of our time maxing out the credit card buying anything and everything that we might need whilst living in the Alps. Our children would need pants, for example, something they successfully avoided while living in the tropics for three years.

We made many memories playing Nerts and Quadruple Solitaire as well as exploring the neighborhood a bit. But one thing we did not do enough of is take very many pictures of/with Grammy and Gramps. Whoops!  We love you and thank you so much for hosting us while we waited for our Swiss work visas to be magically delivered by the Fedex guy!

On August 10th we received an email that our work visas had been approved by the Swiss government. On the 11th, we booked the next available flight to Zurich, finished up our packing, and waited anxiously for our passports to arrive via the aforementioned FedEx Santa so we could get up before dawn on the 12th and fly to our new home in the Alps.

Somehow, unbelievably, it all worked out. I'm writing this from our apartment overlooking the jagged peaks you're picturing in your mind (and yes, it does look like a box of Toblerone). To celebrate this next stage we've started a new blog:  MindsOverMatterhorn.com

Come check it out!

* ANSWERS!  The first song is the theme from Knight Rider, the second is the theme from Barney (technically Barney &  Friends), and the movie is The Italian Job, hence the pasta! 

As many of you already know, we'll be moving to Europe very soon! Or not so soon. You see, there's this little virus going around...  

Anyway, we interviewed with The Ecole d‘Humanité, a small boarding school in Switzerland at a London job fair in January, and not only did they offer us jobs, they offered to fly our whole family out to check out the place and make sure we liked it. After minutes of hemming and hawing, we decided to take the trip during our Carnavales break. Spoiler alert - we liked it! 

We'd be in the Alps for the twins' third birthday and since they only have one of them every four years (Leap Year babies, after all) we decided to do it in style. We planned for several snow days in Switzerland and Austria during the week, which meant that our first stop upon arrival in Munich was a sporting goods store. Snow gear is a bit easier to find in Munich than in Panamanian stores, as you may have assumed.

We got the kiddos geared up, but then had to wait and watch the Carnival/Mardi Gras/Fastnacht parade blocking in our car.

After a well-deserved night's rest, we headed west to Schweiz. Just about when we blinked and missed Liechtenstein, we started to see some white stuff falling from the sky.

By the time we (carefully) pulled up to the school, it was really coming down.

The school looked magical and we kept having to pinch ourselves.

The next day was the twins' official birthday! After a fun Karneval morning meal at the school which involved everyone (except us) dressing up in period clothing, we headed over to Lucerne/Luzern to wander a bit and then took a tour of the nearby ​Aeschbach Chocolatier. The birthday kiddos decorated their own chocolate bar, while The Eldest, Sarah and I shared one.

After finishing up we walked to our car and noticed this:

I guess they like to have ginormous bonfires to celebrate Carnival. At least there's snow all around this one.

For the (day after) birthday celebrations we went up the hill and came back down a few times on "the world's longest alpine roller coaster." But in a ski resort. Wacky, eh?

And that was that. We flew back to the tropics the next day, our school shut down eleven days later, but we have our memories of adventures in the snow intact. Unlike our travel plans for April, our last quarter of the school year, and our chocolate cow.

Highlights of our lives between snowy adventures.

Mere days after school started in January Sarah and I hopped the pond to try to get jobs for next year. (Hint: we did! See our next blog post for the deets!)

A long, chilly weekend in London is always enchanting. Most of our time was spent at the job fair, but we found time to walk across the city, exploring new neighborhoods and old favorite restaurants. 

Back in early 2018 The Eldest and I cycled across the continent of North America in a single day (granted, it was the narrowest point in the isthmus of Panama), and I thought it might be a good idea for The Big O to join us for another go before we skipped the country. 

I didn't realize it at the time, but these pictures from February were a love letter to the city; my last time seeing its beauty.

School hosted some fun events as well. ISP was the first international school and first school in Latin America to host a downlink with the International Space Station. Our students got to chat with two astronauts, one of whom is a friend of our friend and coworker Dani.

I also hosted our school's Carnival Day where the 9th grade math team has their students design games of chance and everyone plays each others' games. There are many fulfilling aspects of this profession that I've chosen, but teaching underage children how to gamble is definitely high on the list.

And then it was Carnival Break! In the last few days before the world stopped, we had quite an adventure and decided what our lives would be like moving forward. Have I piqued your interest?

Wanna go back in time to before you'd heard of SARS-CoV-2? Or was ten seconds ago that time? Didn't you know that's the official name of this little bugger of a virus?

