A Royal Affair at Blenheim Palace

Regardless of where you live, you probably know that something big happened in England yesterday.

Instead of joining the madness in London, I went along with a group of OCCA and Wycliffe friends to Blenheim Palace to celebrate.

A lot of other people thought that would be a good idea, too. So we took a picnic and found a place on the lawn to watch the "big screen" that would show the wedding.

It wasn't that big, but if we sat up on our knees, we could mostly see it. Well, unless the girls in front of us did that too.

 

These ladies were ready. They dressed in skirts and heels, had a picnic lunch including strawberries and champagne, and brought celebratory party poppers.

Best of all, when we whisked out a cake to surprise our friend Sarah, they even started singing happy birthday along with us! How nice.

 

So we sat on the grass for almost 2 hours and took part in this English extravaganza. We waved Union Jack flags, and the Brits sang their national anthem, "God Save the Queen", which sounds oddly familiar to "My Country Tis of Thee"... hmmm.

After the balcony appearance, a few of us walked around Blenheim a bit. I still can't believe how expansive it is. Every time I visit, I find new places...and they're all beautiful.

We stayed on for afternoon falconry shows and jousting. They flew a Harris hawk and an Eagle owl, which is almost as good as watching a golden eagle circle Jordan Hare stadium. (Ok, maybe not. But it was a good show.) 

 

The jousting part was hosted by King Henry VIII- you know, the Tudor one who had several of his wives executed. 

Overall, the whole thing was a lot more entertaining than I thought. Definitely staged, and more than a little corny, but fun. Here's a video of the horsemen trying to hook little rings onto their lances:

In their defense, they did really well with the larger rings.

 Especially this guy.

 

After that, we walked through the town of Woodstock, where the Palace is located, to see if we could find a place to have a cream tea to continue the birthday/wedding celebration. 

There was a lot of this kind of stuff in the windows...along with signs announcing that they were closed. (The Royal Wedding equals another bank holiday for GB- I'm sure they were all so disappointed).

So, we waited in some pretty heavy rain (glad it didn't come earlier!) for a bus to take us the fifteen minutes back to Oxford. 

A happy way to spend a Friday.

Experiencing England with the Eidsons

Time for the rest of our family to visit- the [other] Eidsons!

Brandon's mom and dad arrived on Wednesday.  We've been having a great time- though going so hard that there's no time for blogging! But I thought I would at least post a little something.

Here's a picture of the fam from today. It was a fantastic day to visit Stonehenge and spend time in the city of Bath.

More to come later!

Mom and Auburn Part Deux- Blenheim Palace and London

On Saturday after our trip to Stonehenge, we decided to make an easier day of it and visit nearby Blenheim Palace. I've posted about it before so I won't bother going into lots of detail, but here are our photos from that day (which was beautiful and sunny!):

 At the front gates

 Mom and Auburn (part of the Grand Bridge is in the back left)

 Mom loved the big trees, saying that they reminded her of the ones in Pride and Prejudice...

 ...and Auburn loved this pheasant casually crossing the road

 Mom and I

A different view of Blenheim

 Getting ready to see the interior

 The Column of Victory

Roaming sheep on the hillside

On Monday, we headed off to London...

 St. Martin-in-the-Fields

 and its "Cafe in the Crypt" where we had lunch

 Forever fan

 My attempt at a family photo

 Mom and Auburn in front of Big Ben

Westminster Abbey, where the Royal Wedding will take place in 28 days!

 A view from in front of Westminster Abbey

 We skipped dinner and went straight for dessert. It was a good choice.

 Caught!

 Buckingham Palace

 St. James Park- can you see the London Eye in the back, and the tower in which Big Ben tolls?

And one funny story to share...

As we walked up to the Westminster Pier to look across at the London Eye and London Aquarium, an American couple (we're pretty easy to pick out) was having their picture taken by a stranger. Since they had just asked somebody to take their picture, I thought we would ask them to do the same for the three of us. I mean, they wouldn't say no, would they? 

As expected, the woman kindly said yes, so I carefully passed the camera to her and showed her how to take a photo. We posed, she snapped, and voilà - we got the picture shown below.

 

When she asked if it was alright, I guessed that she was a Southerner. (The long "i" really gives it away). Her next question- "Where are y'all from?"- confirmed that. She and her husband were from Arkansas and had come over to visit their son, a doctor-to-be who was spending a year of residency in a London hospital. She was also in the medical field, and worked as a physical therapist. That was great news because Mom had been having some problems with her leg that were keeping her from walking easily. Mom described the problem and this new friend gave some advice on how to treat it (which totally worked, by the way). We chatted for a few more minutes before wishing them the best and heading off to continue our touring.

And as we walked away I could hear that Disney song playing in my head, "It's a small world after all..."