Today we ventured into Bath, or as Millie called it this morning, Tub. We started with a visit to the Royal Victoria Park playground. This playground felt like 6 playgrounds combined into one, like they had started with one and then added on to it over time. It even had a carousel, which Millie has been calling a ferris-el after we rode one instead of the London Eye ferris wheel.

She was in a whiny mood this morning and I gave her a piggyback ride all the way from the car to the playground. Once we were there we encouraged her to go and ask other kids to play, since usually the antidote to her bad mood is either sleep, food, or play. She went up to probably 7 different kids to ask to play and all of them rejected her. Some were polite and said “no thank you”, one told her “I already have three friends to play with”, and a few just straight up ignored her. Ugh. She was frustrated and we were sad for her, since she had been so brave to keep asking kids despite the rejection.

Her sadness turned into more whining, and we heard “I want an iiiiiice creeeaamm” for about 15 minutes straight. We realized we need a better rule for when we do or do not have treats on this trip. On a normal vacation we’d allow them every day, but we can’t do that for a year. We’re thinking maybe weekends.

We walked from the park to Central Bath, which was more packed with people than I expected. We stopped at a couple of charity shops to get cheap books for bedtime stories. Our final destination was the namesake of the city: the Roman baths.

We were all handed audio tour headsets upon entering. To our pleasant surprise, Millie absolutely loved this. It provided a sort of scavenger hunt, where she would find the signs to cue the tour, then enter the numbers, and listen to the “story”. It kept her engaged for a full two hours throughout the museum. She complained about museums in London, but maybe all she needed was an audio tour.

The cutest part was she would tell us what she was hearing as she heard it. “Mom, the water is green from the algae!” pronounced with the hard G like the British narrator. At one point the audio talked about slavery in the Roman Empire and she yelled over her headset “Mom, what does enslaved mean?” It felt like there was a record scratch in the exhibit and everyone looked at me to see how I’d answer. I did my best.

At the end of the exhibit everyone could taste the spring water, which we had just been told would cure the ills of the Romans. Millie drank some and immediately checked the scab on her knee, disappointed that it hadn’t been miraculously healed.

By this point we were starving. But the unthinkable has finally happened: we’ve grown sick of pubs. So we drove the beautiful roads back towards our Airbnb, stopped at a grocery store, and made food at home. Even Millie ate her vegetables first, and then asked for more. Our bodies needed something green.