Anyhoo, we went to California for Christmas last winter. It was fun. 

Oh, but wait. I forgot to mention in a previous blog about The Eldest's experience at ISP'S PANAMUN extravaganza. Rather than representing a random country in a random United Nations committee, he stepped up and represented Venezuela in the Security Council, which was debating what to do about Venezuela. So he was popular. And schmancy looking!

​Just before we left of Los Estados Unidos we partied it up at the ISP Christmas Party. Can you find me in this picture?

Christmas!

After driving through the old neighborhood and climbing a tree in the old park...

...we visited friends in the Bay Area and enjoyed their biome for a bit.

And then we went skiing!

We are, of course, a family with two, competing allegiances. After traipsing around Northern California, it was time to visit my parents in Riverside, first and foremost for the card playing.

Actually, we saw some pretty amazing things done with cards at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. If you get the chance, I highly recommend it, though I gather it can be a tough ticket to get.

My parents continued to let out all the stops with all the culture that Southern California has to offer: a lecture and concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Moonlight Forest at the LA Arboretum, watching the rhinos at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and burritos and sculptures at Tios Tacos in Riverside.

Whew! Lots and lots of stuff. And quite amazing to see the pictures given the current lack of the ability to do pretty much anything pictured above. Except dance in your socks. (If you're careful!)

I'm hoping to catch up soon to the present day. One nice thing is that for the past four months it's just been pictures of stuff we baked and how long our hair has grown. :^)

As I'm chugging along to try to get caught up to the present day, we now find ourselves in late 2019.

Have I mentioned that I love the leaf-cutter ants? (At least more than the leaves do, I'm sure.) Here's a nice shot of them deep in the Panamanian jungle.

And then here's a "few" more of them at the entrance to our school parking lot.

​The big event in fall 2019 in the Schnack household was ISP's production of Matilda! It was pretty darn impressive. The Little Lady was one of the "big kids" while the boys each played in the pit orchestra. Wanna see The Little Lady's longest line? Rewind it to the beginning see the entire show. To hear The Eldest just listen closely for the euphonium solos. And The Big O, of course, is second trumpet.​

The production was top notch, and the lobby of the theater was filled with silly glossy pics of everyone in the show.

My parents visited me for my birthday! OK, really it was to see the kiddos in Matilda, but it happened to be on my birthday! 

I celebrated by growing offensive facial hair, as is my wont most Novembers.

We also visited the local Emberá community and danced a jig.

After our visitors stopped visited the boys and I explored the  dusty overgrown stream under the highway over pass next to our house. They took a while to figure out how to scale the cement incline but eventually got it. Good times! Good perspective photographs!

And then they talked me into joining them

The title is Sarah's fault.

I mean...Sarah came up with the witty title!!!!!!!!!!! 

You see, we lost our Galapagos trip last (school) year, but we won it back this (school) year!

For our November 2019 break, our family flew to Quito, stayed the night in a hotel near the airport, and then hopped over to the Galapagos. Although the islands are on the actual equator (it was the first time the kiddos were in the Southern Hemisphere) it was actually chilly! Upon touching down, the Big O looked out the airplane window and uttered, "I wasn't sure what to expect the Galapagos to look like, but it wasn't this." The area near the airport was scrubby desert, but after a bus to the other side of the small island and a ferry across the strait we climbed into a taxi truck and sped up to the high ground of Isla Santa Cruz. The landscaped quickly changed to a vibrant green and we explored Los Gemelos (the twins), two volcanic calderas.

Next was the nearby El Chato 2 Ranch to check out some underground lava tunnels and the local fauna.

And then "home" to our hotel in the "city." Not a bad first day, eh?

A little town set in the dry and deserty rocks, Puerto Ayora had some interesting nooks and crannies to explore.

We wandered over to the Charles Darwin Research Station in town to get the low-down on the animals of the islands, with a focus on the giant tortoises.

During a mellow afternoon while the rest of the family read in our hotel room I explored the city a bit. The locals seem to really love to build a second or third story on their house, and then not finish it. An ever-evolving house is the way to go it seems.

The next day we hiked across town to the harbor, took a water taxi just to the base of a cliff on the other side, and walked to Las Grietas, a snorkelable cravasse just past "German Beach" and some old salt flats.

The Eldest challenged his siblings to bury him and see how long it would take for him to break free.

