We have never "suffered" from jet lag so badly. On previous trips across the Atlantic, the kids would have one rough night, and more or less be adjusted. Maybe it was the extra 2 hours time difference from California to England, or maybe it is that the kids are that much older, but ALL of us slept until 11am today! I woke a few times, but it felt SO GOOD to sleep, that I allowed myself the luxury of sleeping in.

We hastily roused ourselves at 11 and made ourselves go outside for some fresh air. We headed int Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

What a CHARMING village it was!














It reminded me so much of York, which we visited with my cousin and his family in 2009.
First order of business was lunch. We ate at Anne Hathaway's pub. It was one of our few experiments eating at a pub. We were pretty leery of them when we lived there, because our children were so young and not adjusted to British food. They are that much older now, and this one in particular had a nice looking children's menu. It was completely wonderful! I love nice British pubs. I felt bad that we hadn't tried them more when we lived in England.














After lunch we walked along the river (the Avon river). The boats reminded us of the Cams river in Cambridge.














This is the lake, Avon. We like the locks.














Paul thought that it was so cool that you could get on a boat here, and end up on York, after 115 locks, 236 miles, and 99 hour later!















There was a whole group of statues in Shakespeare's memory. Shakespeare was in the middle.




















There were 4 other statues, in a "square" around him of some of his most famous characters. This is Lady Macbeth.



















Hamlet.





















Paul had a conference call, so the kids and I parked ourselves in the grassy area along the river and made up games involving a lot of races while Paul went to a quieter area and did his call. Then we ventured on to locate Shakespeare's birth home. This is the pedestrian street where his house is.
















This is his birth house. So pretty, isn't it? I LOVE this architecture!














They had people dressed in period costumes acting the part of people in that time period. Here is one of them.















This is the library! Wouldn't you LOVE to check books out of this library???!















This Christmas shop was across the street. I am a total sucker for Christmas shops, especially the ones with authentic German ornaments! For the record, though, I didn't buy anything - I didn't even go into the shop! It was getting late and we were still pretty tired. We had walked around and we were hoping for a nice night's sleep tonight.















Paul had another conference call, so he drove us to this play park.














Our kids have always loved the British parks. I do, too. I'm not sure why they don't have these kinds of parks in America. The parks in Britain generally have TONS of space, natural habitat (logs to climb on, trees with swings on them, and these neat play things). That (above) is a practice skateboard run.

This (below) is a web to climb.















There goes John!















Andrew made it to the top!




















These kinds of swings are really fun! I laid on it for awhile, just relaxing, when all 4 were on the web.















John liked climbing on this.
















Here is Paul on his conference call.














We had a delicious dinner back in our beautiful 500 yr old English cottage, and went to bed. Tomorrow, the "highest little castle in the Cotswolds" and another charming village.