Going home - hopefully

Alarm went off at 5:30. I took my shower last night but Bob still had to shave and shower this morning. Went down to breakfast about 6:00 and were packed up and ready for our taxi about 6:45. Got to the airport a little after 7. It was pretty much dead. Very strange experience for us. But at least we made it through security and were all checked in. However we were told our flight had been delayed for an hour. Niiiiice. When we got to the gate we were told the plane would depart from it was empty and closed up tight. Weird. We sat there for a while before Bob got antsy and walked around to see what he could find out. The traffic had picked up considerably but not too many at our gate. So he followed the crowd and talked to whoever he could find. Discovered the plane would most like board further down the pike. We picked up our crap and walked to another gate. It's 10:20 now and we're still sitting here at the gate. We only have 2 hours to change planes in JFK. Sure hope we make it. We had a change of flights before we left home originally and know there are no more flights to Norfolk from JFK today. Crossing fingers, toes, legs and eyes we make the connection. You know how it is ... Once you've accepted you're going home you can't get there fast enough. Anyway ... will see what happens.

Fast forward ... We made it. Flight was fine - long but fine. I watched "Divergent" (pretty good actually) and "Chef" (that was good too), then read some. We landed in JFK around 2:00. Boarding for the next flight started around 3:20 - or was supposed to. It takes a while for a plane that size to deboard. Then we had to go through Customs. Then claim our luggage only to recheck it again. Then go through security again. Thankfully, they had our tickets for Norfolk printed for us and allowed us to go through the express lines. It was pretty cool how they had all that set up. Even so, we were still in the security line at 2:50 and still had to get to our new gate (which ended up being quite a ways away) for boarding at 3:20.

All that sweating and rushing we finally made it to the gate only to be told the flight was delayed an hour. Seriously. Sigh. The pleasures of traveling, eh?

Finally, we touched down in Norfolk. Regina picked us up and we went to No Frill (we love our Spotswood Salad) for dinner. Rick ended up meeting us there too so it was a nice welcome home dinner.

Bob brought a cold back with him and hit the bed about 9. I planned to do the same but ended up unpacking everything and hit the sack about 10. Woke up with a headache this morning. Don't know if it's the weather change or if I'm  fighting his cold or what. I do know I have too much to do to get a cold right now. Laundry and grocery shopping take priority today. LOL 

A special thanks to Lynne, Terry and Keith for carting us around all week and babysitting us. Was great spending time with all of you and we really appreciate the warm welcome. Already looking forward to next time. And special thanks to Joanie for putting up with us all week and making us feel right at home. 

Southampton - Last Day

Not much going on today. Packing and getting things together. That's always the worst part of a trip. Getting ready to go home. We went to lunch at yet another new place today - The Cowherds. Food was good as always and I had my last pie - chicken, ham and leeks. Mmmmm. They know how to do their pies over here.

Went back to Joan's to load all our stuff in the car and got a couple of shots in Joan's garden. 

Gonna miss these guys. Was really hard to say goodbye to Joanie. We've enjoyed this entire trip but being able to spend time with her has been priceless. 

Terry gave us a ride back to London. We're staying at a hotel a few miles away from the airport (Heathrow) since we've got a 10:30am flight and they told us to be want the airport 3 hours early. After we checked in and bought a few hours of wifi we went down to the restaurant for dinner. Noting too interesting the rest of the night. Got to catch up a bit on some news, Facebook and emails. Went to bed early because we have a taxi set up for 7:10 and breakfast starts at 6:00. 

Bedtime, so see ya in the morning!

Southampton - Day 6

Keith picked us up around 9 this morning for our Stonehenge/cathedral day. Originally we thought Stonehenge was like Castlerigg in that we could just walk up to it but after researching it discovered it was a whole tourist thing. There is a visitor's center and you have to be shuttled over to the stones. And they're surrounded by glass. You can't get right up to them. That being said I knew I wouldn't get the shots I wanted (which I knew anyway since we couldn't go at sunrise or sunset). When we took the taxi back from the train station after going to Bath on Monday, our taxi driver suggested a drive by instead of paying to go in. I brought that up yesterday at lunch and Keith agreed we could try that. It worked well enough. He drove by (slowly according to him ... Uh huh) and I snapped away. Then he turned around, I slid over the the other side of the car and snapped away the second time. These results aren't too bad going at warped speed from the window ...

Then it was off to Salisbury to see the cathedral. Of course you could see it from quite a ways away. It was an impressive image as we walked up to it. 