Which of course meant that when he returned the favor to the Big O it was a challenge accepted.

The next morning we took a stomach-churning boat ride to Isla Isabela. The kiddos were lucky enough not to lose their breakfast on the way; the adultos, not so much. 

The Galapagos is famous for its wildlife, the easiest to spot being the marine iguana, with sea lions being a close second. I thought the iguanas were ubiquitous on Isla Santa Cruz, but that was nothing compared to Isabela. They're everywhere, usually lazing around near the water. And, like the sea lions, they don't move when you get close.

On Isabela we went on a great walking and snorkeling trip which included Los Túneles and other nearby spots. We were lucky enough to see just about all the charismatic megafauna we were hoping for: tons of sea turtles, various kinds of sharks, a school of rays, a seahorse, as well as blue footed boobies. As we were heading home in the boat we saw a huge (10 foot wingspan?) manta ray wave its "wing" at us! A couple of days later we swam over sleeping sharks and spotted a lone Galapagos penguin.

The wildlife was astounding, but we also enjoyed having a bit of a lazy week on the equator.

Did I mention that flamingos just casually hang out in the lagoon near our hotel?

As the rest of the family rested, The Eldest and I rented bikes and cycled up to an old wall built by prisoners when the island was a penal colony. We almost hit a tortoise or two (we should ride slower) and saw some awesome views.

All in all, a trip of a lifetime. If you get the chance, I highly recommend checking out this corner of the world.

As I'm sure you remember, the last blog got us just a little closer the present day; here in the interwebs we're now entering late July 2019. My goal over our Spring Break (2020, by the way) in which I'm forced to stay in my house under quarantine (this is really me writing to myself 30 years from now, everyone reading this now knows what's going on) is to actually catch up to today. We'll see how well I do.

Anyway, in the Panamalarkey blog-o-verse we had just finished touring "the Continent" and were speeding back to England to meet the Creaseys, Sarah's folks, and our niece Emily. We started in Cornwall at St. Michael's Mount.

The Big O likes to continue his own personal tradition of looking like he's smelling bad fish whenever a group shot is taken. But when he's successfully conquered a wooden pedestal? He's free as a bird!

We stayed in a huge home in Newquay, and our first morning there I was able to sneak out at dawn and explore the cute little town.

Cornwall, the most tropical part of England, is "famously" it's surfing capital, and Newquay in particular brought uncle Andy back to his former glory days on his board. We tried (in vain?) to relive those days, in between building epic sand castles and exploring the local caves.

After the requisite stop at an old pile of rocks...

...we set sail for the island of Brownsea island, the birthplace of the Scouts. The only decent picture I took there was of a flower.

Luckily Sarah and her mom each got some good shots.

And so our extended family time was coming to a close. We said goodbye to the Creaseys and Grandma and Grandpa and Emily and headed to a hotel near Heathrow. But not to fly out just yet. We set the kids up with food and drove to Norfolk for a wedding (where we had far too much fun to take any photos, which is a massive loss for the world because it was GORGEOUS...) before Sarah skipped back to Panama.

The kiddos and I, on the other hand, had more to do. I dropped off the boys at Wells Cathedral School summer music camp and had a nice wander around Bristol with the Little Lady before dropping her off at Camp Wilderness the next morning.

And my solo adventure started. My plan was to rent a Brompton folding bicycle and cycle around Bristol and over to Bath, then train to Cambridge (via London) and explore a bit before training down to London, renting a car, picking up the kids from their respective camps, and fly home. What could go wrong?

And Bristol itself gave me plenty to look at while taking those needed breaks.

It's a sixteen mile ride from Bristol to Bath on a nice converted train route, a distance that wouldn't have been too rough when I was cycling more. But that day it was definitely rough.

Then it was off to Cambridge, though my change in London including riding across town. (Don't worry, Mom, it was mostly on separated bike lines.)

And then Cambridge, which really is out in the country. After a well-earned sleep I took an early morning ride down the river Cam to the oddly-named Waterbeach for breakie.

And then it was exploring the town. While beautiful, I found it to be quite closed off, even for the English. Everything was behind closed gates and doors. I toured one of the colleges, but there wasn't much available to see. Fun and all, but not as welcoming as Berkeley, Cambridge, MA, or even good old Westwood.

Off to the big city.

I first hit the Tate, which always impresses.

My niece and nephew asked about my folding bike so I made a quick video showing how it works.

Cycling around London was, truthfully, way more awesome than I thought it would be. And I thought it'd be pretty cool.

