We're Off........

Day 1:

Car is packed and off we are on our 18 day road trip through England, Scotland, and Ireland. We left at 5:30am and drove 5 hours to the port in Dunkirk, France. Glad we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the port because we ran into construction, bad weather, and the port was very busy. Thankfully after holding up the line at the port while we filled out customs cards and getting our passports stamped we were loaded onto the ferry, it was pretty cool. The boat itself was really nice. We found a spot to sit down and eat our lunch we packed and then the boys explored the boat a bit when they found a playground. When they returned we enjoyed some hot chocolate and that is when the ride got a little rough and mommy had to lay her head down or make a nice trip to the bathroom. Thankfully the resting helped get me through the rough waters. As we approached the port we were getting a little nervous about driving on the other side of the road.

Hold on Brayden

Welcome to England

Hey get on your side of the road, oh....I guess you are.

After a short 45 minute drive from the Dover port we made it to Leeds Castle in Kent, England. Check out their website http://www.leeds-castle.com/land.php . We wish we would have had more time to spend here because it was absolutely beautiful and a place to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy an entire day with the family. The grounds had things to do for everyone, including a large maze that we got lost in and finally found the end after about 15-20 minutes. After taking lots of pictures we were on our way to Darla's house were we finally got to around 6:30pm. She had pizza waiting and the kids loved hanging out in her backyard with her awesome kids. We finally made it to bed I think around midnight (around 1am our time), so needless to say it was a long day, but on an exciting note we did it on 3/4 tank of gas for 850km, that is pretty impressive!!!!

Ryan's Corner:

When I got to ride on the ferry there was a child's play place. The kid's play place was for children only to 6 years old, but my dad let me play anyway, because I didn't complain when I saw that I couldn't play. It was so fun! My brother said that there was a ball pit. There wasn't a ball pit. My brother calls it a letter pit. For lunch I had hunter's bread. It was very good. When I got off the ferry I went to Leeds Castle. They have a kid's play place. It was so fun! There was a place called the jousting area. It was actually where you sit on something like a swing. Then someone can push you on it. It goes forward. It was so fun! Then I went to a maze and grotto. We have to find our way to the center. That's how to get out. There is also another way to get out. You go the regular way. All the way to the end. There is a space at the end. When I left Leeds Castle I went to Ms. Darla's house. Ms. Darla has three kids, Mckenna, Dylan, and Eva. I had so much fun at her house. That night Mckenna, Dylan, Brayden, and me watched Coraline. It's a movie. See you tomorrow.

Cambridge

Day 2:

Cambridge was our second leg of the trip and Darla was going to be our tour guide today, lol. She took us on a double decker bus ride right into the middle of Cambridge and it was so beautiful. We stopped off for some homemade ice cream to cool off, because it was ridiculously hot outside. Cambridge is the ultimate college town, with I believe it is 13 prestigious colleges throughout the small town. The building that these colleges are housed in are amazing. I have posted a few below, but we were unable to go inside the campus grounds due to new students touring the campuses with their families, they had the grounds closed to the public.

After walking around a bit int he heat we decided to stop at the park where the kids ran around and played freeze tag and we just chatted about how beautiful it was. We posed for a few pictures under this huge tree in the park, it was nice and relaxing for a bit. We continued along the park path with the clearer views of the colleges along the river path. We made it back to the city center where we walked through the street market a bit, but we didn't buy anything. We headed home to fire up the grill and BBQ up some chicken.

After dinner we helped clean up dinner and Darla forced us out the door to check out one of the smallest pubs in England, The Nutshell, it was quite small and apparently they are use to tourists because they offered to take our picture and they went back to working on a crossword puzzle. Danny and I tried to help, but we didn't help much. They didn't have any juices, so I couldn't get my normal drink of vodka and cranberry, but Danny had a local brew of Abbot Ale and I just had a Smirnoff Ice (which wasn't what I really wanted, but I wasn't gonna have water at the pub). We were really tired after the long day and we headed back to Darla's after a stroll around the block. We later found out the the church that we passed was the original location of where the Magna Carta was signed.

Ryan's Corner:

This day I went on a double decker bus. We road on the top, it was a lot of fun! My favorite part of the day was I had chocolate ice cream, played tag, and then went back to Ms. Darla's house and watched part of Coraline. I also played on Ms. Darla's trampoline. It was a good day.