The first place we entered was the Cathedral Chapter House which holds one of the four originals of  Magna Carta written in 1215AD and is considered in the best condition of the four. It was redesigned to rebalance the power between the King and the barons and is the symbol of the rule of law in Great Britain, protecting the rights of the individual. Its basic principles have been used in the constitutions of America, Japan, Germany and any other countries. It will be 800 years old next year. No photography was allowed in the Chapter House but was fascinating to hear and see some of the history. 

Inside the cathedral was beautiful. Of course there are tons of memorials for people honored throughout the years since it was built. The stained glass windows are incredible. The architecture itself is amazing. It would be amazing to see something like that built today with all the tools available. But to know it was built hundreds of years ago without the ease and convenience of modern tools? It boggles the mind it does.

 

There is also a midieval clock housed there that is fascinating. According to the information it was made around 1386 and is most likely the oldest working clock in existence. How cool is that?

And here lies one of the oldest graves In the cathedral. 

We walked around a little more just checking the place out until we'd had enough and it was time to leave. This is the third or fourth cathedral we've seen since we've been over here so we are a little cathedralled out now. As gorgeous as they all are, since they were built around the same time period they tend to have similar architecture. So another couple of boxes checked. Thanks Keith!!

It was close to noon by now and time to start looking for a pub for lunch. Keith had one in mind in the New Forest. So off we went. Long story short, we took the scenic route and weren't sure we were going to find this particular one he was looking for but in the end ... Victory!!! We made it to The Queen's Head. Of course the food was good, beer even better. I got cider again - think I'm starting to like this cider stuff. Bob got another glass to add to his collection. And we enjoyed just sitting there enjoying a meal, visiting with Keith sitting outside in the amazing blue sky weather once again.  Everyone keeps saying how lucky we are that the weather has been so great. Yes, we know. We can't believe it either. We packed jeans, sweatshirts, umbrellas, rain jackets and so forth. Haven't needed any of them most of the time we've been here. 

On the way home we stopped by Keith's to see Christine. I had wanted to see some of her pergamano projects she had done and Bob wanted to see more of Keith's clocks. So we spent a hour or so visiting and looking at all their cool hobby stuff. Christine has some beautiful work. I'm going to have to give this pergamano thing a go again. 

Back at Joanie's we chatted the rest of the afternoon away and into the evening. One of the stories that amazed us was about having meters for electricity back in the early days. They actually had a meter under the stairs for electricity and they had to put coins in to pay as you go. Keith said there were times they were sitting around and everything went dark. LOL Time to fill the meter again!! We had never heard of such a thing before.

Joan had baked a chicken breast so we made sandwiches for dinner. They hit the spot too. Listening to all her funny stories is so entertaining. She keeps us in stitches, whether it's from the stories or her reactions to them. Her expressions are priceless. We have so enjoyed her. I dunno if she can say the same about us. LOL 

It's bedtime again. Our last night here at Joanie's. Very bittersweet. Gonna be hard to say good bye. Anyway, until tomorrow, G'night. 

Southampton - Day 5

HAPPY 92ND BIRTHDAY JOANIE!!!! The revolving door started early this morning. Terry picked up Bob around 11:00 to go bowling - lawn bowling (which he thoroughly enjoyed). Simon and Carol arrived shortly after that, then Collin and Anne, Terry dropped Bob off from bowling, Janice stopped by, the phone was ringing off the hook ... It was a circus!! A good circus but a circus nonetheless. Lynne and Terry came by to pick us and Joan up and we all took off to The Lone Barn (one of Joan's favorite spots) for lunch.

Food, drink, conversation and laughter flowed like a river. The food was excellent only matched by the company. Lynne made a beautiful sponge cake that was brought out at the end. Joan only had to blow out two candles instead of 92. LOL. We got a group shot outside of the pub and headed back to the house. It was such a gorgeous day. Blue sky, sunshine and a light breeze made it a delight to sit outside in the garden, as they say (that would be yard to us). We all got some more visiting in before it was time for most to journey home.

Carol brought some delicious strawberries and real cream (we can't get that stuff at home) that were just begging to be eaten. Later in the evening that along with some biscuits (that would be crackers to us) and cheese was dinner. Soooo good.

What a blessing to be able to be here for Joan's birthday and to meet so many of our extended family. Old stories were shared and new memories made.

Keith's taking us to Stonehenge and a cathedral in Salisbury tomorrow. Crossing my fingers for continued good weather. 