After a ride along the Thames to Hammersmith for a nice Persian meal it was time to say goodbye to my noble steed.

Sleep, rent a car, enjoy rural England on the way to pick up the daughter, hike the Cheddar Gorge (yes, it's a real thing!), sleep, watch the boys perform some awesome music, drop off car, fly home.

I found this Little Lady in the forest.

Our drive back to the hotel was filled with stories of her "best designed" animal trap and how she was the first in her group to eat the salmon eye. You go girl!
​
The next day was...the Cheddar Gorge!

​It sounds like a joke, but it's GORGE-OUS! GET IT??????

The Wells Cathedral School summer music camp does not mess around, nor does the performance at the end. The highlights featuring Schnacks included a haunting rendition of the main theme of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly as well as an energetic version of The Incredibles.

The boys certainly deserved a triumphant pic in front of their residence hall before hitting the road.

​

On our way back to the airport we experienced what I had been dreading as a driver in rural England: the classic "but the supposedly-two-way road isn't wide enough for the both of us" issue. Or, in this case, the seven of us cars by the time it all got sorted (as the Brits would say). It was quite an ordeal involving exacting measurements and precise driving. And giggling.

And then it was over. Our whirlwind summer in Europe had finally come to an end. In front of us was our last (spoiler alert!) year in Panama and all that would entail.

Thanks for vicariously coming along.

When Sarah and I lived in Britain way back when the Verve blaired on repeat in every store, the locals referred to mainland Europe as "the continent." At least I thought they did, but when we mentioned to our professor that we were heading to the continent for spring break and he retorted that if we were referring to the continent of Europe we were already there.

Anyway...flash forward to this past summer, and we, again, were in Britain and traveling over to "the continent." Below are the deets...

That means details! See! I'm down with the cool slang! From like 1997!

After finishing up our brain-exploding professional learning in Croydon, we hightailed it over to Germany to check out the baroque audaciousness of Bavaria. 

I know what you're thinking. "Do your kids think that some random German with a camera off to the side is their father that they're trying to smile for his picture? Oh, and that church isn't that audaciously baroque." And you're right. Except for the German father thing. But wait until you see the inside. I mean of the church. Not the German not-my-kids'-father guy. 

Yeah, right? Now you're thinking, "whoa! It took me way too long to even notice the huge crucifix on the wall. But where are the gilded skeletons threatening cherubs with scissors?" 

Yup, Munich has it all, if by all we mean ostentatious curly columns, great berries, a permanent surfable wave in a local park, and Pride Day celebrating civic buildings.

After a mellow 36 hours in Munich, we started the rest of our trip on a somber note in Dachau. The kids had learned about concentration camps at school and in family conversations, but being there in person made all of that theoretical knowledge feel very immediate and concrete, even for the adults. It is a topic that we've brought up several times since, and we're so grateful to have had the opportunity to visit this site. 

Our next stop felt like the Disney version of Germany. We made it to Rothenburg ob der Tauber in time to catch the über popular night watchman tour.

Rothenburg is, of course, the quintessential storybook medieval German town, and consequently demands that it be documented pictorially. Brace yourselves. 

Our next stop was Rick Steves' favorite castle in all of Germany: the Burg Eltz. The hike from the parking was long but relaxing and perfect for a selfie.

Then off to stay in way-too-cute Chochem on the Moselle river.

​We made a last-minute decision to try a hike in the "Little Switzerland" section of Luxembourg on our way to Reims, France. We're glad we did! It was an awesome place to wander.

We arrived at our AirBnB in Reims a bit after sunset. From our apartment we could spy the (bigger-than-Paris' Norte Dame) Reims Cathedral. We toured it the following morning before heading into the City of Lights.

Our few nights in Paris were as amazing as we'd hoped. Our home exchange was a house converted from a storefront and basement; it was as weird as it sounds, but centrally located (and you can't beat the price!). We loved the Paris by Mouth Food Tour we did as a couple back in 2014, so we splurged and signed up the whole family this time.

Afterwards the rest of the family was too focused on digesting fancy head cheese to join me in my wander of late afternoon Paris.

And if the food tour wasn't opulent enough (though it was), the next day we enjoyed the granddaddy of European opulence, Versailles. 

"That's all nice and well, little bro, but let me show you how it's done."

"That's all nice and well, eldest son, but let me show you how it's done."

