Day 5

I guess one of the things my family likes to do while at the caravan is go to the local “car boot sale”.  It’s kind of like a flea market on a field with everyone selling their junk.  Emmy found a stuffed animal border collie while London found a bag of Legos.  But the best part of the sale for them was seeing the border collies walking around.  London stopped one man to ask if he could pet his dog and was then treated to a show of all the tricks he could do.  I’ve decided that Mick needs some training when we get home!

We went on from the boot sale to Beaumaris, a beautiful seaside village boasting its own medieval castle.  We started our visit to Beaumaris with a picnic on the lawn outside the castle.

 

Then we walked over to the pier to try our hand at crabbing.  My aunt Lindsey said she spent many a day crabbing when she was little so she showed us the techniques.  Unfortunately, the wind was quite stiff and the little crabs kept falling off before we could get many of them hauled up. 

After crabbing for a bit, we split up so that some of us could go round the town and castle and others headed over to Llanddona beach to make a fire and piddle around.  Although I really wanted the kids to see a castle, Emmy and London were much more interested in the prospect of starting a fire with Matt so Cannon, Sally, Alex and I were left to tour the town and the castle.

 

Pictures from the town, including Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn which dates back to the 15th century and included famous guests like Charles Dickens.  Also saw one of the oldest houses in Great Britain.

Beaumaris castle was built 1295 by King Edward I and is considered one of the most sophisticated examples of medieval military architecture.  It has an amazing setup of inner and outer walls and an inner courtyard that is almost 3/4 of an acre.  And, of course, a moat!  In addition to the strong fortification structures, we could clearly see that there were also lavish living areas set up.

 

 

 

 

 

Sally and Alex

 

 

 

 

 

In the inner courtyard

 

 

 

Cannon was so patient with me taking his photo!

 

 

 

 

 

It’s really quite amazing to think that 700 years ago men were shooting arrows through the slits of the very walls you are touching to defend their castle.  It’s even more amazing to think of how they constructed the thing with the rudimentary tools that were available to them.  And that it still stands today strong and true.

After the castle we headed over to a famed ice cream shop for a truly yummy ice cream.  Cannon had apple crumble flavor and although I was tempted by the fig flavor, I went for the Devon toffee fudge.  Ben and Jerry’s eat your heart out!

 

We headed back to the caravan via some small twisty, turvy roads with incredible views.  Wow, this is a beautiful country! 

 

The castle from behind

That evening we had a fun BBQ with the whole family and then spent a really fun (and quite competitive) night playing Uno.  They had never played before, but I think we might have started something…

Tea break

Isaac

A beautiful sunset

 

Day 4

So my dad’s side of the family all live within about 15 minutes of each other in an area outside of Manchester in the north of England.  But for years and years they have been going to Wales for vacations.  They have “caravans” there, what we would call a trailer, and use them like we would have a lake or mountain cottage.  They own 3 caravans between them all next to each other on an island off the coast of Wales called Anglesey.  It’s an idyllic spot where life is simple and beauty is abundant.

Today we drove down to Anglesey for four days of fun together.  The whole crew consisted of us, Lindsey, Phil, Richard, Matthew, Isaac, Elijah, Sally, Alex, baby Thomas, Sandra and her beau Don.  That’s quite a party!

Remember me saying that you wouldn’t hear the word “rain” again – well today was the first day of pure sunshine that we had seen and that sunshine and warm temperatures lasted for the rest of our trip.  Everyone kept saying that it was unusual, unheard of, amazing and fortuitous and I’ll agree.  We were actually hot at times!

To take advantage of the nice weather, we walked down to the beach and enjoyed an afternoon playing football (soccer), volleyball, digging in the sand and having an ice cream (this will also be a reoccurring theme this trip – we ate a lot of ice cream!)

 

Emmy just took off for the water.

 

Making a boat out of sand

 

Richard

 

The finished boat

 

 

Elijah burying Emmy

 

Elijah's ice cream face

 

London and Lindsey playing soccer

That evening the kids had fish and chips with Richard while I ate a nice dinner with the grown ups.  One of the things I wanted the kids to try was fish and chips and they loved them.  London loved the curry sauce you could get to go on top and Cannon loved the mushy peas!

Matt and Lindsey

Emmy was a bit smitten with Matt

 

Day 3

Today we went to a National Trust park called Tatton Park.  It's a huge place that includes parklands, a mansion, gardens, stables, old hall and a home farm.  Matt, Tamsin and Elijah met us there.  They have a fantastic playpark there for the kids to spend some energy (much needed for London and Emmy).

