September 22nd. Kew Gardens

As the title says we spent the day there. It was the third trip to Kew Botanic Gardens for the kids. To make it truly memorable I bought an annual membership. We only need to go 3.5 times as a family to break even. Should have done it the first time around. As with all the memberships/friendships it is not applicable anywhere else.


I really liked it. Georgia walked me to the places she liked. It is remarkable how much the kids had covered. I was pretty tired towards the end. It is pretty large.

They have a number of interesting pavilions promising good place to spend 3-4 hours even if the weather does not comply. I was also impressed with Kew Palace. It seemed to be a relaxing place to walk through and they've put up interesting video projections on the walls that kind of made it seem like the place was still inhabited by friendly ghosts. All gold china and silverware loaned by the Queen made this somewhat casual palace seem like a place of the royals. Having read more about its history, it is not all that cheerful. But today, it was a beautiful place to walk through.

Kids spent some time at the playground. It seemed smaller than on the pictures. We got very overpriced lunch at one of the many coffee shops there. They have IncrEdibles event going on where they have a number of installations of edible plants throughout. One of them, a tea table like in Alice in Wonderland was particularly impressive. They have planted edible plants in hand-painted teapots and cups and plates.

By the end of the way we walked back to Richmond and caught a bus back. It was a very nice day but we all really miss Dan!!