Travel Day
Car is packed we are ready to head to the airport
A healthy meal of Old McDonald's before we board
We were the 5th people to board the plane because I had little people to get settled, so that was nice.
We haven't left the ground yet, but they are already watching shows. The lady sitting next to Alex didn't even want to introduce herself to Alex, and asked to be moved before we even got into the air. She moved shortly after take off, so that was nice.
The boys had 3 seats to stretch out on which was nice. Alex's feet were right next to Evan's head. They were able to sleep for about 2 hours, I didn't get that much. I couldn't find a comfortable position.
Evan pointing to us being over England after he woke up. We landed at about 7am their time. Shawn was quick to pick us up and head home.
We Arrived
The weather when we got there was all rain. But it still made for nice views of the England country side. It wasn't too strange being on the left side of the road on the freeway, but it was odd they had speed checks every mile or so. These light up signs would tell you the speed you should be traveling, and they change depending on traffic ahead of you, and they will send you a ticket in the mail if you don't slow down.
Both the boys napped on the way to Aunt Shawn's house.
Clayton was kind enough to make pancakes for all of us as soon as we arrived. Nothing like starting a new day with a full belly of yummy pancakes.
After breakfast we headed out to the girls trampoline class. This is Clara jumping in the red pants.
And Maggie spinning in the rainbow pants.
The boys played a game called "Don't wake up Dad" with James and they really enjoyed it. The hat on the dad would go flying across the room when he's sit up real fast startling the boys.
They also played hide and go seek. However, there wasn't much to hide behind or in, so Aunt Shawn became a hiding place. She is sitting on James and Evan is sitting in her lap with her coat over him.
And as always the Wade family had a great train layout to drive on upon our arrival.
London 1st attempt
Shawn driving her car, right side, manual transmission, and GPS. She is an amazing driver!
This is the Wade family mobile that Shawn drove. It's an 8 passenger van, the 6 seats in the rear face each other. This thing barely fits down some roads, she had to pull to the side quite a few times to let other cars get by on some roads.
Wide flowers are everywhere over there, and they are so pretty. These are wide poppies that are growing up in between the train tracks at the train station.
We picked up our lunch at a store that had a meal deal, and headed for the train station. The brown building right in front of us is the train station.
Waiting for the train. The boys loved watching the trains go by. Some go really fast!
So we took the train into London, and then another small train to another part of London, then walked to the Thames and jumped on a boat just like this one.
As you can see the weather started to go south as we took the ride on the boat.
We decided to eat our lunches on the boat while we watched the sights go by. This is Aunt Shawn helping Alex get the last bits of his juice out. He looks like a hamster to me.
From the boat you could see Tower Bridge and here you can see the Tower of London (built in 1078 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London), London Bridge, the Shard... lots of things.
We got off the boat at Westminster and saw the London Eye.
Sadly Big Ben was covered in scaffolding, so you could only see one side of the clock. The renovation will not be completed until 2022.
Parliament (also getting a face lift)
We did get to see the outside of Westminster Abbey. We visited the gift shop for a bit as well.
Alex taking in the sights.
Don't let their faces fool you, we got rained out. As soon as we left the gift shop it started raining cats and dogs. We were soaked even with our small umbrellas. Our pants were wet from the knees down, and the boys shoes were soaked through and through.
Evan asked to go home. He was very sad, wet and cold. He didn't even realize we rode a double decker bus he was so miserable.
So we got the train station and Evan said he had to go pee. Well turns out there are hardly any public restrooms in England. So we found Evan a nice ally with a dumpster to pee behind.
Finally on the train and heading back to Brentwood.
This is the walk back to the car. It's about a mile long, up hill, and narrow. One lane road, that you have to allow two cars down, the walk way is about 2' wide and that's it.
Ice cream!! This was a sherbet ice cream mix kind of. They were good.
Evan enjoyed his as well.
The boys enjoyed their tub time in one of their lovely tiled bathrooms. All the bathrooms were so pretty.
Cello and Tilbury Fort
My boys did not disappoint, they were one of the first people up in the house. Alex was always up early and playing with his kindle. Most days we had a breakfast of bagels with jelly or cinnamon and sugar. Shawn also made us scones which we had clotted cream and raspberry jam on. Yum!
This is Clara's cello's teacher garden. She will plant plants in anything, and anywhere. It was amazing and beautiful as well.
She painted this tub to put tulips in and other plants.
I was lucky enough to sit in on the lesson for a bit, and Clara is doing REALLY well at cello. She's only been playing a short time, but she was playing beautifully with her teachers accompaniment on piano.
Alex enjoying some time in the cello teachers garden.
Driving back from cello we stopped to take this picture of the canola. They have huge fields of yellow canola that are just beautiful.
