The Buschelmans Go On Holiday Part 1

This will be the first of several posts where I throw a bunch of pictures from our recent jaunt across the Atlantic on to the blog and then proceed to tell random stories that somehow relate to the picture.  I could organize my thoughts and pictures better, but you know and I know that would mean it would never get done, so I might as well just get on with it in a haphazard way.

September 27th, after meticulously packing (and running to the store multiple times to acquire shoes and appropriate clothes that actually fit...these kids and their growing!) our family loaded up our luggage and attempted to leave the country.  We failed.  The plane out of Fort Walton was delayed so much due to weather and then a mechanical issue that we ended up collecting our checked luggage (with all the new clothes), asking our neighbor to kindly come pick us up, and we headed home.  The kids were wonderful, a little confused, but understood to keep most questions to themselves as Eric and I discussed our disappointment into the night.  Good dress rehearsal for the real thing!

September 28th, we went through all the same motions and this time succeeded in leaving the country.  We were on our way to England for a long awaited family vacation abroad as well as a chance to meet two God-children.  The flights went smoothly save for poor Will getting motion sick within an hour of take-off.  Something he did not disclose to anyone until we landed at Heathrow, so I had a great trip.  My children, not so much.  Both Dom and Will were pretty sick as we landed, but luckily, recovered quickly.

Our friend, Jeff,  road a bus down to chauffeur us back to his home.  And we were so thankful.  Attempting to drive on the left side of the road, on unfamiliar highways with roundabouts every couple of miles, in the rain, with little to no sleep...probably not the safest way to begin a relaxing vacation #protip.

Nearly everyone took a nap or two on the drive to the house and throughout the rest of the day (we'd landed at 7 AM in London).

Jeff's wife, Tracy, had laid out a cream tea for us and proceeded to provide many traditional English meals which included Toad in the Hole and Cottage Pie.  It was all so good.  William at one point leaned over and whispered "No offense, Mom, but I think Miss Tracy makes some things better than you" None taken.  This is not the first time William has made such a declaration (he has complimented Nana profusely on her ability to 'make him things he likes') nor, I suspect, will it be the last. 

Jeff and Tracy not only opened their home to us, but also acted as our travel guides and event planners.  On Sunday, after going to Mass at a country church, we loaded up two vans with six kids and four adults and headed to Oxford to visit the birthplace of hobbits and magical wardrobes.

 We used Rick Steves as a guide and wandered the streets of Oxford and naturally ended up at The Eagle and Child where the Inklings regularly met to discuss their works in progress as well as how to make the world a better place.  Not unlike my daily conversations with people on the phone.

Dom and Will reading at The Eagle and Child.  They both read The Indian in the Cupboard on this trip, and Dom read The Westing Game.  Will spent his spare time working on math puzzles.

At one point, Eric left to add a little more money to the parking meter and took longer than expected to return.  Turned out, he'd walked into a nearby used book store and purchased a used map of the country.  Why?  Because he wanted to know where he was.  I don't think he trusts technology very much...but, this comes into play in a little bit, so I wanted to mention it here.

After a pint and a half were drunk, we loaded up again and headed to the outskirts of the Cotswolds to spend the night at a lovely bed and breakfast that was older than the United States of America.  I think...sounds good anyway.  The Cotswolds are a region of England I have read about in books and really wanted to see.  Ideally, one should probably walk to fully appreciate the beauty of this area (thanks, Rick Steves).  The villages are your traditional English villages with thatched roofs and the few we visited did not disappoint.  Someday, I hope to return and just take a few days to walk from village to village.  Possibly discover some as yet undeveloped gift for painting...you never know.

We were quite lucky with the weather.  It was beautiful almost the entire time in country.  Sunny and relatively warm.  Granted, relatively warm for the majority of people is pretty cool for my Florida acclimated family.  But, I think fears of death by freezing were calmed with many cups of delicious hot chocolate.

