Monday, July 5, 2010

England!

After spending countless hours in the post office (mailing 10+ huge boxes) because our movers screwed up, taking an emergency shuttle to our connecting flight in Philadelphia to make the one-and-only flight to Manchester, waiting in a long line at the airport only to find that Ben's employer only actually purchased one ticket for Spencer (causing us to have to buy the other 3 tickets at the counter right before the flight)...and did I mention there was only one desk attendant?, and after finally arriving at our gate we find out the flight is delayed over an hour due to adverse weather conditions......we have finally made it to ENGLAND!!!


Here is Nate mustering his best smile for the camera, despite it being way past his bedtime and being completely exhausted. Poor kid...his eyes look sooo heavy in this picture!


Spencer...wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, of course!

When we got off of the plane, it was a bit intimidating seeing all the cars driving on the opposite side of the road, whipping around all the roundabouts, but the drive from the airport was breath-taking. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the countryside from the car, as I was barely maintaining consciousness, but I did take some pictures the next day of this lovely local park. Which Nate now lovingly refers to it as the "Castle playground."

It is actually called the "Valley Gardens." It is a beautiful park. It has become a family favorite already. We go just about once a day since it is within walking distance of our temporary housing. Here is Nate standing by the front entrance.

Nate also loves their park benches, since they all have snakes for the legs. I'll have to find out if there is any significance to that. Even if there's not, it's pretty cool anyway.

And the famous Castle playground in all its glory!


Here is the little man at the top of the tower...


They have tons of cool things at this park like zip lines, giant rotating swings, and this little treehouse.
Something I noticed that is different than in the states, is it seems to be much more acceptable for teenagers to play at the park while the little kids are still there. (I get teens coming after hours or when most of the youger kids are gone, but this was odd to me). You can see what I am talking about in the picture above...there is a girl trying to walk by Nate in the treehouse. She just climbed up in there with her boyfriend. They climbed down after Nate tried to play pirates with them. Hard to keep that romantic feeling for their date after that I guess. ;)

And Spencer looking eerily similar to this little waddling yellow duck (minus the blue shirt).

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2 comments:

Coordination Queen said...

Wow. It stresses me out to take the family on vacation and they didn't enter in one of our tickets that we paid for, I can't imagine realizing right before the flight they only bought 1 of the 4 tickets! AAAACK! Glad everything worked out and y'all got their safely. That park looks beautiful! My little boy would love to play pirates with yours!

Steve and Donna said...

great to see England- it does look fun and beautiful. Sorry about all the problems- didn't realize there were so many- but you're there! Can't wait to visit...