July - back to California!

We're home!! there is nothing like going off to explore, experience and discover to make one very much appreciate all the beauty there is just around the corner at home.

From looking closely and with open eyes at all the wonderful things OUT THERE, we've come back with renewed vision to look around all that is RIGHT HERE. Of all the trips I've taken, I have never returned with such a warm feeling for the place I live, and I think Anna, Michael and I all have this odd combination of appreciating the familiarity of neighborhood and house while continuing to experience days as if we are travelers soaking up all the interesting things that happen around us. I'm sure this sense of wonder will fade, but I am hoping that it will hold for a bit and that perhaps the photos, journals, and stories shared will remind us of these five months we've spent learning and living together.

Our last day in England was spent packing and sorting out documents, of course, but mostly enjoying some last opportunities to play, go to the park, purchase some yummy biscuits and Cadbury's, and have a delicious roast chicken and yorkshire pudding Sunday dinner, combined with cheeseburgers off the grill - a mixture of the best of American and English cuisine cooked by chefs Michelle and Bill. Michelle's family came to say 'goodbye', and most importantly so we could say 'thank you' for all the support and love they gave to us while we were on our trip.

And Michael was able to have one more 99 Flake, for which he proudly used his own money that he had saved up.

We had a very early rising on Monday, leaving the house before 7am with ten suit

cases, one guitar, one harp, one large camera bag, and one big bear. We walked up the street

to the train station, waving farewell to Michelle and Benjamin who had gotten up so early to see us off. Then we started the first leg of a long 24 hour, door-to-door journey, on the tube across London, from the furthest eastern point to the furthest in the west. The plane trip was uneventful, but tiring. We changed planes in Toronto and Bill was scheduled to take a later transfer; since he couldn't get on ours we let Anna and Michael get bumped to his flight and earned another 400 mile voucher. Now we are definitely set for our next adventure!

On our flight Harlowe and I chatted a bit about the last few months, things we both had learned and how we've changed. But that proved a bit too deep, so after awhile we just shrugged and decided to watch '17 Again' for the third time of the day. Air Canada has a great selection of movies, music and TV to individually choose from, and sadly Zac Efron kept calling us back....

It was warm when we arrived late Monday evening, California time. We sighed happily and soaked up the balmy weather, changing into shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops the minute we walked into the house. It's been 90degrees and Michael has been in the pool non-stop. Harlowe's friends arrived within about ten minutes of us being home, and Anna has already had a sleepover. And I knew I was back to 'normal' life when that normal life found me at 3am on Tuesday waiting outside the local movie theatre to take Harlowe and her three friends home from the new 'Harry

Potter' movie.

I asked Anna and Michael what their favorite parts of the trip were and which was their favorite photo. Michael's favorite countries were Turkey, Spain and England, and the most memorable thing of all to him were the ponds built into the atriums of the Roman houses at Pompeii. He thought that they were such a good idea, and he was especially proud that he figured out why the ceilings all slanted before we even saw the little interior ponds. His favorite photo is of the three of us at dinner on Santorini where he had his first lamb chop. He reminded me that the chef/owner was so kind and kept bringing us more and more food, and me more and more wine. We laughed hard that night, and the food was sooooo delicious. I'm glad he remembers this.

What a treat it has been to discover what easy and enjoyable traveling companions Michael and Anna are. Our journeys and adventures aren't ending, we're off to Tahoe this Sunday for a week of hiking and canoeing, but it's time for this blog to come to its conclusion; time to spend a little less time reporting and more time in the moment. Thank you for letting us share our adventures in Europe this year with you!

Scotland

Saturday to Saturday....July 4 till July 11, seven days in the Highlands...Our trip started off very early and very quietly as we left the Raffs' house, saying goodbye to six year old Jamie who had gotten up to watch Saturday morning cartoons. We thought we had gotten away without a hitch, until we arrived at the airport and realized we had left behind Bill's super duper camera. Oh well, what we'd miss in the way of great photos of our week in Scotland, at least we'd gain in seeing Bill's face more often rather than his usual stance behind the lens and twenty feet in front of us.

