Saturday, March 29 - Trip to England Day 8

The morning was filled with another hearty breakfast, running Norah down to the hairdresser, and delaying Dejaquan from wearing his tux as long as possible. Barbara was kind enough to put together a pack of non-staining snacks for the kids knowing the moment we sat in the car Dejaquan would complain about being hungry. Click went his seat belt and he said it just as we had predicted.

We got to the wedding 1/2 hour early, and as soon as the other young kids in the wedding party arrived, they hit it off with Norah & Dejaquan. Joe, the other ring bearer, just turned 6 two days prior and Emily, 8, loved taking charge of Norah. A few minutes before the wedding began, I took Norah back to the bridesmaids, and thought everything was okay until she through a fit that she didn't get to have a bouquet of flowers like the others (she got to carry a fancy light-up Tinkerbell magic wand). I somehow managed to console her enough to have her get in line with her wand just as they started marching down the aisle. (pictures)

Surprisingly, both kids were well behaved during the ceremony, Dejaquan only getting up twice, once following Joe who was being mischievous and once to have his tie fixed, and Norah once trying to get the other flower girl, a toddler/young preschooler, to sit down with her (who had been wondering around the whole time).

We found out later that at one point in the ceremony Dejaquan and Joe, sitting in the front row across the aisle from the bridesmaids, were making faces at them, causing the to laugh. Verity & Stuart thought that the bridesmaids were laughing at them, because they were sitting with their backs to the boys.

It was drizzling when the wedding finished, and Keith took us to the reception while Barbara delivered our luggage to the hotel, bless her heart. The reception was fabulous (pictures), and had a good time talking with the Joe & Emily's parents during dinner. We left while Stuart & Verity cut the cake, Barbara again being overgenerous running us to our hotel in the rain.

We had got the kids to leave without much fuss, promising them they could swim when we got there (7:30), but kids weren't allowed in the pool after 6pm (can you believe that?), so there was quite the melt-down in the hotel room. We compromised by letting them take a bath together (supervised). Norah was still sad about not getting to go swimming the next morning.

Friday, March 28 - Trip to England Day 7

I finally got to eat porridge for breakfast and it was delicious.

We went with Barbara in her car to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the potteries. First we went to Emma Bridgewater Pottery Cafe and let the kids paint their own cups. Then we went to the Gladstone Pottery Museum, ate in their tearoom and took the tour of the museum (pictures)--one of the last preserved working pottery factories from the 19th century. Both kids got to mold their own clay bowls on a flywheel, and Norah got to make a clay flower while Dejaquan made a vase on an electric wheel. We ran out of time and had to leave the tour without seeing the toilet exhibit.

Back in Cheadle Hulme, the Farar's made another fabulous dinner of shepherd's pie with vegetables, including a good portion of peas which was about the only thing Norah ate. We finished in time to get to the rehearsal right at 7pm when it was supposed to start, but we were the first ones there.

The wedding rehearsal went smoothly and quickly, then we headed over to Nuela's for the rehearsal party. Unfortunately, Sarah wasn't feeling well, so we left soon after it started. Sarah headed to bed and Barbara put together a quick snack for the kids. The kids watched the rest of the movie they had started watching earlier, and once it was over, Barbara & I played cards with the kids until they were tired enough to go bed.

Dilbert site's been revamped

What the heck is going on at dilbert.com! Strips are now shown in a lame flash widget, and the site is often giving me errors, not displaying hardly any content. It does say it's "beta", but it looks more like alpha quality to me. What if I want to view comics on my smart phone? The team that maintains that site apparently hasn't heard of KISS.

Thursday, March 27 - Trip to England Day 6

After having another wonderful full English breakfast at our guest house, we checked out and walked back to the wall around York and climbed it just for a bit, taking some pictures of it we didn't take the time to the day before.

Then we drove down to the other side of the city to Clifford's Tower, took some pictures and headed out of York to the southwest to take a scenic tour of some castle ruins. We saw the site at which the Pontefract Castle near Castleford was built and the remains of Sandal Castle near Wakefield.

We tried to find Wentworth Castle Gardens but the directions were too poor so we just gave up and drove across the northern part of the Peak District. Doing that wasn't easy because the glare from the sun made it difficult to see sometimes, the road was just one lane each way most of the time, and we didn't want to drive as fast as everyone else (all the time). Right when we were about to come to the beginning of the motorway near Manchester, traffic came to a standstill, but luckily we were able to wing it, going north to the next on-ramp to the motorway and got on without delay. We drove back to the Manchester airport again, entered the parking garage to return our rental car, but quickly exited after I realized I needed to fill up the car with petrol.

After we returned the car we took a taxi to Barbara and Keith Farar's where we had a lovely dinner. I then gave the kids their baths, and found that I was exhausted, falling asleep next to Norah after reading her a bedtime story.

Here is a Google maps route of the route we took over the past 3 days from Manchester to York and back

Wednesday, March 26 - Trip to England Day 5

Our guest house served a full English breakfast, then we took a taxi to the opposite side of the York city center to the National Railway Museum. The kids were asking the whole time while we were going through the museum when we could ride the ferris wheel, which we saved for the end. (pictures)

We then took a scenic boat tour of York, ate at Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms, and did some shopping in York's city center. We came upon a kid's trampoline in an open square, setup with harnesses so they could do flips in the air, although neither of them would even try doing that. They both enjoyed it and were begging to go do it again for the next two days.