 

 

Emmy and Elijah

 

 

London and Matt got along quite well!

After awhile we had a picnic lunch and then went for a beautiful walk to try to get to the lake.  We never quite made it to the lake since Matt and Tamsin had to get back to pick up Isaac and Lindsey had to leave too, but the walk was lovely. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the others left, the four of us went to visit the farm of Tatton Park.  It was the traditional Manor home’s farm and the kids really enjoyed getting up close and personal to all the animals.  Especially the border collie.  You will soon see a trend in my posts and it’s centered around border collies.  I’ll explain more later, but suffice it to say that Emmy and London are obsessed with them and this trip has only added fuel to the fire.

 

Emmy with a Border Collie carving

They had a Peter Rabbit theme going on at the Farm

With Kip

That's one big Shire horse!

An angora sheep

Holding baby chickens



These baby piglets were soo cute!

 

PS - Happy July 4th!

Day 2

Unfortunately, the time change caught up with us today and we were awake at 2:00 am this morning.  Ugh.  London and I took short naps in the morning, but Cannon and Emmy went without all day. 

The morning was left to us to recuperate and piddle about since Phil was at work and Lindsey and Sandra had tickets to go to Prince Charles’ gardens.  Around noon, my cousin, Matt, and his son, Elijah, stopped by.  They then took us to get a car rental so we could get about the country for the next week or so.

In the afternoon, we went to Lyme Park again this time with Phil and Elijah.  They have a playpark there that the kids enjoyed for a while.

Around 5:00, my cousin Sally’s fiancé, Alex, came over to meet us and then take us all to a movie.  He took us to a fantastic place called the Trafford Centre – a giant mall, restaurant and movie complex and special exhibit place.  The place was HUGE and the kids were quite impressed.  Alex had thought the kids would like to see the new Despicable Me 2 movie in 3D and it was a fun show.  Afterward we had dinner in the Centre and then Alex delivered us safely back to our much welcome beds!  When we returned home we were greeted by my cousin, Richard, who had come round to see us.

Inside the Trafford Centre

Oh, did I mention that it rained today?  Take note of that because it’s the last time you’ll hear those words for the WHOLE trip!

Going to the Motherland

When I was growing up, my parents took my sister and I back to England every two to three years in the summer.  With all our family living there it was a chance to see everyone and to see the country, but mostly to visit family.  I kept up this schedule pretty well even when I was in college and throughout Stevie and my early years of being married.  But then life gets busy, children are added, and we lived out of the country for 3 years so it turned out that an embarrassing amount of time has passed since I’ve been back – like 14 years. 

I was fortunate to see almost all my relatives 10 years ago at my mom’s 60^th birthday, but that is still a long time.  And the travesty of all that time gone by without a visit is that I have the most wonderful family a person could hope for.  They are kind, generous, active, loving, supportive and a true blessing to anyone who is around them.  So this year, come hell or high water, I was determined to take the kids to meet their relatives and to see the motherland.  I didn’t want to do a whirl wind tour of the UK, but I wanted them to experience the country the way I always did.  I wanted them to see the back roads, the stone walls, the tucked away hamlets and the generosity of family.  Unfortunately, Stevie was not able to accompany us on this trip due to work and other reasons so I took my 3 world travelers on a solo voyage.

Although we left on Monday, we didn’t land until Tuesday morning in England and were greeted by my Aunt Lindsey.  They had decided that Lindsey and Phil’s house would be our home base during our visit.  Once we got there, my aunt Sandra and cousin, Sally, with her new baby, Thomas, soon came to say hello.  We visited with them for a while before laying down for a little nap.  Later in the afternoon my cousin Matt’s wife, Tamsin, came by with their two little boys, Isaac and Elijah. 

After we visited with them, we went for a short walk in Lyme Park – my favorite park of all time – just to blow the cobwebs out of our bodies.  And boy did it blow!  It was a typically English day to me – between rain showers and blustery.  My aunt kept apologizing for the weather but I assured her it was exactly what I was expecting!

 

We walked to Lyme Cage which I was always told was one beacon in a series built across the English countryside that served as a warning system of invaders.  My aunts seemed to think it was used as a hunting lodge.  Not sure what the actual story is, but it sits on a hillside overlooking the country and is a beautiful spot in sunshine or rain.

 

 

We were also fortunate enough to see the red deer that live wild here.  Usually they are hidden among the acres and acres of the park, but today they were right near the road.

 

 

And as another side note, for those PBS fans, this is the house that was used in the recent Pride and Prejudice filming – it was Darcy’s house, Pemberly.