We were traveling with the Zeitlyn family; every few years we try to have a holiday with them because, well, it's just so much fun - there's someone for everyone to play with. And, it's hard for one child to whine about going up a mountain when five others are hiking along. We flew to Inverness, the gateway to the Highlands, and drove a couple of hours northwest to Gairloch on the coast of Wester Ross. We had rented a big 18th century house, on the water in a little cove and overlooking the Isle of Skye. We were ready for rain and midges (tiny mosquito like animals that have aggressively voracious appetites for our blood), but unbelievably and happily were given days of sunshine, a few very light showers, and relief from the dreaded Scottish insects.

We had no internet in the house and pretty much no cell reception - what do ten people with no modern communicative technology do for a week together? Especially when half are teenagers?! You hill walk.... a lot. And you go to the beach, whenever possible. And in between the hills and the beach you find time for all sorts of other activities. Some take you outdoors; and so we found ourselves golfing one afternoon, and horse trekking on another. There was time to take a glass bottom boat to see through the remarkably blue water to find seals and all sorts of interesting seaweed. There was archery, trampolining, shell collecting and lots and lots of stone skimming in mountain streams. There was a moving WWII crash site to visit high on a mountain top and a beautiful garden to explore in a nearby village. There were so many animals: we spied golden eagles and huge fish jumping out of the still waters of the bay at our beach, we walked among the adorable Highland cattle (and even a bull paid us little attention as we crossed through his field), way too many sheep to count and we even saw some being sheared, a few Highland redtailed deer, lots of frogs hopping through the boggy, peaty soil, gulls flying overhead constantly (we all learned that there is no such thing as a 'seagull', just different types of gulls - new fact for the week), and a cat just like ours keeping the mice at bay at the horse barn.

When it was time to turn indoors, and there wasn't much time for this for the sun rose early and didn't set until close to 11pm, there were loud, joyous, competitive card games; word puzzles set to rhymes provided by the quizzing Spike that stretched our brains; big, wonderful baths full of bubbles set up right in front of the bathroom windows so we could keep gazing at the amazing view; there was Wimbledon, cricket and the Tour de France to watch; yoga for the kids as they were tolerant of me practicing my teaching as I led them through series of postures and meditation; reading quietly in the deep windowsills; and of course there were many, many pubs to try yet another meal and pudding at.

Other highlights included walking among wild fields of highland cotton and purple heather, driving over the highest paved road in Britain, having a go at spinning wool, and walking through the kissing gates in the fields, and doing some yoga on the mountaintops.

We all tasted the local cuisine, trying out venison burgers deliciously grilled on the beach and traditional haggis freshly bought at the local butchers. Shortbread and oatcakes with strong port cheese were special treats. And, of course, each day started with porridge, tea, and toast with coarse cut marmalade.

It was hard to leave on the following Saturday, but we were somewhat cheered by the prospect of visiting Loch Ness on the way back to Inverness. I was especially sad to leave the house because I think I found my absolutely favorite bedroom in the entire world: windows on both sides of the room, one with a view that just about made me weep with peace and joy each morning, a fireplace on the connecting wall, a big, high deliciously comfortable bed, beautiful wood furniture, and just the right amount of it, sweet watercolors on the walls, and a bathroom with a big claw-footed tub with a view that rivaled the bedroom's! I was so sad that the sun set so late because it delayed my hour at which I could say 'goodnight' and jump into my bed with a good book to read. And did I read! I went through more books that week than I usually read in a month! I wish you could have seen the view from my window.

