Day 7: Christchurch Park and Mansion

We woke up early Monday morning and headed out to downtown Ipswich to go to Christchurch Park and Mansion.

The morning was a little cold, but it wasn't raining, and I was really happy to be able to soak up a little Vitamin D. We spent quite a while wandering around the huge, beautiful park taking in the scenery. Patrica told me about how when she was a kid, she we would go to the park and collect the horse chestnuts. The would drill holes in them, put a string through it and make "clonkers". After a long walk, we found a little concession stand where we sat and had a cup of tea. Just as we were finishing our drinks, it started to get windy and rainy, so we headed to the mansion.

The mansion was HUGE, and amazing beautiful. It was completely restored to fit what it would have been like during the Victorian era.
In the back part of the mansion, they had a gallery of Constable and Gaines (famous, local Suffolk artists) work. I could have spent hours in the gallery. It was amazing!

Christchurch Park and Mansion

Afterwards, we caught the bus into town, and had a light dinner at a local pub. I had the cheese chips (fries). I don't think I could ever get enough of the English cheddar!!!

brolly (underbrella) holder inside the pub

Inside the pub

Day 6: Sunday Dinner With Brian and Karen

I'm actually skipping this day for right now. My camera died, so I wasn't able to take and pictures. So, I need to get copies of the pictures that Patricia took.

Day 5: A day in the English countryside

On Saturday, Patricia's sister Carol, took us for a drive in her car to see the countryside. It was rainy (surprise!) and cold, so we very much appreciated Carol taking time out of her day, to drive us around in her warm, dry car.

The whole driving on the opposite side of the road thing (although I did not actually drive - there is no way I would attempt that!!! The roads are so narrow, crowded, and chaotic there!) was alot easier to get used to than I thought it would be. Whether the driver drives on the left, or the right side of the road, they are still sitting next to the middle of the road and the passenger, nearest to the shoulder. However, it was a little nerve-wracking every time we had to make a right hand turn. And I will always think that roundabouts are just crazy. But I thought that before I went to England.

I only tried to get in on the wrong side of the car (the drivers side) about half a dozen times that day. Every time, Patricia and Carol thought it was hilarious.

First, we dropped by to meet Carol's beautiful daughter-in-law, Wendy, and two adorable grandsons. Jack, the two year old, was just the cutest thing ever. He had to show Patricia and I every one of his cars, and make us some soup in his play kitchen. It was so fun to listen to him talk, with his English accent. It was also fun to see that even with distance, cultural differences, etc. families are the same everywhere. Spending that little amount of time with Jack really made me miss my kids, my husband and my home.

It is always interesting to see inside of other people's homes. In general, houses in England are not as big as houses in the States. But are still very similar. I was happy to see that every house I had the pleasure of going into, had the washer and dryer in the kitchen. It's a way of not wasting space. The house Brian and I owned in Centerfield, had the washer and dryer in the kitchen. Everyone thought that was so weird! So, maybe it wasn't that weird after all!

Next we set out on the freeway, towards Wickham Market. I think this is where I really fell in love with England. The countryside is soooo beautiful. There is such a random mixture of farms and forests and everything is so green. I loved the big, old country estates. I could really see myself living there. Well, maybe in my next life, when I am rich.

Wickham Market was everything I had ever imagined a small village in the English countryside to be. It was just beautiful! We stopped there for lunch and tea at a cute little cafe. There was a little antique store next to the cafe, that Patricia and I really enjoyed. I think that I probably could have bought the whole store, but I settled on a lovely, blue, Wedgwood vase. And it was only eight pounds! I was quite proud of my bargain shopping skills!

Next we headed Aldeburgh, to see the The Scallop - a sculpture that sits on the beach dedicated to Benjamin Britten. The sculpture and the seaside were beautiful. I would have loved to spend more time there, but it was just way to cold and rainy.

Afterwards, we went to a little village called Thorpness. Here we found another antique shop, to look around in. Then, we had tea in the adjoining cafe.