London

Day 3:

This morning we got up and took our time getting ready thinking we had plenty of time to get to London. We drove the car to Epping where we parked our car and rode the Tube (train) into London, there was no way we were going to try to drive there, it was the best 20GBP we spent ($37) for a round trip ticket, or so we thought. We got to town around 9:50am and thought that the changing of the guards took place at 10am, so we rushed over to Buckingham Palace which was a 20 minute walk from where we got off the train. When we got to the palace there was not many people there, so we thought we had missed it. Then we saw a sign stating the changing of the guards ceremony is at 11:30am. So we had about 90 minutes to kill. Buckingham Palace is a bit out of the way of all the other things we wanted to see, so we went across the street to have an early lunch since Brayden was STARVING, apparently we don't feed our kids. But it was a nice view for our picnic lunch. After we cleaned up our area, we headed back over since people were rolling in, we wanted to get a good spot. There were security people standing around so we decided to ask where the best place to stand to get a great view of the show. The security guard told us there wasn't much to the show since most of it took place inside the palace that the best spot was to go by the fountain, right along the railing. So we found a great spot with a view and were ready to enjoy the show. As the incoming guards marched in down the streets we had a great view and they opened the gates and then we noticed that there was much more to the show than we were told and we couldn't see a thing, we were so disappointed because we could have had a much better view had we been given the correct information. So if you make it to London and watch the changing of the guards ceremony, make sure you are along the gates of the palace as that is where you will get the best views!!!!

After the changing of the guards, we hopped on the trolly tour and started the rest of our day. We passed Hamley's, which is the oldest toy store in England. We continued along the route, but it felt as though we could have walked faster than the trolly was going, with all the traffic in London, it was slow going. We stopped at Trafalgar Square which is where the National Gallery is located and we couldn't resist stopping to dip our feet in fountains to cool off a bit. We took a quick look in the National Gallery (admission to all museums are free here) and made a stop by the bathrooms. It was so nice and air conditioned in the museum, we really didn't want to go back into the heat, but there was so much more to see.

Our next stop was Big Ben, The House of Parliment, and Westminster Abbey. We were unable to go into any of these places as the House of Parliment is closed to the public, but the boys were able to get a picture with one of the police officers. And Wesminster Abbey wanted over $50 to get in to look around, which we really didn't want to pay. I took a picture with the boys in front of it because they said I was a princess, lol. I also took a picture in front of Big Ben as well (GO STEELERS :) ). And while in England you can't pass up taking a picture in the red phone booths. I know we did it in Cambridge, but I just had to do it in London as well.

We hopped back on the trolly and headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral where we checked out what we could of the inside, but again, you had to pay to see the entire thing. But we headed down the street a bit and ran into a Ms. Simms Old Sweet Shop that the boys wanted to hit up to spend some of their 15GBP ($25) they were each given for spending money while in England and Scotland. The inside reminded me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory's town candy shop. After the boys grabbed a quick sweet, we headed to the Punch Tavern where we had an early dinner. Danny had fish and chips with a pint of local beer, while the boys and I had the weekly special of a burger with chips and some water. The burgers were very large and very yummy.

We hopped back on the trolly and finished out our tour of the city by seeing London bridge, which apparently had William Wallaces head mounted on the bridge for 20 years. It is no longer there, but we were able to see the bridge and sing the song with the boys. We then crossed over the tower bridge and hopped off at the Tower of London where we were hoping to go in. We got there a bit later than planned and there was only 15 minutes left to tour this gigantic place and for $80 we decided to unfortunantly pass. So we missed out on seeing the crown jewels of England, but hopefully we will not miss them in Edinburgh. We walked aroun the Tower a bit and were able to see the ruins of the part of the original gate. We decided after that we were going to head back to the Tube station and head home as we were a bit frustrated at this point. So we made it back to the station about 6:15pm and squeezed onto the train and were packed like sardines for most of the 45 minute ride. I have no idea how people do that every day. Danny said he would rather shoot himself in the face that do that every day. It was so hot and smelly inside the train. When we got back to Epping we headed back to the car and were on our way back to Darla's house for our last night with them. It was great to be able to hang out with an old friend and the kids really enjoyed playing together. Thanks again Darla. In the morning we are off to Scotland.

Ryan's Corner:

Today I got to ride on a train. I wrote in my journal. My mom and dad said I can play Suduko in the local paper, but then someone took the paper before I finished. I just finished when the person took the paper. I was so upset. Then that person got off the train, but then another person took the public paper. Then we got off the train. Then we started to walk around London. My favorite site was the London Bridge. I even sang "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down." I just kept singing and singing until I crossed the bridge. On that day I was riding on a tour bus. It was a double decker. You get to wear headphones, it was cool. Then, when I got back to Ms. Darla's house, Mckenna, Dylan, Brayden, and me watched the rest of Coraline before bedtime. It was an awesome day full of history!