Shortly into the drive to the airport we were passing some beautiful and secluded coves near Ullapool and couldn't resist stopping for one brief last beach break. As we drove on to the famous Loch, Anna, Harlowe and Michael were getting excited about returning home to California very soon so they ran through all the songs in Bill's iPhone to set up a playlist of any song that had anything to do with California. Turns out there are quite a few, it was a real auditory California feast, as we were driving through the hills and lakes of Scotland!

Loch Ness didn't disappoint and we all had a lot of fun exploring 800 year old Urquhart Castle and gazing out across the white caps on the lake looking for the legendary monster. But then it was time to rush to make our flight back to London, and as we were running into the airport from the rental car Bill asked me to take out the passport folder. I stopped, looked at him blankly, and said, "I don't have it." Thereon ensued a surprisingly calm repacking and searching of all our bags, with no luck. It was really only Bill's US passport that was a concern in its absence, the rest of us could travel back to the US for we had been using our UK passports in Europe and I had our other passports safely stashed away in London. So, the Easyjet people were wonderful and stretched the check-in time for us to figure out what we were going to do. Bill ended up driving back two hours to the coast to search the house and the children and I joined the Zeitlyn's on the flight Saturday night. Bill did find the passport, tucked down the back of that big, wonderful bed. And then he had one of the most beautiful drives of his life crossing the Highlands at sunset, so pretty that he had to pull over and take some video of it. He was able to catch an early morning flight the next day, today actually, and here we all are, packing and reminiscing about the last half a year that has brought us all so many adventures, and chatting with Michelle and Benjamin on a pretty last day in London.

Life is such an amazing gift, full of so many beautiful places and beautiful friends; we will miss many of these now, but look forward to reconnecting to all those at home; and we will return to friends and places that have given us so much during the last five months

All Five Of Us In England!

">

We’re all back together!!! Well, at least the five people in the family; Macey’s and Starr’s absences are still felt a bit, but wow! is it great to have parents, children, brother, sisters, husband, wife all under one roof after six long months. We’ve all had wonderful adventures of traveling, athletics, learning, but nothing beats just hanging out together, and what super places to hang out together – London and Cambridge. Bill arrived on Monday June 29, about eight hours later than expected because he took advantage of United’s offer to take a later flight via Denver and snapped himself up $600 of travel vouchers. Yay! Another trip to be planned with those….

He was so sweet when he made it to Michelle’s house, after a two hour trek across London on Tube and trains, for after a quick cup of tea he set about doing some DIY for her. Michelle has been so generous to let us use her house as a base to come and go from for 4 and ½ months that we try to do as much as we can to pay her back, and Bill did his part by putting together a huge IKEA wardrobe and various other odd jobs. He was very patient with Benjamin and Michael as they desperately wanted to ‘help’. Benjamin spent most of the time looking for a pencil to put behind his hear so he could be a ‘real builder’ and Michael hammered in only a few nails cockeyed. I don’t know how Bill stayed up through all of this, he showed no sign of jet lag to speak of, just kept playing with the children, chatting and catching up with Harlowe and Anna, helping Michelle and hugging me every so often as he passed by. After all this work, we decided to leave Harlowe and Anna to babysit, and we took Michelle out for some much looked forward to margaritas at the one Mexican restaurant in a 15 mile radius. It was a very enjoyable adult dinner.

Tuesday morning Bill dragged me out of bed early for a run (ahhh, now the jet lag appears…), and then we dragged the rest of the family out of bed to head into London for a BIG day out. I am so happy, I can’t believe each day keeps getting bett

er and better, because now I was able to roam my favorite city surrounded by my whole family, seeing everybody enjoy it each in their own way. Careful negotiation was required for the day to progress peacefully, but for the most part we were able to pull that off. We started at the Imperial War Museum because I had promised Michael months earlier we would return here; this is a favorite place of all of ours. Once inside we split up in the main hall of tanks and airplanes, free to explore our own interests: Harlowe and Anna to post-WWII conflicts and Espionage, Michael and Bill to the submarines and the Blitz, and I went to read the love letters and poetry saved from WWI and the new Holocaust exhibition. This may sound like a grim museum, but it is so thoroughly and respectfully done that one cannot help but be captivated by the mass of information here. It definitely gives one pause, though.