And lastly, after a long day of experiencing French aristocracy and a nice Tunisian dinner, we had to hit the other biggie at dusk.

By the time we actually reached it (it's really big! It's still 9.4 kilometers away in the picture above! Though that's only about a half mile) and figured out the options for going up it was pretty late. The boys were obsessed with taking the stairs the whole way, while the ladies were, uh, not. Due to unforeseen obstacles and long lines this resulted in them not actually being able to go to the top while us menfolk were the last group to make it on foot. 

A late night was made later by the fact that, even though it was midnight, the streets were awash with Algerian fans gloating over their win of the Africa Cup in soccer. The local Metro stops were mostly closed and it took a while to figure out how to get to our temporary home. But we made it!

After too-few hours of sleep, we were ready to hop on a train under the Channel to meet up with Sarah's family back in Jolly Old England for the last of our summer adventures! 

Well, it's time for my semi-regular self-flagellation where I apologize for being behind in the ol' blogging.  But I've been busy.  Honest!

We got back from an awesome summer break (which I've only just begun to document here...), lived life for a few months, and now we're ending another fantabulous vacay.  But this isn't about that getaway.  It's about the last few months.  And it's a quickie.

Let's see...what's in the ol' picture bin...here we are before the annual approximately-3k run at school.

Here are a few mediocre pics of the kiddos enjoying running up and down the berm by our house.  The actual reason to include them here is so they look at them in 10-20 years and one of them says, "Oh yeah, I remember that place" and tries to explain it to the other two who can't recall it at all.

Artsyness time!  Here's me documenting some local shopping at a crazy tangle of strip malls called Los Pueblos.  Fun fact: the parking lot is the only way to get from one busy street to another so it's always extra trafficky; there are actual bus lines that drive the route.

And just in case you don't already follow me on twitter, here's a pic of a scarab beetle that greeted me on my way to class one day.

A couple weeks ago Sarah and I had the opportunity to attend a charity dinner at the top of the No-Longer-Trump Tower of Panama.

Our favorite branch on our favorite jungle hike.  And the twins' favorite backyard pastime. 

And then one of our friends published a novel and we went to the launch party!

Finally, a pic of The Eldest and yours truly taking a break from some cycling to pose in front of the Costa Del Este skyline (which is different than the skyline earlier in the blog, FYI.  Another FYI: Costa Del Este means Coast Of The East, but it also means Coast Of The This, which we all think is funny.)

Happy fall!

Those of you following along at home may have noticed that I never finished blogging about our amazing summer. Time kind of flew and now it's been an uncomfortably long time, and I know you like to be uncomfortable, so here's another installment.

​The whole reason (well, a good portion of the reason) why we were spending our summer in Pretty Darn Good Britain (it was Great before Brexit) was so Sarah and I could take some professional development classes in London.  Well, Croydon, actually, a distinction which no Brit would confuse.  But before starting our classes we did bum around The City (and the other neighborhoods as well!) a bit.

First things first, we had to check in and drop off our bags. Our hotel was pretty old, but not run down at all.

Oh, we didn't mention? Yeah, we stayed at The Tower. We know people who know people.

One of the nice things about staying at The Tower (other than the amazing experience, the central location, the freakin' history, and the views) was that we could run down and be at the beginning of the line when all the exhibits opened. A four minute jog through the velvet ropes wasn't a bad price to see the crown jewels.

We also went and checked out the Duke of York's 18th Century Band play at the Royal Military Chapel with its super old apse and super not-old post-war rest-of-the-church.

On the way home The Eldest almost ran over a swan.

Then we got to check out a West End production of Matilda! (To get ready for all three kiddos to perform in ISP's upcoming fall production of Matilda. Which happened a month ago because I'm writing this in December.)

We then headed down to beautiful Croydon for a home exchange and our educational professional development, ostensibly the reason we were in this continent in the first place. Our home for the next two weeks was just around the corner from the cutest medieval church and cemetery.

We were all dressed up to check out some modernly-staged Shakespeare at the ol' Globe Thee-a-ta. But first a tour of HMS Belfast, a WWII battleship.

Here are the kids on the Prime Meridian.

And here's me, well, here.

Where, exactly? Croydon. While not the most hip-happening spot on the planet, it kind of grew on me. Here's the view from the top of the (yes, double-decker) bus on my way to professional developmentland.

It was actually a nice little corner of the world. (A stunning sunset helped convert me.)

We found some weird stuff in Greater London.

And we did, I have to admit, learn a thing or two.