York's city center is what I'd call one big open shopping mall. It's the sort of place the Bayshore Town Center at home is modeled after, but is so much better because vehicle access is extremely restricted. As we found out when we took our taxi, they use some sort of facial identification of the driver to grant access (I don't know if it automated or not). Shopping in York is a great experience and would highly recommend it for anyone traveling to England.

The kids each got to buy a toy from one of the local shops. Norah chose a Cinderella umbrella from the Disney Store and Dejaquan chose a set of medieval knight figures complete with weapons. We got some hot chocolate and coffee at Starbuck's across the way from the Minster (pictures) while we waited for the 5:15 choral service (a way to see the inside of the Minster for free).

The music was very well sung, and the views of the inside were magestic. The kids managed to entertain themselves separately through the whole thing without disturbing anyone, but a woman who was there by herself with her 3-going-on-4-year-old had to remove her daughter near the end. We walked around the church for a little bit but left when the kids got antsy.

On our way back to our guest house we came upon Little Italy and chose to eat there even though we had discussed taking food back to the guest house.

After taking the kids potty in the attic of this restaurant, I discovered after ordering our food that we were sitting right next to the same woman and child we had sat behind at the church. They had just finished eating when our food arrived, so Sarah offered a coloring activity book and crayons for them to use while they waited for their dessert.

Tuesday, March 25 - Trip to England Day 4

We left for Skipton after running to the bank to pull out the cash we needed to pay for our B&B in York (they don't take credit cards). All the practice driving with Stuart payed off because we got there without incident. We parked near the castle on the north end of the city center and ate at a tearoom on our walk up to the castle.

The castle tour was self-guided (pictures), so we spent a lot of energy keeping Dejaquan from jumping ahead too quickly. The castle was very interesting, seeing just how many rooms were equipped with arrow slits and how each room had its own fireplace to keep it warm. I don't know anything about English history, so the historical references in the displays in each room were insignificant to me.

We let each kid pick one thing from the gift shop. Norah chose a pen with a sliding thing in it and Dejaquan chose a knight figurine holding a sword. Of course as soon as we got back in the car, Dejaquan broke the sword trying to take it out of the knight's hand, and major disappointment ensued.

We drove to York, stopping once to let the kids have a run at a reservoir. We managed to drive into York without making any wrong turns and finding out guest house right away. After checking in I asked our hosts what would be a good restaurant to eat at with the kids, and they recommended Little Italy, giving me verbal directions on how to get there. Of course I didn't remember them right, so we ended up eating at an Indian restaurant, which turned out to serve very good food. The kids even enjoyed it.

Monday, March 24 - Trip to England Day 3

This was an adventurous day. We headed out with the kids in the rental car following Verity & Stuart to go to the Manchster Art Gallery. Although I had visited Japan & Australia earlier in my life, this was actually my first time driving in a country with a road system where you drive on the left side of the road. Accompanied by the width of the lanes also being much thinner than in the States, I unfortunately misjudged the distance between the edge of the car the side of the road and hit a curb, punching a hole in the front passenger tire. Verity & Stuart noticed we had pulled over, quickly stopped and came back to help.

One would think that you'd have exactly what you'd need to change a flat with a brand new rental car, but we found that it was missing both the jack and the locking wrench. So after calling the rental company, we ended up calling the AA (sort of like the US's AAA, but they have their own large fleet of tow/service vehicles). Verity and Sarah took the kids in the other car and headed on down to Manchester's city center while Stuart and I stayed to wait for AA.

The AA arrived within a minute of the time they had estimated in a text message they sent to Stuart's phone. The technician was a very kind and very eccentric old fellow who magically got the flat off and the spare on without the aid of the special locking nut (one of the nuts on each of the tires has a special shape to prevent tire theft).

I drove the car with Stuart's excellent tutoring to the school he and Verity work at then took a double decker bus into the city center (my first time on one of those), and we met up with the women & kids at the art gallery. We were only there for about an hour spending most of the time in the children's interactive exhibit (pictures).

We walked to Lincoln square where there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln, giving him tribute for a letter he wrote to the city of Manchester thanking them for the economic burden caused by their embargoing cotton trade with the Confederacy. After taking some pictures we then ate at a favorite oriental noodle restaurant of Verity & Stuart, which of course was excellent.

We took a cab back to our cars, then Stuart & I took Dejaquan & Norah with us back to Stockport while Verity & Sarah did some shopping. On the way back, I got to further practice driving with Stuart in the car and we stopped at a Matlin to buy a UK2US power converter. There was one on sale for £10, so I figured I actually saved money, with the cheapest one I could find at Radio Shack before coming over was $30.

Right when I pulled up to the curb at their home in Stockport, I realized it would be a good time to return the car for one with a working spare (and jack and proper tools). So I got more practice driving with Stuart in the car to & from the airport. I got to give Stuart credit for getting a good reimbursement on the cost of the rental car. I couldn't convince the desk clerk to compensate for the inconvenience caused by the lack of the jack and locking wheel. When I got back from shopping around the car rental companies for the best price on a 4-door automatic, he had managed to convince the clerk to give us a £20/day rebate, plus waive the fee for not filling up the tank.

That evening, Stuart & I went on a 4 mile run together (he's training for the London Marathon) while the kids ate dinner. After a shower, the adults ate while the kids watched The Monsters.