From here we took a bus ride with a fantastic view over the Thames and onto Hyde Park Corner; Michael thought it was great fun t

o be peeking over the back garden fence of Buckingham Palace from the bus, just like the Big Friendly Giant did in Roald Dahl’s book. We grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Café before a stroll through Hyde Park to Speaker’s Corner, which sadly seems to be a relic of the past now, there in name only – we told the children to expect to see strange people pontificating from the top of soap boxes, but there were no boxes and only tourists milling about. They thought it was very funny when I said, “But there’s always at least one crazy person railing about Armegeddon everytime I come here.” And Bill asked, “When was the last time you were here?” “1986.” Great laughter, and Harlowe managed to eek out, “Mom! Every time you come here?! That was 23 years ago!!! Do you realized how LONG ago that was?! The ‘80’s are like history!! They were in my textbooks this year!” Harumph, I was having a good day….

We decided to salvage our visit to Hyde Park, and because this day was a scorching 83°, we headed for

the Serpentine Lake and Princess Diana’s splashing fountain. Perfect idea: we splashed in the cool water and took naps in the soft carpet of grass in the shade. Fully revived with the rest and a 99 Flake ice-cream cone, we treated the family to a black cab ride to the Tate Britain art museum. This was my insisted upon personal luxury because I cannot come to London and not see the Rothko paintings, and right now for a special treat the museum has displayed them along the 19^th century landscape painter Turner’s works; Rothko painted large murals of color blocks, a roomful evoking a mood and bringing out deep emotions, and I love them. I also love Turner, and I hadn’t known, but it makes perfect sense to discover that Rothko was greatly influenced by Turner’s use of light, color and texture to capture the mood of landscapes.

Leaving the m

useum as it closed we had just enough time to catch a bus to Victoria to grab a quick dinner at the little diners outside the train station, eat in a local park sitting at the foot of a statue of some great white man riding a big horse, and then walk across the street to the Apollo Theatre to see the musical ‘Wicked’. We all enjoyed it immensely, good music, great acting, and even better story.

After all this, we were a little tired on Wednesday morning, but after a breakfast of tea and toast we headed out to Greenwich. We had such a wonderful time here a few days earlier that we wanted to bring Bill to see it too. Greenwich is indeed a special place because it captivated us agai

n, just three days after we were here. We spent hours in the Astronomy museum and caught the planetarium show, then we toured the Royal Observatory to learn about the Camera Obscura, the development of measured time, and navigation. The kids thought it was very cute that Bill and I met East to West over the Prime Meridian. After a lunch of sausages in the park, we walked down the hill to the Maritime museum, during which Michael and Benjamin had a ball using every tree as a hiding place for their spy games. The museum's building is beautiful, with its long, columned corridors – all very grand, pretty and white. I don’t know how many hours we stayed in here, again all going our diff

erent ways to explore our own interests at our own pace.

Unbelievably, Harlowe, Anna and Michael still had energy and enthusiasm to go see 'Transformers', so Bill took them there while Michelle, Benjamin and I went for a quiet dinner. Very late in the evening we all returned home and fell into bed.

And the week was not done yet….Thursday morning we rented a car and drove

up to Cambridge to stay with the Raffs. It was still very warm, a week of sunshine in England – lovely!! After strolling around Cambridge's riverside, colleges and narrow streets, and walking down lots of memory lanes we hit the Grand Arcade, the fantastic new shopping preceint in the center of the town. This was being argued over while we lived here years ago, and now to see it all completed and indeed 'grand' we felt the heavy debate had been worth it because the final result is a very pleasant