The cafe set next to a little man made lake. The lake has islands scattered throughout it. Each island is themed after a character in Peter Pan (Crocodile island, Wendy island, etc.). Carol and Patricia told me that when they were younger, their parents would bring them to Thorpness during a nice day in the summer, and let them explore the islands.

We also got to the see the "house in the clouds" in Thorpness. It is a house, that is built to look, almost as if it is floating in the clouds!

Wickham Market, Aldeburgh, Thorpness

After spending the day driving around and sightseeing, we went to eat dinner at the home of Patricia and Carol's sister, Leslie.

Like the rest of Patricia's family (Brian and Karen, Carol, & Grace), Leslie and her partner, Gordon, were very kind and welcoming. They made me feel right at home.

Over dinner (which was wonderful - Leslie is a very good cook!), Leslie and Gordon told us about their recent holiday to Sri Lanka. Afterwards, Gordon, who is a photographer, showed us some of his latest work. He's very talented!

I also got to spend some time wandering around their gorgeous back garden.

Gordon and Leslie's garden

Day 4: Lazy day!

On Friday, it was really rainy and gloomy. We were hoping to be able to make it to Christchurch Park... but the weather just wasn't very cooperative. So we decided to have a more relaxing day.

First, we went downtown for a little bit. Patricia wanted to do a little more shopping at Marks and Spencers (a department store). We had also decided to leave Ipswich a day earlier than planned, and spend two nights in London before we left, since we didn't get to tour London when we landed. So we needed to go to the tourist information center, to find out about train schedules and hotel rooms.

After we got back, we went for a walk to the post office, and the co-op. Patrica owns a house in England, which she rents out. We got to walk by that too. As well as the church she was married in, and the school her children went to. It was really fun to see more of the life Patricia left in England.

We were home early that night, and after dinner we sat outside in the conservatory enjoying a cup of tea. As we sat talking, we heard someone yelling outside. Patricia and I assumed it was a couple of drunks being loud and annoying, and just waited for them to leave. The yelling continued, and we wouldn't be able to go to bed until they left, so I told Patricia that I was going to walk to the front sidewalk and as them if they wanted me to call a cab. When I got to the sidewalk, I noticed that it was one man, and he was lying in a rain puddle, in the middle of the road, at a three way intersection, calling for help. I ran back inside and told Patricia to call the cops, and I went back out to see what was wrong and make sure that he didn't get hit by a car.

Luckily, a couple of people had stopped, so I wasn't by myself, and got him moved to the sidewalk. He had blacked out at this point, so I checked his vitals, which where there, but pretty erratic, and tried to get him awake. He was going into shock, so the neighbors and I kept asking him questions, trying get him talking and keep him awake and conscious until the ambulance arrived. He was shivering and really cold (it was raining), so I put my coat over him, while Patricia went to get a blanket. Luckily a neighbor had an umbrella, that he held over the two of us while I knelt next to the man. It couldn't have been long, but it seemed like forever until the ambulance got there.

The ambulance workers loaded him up, and took him to the hospital. I was more than happy to get inside and into some dry clothes! I was more than soaked after kneeling in a puddle in the rain!

So much for our lazy, boring day in. That was a little to much excitement for me!

Walking past the terrace houses to the co-op.

Patricia's terrace house.

Mailbox!

The church Patricia was married in.

Day 3: Ipswich!

I woke up early the next morning, after one of the deepest sleeps I have had in a long time. After a shower, and a change of clothes, I felt like a whole new person. I put on some fresh makeup, then went to blow dry my hair, only to find out that the electrical adapter that I had gotten for the cell phone wouldn't work with my blow dryer or hair straightener. That was a major problem. I have the most curly/frizzy hair in the world, and I had no idea what I was going to do with it. After searching around the house, Patrica found a blow dryer. I would have to find a way to manage with just that.

After getting all ready, we caught the bus to downtown Ipswich.

We decided that we should first take care of a couple of errands. Patricia needed to go to the bank, and we needed to get some food in the house. Grocery shopping was just as fun as sightseeing. I was fun to look at all the different foods, and compare prices from back home.

