Margam Park

After rain all week, we were blessed with a beautiful clear and crisp fall weekend.  Saturday was spent working around the house.  On Sunday we decided to take the kids to Margam Park for a picnic lunch and some exploring.  It has been recommended to us a few times and since its only about 25 minutes from our house we thought it would be a fun Sunday outing.  

Margam Park is an 850 acre country estate that is one of the oldest human settlement areas in Glamorgan.  The current Tudor Style Castle was built in the early 19th century.  The park is covered with open grasslands, forests, animal park, kids play area, a train, a castle, ruines of an ancient abbey etc.  Here are some pictures from the outing.  Note the picture of the billy goat.  The kids called him the big billy goat from 'The Billy Goats Gruff'.

10 Years - Time flies when you are having fun

Kelly and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on October 5 2012.  Our goal was to pull off a weekend in London.... no easy task with 4 kids, but in a combined effort we were able to pull it off.  We decided to bring Preston with us, and leave the 3 oldest at home with a babysitter.  It turned out to be a spectacular sunny fall weekend in London, and a great way to celebrate 10 great years together.

We took the train up from Cardiff friday afternoon.  Trains are very pleasant and much better than cars or airplanes.  The train dropped us off at Paddington station in central london, and a short cab ride brought us to our hotel for the weekend.  I had selected a boutique hotel - The Chesterfield Mayfair.  Here are some shots of the hotel.  The weekend package came with a bottle of champain and a complimentary afternoon tea which we took advantage of on Saturday afternoon.

We hired a babysitter through the hotel both nights so we could go out to dinner.  Friday night we had dinner at Butlers resturant inside the hotel.  Saturday night I had reservations booked at a french resturant called 'La Petit Maison' that was only about 1/2 mile walk from our hotel.  It was a spectacular meal and highly recommended.  Some pictures of our evening outings.  Plus Prestons favorite time in the bath where he had the bathtub all to himself!

Daytimes were spent walking and seeing the sites of central London.  Since the weather was so good, we stayed outside for the most part.  Plus lines were long at many sites and Preston is much better when he is moving around. Pictures from our daytime walks.  You will likely recognize most of the landmarks.

On our 5th Aniversary we were living in Boise Idaho with only Hunter and Noah.  We went away then as well.  That time, my parents stayed with the two boys while we spent a long weekend in Park City Utah.  Amazing how much is different in 5 years. Time flies when you are having fun.  

Autumn Sunset in Bend OR

I'm back in bend this week for our annual sales meeting. Dinner tonight was at broken top golf course. There have been some forest fires recently so the sunsets have been very interesting. This is taken from the deck at the broken top clubhouse.

Tretower Castle

There was an apple festival being held this weekend at a place called Tretower castle up in the Brecon Beacon so we decided to take Saturday afternoon and check it out.  The festival was ok - it could have been a lot better with more vendors but the kids still had fun trying some unique types of apples, watching the entertainment, making apple bird feeders and exploring the grounds.

Probably the highlight of the day was the medival garden and what we found out to be a mulberry tree growing with mulberries ripe for the picking.  Kelly and I had only ever heard of a mulberry bush in the nursery ryme.  Why these trees are not more popular is supprising.  The sweet juicy berries are spectacular.  The darker the berry the more ripe it is, and the sweeter it is.  

A Day at Downton Abbey

We are big fans of the British drama - Downton Abbey.  Visiting the location where the show is filmed - Highclere Castle, was on our  'must do' list when relocating to the UK!  

The castle has somewhat limited opening times.  A few days in May, a few days in June, and then open July, August and part of September with special openings at chrismas and Easter.  In addition to the limited days, it also has limits on tickets offered per day, and is not open Friday's or Saturdays.  So with the Olympics on this summer and it being a very easy trip out from London, it became a challenge to pick a day that would work and that wasn't sold out.  A few weeks ago, we then realized that it would soon be closed again for the Winter with the last opening day being September 13.  Then checking online we found out that there were only two days remaining that had tickets available (Sept 11, and 12) so we picked the 11th and pre-booked our tickets hoping for good weather.  

Well this time, we lucked out on weather and had a beautiful fall day at Highclere castle.  We decided to not pull the boys out of school being that it was only their second week, so went with only Preston and Abbie.  It was a little over 2 hours from our house, mostly on motorways which made for good driving.  

It is a very impressive site to behold as you begin walking up to the structure and see all the open laws around.  

We decided to tour the inside of the castle first.  Unfortunately they do not allow photography of any kind inside the house but it was amazing to see the rooms that we are now so familiar with.  The house was packed, causing the tour to move very slow.  They should limit the number of people moving through more.  We figured about half the people visiting were there because of the TV show and the other half were just visiting it as a tourist destination, and didn't know anything about Downton Abbey, (and were probably trying to figure out who this 'Earl of Grantham' guy was.) 

After the tour Abbey and Preston were starving so we had lunch on the green, before walking around the grounds.    

Kelly and I realized that we were hungry now as well so stopped for lunch and tea at the tea room on the property.  How very English!  Overall, a great day, with perfect weather.  The Season premier is this Sunday (Sept 16) so we are now excited to watch with a new perspective.  

On the way home, I thought it might be fun to stop by Stonehenge since it is in the general vicinity.  

Yes, its one of those 'must sees' if in England, but what a complete tourist trap....and very underwhelming.  First off, they charge you a fee to walk on a cordoned off pathway that doesn't even let you anywhere near the stones.  I don't mind paying if it helps preserve the site, but we are talking about a set of rocks here....  Plus the crowds ... today you would have been standing admiring the site with about 500 others (remember this was only a Tuesday after school was back in session).  I satisfied my curiosity and took a few pictures from outside the fence for free like many others were doing.  (The crowds of people from the bus tours are just slightly to the right of my photo, standing behind the ropes of course:)