area to spend a little time shopping in. Harlowe finally found her Homecoming shoes, and they are absolutely beautiful - just what a pair of special shoes should be, Michelle picked up a dress in the sales she had been coveting for quite awhile, Michael chose a shockingly-colored candy rope from the market stall, and I was treated to a spontaneous gift from the Swarovski crystal shop which Harlowe thought was even more absolutely beautiful than her shoes. This wonderful day ended in the Raffs garden for a delicious sunset dinner as the younger boys splashed in the huge paddling pool Rachel had been so kind to set up for them, when they weren't knocking apples out of the trees. Mikey and Anna used the apples with which to play a hard-throwing game of catch, and the rest of us spent the evening catching up. As we watched the orange glowing moon rise at the late hour this far north, we finally said goodbye to Michelle and Benjamin for the next week, and found our comfortable beds Rachel had set up for us throughout their home.

I was so rested and at ease the next morning I didn't want to move; the air was balmy with a soft breeze and the morning light was shining in from all sides of our room at the top of the house. But, after a late breakfast and slow morning, we ventured back to the town center to meet my sister and her family, over from Oxford for the day, and do some punting. Michael continued developing his expertise with long pole, Harlowe proved she could push the boat through the water without hitting any bridges, and their cousin Sarah also gave it a go. My brother-in-law Dan, as King's College alumni, gets us access to their cellars and after hopping off the boats we took the opportunity to pick up a couple of bottles of yummy aged port. This was to be the last time, or so I thought, to spend some time with my sister for the next year, so we sent the rest on ahead and took our time walking down King's Parade to have our heads together in sister-to-sister heavy conversation.

After an afternoon's punting and walking, we headed back to the Raff's to get ready to see Ella off for her prom. On the way, I took an hour's excursion with Anna to have her 'colors' done. She has shown such an interest in fashion and properly presenting herself this spring, that Bill and I thought she would enjoy the pampering of our design friend Avril holding up swathes of material to her and telling her what colors and styles look best on her, in addition to having her make-up done. She was beaming!

Harlowe raced back to help Ella put-up her hair, and we drank Pimm's as we met Ella's date's parents. After all the photos and waving them off, it was our turn for a night out. Leaving the younger children at home, we went to a local pub to see some friends in a band and we brought Harlowe along to hear the music with us. The band was so good that I decided to call my sister

up, drag her out of her hotel and have her join us singing, dancing and drinking. My sister has a great voice and we are always trying to encourage her to explore singing in a band, and she always loves a drink in a pub (who doesn't?!). Bill was so sweet to hop in a cab and go pick her up. This late evening was well worth it, even though the morning was going to come too early to get up and catch our flight to Scotland and the Highlands for the next week's adventure. It was very sad to say goodnight to Rachel and Jordan, but hopefully we'll see them next year in San Francisco, and I'm sure we'll be visiting them in Oxford...their new home coming soon.

mid-June in England

On June 21 I flew back from Spain, bringing Harlowe along with me...slowly reassembling the family...Harlowe was eager to see Anna and Michael, so as soon as we could drop some bags at 'our home away from home' in London we then turned around to hop on the bus for Oxford. My sister had generously offered to take care of Anna and Michael while I was fetching Harlowe, and they had a great time playing all weekend with their cousins Sarah and Maria.

Harlowe is quite striking these days, so it's rather fun walking around a city with her for people keep stealing glances (usually good looking young men)- I'm not sure she's even aware. Maybe you can see the man in the reflection in the photo in front of the Oxford bus...

We arrived in Oxford, found my sister and all the children in a park near the River Thames, and Harlowe was promptly attacked from all sides. I was expecting a big hello from Michael and Anna after not seeing them for a week, but I evidently had become absolutely invisible as they ran right past me at full speed, and leapt onto Harlowe, cousins included. It was quite a funny sight to see lanky Harlowe trying to balance one sister, one brother and two cousins, all screaming at once. Harlowe was very tolerant and sweet with them all. After a walk in the nearby meadow, we all enjoyed a beautiful summer's evening meal outside at the local pub. I thoroughly enjoyed one of the last Ploughman's Platters I'm going to have for awhile (yummy chunks of cheddar cheese, crusty bread, pickled chutney, various crunchy vegetables like cucumbers, radishes, onions).