G'night Mary Ellen. G'night. John Boy. (How many know that reference?)

Southampton - Day 4

Terry gave us a ride to the train station this morning to go into Bath. It was really overcast and cloudy. Hoping our luck continued and we didn't get rain - we didn't. The train ride was about 1-1/2 hours. And good news!!! We had a seat!!

We arrived in Bath about 10am. It was still cloudy and overcast but little bits of blue sky were trying to peak through. It was a bit nippy in the shadows but felt really nice in the sun. There were times I even had to shed my sweater. We ran into a guy who was giving free tours starting in about 5 minutes so we decided to hang out and see how that went. Tim was amazing. He was so passionate about all the history and stories he made the city come to life for us. The boy was full of knowledge.

We stayed with the group for over an hour, then split to do our own thing. We knew there were certain things we wanted to get done and was afraid we were running out of time. We'd heard everything closes up shop in Bath at 5-6:00. So we left Tim to go through the abbey. It was beautiful!! I read so many memorials from people who died in the 1600's and 1700's and some even before that. Crazy how old that place is. I loved photographing it. Such beautiful lines and light and color!! There were also a couple of plaques dedicated to American men who were honored for various reasons. 

We'd had a light breakfast and we saw a sign saying "the smalles pub in Bath" next door to a shop we had been in. A pint sounded good didn't it? So we peeked in to see if there was room for us, and the luck of the gods were with us yet again!! I got me a cider (learned I like ciders!) and Bob got something local. The boy ordered another steak pie for lunch. Me thinks he's going to be all steaked out by the time we go home. Good thing because he sure isn't going to get a steak pie at home!! :) And guess what they had on the menu for me? Hehehe. Butternut squash and spinach pie. Oh my. They had my number!! It was yummy too!!

We started talking to the ladies sitting next to us (almost in our laps really - it is the smallest bar in Bath, remember?) - their husbands were in the Roman Baths and since they'd already seen them they were chilling in a pub waiting on them. One couple was from Florida - they were on the road for two months!!!!! They are touring England, Wales and Ireland for a month then riding a cruise ship that's relocating from the Mediterranean to Los Angeles. Wow. I love to travel but I don't think I could do that. I asked the other lady how long their trip was and she replied, "Oh, only 30 days." LOL 

Satiated with pint and pies once again, we waddled out to the Roman Baths. And here I thought there were lots of history in London. You know all those old movies you've seen back during the Roman Empire and such? This hits home. Crazy. Of course the buildings have been rebuilt several times over as different kings come into power they like to change things to suit themselves. But the bones have been there for centuries. There are artifacts that date back a LONG way.

And check out these coins that have been found in the baths. They have been identified from countries all around the world even back in those times. Does that not blow your mind or what?

And here's a shot of the famous baths, or pool.

At different parts of the tour you could actually see steam rising from the water. It comes out of the ground really hot. 

We walked all around the city just sight seeing and did a bit of shopping. Found a few really cool things to pick up local to the area and original. We love finding those little gems. Believe it or not it was time to rest our weary feet again!!! And I needed a Ladies room, or toilet as they call them here. I do so have issues walking up to someone asking where the toilet is though. LOL. We were looking for the public ones which were listed on the map but nowhere to be found. Finally I walked into this little cafe and asked the lady behind the counter. She said, "Would you like to use ours?" "Oh I would love to!! Thank you!" It was called the Jazz Cafe and seemed the perfect place for a break. Bob got us some little munchies, a tea and a spiced chai latte for me. The icing on the cake? Wifi!!! It was nice to just sit, people watch and enjoy the city relaxing. 

The last big thing on our list was the circus and the crescent. They were both close to each other but a nice little walk away so off we went. Inside the circus - it's just a circle with trees in the center surrounded by buildings so I don't know why it's called the circus. But if you stand in the very center and clap your hands you will instantly hear it echo back to you. It doesn't work anywhere else but in the very center. Was really cool. 

The crescent was right down the street next to a part and would have been a very cool shot without all the scaffolding in one section where they were repairing it. So I didn't even snap a photo. We walked some more - each time we walk around the city we try to go a different way so we see different things. At this point we had pretty much seen what we wanted to so we just kind of meandered around. We had planned to take the 8:30 train back to Southampton and it was only around 5:00 so we had plenty of time. Guess what we did???!!! :) C'mon. I bet you can guess! Yup! Found a pub and planted!! LOL this one was on the way to the train station and they had a beer I had tried in London and really liked, the Fullers Honey Dew. We got some lemon thyme peanuts - yeah, they were interesting - to snack on and just chilled. 