Speaking of food, my favorite things about the food were: CHEESE! I am a cheese freak. England has about 800 different varieties of cheese. Okay, maybe not 800, but alot. And they all taste better than ours does! My other favorite thing was that everywhere you went to eat, they always had at least a couple of GOOD vegetarian items on the menu. That's very helpful, when you don't eat meat.


My least favorite food item was Steak and Kidney Pudding. Okay. I didn't actually try it. But it looked, smelled, and sounded really nasty.

And here are some photos of my first real day out:

Patricia buying fish for dinner at the open air fish market.




A couple of interesting microwave meals in the department store.

Downtown Ipswich

Town Hall, Mannings Pub Sign, Ancient House, Ancient House Beams, Ancient House ceiling, Cock & Pye Pub Sign, The Great White House (where Charles Dickens would stay to work on his novels), & a random old building.

Saint Mary le Tower Church - Ipswich

While we were out and about, I got to experience English rain for the first time. It doesn't just rain hard and for a few minutes, like it does here. It was just drizzly and gloomy all day. I found out really fast, that it really didn't matter to much if I had a blow dryer and hair straightener or not when it just rains all the time. After that day, I just gave up on trying to get my hair to look even somewhat presentable, and just let it go curly.

Everything in Ipswich closes really early. It's definitely not a 24 hour city, like Vegas. All the shops close by 5 pm, and the pubs only stay open until 11PM. So, we ended up back home shortly after five.

After dinner, we watched a little bit of TV. I really struggled to understand what it was saying, with the different accent. So Grace and Patricia figured out how to put the closed captioning on for me. :)

England Day 2: Welcome to England and More Travel

After all the headaches, and stress we finally landed at Heathrow International Airport, in London on September 22 - around noonish. It was a sunny, clear day (one of the two that we had during our stay) so I was able to get a good view of London from the airplane windows. My first thought: "It's so green!"

We got off the plane and went to the baggage claim to get our luggage. My second thought: "Heathrow airport is kind of old and dirty". It's true. England is not like America. Since the country it's self is alot older, everything in it is old. They are alot more frugal, and environmentally minded, so everything is not replaced with new all the time. Still, not really what I expected for the world's busiest airport. There is also ALOT of stairs - where everywhere here has escalators. And escalators that do exist, are really steep. It's a little nerve racking looking down from the top of them. Stairs or escalators, it is a lot harder to get around with alot of luggage.

First thing we did is get a cup of coffee (tea for me). Another new experience. They are served in actual cups with actual silverware, unlike in the states where everything outside of a sit down restaurant is disposable. Oh, and the tea is served in a little teapot, which you then pour into a cup yourself, once you sit down. The coffee is always the nasty instant stuff. It's pretty hard to find a place that brews coffee like we do here. That didn't bother me, though, since I hate coffee.

After our little break we headed downstairs to the subway terminal.

I've never ridden the subway (or the tube, as it's called in England). So trying to figure out the schedules, was a little confusing. Since Patricia lived most of her life in England, she knew what she was doing and explained it all to me. I caught on really fast.

We rode the underground to Liverpool Street Train Station, to catch the Train to Ipswich, where Patricia's mom and sisters live. I giggled a little every time the subway stopped and the intercom announced the name of the station, followed by a reminder to "mind the gap".

We had a few minutes to kill, so we went outside, and I got my first real view of London. I was so excited to see the old buildings, the red double decker buses, and the London taxi's.

By the time we got on the train, I was exhausted. I had a really hard time staying awake during the hour and a half train ride to Ipswich. I really didn't want to take a nap though, because I new it would be much easier to adapt to the 8 hour time difference if I forced myself to stay awake until it was nighttime. I was right! I really didn't have any problem with jet lag, when we got there. I also really enjoyed watching the views of London and then the English countryside from the train window.

We got off the train in Ipswich, and caught a cab from the train station to Patricia's mom's (Grace) house.

When we arrived at the house, Patricia's brother, Brian, was there. He gave me a tour of the house, and of the garden. There were alot of blackberries and pears, and cherry tomatoes that were ripe. I was really excited about that!