While in Oxford we were able to meet up with the Raff family and share some locally made creamy ice-cream in a grassy square, where ensued a jungle exploration of the tall border plants for their son Jamie and Michael and a game of tag that the older children were drawn into. Cousins from Kent came to visit too, and we had a really great day watching Wimbledon and listening to my 85 year old Uncle Reg's stories of family lore. We also had to take a quick trip to the Eagle and Child pub; Harlowe and Anna wanted to see the place where CS Lewis and Tolkien made up all their stories over a few pints many decades ago.

The following days continued at full tilt as Anna, Harlowe and I traveled into the West End to see 'Les Miserables' (I HAVE to read Hugo's novel now, can't wait to borrow it and start!), we caught up on journals and homework, Harlowe and Anna shopped on Oxford Street for a Homecoming dress (successful mission), we visited the art galleries of the Modern Tate and the Courthauld Institute, we caught 'As You Like It' at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (I couldn't believe how hard Harlowe and Anna laughed as this story unfolded, guess they understand more Elizabethan English than I would give them credit for) and on a day full of laundry and business details, I sent Harlowe back into Central London to explore this glorious city alone. I'm not sure when my love affair with London began, maybe at two with my first taste of Cornish dairy ice-cream?, but it certainly became a sweet thing when I was a teenager and found my way around wandering alleys, streets, parks and bridges. Harlowe found herself meandering down the river on a boat from Tower Hill to the Embankment, through the narrow streets to the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square, through St. James Park and onto Knightsbridge and Harrod's - shoes were a Homecoming mission for this day (no success, yet...). I feel perfectly at ease wandering around London myself, and as the sun does not set till close to 9:30pm I wasn't worried, but very happy, that Harlowe didn't appear at home until after 10. She was glowing from her big day out.

Benjamin was out of school for the weekend and we took full advantage of the sunny weather to take trips to Greenwich Park to see the Prime Meridian and the Maritime Museum on Saturday and traveled up to Cambridge on Sunday. I always forget how incredibly full of history architecture and beauty is Greenwich. The easiest way there is via boat from the Tower of London, getting off at the pier to see the Cutty Sark (a 19th century tea clipper ship) and the Royal Naval College, designed by Christopher Wren and beautifully set on the Thames. Walking up the hill a bit you come to the Royal Maritime Museum and the Queen's House (such a pretty palladian building designed by Inigo Jones) on the left and central Greenwich with its bustling covered market on the right. The maritime museum is so full of fascinating exhibits on all things about shipping (exploring the North-West Passage, development of passenger travel, slave trade, simulations of docking great big ships in Dover Harbour, sea warfare, information on tides, water, currents, on and on) that we knew we'd have to return with Bill the following week. Anna, Harlowe and I shopped in the market while Michelle took Michael and Benjamin to a very funny play about pirates, and we found some great items: cute little (very little) pink plaid skirt, some funky pins, and Harlowe bought a clock for her bedroom made from a Pink Floyd 45rpm record.

We walked through the sprawling Greenwich Park, up the hill to the Royal Observatory (also designed by Wren, as was St. Paul's Cathedral and many of the churches of central London - following the Great Fire in the 1666) to learn about the Prime Meridian. We caught a show by a person dressed in period costume who taught us all about the history of longitude, time, jealous astronomers and navigation. Michael was one of the few children there so was recruited to stand as the Prime Meridian (which actually moved about quite a bit in its early years). Our favorite place of all, though, was a place somehow I've always missed....tucked just behind the Observatory is the Astronomy museum. I had to drag Harlowe and Michael out from the interactive exhibits, back to the sunshiny Saturday, promising them we'd return soon.