There was an artist's tent set up across the street from the pub displaying drawings. I sat there and watched him the entire time. Told Bob we need to check him out. We were nearly finished and had decided to take an earlier train back when he started packing up. We grabbed our stuff and walked over there. He had some pretty cool stuff. They were all ink drawings with water color, reduced down to various sizes and printed. He was a very cool guy to talk to and we walked away with a couple of his drawings. :) 

The train ride back was uneventful and we caught a taxi back to Joanie's. Our driver was a young man who was very nice and talkative. He had some good suggestions on how to see Stonehenge and felt  the cathedral in Salisbury was much nicer than the one in Winchester. Will see how that pans out. Keith has said he'll take us to Stonehenge Wednesday. His wife called looking for him as soon as we got into the car. We were his last fare of the day and she said his dinner was getting cold. He laughed and said she was newly pregnant (2 months - I told you people here just talk to you) - and hormonal. LOL. Well, we all can relate to that can't we? Anyway, when we got up to Joanie's, she was standing at the door like she knew we had just pulled up! Great timing! 

Sitting at our last pub snacking we decided we'd just come back here and have tomato sandwiches for dinner. We weren't hungry enough for a meal and couldn't find anything on the starter portion of the menu that really grabbed us, so that's what we did. Made sandwiches and visited with Joan to hear about her day. Went up to bed around 11:00 and by midnight we were both out. 

Tomorrow is Joanie's 92nd Birthday!!!! Gonna be an awesome day!!!!!

Southampton - Day 3

The smell of bacon wafted through up the stairs as we were waking this morning. Bob and I sort of so slept in this morning later than usual. We had talked to Joan about cooking her breakfast this morning and she shot us down because we're going to Lynne's for Sunday dinner. Then we get up and I'll be damned if she isn't down there cooking her little heart out. Was good too. She had the bacon going, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and toast. It was a breakfast of champions!! The bacon over here is not like the bacon we have at home - it's more like ham. Really good.

After we stuffed our faces I had to take over the kitchen to clean up because don'tcha know Joanie can do it herself!!! Yeah well, so can I. We told her since she cooked, we clean. End of discussion. I can be stubborn too.

Keith popped over for a visit soon after we finished and brought us another watch to share that he'd worked on. It was an early 1900's Monarch pocket watch. It had 4 oz of silver around the face and 4 oz of silver chain. It was quite heavy. He's really into watches and buys old ones at auctions and on ebay and gets them cleaned up and working again. Sometimes selling them and sometimes adding them to his collection. Of course he had a number of stories to share and we had some good laughs and visited until Lynne popped over to taxi us to her house for dinner.

She set out all kinds of nibbles: pickled hot peppers, bruschetta, crisps with dips, stuffed peppers. When I connected to her wifi I started getting texts from Mikey and Cari. Mikey was telling me, "Don't eat the snacks!!! I know what's coming after that! I sat at the table!! Don't eat the snacks!" LOL So we started slowing down. He was right. Holy cow they know how to put out a spread.

I walked out back to have a look at Lynne's garden and was blown away at all her fuchsias. They plant them in their yards here, not in pots like we do. Apparently they thrive ... Look at 'em!!

In the meantime James (son #1) and Kirsty (wife) arrived with the kids, Matthew (3 years) and Amelia (14 months). Lovely family. Matthew is a wonderfully bright, inquisitive and friendly child. He cuddled up to Bob to show him how to play Angry Birds and get the most points. Was adorable. Poor little Amelia had a bit of a cold and wasn't feeling her best but she was still a cute little thing. She's just started walking and at times still preferred to scoot on her bum. Lynne had gone to pick up Steven (son #2) since Kerrie (girlfriend) was working. What fun to see family dynamics in motion at the dinner table. The chaos and bantering back and forth was quite entertaining. And OMG does Lynne know how to put a spread out!!! There was so much food some of it had to be taken away after being served to make room for more coming out. This is what it can remember (I've probably forgotten something):

Roast

potatoes

broccoli

beans

carrots

zuchinni (corzhet)

Yorkshire pudding

suet pudding

gravy

Wine, wine, wine and wine

We ate and ate and ate. Still they asked,"Don't you want more?" Amazingly there was very little food leftover. It didn't take long to pick that up and bring dessert out. Oh yeah, I had seen the dessert. I knew I wanted some. Didn't know how I was going to eat it thought. Ummm, they had the answer to that as well. Calvados. It's a liqueur that helps to settle your food to make room for more!!! Just what I need, eh? LOL Steven poured and we all threw it back!!! Must've worked because we then killed all but a wee but of that gorgeous dessert!!

