I finally made it to Stonehenge. One of those touristy things I’ve always wanted to do while in England, but the timing has never worked out. This time, we had a day to kill and it was… not on our way, but not as out of the way as usual.
It was also ridiculously windy.
Spent the day at Orford Keep – kind of a stand-alone castle tower by Giles’s dad’s place.
Highlight of the trip was definitely Felix as the tower-top welcome committee. When we got up to the roof, he stood by the door and said things like “Hi! Come on in!” and “Hi! What are you doing?” to everyone who came out behind us. It was funny (to us, probably annoying to everyone else).
We were on the wrong side of the pond for the Fourth of July. Not so much Independence Day over there… maybe Good Riddance Day?
Anyway, we spend the day (sort of… more like an hour) at the Easton Farm Park. Felix rode a tractor that was dressed up like Thomas the Tank Engine, and that pretty much made his week. I wish we had a video to post of his bunny-petting – lots of happy squeals. Then we walked around and saw some pigs and horses, etc. He seemed to enjoy himself, and spent most of the rest of the trip pointing out pigs whenever we were in the car.
The sign may have said “U-Pick Strawberries” (or something to that effect), but since Felix can’t yet read, he must have thought it was an all-you-can-eat strawberry buffet. He took a bite out of every single berry he picked. Thankfully the counter girl didn’t seem bothered about the pint and a half of berries he ate and didn’t charge us for them. I’m pretty sure his fingers are still stained red.
Caught a rare moment today with Leto awake and not crying, and Felix (almost) staying still enough to take a few pictures with the two boys together.
There was a little blond boy who visited a big old castle and had a grand time running around the walls.
That’s basically the whole story. It’s not a very entertaining one, but the weather was lovely and Felix loved it.
A very jet-lagged/sleep-deprived Felix couldn’t be dragged from this one without a nice big tantrum.
Greetings from England! We made it. Just.
Really, we can’t complain. Traveling cross-Atlantic with two small children is not easy – even when they’re both about as good as can be. There’s just SO MUCH STUFF. Two kids, suitcases, two car seats, stroller frame, diaper bag… and we were actually traveling much lighter than we would have had we not had a lot of borrowed baby gear waiting for us. Besides feeling like a pack mule, our flight from New York to London was pretty seamless. Both boys were complimented by fellow passengers on their good behavior. Not too shabby!
Leto enjoyed the white noise and slept pretty much the whole flight. Felix was a tiny bit obsessed with the seatback televisions and watched the same episode of Jake and the Pirates about 4 times with no sound. Eventually he fell asleep… and then he fell off the seat. Without waking up, he slid off the front of the seat until just his head and shoulders were on the seat. Eventually, his head and shoulders followed and he barely woke up enough to get hauled back up. Even the rather stern woman next to him cracked a smile at that one.
And, perhaps more importantly, despite Felix’s declarations that he would not be flying on the plane because it was “too high” or the ominous and slightly worrying “going to shoot it down” statements, our plane took off and landed with no issues at all.
Unfortunately, when Felix decides to share, Leto is more bewildered than anything else.