We opted for a bus and tube trip home, but the tube at the O2 Stadium station turned out to be shut down, so it was back onto the bus. The thunderstorm which had been growing in the heat all day broke through. It was quite thrilling to sit on the top of the double decker for a very long trip as the rain poured down and the sky flashed in jaggedy shapes. Fortunately, the rain stopped just before we had to hop off for our walk to the house, so it was an absolutely perfect day.

The next day, though, was even more perfect, if that could be possible. We all slept in a bit, tired from all the walking the day before, and just before lunch took off for Cambridge; it's about an hour's drive. First stop at Grantchester Orchard (early 20th century haunt of the Bloomsbury Group of Virginia Woolfe and friend/poet Rupert Brooke). This is a tea house under the apple trees next the River Cam, it could not be more quintessentially English. We had brought a picnic, and ordered tea and scones to complement it. Bliss, simply bliss. We sat, chatted, and rested in the green sling back chairs, and Michael and Benjamin played secret agent amongst the caves of trees surrounding the orchard. Finally, we sighed and lifted ourselves from our relaxed state to drive across town to the Zeitlyn's house, where we sat again for more tea and chatting in their pretty and cozy garden. Everybody had somebody to entertain them: Benjamin was surrounded by big boys Michael and William, Isobel went off with Anna to the local fair that had come to Midsummer Common (one of the many parks beside the river), Harlowe remembered the way over to her childhood friend's Holly's house, and Michelle, Spike, Tory and I spent the afternoon sipping tea and dealing with the drama of the two little birds who had fallen out of their nest (the mother bird eventually found them and we think it all ended well). The day continued to get even better as I joined Harlowe at her friend's house to spend time with my friends (Holly's parents) Rob and Anne, who had freshly made Pimms and strawberries, cream and merengues ready to enjoy. Rob and Anne were my tennis buddies while we lived in Cambridge so we talked all about Wimbledon, while also catching up on parenting angst and joy - their eldest daugther Isobel just finished her first year at University, our first friends to have made this parenting leap!

Leaving Harlowe to have dinner with Holly, I took a quiet, contemplative walk through my favorite Cambridge park, Alexandra Gardens, peaceful with its surrounding trees. After a delicious dinner with the Zeitlyns, again in the garden because there is nothing as pleasant as summer evenings in England, we ate a fair-supplied cotton candy and donut dessert, and headed home to fall into bed. Tomorrow morning Bill would arrive!!

Northern England and the Lake District

This post is a couple of weeks late, but I didn't want to ignore the great time we had on our whirlwind trip up to northern England. Life just kept whirling more and more since we returned back to London, I haven't had a chance to reflect on it till now. During the first week of June we drove about 800 miles, and had a packed and wonderful week up north visiting friends, seeing beautiful countryside, and of course, more Roman ruins. During our trip we experienced plenty of history, and lots of little roads with villages with roundabouts and some very English food.

I'm not sure if I can get all the photos in the correct order, but here's a rundown of our trip:

Our first day took us on a long drive to the city of Chester, just between Liverpool and the border of Northern Wales. Chester was a very important Roman city, its size and importance rivaled London for hundreds of years. The Romans built it to support the thousands of legionnaires that were spreading across England further north to protect the borders of the Empire against the barbarians even further north (Scotland...). It has the oldest and most complete wall of any city in England, mostly built in medieval times but on the site of the Roman wall. It has the most wonderful two story shopping arcade built in the 1700's to protect the wealthy and finely dressed from the muddy streets and rainy skies. We think it should be voted 'England's' Friendliest City'.