And herei thought we must be done, right? Hahahahaha. Nope ... Then came the Irish coffee laced with liqueur (I had Drambouie in mine) and cream. For real? Sigh. Ok. Once again my arm was twisted. And Bob? He doesn't drink coffee so he just had another glass of wine. And a shot of Drambui I learned how to pour the cream on top of the coffee and keep it from sinking to the bottom. Very cool. :) 

I know you aren't gonna believe I've this part because I didn't either. They brought out even more food!!!!! What the bloody hell? LOL. Biscuits and cheese started making their way around the table. How many courses is this meal? Bob and I just sat and watched in fascination. Then Bob had to ask ... What kind of liqueur they had. ... James was sitting next to the liqueur cabinet and started pulling bottles out. And pulling bottles out. And pulling bottles out. They just kept coming!! I asked if the little corner cabinet was like Hermoine's bag in Harry Potter. It seemed to hold way more than it looked capable of.

They do believe I choices don't they? I guess they'll starve if they come see us!! We just don't typically eat meals like that. Special occasions come the closest - Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. But this was just a typical Sunday Dinner!! They do this every Sunday!! We were impressed. Very impressed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that most of the veggies on the table were grown from Lynne's allotment (plot of land she rents to grow veggies on). How cool is that? Can't get any fresher, can you?

The baby was tired so James and Kirsty left, with Steven and Kerrie not far behind them. We hung out at the table for another hour or so of laughing and drinking, trading insults and gaining new information (oh you won't believe the goods I learned!). Cari was texting me with the updates from both the Redskins game and the Cowboys game. Both teams won!!! That's different!! There were lots of laughter, jokes and ribbing going around the table. Lynne kept holding up an imaginary pair of knickers just to make me lose it all over again. It usually worked. LOL 

Eventually all good things must come to an end so we called a taxi to take us back to Joan's. After changing and getting ready for bed we went back downstairs to end the night visiting with Joan until our eyes started closing. It was almost 11:00 by then and we were getting up early in morning. Terry is giving us a ride to the train station to Bath. We'll be out of Joan's hair for the day and give her a break. 

Nighty night!!

Southampton - Day 2

We both slept really well last night and had a nice light breakfast. Keith came by a little later. Brought Bob a few beers and we had a lovely visit, along with coffee and sweet rolls. It was the first time I had met him, but didn't feel like it. I've heard so much about him over the years it was great to be able to spend some face to face time with him.

After he left it turned into nostalgia time. Joan dragged out album after album of old photos and we spent the afternoon going through them. Some we had seen before and lots we hadn't. We ended up noshing for a late lunch on ham, cheese, crackers, pickles, stuffed peppers and such. A couple of hours flew by as Joan entertained us with story after story. She had us in tears a number of times. It was a wonderful, relaxing afternoon visiting with her. 

The story that had us in tears the most was one of Guinness and port. She said it was her birthday or something and someone asked her if she wanted a shot of port in her Guinness. Then another, and maybe a third. She swears it's very good but she isn't sure how she got home. LOL. And when she got home she decided to put on a couple of eggs to boil. Sat down and fell asleep, forgetting all about the eggs. When she woke up, the eggs had all boiled out and exploded all over the kitchen!!!!! "Oh it was horrible," she said. "The smell!!!! It didn't go away for weeks!!! And nothing I did helped." If you could've seen her face, expressions and heard her voice you'd have been rolling on the floor. She's great, she really is. 

Lynne and Terry picked us up to drive us out to a pub in "The Forest." It was a nice drive and The Forest is just what it sounds like. A forest ... With trees ... Lots and lots of trees. There are horses and pigs in the Forest.  Interesting huh? For whatever reason we couldn't find the initial pub we intended on going to. I'm sure Lynne will research that to figure out what happened and how we missed it. In the end, we stopped at The Crown Stirrup. It was awesome! I discovered I like cider. They actually had real bar towels - Bob had been looking at every pub we've been in and it seems everyone has gone to a different style of mat and we hadn't seen any yet. So he got to leave with another souvenir. The food was really good and the owner was full of information and ready to share, so we had a nice chat with him before getting out of there. It's a beautiful little place with great food, an owner/chef who really cares about the quality of the food he serves and is eager to please his customers. There is a nice area out the back that is outside but protected against the elements and it leads into the back garden area with a bonfire. I wish him well and really hope the locals around there give his place a fair shake. 