We visited one village with a stream running through.  Turns out John loves bridges.  He crossed and re-crossed every one he could find.  John got hit the worst with jeg lag, by the way.  He was not super whiny, just walked around in a dazed and confused expression while falling asleep as soon as we got in the car.  He finally rebounded about a week after being in country. 

I could have spent quite a while just walking around or sitting by the stream, but that really isn't the most stimulating activity for kids...so we moved on to the next village. 

This village had the church with a door that JRR Tolkien based the door into Moria on. (Of the "Speak Friend and Enter" fame). Here is our hobbit in front of that door:

See the resemblance?

It was in this village that various 2-year-olds started to alert us all to the fact that lunch needed to be consumed.  Eric's answer to this was ice cream.  Tracy and I went to look for a bit more sustenance and Eric volunteered to take five of the children to the ice cream parlor.  When I went to look for him later, he was not on the premises.  I told the owner I was looking for my husband.  Her response: Oh, the man with all the children? He bought ice cream and left. 

He'd found a way to keep the kids in check in the village green :).

Ok, ok, those next two pictures were actually taken at Warwick Castle, but it added a little something to the narrative, don't you think?

Warwick Castle is where we headed following lunch.  One could spend all day at this castle.  Not only do they have the rooms set up with piped in dialogue, they also have several events scheduled through the day.

Molly loved sitting at this table.  I am as shocked as anyone.

There were millions of steps to climb up and down (I think there was a sign that said "311", pretty sure they round down).  The boys enjoyed stretching their legs a bit (Molly did, too, as in she ran down the stairs with Eric in hot pursuit).  Dom and Will had such amazing attitudes on this trip that completely uncharacteristically of me, I purchased a wooden sword and wooden dagger so they could play 'knights'.  Eric looked at me as though he didn't recognize the woman he had married.  It was a little bit of an out of body experience as I made the purchase.  But, I think they are pretty cool myself.  I might go so far as to say they are cooler than our collection of light sabers.

Molly and I attended a 'princess story time' where she got to help save a guy who had been frozen in a picture for 1000 years.  It was pretty dramatic.  My favorite part was that they had an exhibit displaying various props from fairy tales: The apple from Snow White, the pea from The Princess and the Pea, a lock of hair from Rapunzel and many others I cannot remember.

Molly's favorite part was signing the guest book with a feather pen:

After the Princess Story Time, we joined the others at the last exhibition of the day: The Trebuchet.  Molly and I had missed the long explanation of how it worked and when it might be used and got there in time to see a ball of fire hurled through the air.  It was completely awesome and cool and we now have plans to make one here.  Probably a little smaller, though.  Just a little.

We finished up our day at the castle with a maze and a couple more souvenirs.  We had made it to England and were loving it!

Oh!  Back to that map Eric bought in Oxford.  On the way home, it did not take us long to lose Jeff and Tracy due to the rush hour traffic.  I think I was suppose to watching their van, but kept getting distracted by all of the people driving on the wrong side of the road...For some reason, we had not taken the GPS from them, so we were without directions and our phones did not have service.  Where other's might have panicked, Eric almost seemed giddy.  He was going to get to use his map (cue Dora music about maps).  I got to play navigator and charted our course based on Eric's vague finger pointing in the general direction of where we were.  Together we figured out the roundabouts and eventually found ourselves back at our friends' home about 30 minutes after they arrived (granted, they had pulled over for a while and drove slowly hoping we would turn up).  Turns out, it isn't so hard.  What had seemed completely confusing (English roundabouts) are actually quite efficient ways of moving traffic.  It just took forcing me to learn how to help Eric for me to see it.  And Eric may never use a GPS again.  All in all, it was a very positive experience.

My getting a 28 point hand in cribbage was also a very positive experience.  I needed to add this in somewhere.

Ok, that is it for today.  My kids are indicating it is time to move on with the day.  Until next time!