After visiting with Brian and Grace for a little while, I decided that I couldn't stay awake any longer - even though it was still pretty early. I went up to my room to change, and unpack a few things before going to bed. That's when I discovered that even though I had checked my bag 900 times, I had forgotten the charger for my laptop. Not cool.

After only getting a couple of hours of sleep in a little more than two days, I crashed. I slept like a rock.

England Day 1: Travel

As you can guess, I didn't sleep well the night before we left. I was so excited, but also incredibly nervous. I had never been so far away from home before, and I have never been away from Brian and the girls for so long. I also had no idea what to expect, or what was in store for me in the the next two weeks.

Our flight was suppose to leave from Las Vegas at 11:30. We were to have a short, 40 minute, layover in Detroit, MI. The plane was scheduled to land at Heathrow International airport, in London, at about 7:30 the next morning, September 22.

Brian got a call for a job the night before I was so leave, so we decided that I would drive the swagger wagon (the mini van) to the airport. He would get a ride to the airport later that afternoon, and bring it home so that we wouldn't have to pay for airport parking. I was up, of course, when he left. I then went over my bags about 900 times, paced the house 900 times, checked facebook 900 times and at 8:00 drove around the corner to pick up Patricia. We were allowing 3 1/2 hours to get there, and get checked in. Everything was going according to plan.

Then I got a flat tire on the freeway. During rush hour.

I can't change a tire. I guess it's one of those things that I should really learn how to do. Patricia had no idea how to change a tire either. I called Brian, but he was in Boulder City and there was no way that he would reach us in time for us to catch our flight. Patricia, Brian, and myself tried calling everyone we could think of, but since it was a Tuesday, everyone was at work.

So we called a taxi. Apparently, taxis are not allowed to pick up people on the freeway. So we called a tow truck, thinking if he could drive us to the repair shop, we could call a taxi from there. The soonest a tow truck could be there was 45 minutes. Not fast enough. We were really starting to panic.

Luckily, Brian got a hold of our friend Hyrum, and he was able to get us to the airport. We left the car on the side of the road, and Brian picked it up a couple of hours later when he was done with the Boulder City job. We got to the airport about an hour and 15 minutes before our flight.

We got checked in, checked our bags, made it through security and sat down feeling relieved that we had made it! Then we got called to the ticket counter.

Our flight had been delayed. Because of the delay, it meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Detroit. I was starting to think that God just really did not want me to go on this trip. But then they told me that they had worked out some different flights for us. We were to leave two hours later, on a plane to Minneapolis, MN. There would be a two hour layover, and then we would catch our connecting flight to Heathrow. We would land in London at about noon the next day, instead of 7:30. That really messed up our plans to tour London upon landing. We weren't to happy about that, but decided we could live with it as long as we could get on a dang plane! Then, the lady told us that to compensate us for our troubles, they were upgrading us to the exit row (more room) on our domestic flight and to first class on the international flight! We was positive that we could live with that!

We finally boarded our new plane. We took off, and landed without any further problems.

After landing, we had a couple of hours to kill, so we got a cup of coffee and chilled in the terminal waiting to board our plane to England. It seemed like FOREVER. Then, they announced that it had been delayed. I was not a very happy camper at this point. Luckily, it was only delayed about 45 minutes, and we would still land in London at the scheduled time.

By the time we were finally able to board the plane, it was about 9:00 PM (7:00 Vegas time). I hadn't really slept in over 24 hours, I had spent all day sitting around airports - I was really tired and ornery! But once we saw our seats on the plane, I felt alot happier! First class is AWESOME! There was two seats in the same space that fits three in coach, and there was so much leg room! You didn't feel cramped at all. The best part was, that the seats laid down flat, into a bed. And we got real pillows and blankets, instead of those crappy fleece throws and travel pillows that they have in coach. We were greeted on the plane with Champagne and orange juice! And when it came to the dinner, we were handed an actual menu, and served a three course meal with real silverware (not plastic) and cloth napkins. Being in first class made the next 8+ hours go by alot faster! I was actually able to get a couple of hours of sleep too!