On the way out Terry swings into another pub for us to have a drink. As Joan's getting out of the car she's saying, "That sounds good to me!" LOL After we got our drinks and sat down at a table the conversation just went south. We talked about tv, good shows, bad shows, good books, bad books, about how Guinness + Port = exploding eggs, Joan bursting out with "Bullshit!" at family dinner one Sunday afternoon. I thought Bob was gonna split a gut. He was laughing so hard at Joan that we had to laugh with him. It was pathetic. Little did we know the worst was yet to come. ...

In the car on the way back Bob and Terry were talking about Terry's lawn bowling. Bob was asking questions. One of the questions he asked was if he had to dress up to play and did he have to wear knickers. I freakin' lost it. I don't think I've every heard Bob use the word knickers and then he just goes and uses it in a serious sentence. One thing lead to another and I'm wheezing. Lynne starts laughing. Joan's beginning to chuckle. And then Bob asks what I was laughing at!!? Oh no ... All hell broke loose then. I came unglued and so did Lynne. We were feeding off of each other at that point and either one of us could stop. I'm not sure anyone else in the car saw the humor that we did but it didn't seem to matter to us. We had toppled over the edge and were in the laughing so hard you can't breathe and your stomach hurts so bad from laughing land. And you just want it to end. And it does. For about 10 seconds. Then starts all over again.

I have a secret word for tomorrow when we're at Lynne's for dinner. Knickers!!!! She doesn't even need to say a word. All she does is pretend she's holding up a pair off shorts and we die. Tomorrow's going to be interesting!!!

Southampton - Day 1

Obviously, we did get up for sunrise this morning since we had committed to Ian giving us a ride there. No, there really wasn't a sunrise but at least there was some light and very few people. We spent about 45 minutes playing around with different perspectives and angles. A few people came and went. If you lived closer and had more opportunities to photograph the stones, I'm sure it wouldn't have been the most advantageous morning to shoot. But since it was our only morning we did what we could. At least the people were gone and we had some light.

Our taxi was right on time and we made it back in time to regroup before breakfast. Our train to Southampton was scheduled to leave at 11:25 and in true Bob fashion, we were at the station a full hour ahead of time. We'd rather be way early than deal with the stress of cutting it too close.

Things we learned about riding the trains in England:

1. Don't travel with large suitcases. There is very little storage room on those cars for big bags. 

2. Don't travel on a Friday afternoon.

3. Reserved seats really don't mean that much. Don't waste your money. 

4. It's typical to miss connections. Plan on missing yours if you have one.

5. People get bored when standing in a crowded vestibule for long periods and tend to strike up conversation. And believe me, they will tell you any and everything.

This is how it went down:

We reserved seats thinking we'd rather play it safe than be sorry since we'd never done this before. There wasn't a train that went straight to Southampton. We had to change trains in Wolverhampton (told you there are strange names for things here), and we had 10 minutes to do so. Bob said he knew that it was gonna be tight but there we no other choices. Having no idea what the station in Wolverhampton was like, whether it was small or large, busy or not, we really didn't

know what to expect, but were a bit concerned. Anyway, we board the train we're staying on to Woverhampton with all our baggage (2 large suitcases, a carry on with extra stuff just to lighten the load of my big bag, loaded down camera bag, purse, Bob's carry on with our headphones and miscellaneous stuff). There's overhead room for the smaller bags but what little luggage rack provided for larger bags was stuffed to the gills. So what do we do? For real. Bob puts our luggage in our reserved seats. LOL We sat in nearby seats that also said reserved but there wasn't anyone to claim them. At each stop (and there were quite a few) we crossed our fingers we wouldn't lose the seats. The Gods were with us - we didn't. Then ... they must've moved on to something more important because our train was about 10 minutes late getting in and as we dragged all our stuff over to the next platform (just a couple of flights of stairs, no biggie) our train was pulling off. We had to wait an hour for the next train. Not the end of the world, I know. The frustration came in because getting in touch with Lynne to let her know we'd be an hour later proved to be a challenge.

