Ye Olde England-Part One

Yup…we went to the Motherland to visit family and friends.  We also decided to tackle some of the tourist spots at breakneck speed.  We chose quantity over quality, since the Things don’t have the attention span for a 2 hour audio tour at this age…so we raced from one site to another.  Remember the Griswalds at the edge of the Grand Canyon?   That was us, stumbling into Stonehenge 10 minutes before closing. I’m not kidding.

After spending the first weekend with family at their home in the countryside, we struck out for Warwick on a day trip.

The castle there is spectacular…one of the best preserved in the country.  We love this place, and they cater to school groups and kids very well. Castle’s site is here.

After climbing lots and lots of these……

….we got to see this.  It made all the moaning from the Things worth it.

 

 

Yes…that is SUN you see.  REALLY.  Spring was busting out all over…NOT what we’re used to on visits this time of year.

Inside there was lots of wax action….

…and weaponry.

After we finished touring the castle interior…we came out just in time to catch the falconry show…how lucky!  I was quite excited, and the Things seemed pretty pumped too.

Meet the six month old baby owl named Ernie…cute eh?  Especially when he was being hand fed mice…yum.  I’ll spare you that shot.

Then, the fab Eagle.

Love it.  Anyway..it was time to scoot…we were due back at the homestead in time for “tea.”

 

Time for me to scoot too…all that laundry isn’t folding itself and there is no food in this house.

More adventures later….

Hi.

It’s a crazy world.  We left the country right when disaster after disaster struck in Japan.  One of many ways to help is here.

The exact same thing happened when Katrina hit.  We were watching the horrifying images unfold upon our arrival on foreign TV.  Kinda makes us think we shouldn’t go anywhere!

Thing One is starting to worry about the Mayan apocolypse predictions coming true, so it might be time to turn off NPR during breakfast- for awhile anyway.

After I get my sleep patterns sorted and laundry washed, I’ll have some fun photos of the trip to share, along with some finalized treehouse plans.  Yup, it will be the Spring for the Things.  They’ve patiently waited, so the circle patio and bathroom will be deferred to put all our efforts into their castle.

I’ll leave you with a random shot from our trip…titled GINORMOUS STAG HEAD.

 

Chad’s Winter Wonderland

This is for my local yokels.  I never got around to telling you about my trip to Chad’s.  We went.  It was awesome.  You probably knew about this and have been there, done that…new gal in town had not.  It did not disappoint.  This is Christmas in America dammit.

We drove about 40 minutes out to Lebanon, TN  before Christmas along with hundreds of others……

Really?  Oh Goody.  Let’s slog on, shall we?

What have we here…ah, yes a life sized nativity, very nice…..

Whaaaaaat?!  Is Jesus GLOWING?  Hey, HEY! LOOK….It’s a glowing tiny baby Jesus!!!!!!  TBJ is GLOWING.  Gotta use the flash…..

That’s what I’m talkin’ about.  Fan. Tastic.

Now we head into “Santa’s House”  Oh, look…he has a dog!

Next year, If you haven’t been, GO.

Dali High

“…may call you, any night, any day….”

OK, I’m really sorry. That was the lamest South Pacific reference evah, but I’m a little loopy today.

One of our stops during the fall break roadtrip was the Salavdor Dali exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.  The Things were skeptical at first.  The Phillipe Halsman photos started to get their attention, and then they got excited.  They loved the optical illusion and 3-D pieces the best.

The look of wonder (and sometimes confusion) on their faces was absolutely priceless.  They couldn’t wait to tell the CC all about what they’d seen (while he was stuck in a meeting).  And I secretly feared they’d hate it!

Lincoln in Dali Vision really jazzed them, since both have studied Lincoln in school now. They would stand close, then stand away, and back and forth…

In the spirit of Los Dias de la Muerte, some Dali calaveras…

In Voluptas Mors 1951: Phillipe Halsman via Unnatural Eye

The Skull of Zubaran 1956

Yes, there’s some nudity.  They got over their initial embarrassment pretty quickly and started to look past it to see the bigger picture.  There was so much to see, far too much to discuss here.  My point:  If you live in the Southeast, it’s worth the trip.