We left early, and took the toll roads, as Pete (Paul's brother-in-law) advised, but there was some sort of problem that caused the highway patrol to close the freeway. It wasn't anything terrible, just an accident that they wanted to investigate, so they closed the one highway that we were on, with no other back up highways available. We had to detour through small 1 lane villages - us and all of the hundreds of other cars on the same highway as us. It took hours.
We didn't anticipate having a problem, so we had no music, no books and pretty much nothing for the kids to do. They were WONDERFUL - at times high maintenance, but mostly extremely good.
There can be a lot of traffic around Biringham, and Paul was bent on getting through Birmingham before 1pm, which is the big city AFTER our unexpected detour. Thanks to our several hour long detour, now we were nip and tuck in achieving that goal. We pressed on through lunch with only hard candy and a few cookies to keep us going. We dolled out 1 piece to everyone every 30 min to those who had been "good".
When we were about an hour away from Manchester, it was roughly 2pm and we had not had lunch yet....and we had been sitting for roughly 5 hours. I felt awful for the kids, let alone my own growling stomach. I know that we have no idea what true hunger feels like (given 3rd world countries), but you know what I mean. The kids were tired and hungry and the boys were very antsy. I insisted that we stop for lunch and Paul agreed. The most likely place was McDs, but they aren't all over the place like they are in most parts of America. However, we did see a kids' pub just off of our exit that advertised a play scape for 2 pounds. Normally you don't have to pay for the play scapes, but this was a special pub with a particularly nice play scape. We'd have to pay $12, an OBSCENE amount of money for a pub playscape, but the kids had been very good, and who wants to arrive at a cousins' house with children who are desperate to run, jump and burn off some energy?
We stopped and the kids salivated over the awesome playscape. Then we discovered some false advertising. The OUTSIDE said it was 2 pounds/person, but the INSIDE WHERE YOU PAY said it was 3 pounds per person, which is about $20. We weren't pleased. The goal was to eat quickly and get to our destination. We were already hours past when we told Paul's sister that we would arrive. We decided against the playscape. There was a free outside play area, but it wasn't nice weather, and compared to the oasis of the amazing indoor playscape, the outside one was extremely paltry. Even John scornfully said it was too "baby-ish" for him!
I know - it was kind of like putting a sucker just up to a child's lips and then yanking it away just when he was going to lick it, but we wanted to do the right thing.
The kids reacted as expected - they were NOT happy with our new plan! Fortunately, I almost NEVER let them put money in the candy machines that cost about $0.25, and there was a nice selection at this kid friendly pub. For roughly .20 gbp (about $0.30 each, the kids CHEERFULLY agreed to give up the playscape and pick something from the candy machines after their lunch! What a great compromise for all of us!
We were in and out in 30-40 min and THANKFULLY arrived in Manchester (home to Manchester United soccer) way past our time, but healthy, fed and ready for cousin time.
We had a great visit in Manchester, as usual!
After hanging out for the rest of the day and catching up with family, the next day the Donohoes suggested we take a walk. The Donohoes always have something planned for us to do. No sense sitting around and relaxing when there are things to do! We haggled for a few minutes on which walk to take, and ended up at this one. (I forget the name)! It was EXCELLENT fun!
We parked by the side of a busy road and started on this nice looking path.
The path went down these steps,
where we were left in the woods.
We had a map that showed we were going to see 7 scenic things. The first was this ledge. That is Sarah, our eldest girl cousin. Doesn't she look model pretty? Her personality is every bit as pleasant as she looks.
We left item 1 and backtracked per the map instructions.
It's been too much time and I didn't take any notes so all I have to go on are my pictures. These are probably terribly out of order.
We came to these crevices in the rocks.
They were fun and we let the kids explore them for awhile. Then we headed for the "edge of the world". Really!
Here we are walking up to it.
We spent some time enjoying how it just drops off - no guard gates or anything....just natural habitat. Then we headed to the next item on the list. It was another kind of ledge, although more gradual and safer.
In case you were wondering what it looked like when you went to the edge and looked over, it looked like this. I was NOT the one who let the kids climb on the rocks! (They had a TERRIFIC time!)
The views were spectacular. See the tennis court nestled in the middle of no where?!
These natural walks in Britain are a lot of fun!
I think this is a view from the "edge". There is an air strip in there! We were fascinated!
Next our paths took us back through the forest.
We encountered someone who was lost and Paul gave him directions.
This is our cousin, Andrew. He is amazing with the kids.
He is very strong! The kids constantly ask him to do things requiring physical strength, and he always complies.
He's helping John across the crevice.
Kathryn didn't want to walk anymore.
Bernadette, Paul's sister, brought a couple of pairs of binoculars. We used them to look at the views, but the boys LOVED them! Of course, John tried to walk with them held up to his eyes, and slowed us down hugely in places! What kid doesn't do that, though? It's just so intriguing to see how things get big in those glasses!
The kids picked up some "walking sticks" along the way.
We really enjoyed being together in the forest!
We had the occasional obstacle to overcome.
This was one of our last landmarks - a very old well.
Our reluctant walker (Kathryn) grew a bit weary and started to lag behind. She ALWAYS needs encouragement on these walks, but she is also our fastest runner!
She was REALLY dragging her feet at this point, and I was the lone posse in between the crowd up ahead and Kathryn trailing behind. I was feeling a little upset that they might leave us behind! There was a wide variety of terrain we had covered, and right now it was an obvious path, but what would happen if it emptied out into a clearing in the forest and there were several ways to go? I swear one day my "charge ahead" husband really IS going to lose me in an airport, or a train station, or a forest! (I know he'd come back for me.) :)
After a LOT of encouragement and a small amount of admonition, Kathryn went fast enough to catch up and Andrew was right there to help! He was my hero to carry her like that!
Near the end of the trail we passed these cows. This was a great walk - so isolated in spots and yet so near to civilization in others.
Just after the cows we arrived back where we started, but on the other side of the road.
WE MADE IT!
What do you think we did when we arrived back home? Well, some of us
did this:And of course the girls and Sarah made cookies!
Sarah is a wonderful help around the house and FANTASTIC playing with the girls! Cousins are so great!
Next, we leave for a week in Cambridge. We were so excited to see our favorite school, our British friends and our old neighborhood!
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