Stourhead Garden

Stourhead might be my new favorite place. It was one of the most pristine and just beautiful places I've ever been. They filmed some Pride and Prejudice scenes here, in particular Darcy's proposal in the rain. It was such a fun place to just walk around and explore, and it was an absolutely beautiful day to do it.








Perfectly formed lichen thought bubble. My thinking face.











Jane and I by the lake.

















There it is, the Temple of Apollo proposal in the rain temple itself.













My long lost twin.
























Look at those clouds!












My pillar pose in the Temple of Apollo. Couldn't pass it up.

Stonehenge ROCKS!

After Bath we took a little drive and came to Stonehenge. It was really interesting. What I found most intriguing about it was the flocks of people who come to see it. I couldn't believe how many tourists were there. It was funny to me because it's all roped off and people just walk around it and ponder what it possibly could have been used for. Kind of a must see in England I guess. I thought it rocked!

I'm sacrificing Lindsay to the sun gods. Druid style.


Recreating our own Stonehenge. We played missionary tag right after this for a good hour just on the lawn in front of it...haha.

Splish Splash...

Bath was our first stop on our excursion this past week. It's a pretty great place. They have lots of ice cream, lots of hills, some really cool architecture, and of course, the Roman baths. It was a great little place to be.





A view of the Baths from the top. Aren't they a lovely color?
















My thinking face. I was learning lots about Romans and bathing from that little audio guide.














I didn't really go swimming, but I thought about it more than once.












Tasting the water. Not so good, really.







The sunset was really cool from the top of the hill our hostel was on. This picture just doesn't quite capture it.

The Royal Crescent. Dad, I checked out Real Estate prices. You can buy one for 500,000 pounds. That's only a million dollars, wanna move to Bath?

Stopping to play at this playground made my whole day. They had swings! The clouds were really cool too.

London's Funniest

I've started a collection of all my favorite signs I've seen in London. Here they are...I think they're pretty funny.

And NO FUN!
Don't touch the water? Really? Why ever not?
Are the cyclists and pedestrians supposed to beware? Or are we supposed to beware of the cyclists and pedestrians?
Mmm...my favorite.
We tried to pass for unemployed...they said we didn't count.
These signs are everywhere. I really don't know what they mean or what the danger is...but I try to be especially wary as I walk by.
I've never heard of anti climb paint. Mom, maybe you should invest in some, it might keep the boys off stuff.
I bought five of these. Guess what my presents for my family are going to be...
True.
Should have eaten here.

Picnics and Paddle Boats

Picnic in the park with our EAT and Pret sandwiches before we headed to the lake.





View from the lake.










Jane and I paddling away. I just kept thinking of my family in Lake Powell. I bet I was having just as much fun...

Becoming British

So last week we went to visit the home of Samuel Johnson, who wrote the first comprehensive English Dictionary. The house and the tour were great ...but we couldn't wait until our guide finished so we could rush back and try on the children's dress-ups we had seen in one of the rooms. So here we are. They definitely weren't the most flattering clothes I've ever tried on...especially not the padded dress. No, I'm not just saying that, it really had hip pads :)

The picturesque English family. Obviously I'm the head of the fam. I have a cane. I'm actually a little scared by how genuine I look, minus the capris and tennis shoes.

"Britain's Greatest Medieval Experience"

Warwick Castle was one of the coolest places I've been so far in England. I thought it was incredible. It was a bit like a theme park Castle and definitely touristy but way cool anyway. We got to climb up to all the turrets and the view from the top was incredible. They also had a some really cool "shows." There was a bowman shooting arrows and targets, a birds of prey show, the launching of the Trebuchet, and, my personal favorite...the Great Joust.



































Quick rundown of the pics: the Castle, me and Jane in the stocks, all of us and the archer man, view from the top, the joust, the Trebuchet, me after I broke a fence (I think I've gained more weight than I thought), a sweet video of the Castle and me and the queen. Yes, that is the queen. At least...in a wax form. But it was good to meet her since I'll be taking her job in a couple of years.



And a couple videos of the day too. The Castle from the highest tower and footage of the Great Joust :)

Shakespeare Town

This past weekend was our free travel weekend for the program. A group of six of us decided to go to Stratford-upon-Avon overnight because it was one of the main places that we are not traveling to altogether. It was a super fun trip. We stayed at this little Bed and Breakfast complete with Brambles the cat and a full English breakfast (that really did keep us full until 6:00). We made laps around the town of Stratford, saw all there was to see and then planned a day trip to Warwick Castle. Stratford was William Shakespeare's birthplace and hometown and I think they basically worship him there. For example, the church he is buried in is called "The Holy Trinity Church (Shakespeare's Church)." So we saw all the Shakespearean houses and a few other cool things there...here are the highlights.


We met this man dressed as Shakespeare on the street and he took us up to the schoolroom where Shakespeare went to school. It was really cool because it's usually not open to the public but he was hosting an art exhibition there that night. The top picture is Shakespeare's initials carved into a window pane in the school. The bottom pic...um, the Shakespeare guy wanted to do a dramatic pose. I think he was pretending to be the headmaster...and we were the students. It works right?


The best part of our whole meeting up with Shakespeare's double was that he invited us to be his "personal guests" at the art exhibition that night. So of course we went and walked around and looked at all the art holding our wine glasses full of apple juice (lucky they had apple juice). It was really cool. The best part of the whole night...one of the original founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company had been invited as an honored guest and he performed a scene from King Lear. It was so cool. He was really really talented and just blew the roof off, even though I'm pretty sure he was close to ninety. It was a pretty cool random thing. I think we make new best friends everywhere we go. It's great.

Shakespeare's birthplace

All of us along the river Avon. We hung out here for quite a while after the art exhibition.


The Creaky Cauldron: Museum of Witchcraft and Wizardology also makes its home in Stratford, right next to Shakespeare's birthplace, so of course we had to go. Here I'm being sorted by the Sorting Hat...and I was definitely Gryffindor. Woohoo!

I made some friends at the museum. This is Matilda. I don't think many people like her much, but I decided that she probably had some good qualities. Come to find out, we have a lot in common.

Me, making potions and other such things. With my hat I sort of look like a Newsies boys making potions...but I guess it works.

Cadbury World

Initially, when we planned our trip to Stratford-on-Avon we thought we would be making a little side trip to Cadbury World, which was supposedly only like an hour away. Well, after a lot of deliberation we decided that we would have to choose between Warwick Castle and Cadbury World...and Warwick Castle came out victor. We were a little disheartened until we had the brilliant idea of having our very own Cadbury World in the comfort of our little Bed and Breakfast. This is truly kind of gross that we did this...but man was it good. I think I've tried almost every kind of Cadbury candy bar now and they are incredibly good. If you love Cadbury mini eggs at Easter time...you have no idea how much you are missing by not being able to try the entire line of Cadbury product goodness.



Yes, we really did cut them into sample sized pieces and serve them on trays :).


At the end of the night...

Live footage of our very own Cadbury World: