London and back and recovered from Jet Lag

Alright, I know, it's been a couple weeks, very unlike me, but we've been so tired, and Bronson's taken his time recovering from jet lag, so you try finding time to update a blog when your 11 month old wakes up 4 times a night and there's a big birthday party to plan!!!

Anyhow, London was a whirlwind! We were there for 2 days - day 1, recovering from packing and travelling to London, ate at hotel. Not exciting.

Day 2 - Took the TUBE in to London downtown, went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker St. Ate an amazing jacket potato. Spent the rest of the afternoon on the top of a double decker tour bus, relaxing, breathing fresh(-er) air and seeing the sites from the comfort of our bus bench. At this point this was really all we had the will to do, but I really enjoyed it. It was nice getting out of the massive weekend crowds and the smelly polluted air at street level (and yes, this is coming from someone who lives in LA!)


Here are some pics from our day in London.

Elementary [school], my dear Watson? Well, you're a little young.

They're smiling b/c they just watched mom eat a yummy jacket potato and now she's not grumpy anymore.

Is this baby ready to get back to his own crib, or what?

The next day we flew out at a reasonable hour. In our flight overseas we were bumped up to First Class! It was WONDERFUL! Huge seats that fully recline and premium blankies and pillows. We QUITE enjoyed the experience. Our next flight was packed to the gills and man was it hard to go back to tiny seat with a stranger next to us. But we finally made it home and B was very happy, and mom and dad had barely slept as it was daytime for our entire journey, and we are just now recovered from it all.


In other news, I've got my Green card and my SSN and I'm on the job hunt. Bronson's first birthday is on Monday and we're throwing a party (mom is going all out b/c she feels a little guilty knowing she's going back to work :) So there will be a big birthday update, but until then it's paper mache pinatas, punch and meticulously decorated dino cakes for me :)

Adventures in Bath! [England days 20 & 21]

Sunday morning we took the train to Bath! It was a thoroughly enjoyable way to travel even though we did have to switch trains at Didcot.

Poor Bronson was determined to have every eye smile upon him and seemed somewhat perplexed by those who took no notice. (Mom and dad also couldn't believe that people could resist his charms!)
First thing we did upon arriving in Bath is hoof it up to the bus area and grab a tour bus to Stonehenge. It was a 1 hour drive there and B made friends with all the girls sitting around us. We had 1 hour to explore the area and change nappy's. It was really neat finally seeing the real thing. There is a circular path around the stones that you keep to, and you can not get close enough to touch them, but you do get rather close.


After our journey back, we walked up Milsom street - Jane Austen fans take note! And arrived at our lodging at the local...


that's right, YMCA. The Bath Y is very nice, very clean and family friendly, we really enjoyed our lodging. Bath is a very expensive place to stay and even the hostel was expensive at 19 quid per person.

This is a view from our suite's window, it was off of an alleyway with a nice greenspace in front

The next day we went to the Jane Austen Centre. I had a blast there!

We took tea at the Regency Tea room at the Jane Austen Centre. 10 am is not too early for Willoughby's wickedly chocolate cake, is it?



After wandering the city we spent the rest of the afternoon in the park at city centre. It cost 1 pound admission per person, but was beautiful and well maintained and had nice folding chairs for everyone's use. We spent about 4 hours here. Bronson played, MAtthew read and I drew. Then we all napped.
We then walked the 10 minutes to the train station and returned home. I loved Bath and hope to go back and spend some major time there. Lots of art galleries to see and plenty of art supply stores to keep me in my medium.

England Days 10 to 16 cont cont...

Well, we've been busy busy across the pond. Bronson is quickly outgrowing all the clothes we stocked up on before this adventure and I am bargain hunting all over town - boys pants are expensive here (but I suppose not everyone is dealing with the exchange rate that I keep constant at the forefront of my mind)

The poor baby boy is developing one bruise after another as he explores the world on 2 feet. He is not yet walking unassisted, but he does spend the majority of his time on his feet and has stood on his own a few times, he enjoys practising on the bed. His forehead is all bruised and tonight he fell and cut his lip on a chair leg, he doesn't get too upset, I think his parents are more upset about it all than he.
I got a good picture of an unhappy Bronson - for those of you who don't believe he gets upset, here's proof.
This picture is at the same place as the flooded one below - the flood waters have receded and people are punting down the Thames again - I still hope we will get a chance to do this.
Here are a few shots of the Oxford streets that we walk each day.




B and I hit the botanical gardens this week. We had a nice picnic - I had a sandwich, B tried to eat a leaf and chocked. We also found a nice river walk behind Christ Church and some large green areas to play on. His favorite trick is walking while pushing the stroller backwards - no pics as of yet.


Well, other than all of this I have a few things to add... Matthew and I are tearing through novels at unprecendented rates. The rain started again today after 4 beautiful sunny days. I am going to see an outdoor staging of Taming of the Shrew next week. Matthew is going to check out some local pubs with the astro grads tomorrow night - B and I are meeting him for the first, then going home for B's bedtime - the first pub is that in which Tolkien and C. S. Lewis often met to discuss the imaginary worlds they were building (they will later hit the pub where Bill Clinton did not inhale marijuana). On Sunday we head over to Bath for 2 days where we will visit the Jane Austen museum and take a day trip out to Stonehenge. The rest is all cooking, tea times, astronomy, The adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, dishes and dirty nappy's.

England days 10 to 16 ... cont...

On Sunday we took a trip to Blenheim Palace, the highlight of MY trip so far. It was the birth place of Winston Churchill and belongs to the Dukes of Malborough, currently the 11th duke of Malborough lives there. It's essentially a real castle - it was so beautiful, it was the type of place Mr. Darcy would live... High painted ceilings, tapestries, an immense library full of dusty hardcover novels, old chairs, China collections, gold gilding, more fireplaces than I could count and paintings on every inch of space - it was wonderful. The grounds were also immense, and I now understand what the ladies mean by taking a turn for exercise - it's a big turn! I was in ove with this place and if I were to come back (and should anyone pass by this way, here is my recommendation) - stay in the town next to the estate, Woodstock (not the exciting one) so that you can spend a whole day walking around, then be back in your bed when you're tired. As for us, we took the 20 min bus ride up to Woodstock and had to wait nearly an hour for the bus back. That coupled with the intense walking to explore the place and the 25 minute walk to and from the bus @ Gloucester Green made for a very tiring day indeed.














They would not allow photography inside of the Palace, but here are a few shots I got off of the internet...