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..."

Mom & Auburn cross the pond- Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge

The week after his birthday, Brandon left to help with a mission at a university up north in Sheffield.  Months ago when we were planning dates our families might visit, I suggested this week as a good time for my mom and sister to come. I wouldn't spend a week by myself, we'd get some girl time, and they would still get to see Brandon - just at the end of the trip. And so, that's what we did. He left on Sunday, and they arrived on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we went to museums, around colleges, up tall towers, and for a yummy cream tea. (Umm, actually, I think we had cream teas almost every day. A-mazing.)
Here are all the touristy shots:

Museum of Natural History

On Cornmarket Street

In the tower of St. Mary's - High Street is in the background

Climbing the tower- and then battling the wind on top!- was a highlight 

In front of the Radcliffe Camera

Tea at the Rose

In case you can't see it: "Bicycles attached to these rails will be removed."

And of course we had to visit Stonehenge, my mom's request ever since Brandon and I told her we were moving to Oxford. Since it's not easy to get directly to Stonehenge from Oxford (without a car anyway), I planned that we would take the train to Bath and from there take a bus tour to Stonehenge. I had not been to Bath yet, but anyone who had raved about it. Now I know why. The town sits in a valley and is surrounded by seven large hills. Looking up from within, you see great green hills scattered with trees and houses. The city itself features honey-colored Georgian architecture that makes it look so, well, clean. 

See what I mean?

Since we had a few hours until our tour left for Stonehenge, we ventured through the streets and into Bath Abbey. This was the last great medieval church raised in England, sometime between 1499 and 1616. It's big- and beautiful.

Bath Abbey from the outside...

...and inside

Mom was very impressed. 

About 1 p.m., we walked around to the back of the Abbey to find the purple bus owned by Scarper tours, our tour guide for Stonehenge. On the way there our funny and informative driver pointed out unique things like Celtic burial mounds, the Westbury White Horse, and areas where UFO sightings had supposedly occurred (crop circles are common around Stonehenge and nearby farms). The drive went by quickly and we found ourselves standing in front of this site: 

The great "hanging stones"

Stonehenge is definitely not as large as you might think, and a rope fence keeps you from getting too close. The closest we could get to the stones was probably still about 10 yards away (where the above photo was taken), and some areas (like in the picture below) were probably more like 40. (Honestly I have no idea if those measurements are close to accurate. Hopefully it gives you an idea.) I'm not saying it's not worth the trip- only that it gets a lot of hype.

We took the long loop around, listening to our audioguides and trying to stay warm. Mom had brought a big down jacket that she wore for most of the trip that I considered a little excessive - except on this day. I was pretty chilly standing on that windy plain, and quite jealous of her warm coat. 

Family pic by random stranger- didn't she do a good job! 

(Auburn and I started calling her "the nun" because of her all-black garb.) 

The Nun 

So after an hour (which was plenty of time) we got back on the purple bus to return to Bath. Overall the whole thing- getting there, hanging out, coming back- was about 3 hours. Just the right amount of time.
Here's a view of Bath on the way back:

We had time for a delicious cream tea at Minerva chocolates (as well as some samples...yummm) and then took a quick tour of the Roman baths for which the city is named.
Bath has natural hot springs that were taken advantage of by the Romans around A.D. 44. They built thermal baths and called it Aquae Sulis. And here they are today:

The Abbey is in the background

Inside we could see where the great steaming baths flowed:

And hear the "life stories"of those who lived in the city long ago, like this woman:

Check out that hair

We didn't get as much time in the museum as we'd hoped but we got a taste of what the baths must have been like. After we left there, we walked around a little bit more before getting dinner at a nice local Indian restaurant. 

Bath at dusk

And one last shot for the night before getting a train back to Oxford...

Next post: Blenheim Palace and London

The big 2-5

Somebody had a birthday on Wednesday.
And it was this guy.

Brandon's not huge on celebrating birthdays, especially when it coincides with the busiest school week ever.  (That may be a slight exaggeration...but it was definitely full.)

Anyway, since my guy is huge on eating, I tried to make some of his favorite things, like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, steak sandwiches, and strawberry cake. 

And here are some OCCA (Ellis and his wife, Rachel on the left) and NOOC friends singing Happy Birthday:

And for the grand finale we headed over to Wycliffe to celebrate by doing a run-through of a presentation Brandon and Ellis had to give the next day. (Hey, it's his day. If he wants to practice a presentation, who am I to turn him down?)

I especially love the shirt he's wearing to mark being a quarter of a century old. In case you can't see it, it's got a little guy standing at the bottom deciding between two directions: down one path, there are arrows pointing towards money, big success, fame, fortune, and glory. On the other side there's a single arrow pointing towards really cool waterslides. 

Happy birthday babe. I love you.