Today they had a 'Panning for Gold' activity at The High Desert Museum that the kids wanted to go check out. The pictures show them with the pans trying to strike it rich and the video is a device that prospectors used to use called a Rocker Box which made the process more efficient than traditional panning.
First time back to the High Desert Museum since returning to Bend. It was a nice day and they had some outdoor activities from pioneer days including a potato dig!
Kelly's parents and aunt Nancy are in town so we took the opportunity to take a weekday and go without the kids to visit Bath England. Typical english weather we had rain and sun off and on the entire day but generally it was favorable and nice considering we are now in October. And what a great city to visit! As the guidebooks will say, its a must visit if you come to England. Its is a very ancient city and as the name suggests is named for the Roman Baths that were the centerpiece of this town from the beginning. Bath is considered to be the southern most tip of the cotswold region of England. You can see the buildings all have a similar golden hue that comes from the sandstone in the region used to build all the stone buildings in the city.
After departing Wexford we made a stop at a Park area called Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains on the way North to Dublin. There is a 5th century monastery site founded by St. Kevin! The Irish name for the site is called Gleann Da Locha meaning Glen of the Two Lakes. In the 5th century a monk named St. Kevin chose this secluded setting around a Bronze Age tomb for his home. For 7 years he fasted, prayed, and slept on the hard ground and ate only what he could catch or find. His self deprivation and fervor gained attention from passing hunters and peddlers and soon similarly devout followers found their way here.
The site is very popular and quite crowded. The guide book says to visit early or late, and I would concur. While the weather was not great, the low clouds added to the mystique of the place.
Kevin in front of St. Kevin's Church
Pictures from the grounds. There were lots o really cool old Celtic crosses in the graveyard.
Today in the morning we took the kids to the Irish National Heritage Museum, where they learned all about the history of Ireland from the stone age through medieval times.
The weather cleared in the afternoon so after Preston had a nap we headed over to a beautiful blue flag beach on the Irish Sea named Curracloe beach about 8 miles north of Wexford town.
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.
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.
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:)
(For some reason the video above doesn't seem to show up on Ipad's so if you cannot see it try this link)
We spent a week up in North Wales for summer vacation this year. We rented a cottage on the Lleyn peninsula near the village of Cricceith (pronounced Crick-eth) in the Snowdonia Region that we used as our home base. While the distance from our house to the vacation spot was only about 165 miles, it was about a 4.5 hour trip as there is no real direct high speed road to get to this area.
North Wales is a beautiful region of the UK. It suprises us how few people from South Wales have ever been up there considering how close it is. We had a great week visiting villages, beaches, mountains and castles. Some highlights that you will see in the video.
The weather was looking good so we headed west to Pembrokshire in southwest wales. Our target for today was St. David's Cathedral. St. David was born in the year 500 and died in 589. He is the patron saint of Wales and there has been a monstary/church of some sort at this site where the current cathedral sits since the 6th century. It is also the largest cathedral in Wales. The town around is a small and quaint tucked away on the western tip of wales.
After exploring St David's village and cathedral, we headed to the beach. The Pembrokshire coast in south-west wales was ranked the Number two coastline in the world by National Geographic, so it seemed that we could hardly go wrong. I picked a small beach very close to St. David's called Caerfai and it turned out to be everything we had hoped for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Kelly was kicking herself for not bringing shorts/swim suit on this trip but had fun testing out the new telephoto zoom lens on the camera. (see some of the great shots below)
From Caerfai, we looped up around north Pembrokshire to take a different way home. Not being sure I would be in that general vacinity again, I wanted to stop by an ancient megalithic monument called Pentre Ifan. It is what remains of a burial chamber believed to have been contructed around 3500 BC. Amazing rock formation with a 16 ton capstone balancing on 3 points under it. A little off the beaten path to get there but it was worthwhile and a nice break to get out of the car and enjoy the late afternoon sun.