Even though I had purchased an international cellular plan, it didn't seem to be working. I had Lynne's number stored in my message in Facebook. Yeah, in retrospect I realize that wasn't the smartest. Well, messenger wouldn't work. I tried several times to post to Facebook and tag Lynne to let her know we'd missed our connection. Facebook wouldn't post anything for me. So then I sent Mike and Laurie both texts asking if they'd post on Facebook and let Lynne know we'd be late. It was a big stressful. Then the real fun began. :) Our train was on time - that was a good thing. There were lots of people boarding. That wasn't such a good thing. We both know it wasn't looking too good to get a seat and have a place for the big bags. It wasn't. Long story short is that we ended uo standing in the vestibule of that car until we got to Southampton - 3 hours later. I kid you not. Not the best way I've spent an afternoon in a while. But hey, we survived. 

Lynne was right there to greet us and boy was she a sight for sore eyes!! We spent some time catching up with her and Joan before going to dinner at The Plough. Bob, Lynne and I all got the fish and chips, as it came highly recommended. Holy Mother of God. I wish I had thought to take a photo of the plate. It was a standard size plate and the fish was hanging off of it. I couldn't believe a person was supposed to actually eat all of that - in one sitting!! I did manage to get the fish down but left a lot of the batter. Oh, and the there was this whole discussion on mushy peas. LMAO. For us Americans, I guess I'd say it's petty much what it sounds like, mashed up peas. I'm not sure why baby food would be so appealing to adults but I'm not wasting too many brain cells trying to figure it out. I'm still practicing saying Southampton the proper way. Yeah, there was a whole discussion about that as well. It's not South Hampton. It's Southampton. Got it? LOL yeah, neither did it. I think I do now but I'm sure I'll be corrected if I don't. It's more like Sow thampton all together, really quick.

Now the big one - Yorkshire Pudding. Bob and I had some of that at Oddfellows the other night. I described it, remember? We were telling Lynne about it and I thought she was gonna have a coronary with us saying Yorkshire Pudding. Yup. Yet another thing we were saying wrong. It's actually Yorksure puddin'. That's the proper way to pronounce it. We're trying to remember that. I'm sure we'll flub it up again though. Could be worse. There could be long calculations involved instead of just touching a letter ...

We came back to Joan's, Bob and I unpacked and pretty much died - after playing some Fruit Ninja together on my iPad. I won that round. Tonight may be a different matter though. (I'm writing this on Saturday.) As we went to turn our lights out Bob says, "uh oh." SMH the boy done broke the light. It has a pull string and when he pulled it, it completely broke.  Uh uh uh. 

Not any major plans tomorrow. We'll see what the day brings. Maybe Bob will fix the light. :) 

The Lake District - Day 4

This morning started off with an early alarm. We wanted to get up and walk down to Castlerigg Stone Circle for some sunrise pics. Yeah. Well, the alarm went off, I looked outside and saw overcast skies, turned it off, turned over and went back to sleep. When we finally did get up, we decided the walk there and back wouldn't be too bad. So after grabbing our lunch to go, we did just that. We had a map and directions from Ian. What could go wrong? Right? :) Along the way I snapped away at the sights.

I just love the architecture of these old buildings. Since we apparently were taking the scenic route I figured I'd take advantage of that and share the views.

We walked and walked and walked and walked. Several times we stopped others coming from the opposite direction to ask if we were on the right road. Some said they had no idea and some said we should be able to get there from here. That gave us warm fuzzies. But we kept walking. And walking. And walking. Eventually the pathway veered off into a field. Good, we thought. We're getting somewhere now. Then it took us through a tunnel that was filled with water and mud. Ugh, we thought - this is not good. There were pieces of wood strategically placed throughout the tunnel for a person to step on to keep from wading in water and mud. At that point we didn't have much of a choice so we kept trucking. I should've taken a picture of that but I was getting a little frustrated by then. Everyone we had talked to said the stone circle was only couple of miles away. We'd been walking for over an hour. We don't walk that slow!! Finally, the path came to a road. Would you believe the sign said "Castlerigg 3/4 mile" ... Really? OMG. See, you have to understand we can't go anyway without all our crap. Bob had a backpack with my tripod, his camera, however many water bottles and our packed lunches. I had my camera bag with two lenses, a couple of water bottles and miscellaneous stuff, plus my camera around my neck. We had baggage people. Heavy baggage. I have enough baggage on this body, but add another ten pounds or so ... Well after a while it starts really weighing you down.

Along the way, I did get a chance to snap some shot of my wonderful stone walls. That was a plus!! They are everywhere!!! And so are the sheep!!! I got pretty tickled at these guys all looking at me as if to say, "Whatchu lookin' at?" LOL 

And yes, they were behind one of these awesome walls too ...

