Being stuck in a place where you stay young forever doesn’t seem like too bad of an idea. London holds a statue commemorating Peter Pan, befitting the city that is historical, modern, old, and fluid at the same time. An afternoon of wandering Hyde Park led us effortlessly to this Peter Pan statue, yet we struggled to find one specific tree among many in the park. Abby and I were up to the challenge of finding this one tree though.
After walking and searching for awhile, we decided to rest in the grass, like many other Londoners. This is where we learn the importance of umbrellas in England where rain comes out of nowhere. Whether we were too lazy or very stubborn, our napping wasn’t going to be interrupted. It started to sprinkle, and my first thought was to pull out my umbrella. So we ended up lying in the park, resting our umbrellas over our heads and curling up into balls so our feet didn’t get wet.
Trying to be inconspicuous, we waited until the locals put their own umbrellas away before emerging from underneath ours.
We used our umbrellas for shelter during a random rainstorm.
Once the rain passed, we decided to continue our search for the particular tree. We had multiple reasons for wanting to find this tree. We had been intrigued when finding photos online of its branches hanging down forming a tunnel to the trunk. Also we had talked the tree up to the other girls, so we couldn’t come back without accomplishing our goal.
Walking to the tube station, spirits a little low, but planning on continuing the search another day, I looked over at the last minute and saw a mess of slumped branches. It was the tree! Ecstatic, we rushed over. Everyone else seemed thrilled as well. People were climbing the middle of the tree, to the top, as if conquering something. I certainly felt like we conquered our search for the slumping tree. Before leaving London, I will go back and truly celebrate by climbing to the top!
We found the famous slumping tree!