After naps we headed to Tilbury Fort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilbury_Fort) which was built to defend against an invading navy coming up the Thames to attack London, it was built around 1553 by Henry VIII.
And has been used in WWI and WWII as well. It was such a neat place to visit, and we were only there with maybe a hand full of people.
The house looking thing in the middle is where you enter it from.
We got a beautiful day to spend there, and you could wander and touch anything. It was pretty amazing.
The controls on the guns all still worked. So Clayton and Clara are aiming up at Alex and James that are on the hill off to the left.
Evan and Clara climbing out of the front of the gun.
We found some large canon balls to have the kids stand on for a picture.
The large hills needed to be run up many times while were were there.
It was a great day to explore.
After visiting the fort we headed to the grocery store, Sainsbury (basically a smaller version of Meijer) for some items that we needed. It was so nice that the big boys would carry the little boys when they got tired.
Aunt Shawn working on dinner while Evan rates her silly face with his camera.
Bedtime books were read by a different cousin each night.
Dover Castle, White Cliffs, and Deal Castle
Dover Castle as seen from the Road (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6154BEyKs0)
We got to Dover around 11am, so we decided to try and get lunch before we headed into the castle. Turns out they don't serve hot food until 12pm, so we got some scones, chips and muffins to tide us over.
I got these delicious chips (or Crisps) that were Ham and Mustard flavored. They were so good, Alex ate most of them and asked for more.
Here is the Land Train that took us up to the castle. Very nice to have because the hills were quite steep.
All of us on the Land Train. The big boys didn't join us on his days adventure, but the girls were super fun to have with us just the same.
Evan looking pretty cute
Our first stop was this Anglo-Saxon Church St. Mary-in-Castro that was built in 1000 AD and a Roman lighthouse built in 120 AD.
The church still holds services and was very pretty inside. It was interesting seeing all the brick and tile work that changed as it grew or got updated.
Looking in from the front door.
So many walls to climb on for the kids. The walls were made of flint stones, which was very interesting to look at.
Evan and Aunt Shawn enjoying the views
Walking up to Dover Castle
The windows in the Great Tower at the center of the castle grounds. They did a pretty good job at letting light in even with being 15' from the interior of the castle.
The rooms extended the entire length of the tower. They were huge, and there were only 2 per story.
The great dinning hall.
The views from the top of The Great Tower were amazing.
I couldn't believe how far you could see all around the top of the tower.
Alex looking over the tower wall
We all made it to the top.
Those white spots on the hill are sheep. It was so neat to see sheep all over in fields, a lot of horses too.
They even had an area the kids could try out shields and swords. Evan was just tall enough to see above his, almost. :)
Looking back at the castle from the outer gate.
Another one lane bridge to get out of the castle. It was like driving into a car wash, but you had to keep your wheel straight the whole time while driving.
After seeing Dover Castle, we took a short drive over to the Cliffs of Dover. It was beautiful and you could take paths anywhere.
Me and My Boys!
The kids enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them along the way.
Evan throwing rocks over the fence, hopefully not hitting anyone below.
We sat here for about 20 min just letting the kids play and watching the clouds roll by, and the ships move out in the sea.
On the way back the kids picked up tiny shells from snails. Everyone had a handful by the car, but when Shawn and Maggie got in the car that night it turned out not all of the shells were empty. One of the tiny shells was crawling out of the cup holder.
After the cliffs we headed to Deal Castle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal_Castle) built in 1539 by Henry VIII. One of three coastal castles in a row that were built to defend against France and Romans. The kids enjoyed climbing up on to the canons.
Deal Castle is shaped like a flower, and has three layers. The bottom that has passages on the outer wall and in the middle. The middle has a barrier wall, and and interior area with rooms and lovely windows you'll see in a min. And a top floor with what I think were the living quarters in the shape of a circle so they rooms are pie slice shaped.
In the basement they offered wood guns and rubber boots (so you didn't have to get your shoes wet) to go down and explore the lower level.
This is a picture of one of the cut ins into the basement wall. You can see that a salt comes through the ground and drips creating stalactites.
The middle layer as seen from the outside. You can see the top round layer on top of it.
The kids sitting in a window in the middle level.
The top level with the pie shaped rooms.
We found a nice place to eat dinner on the way home. I had myself a pear hard cider that was delicious.
Alex did not enjoy how beans were always offered as a side for kids, but he did like the burger. I thought it was cute that the sides (like ketchup) was served in a small mason jar.
My meal of pork belly and cabbage with a whole mustard seed mashed potatoes (I'm so going to try making this!)
The kids loved the shakes we got them for dessert. We figured we had to get them ice cream with a place called The Dairy. :)
I found it interesting that basically every sink has a faucet for hot and one for cold. Only showers and kitchen sinks offer a faucet where the hot and cold can be mixed.
I'm going to do this blog in two parts because this one seems to be getting rather long.