As I was studying the map to continue our journey the next day I realized how close we were to Liverpool. I suddenly thought that Michael might like to see the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and we spontaneously took a short diversion to Merseyside. Anna wasn't too pleased with this turn of events, but she navigated quietly and ably to get us to the National Trust site from where we met the van that would take us to the Beatles' suburban homes. Then she went ballistic with joy! When we arrived at Speke Hall, we discovered it to be one of the largest and best preserved Tudor homes in England, and it came with guides wearing period costumes. We all had a quick tour around the grand house and gardens, learning some very interesting trivia about the Tudors (priests had to dress as servants to hide themselves from the Elizabethan guards, changing into their vestments only for weekly mass, and then the great houses built spyholes into chimneys to spot the guards coming from a distance because the priests would be killed immediately for continuing to promote their Catholic faith, so in the middle of mass they'd have to whip their collars and robes off. Michael wondered why they didn't just keep the servant's dress on all the time? Seems a reasonable query...) Anna decided to stay at Speke Hall to soak up it's atmosphere further, while Michael and I hopped on the Beatles' van; Anna is our harp playing, Tudor loving daughter, while Michael couldn't wait to touch all things rock 'n roll and Beatles!

To appease the current neighbors of the Lennon and McCartney's houses, the National Trust takes just 14 people into them at a time via mini-van, so there are no cars nor hoards of people wandering around. We had a great time getting toured around the houses by the men whose job it is to live in these homes as caretakers, and after 11 years the guy in McCartney's house looks uncannily like Paul himself...No photos are allowed inside, but these are amazing places to visit. The Trust has worked hard with the McCartneys and Yoko Ono to redecorate the houses exactly as they were in the late 50's and early '60's so that you can stand in John's room where Paul used to visit and write songs together, and then they'd go down to the vestibule at the front door to sing them because the acoustics were better there. So many interesting things: photos of them writing 'Please Please Me' in the sitting room, early illustrations by John Lennon, original door handles, floors, windows, all their early inspiration everywhere! Michael just soaked it up, and he kept rubbing his hands over everything, even kissed the kitchen tile floor in Paul's house!! If you're in England, this is a great excursion to make. And you can even fly to Liverpool, landing at the John Lennon airport - which has the best graphics of any airport I've seen!

From here we drove into the Lake District, and across it to our friends who live in the little village of Greysouthen (pronounced 'greysoon'). We stayed with Lydia and her family; Lydia is a school friend of Anna's from when we lived in Cambridge, and after not seeing each other for 6 years it seemed not a day had passed. I had a lovely time catching up with my friend, Lydia's mom, Helen, and Michael and Harry, no longer babies together, played and played. Michael fit right into village life here and I didn't see him much for the couple of days for her was down in the park playing football (soccer) with all the village boys. We took some lovely walks in this part of the Lake District, visited another ancient stone circle at Castlerigg, fed the Davies' chickens and harvested the eggs, hung out in the market town of Keswick where we finally got our fish 'n chips for dinner. It was far too brief a visit, and it was so pleasant and friendly, another place on the list 'places definitely to return to'.

A few days later we were back on the road to cross the northern part of England, and stop at the Roman Hadrian's Wall while driving west to east. Amazingly much of this frontier of the Romans still stands, not as tall as it once was because most of the stone was used over the centuries by the Saxons for their churches, Normans for the forts, the Middle Ages for cathedrals, and everybody over hundreds of years for farmhouses. This drive took us through Carlisle, home of the McVities' factory, where we almost stopped just to pay homage, but the big fast roundabouts just spun us through the city. (Mc Vities are the makers of the chocolate digestive cookies/biscuits we crave so deeply.......)

At Newcastle we turned right and started heading south back down the east side of England. We took a quick stop at Beamish, a history museum that brings to life northern England in the 1800's - a typical town, coal mine village, country house, farm, etc. etc. It's a walk back through time. Interesting and tasty with an old-fashioned sweet shop and cafe where Anna ordered herself a meat pie and mushy peas (essentially mashed potatoes with peas...yum, kinda....)

Anna continued to be the most competent of navigators and helped me stay awake for the long drive back to London, and Bill surprised us with a telephone call as we passed by Cambridge - perfect timing to perk me up for the last hour or so of this 400 mile journey on our last day.