You can see how they are just sitting on top of each other, with nothing holding them together. Is that amazing or what? I know, I'm weird. I can't help it. It just fascinates me. 

We did finally make in to the stone circle. When we arrived to the entrance what do you suppose we saw but a Mountain Goat tour bus. SMH (code for shake my head - thanks Heidi for teaching me that). So we asked the driver what the quickest way back to Keswick was. Double SMH. "Just keep straight down this road," he said. Really? Really. That was both the good news and the bad news.

The best guess is that these stones have been here for 4,500 years. No one knows for sure what they were used for. There are plenty of theories. But bottom line is that it's a very cool place to visit. There are reportedly over 1300 stone circles in Britain. Castlerigg is one of the oldest. Unfortunately, there were way too many people to take the kind of shot that we wanted. (That could've had something to do with the fact that it took us forfreakinever to get there so it was lunchtime by now.) There was a couple sitting right smack dab in the middle of the circle doing some kind of hoky poky meditation stuff. There was a group of old ladies sitting in the inner circle having some kind of bloody reunion it seemed. Bob overhead part of their conversation and it was about color and how it radiates back to you or some kind of metaphysical something. Who the hell knows. But they weren't going nowhere. Anytime soon. They were camping out. Hell, we were there for an hour waiting for the crowd to go away for even 30 seconds! I had my tripod set up and in position. The clicker was batteried up and ready to be pushed. But nooooooo. We made forever friends with several other people standing on the outskirts trying to wait it out just like us we were there so long. A bit dramatic I supposed but still. After we had walked so far for so long. Sigh. What a waste. After about an hour we gave up and packed up to head back. Would you believe it took us 40 minutes to walk back to our room? FORTY MINUTES!!!! We walked for 2 hours to get there! But it's all good, right? We took the scenic route, the pleasure walk.

Needless to say, we flopped on the bed and didn't move for a while. We were done. Our backs were done. Our feet were done. When we finally we able to move again guess what we did ... We walked to town to get ice cream!!! LOLOLOL Oh! And much to our surprise there was some kind of market going on with vendors selling their wares. So we walked all around those booths.

Then we rewarded all our woes yet again by going to George's for a pint! After all it was around 4:00 by then. That has become pint time. 

This is the inside of George's.

And by now, after we've had a pint we've talked ourselves into taking a cab back up to Castlerigg for sunrise in the morning. Are you LOL yet? So we walk back to the house (more walking) and ask Ian about a taxi service for the morning. After determining that sunrise is around 6:40am he called the cab service to see if we could schedule a pick up for around 6:15 and then come back to the stone circle and bring us home at 7:15. Ahem, they don't even start until 7:15am. Well that won't work will it? So Ian says, "Let me drive you up there in the morning." There goes our out. Can't turn overand change  our minds in the morning now can we? Remember, we leave at 10:00 to catch our train to South Hampton in the morning. Hahaha. We just thought we were going to have an easy morning. I'll tell you, Sue and Ian have bent over backwards to accommodate our every whim. If you're ever up in Keswick and need a B&B to stay in come stay at Seven Oaks with Sue and Ian. They are just fabulous!!

On top of that, we mentioned we were planning to go to the Wood Grill tonight and get pizza and they recommended Casa Bella. Said they are known for their pizzas. Cool, we thought. They were spot on with their George's recommendation, so we'll just go there. Then Ian says, "Would you like for me to make a reservation for you? They get quite busy in the evenings." Nothing like personal service. And once again they were spot on. It was excellent!!!

Finally we walked back for the last time. And here I am journaling our last day in The Lake District. Ya know, I always think "I don't have much to talk about today, this one's gonna be short." LOL Yeah right.

While I was sitting here journaling, Bob was looking at the weather for Southampton. The site he brought it up on displayed it as a Celsius temperature. So he googled how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. Asked me to get my calculator our and when through this long drawn out equation to find out what the forecast was for tomorrow. FRO? That's just too much work. So I went to work to find a site that displayed the temp in Fahrenheit. No lie ... That site he was looking at? Where it had the temp in Celsius had a little "F" beside the "C". When I touched the "F" it was like magic!!! The temp was now in Fahrenheit!!! I showed him how to do it the easy way. :) 

Gotta run. Need to get my crap together since I no longer have the morning to do that. But hey, I'm optimistic I'll get that money shot! LOLOL Sue thinks we're nuts and said we'll be the only fools up there. LOL I don't think so but if we are that's ok with me.

Cheers!

PS - Hope Southampton is ready for us!! Here we come!