Vacation Part 2....

Wow it has been a month since we got back from our England trip and boy does it feel a distant memory....

We had so much fun and the weather was very kind to us.  All my stress of packing two season for the 3 of us was not needed.  After arriving on English soil with no sleep I got my 1st taste of the English breakfast I oh so miss....we ended up at Lakeside at Tescos (to my US friends Lakeside is a huge shopping mall and Tescos is a grocery store similar to Super Target)

Full and happy we made it to my old house, why oh why everything looks so small I will never get used to that, unpacking started while the kids played on the new found trampoline in Nannie's backyard before we made the trip to Grandma's for lunch.

Thursday was our down day of just chilling with nothing really planned as the next day we had to get up really early to catch a plan to Uncle Martin's to Belfast.  I was looking forward to this trip probably the most.  I haven't been to visit since my Nannie passed away in 2002 and the kids had never been.  I wanted them to see some great sights that I had taken Bombshell when we got married.  My first rain started when we landed and boy it really put the shock in me on how cold it was, as soon as we get to Uncle Martin's the jeans were coming out.

I hadn't seen the new house since they moved and they since have 3 horses so of course despite the rain and mud Boo Boo was eager to go see and ride the horses.  We waited until Lizzy (my cousin) got home from school and she went horse riding while my Aunt and I went to the store.

Saturday my mum and I went to my Grandad and Nan's grave to visit and leave flowers, Friday was the 10 anniversary since my Nan had passed, it was another wet and dreary day.  In the evening we ended in Belfast played bowling, which I won (of course) and then finished the night with a Delicious and I mean Delicious Indian.  Sunday turned beautiful we made our way up to the coast of Antrim first stop Carrick-a-rede rope bridge and we all made it across, with great views seeing Scotland in the distance.

Monday back home to England and the rest of our adventures were to begin.  A picnic in the park with some great weather, Shorts and T-shirts and blue skies followed by some time at Grandma's that included a trip to the beach.    On our trip to the beach we had English chips on the beach, some paddling by the kids, a visit to the old haunt of mine and Bombshell's college before finishing it up with some amusement rides on Clacton Pier.

A quick stop shopping where I got some great gifts for our friends back home before we started to make our way back to Grandma's.  Next on the adventure was a surprise trip for Nannie and the kids, Grandad (Nannie's Grandad the kids way of distinguishing between the the two grandads) had helped me plan by ensuring Nannie was free on Friday.  We got up fairly early and packed a small suitcase as after the day's adventures we would be staying the night in London to enjoy Saturday at Tower of London. 

We made our way to our secret destination which started with a delay......we had a sick one....oh my this would be interesting....so I switched seats with Boo Boo she sat up front with Grandad while I squeezed in the back with Nannie & Bambeano.  After a few moments I realize the reason for Boo Boo's queasiness.  Nannie's perfume was a tad overpowering, with a cracked window we were on our way to "the secret"..... after an hour or so we made our way through Enfield in which Boo Boo thought she was going to see her other cousins that lived there, but nope, that wasn't the right answer....we continued on through Edmonton and that is when Nannie knew where we were headed but the kids still had no clue........Boo Boo saw the signs for Tottenham (the town) and squealed at Bambeano that she saw Tottenham...the penny will drop in a few minutes....

We continued on till we found the destination, made a turn and Boo Boo squealed to Bambeano she saw Tottenham Hotspur yep we were at White Hart Lane.  To see the look on Bambeano's face was priceless he was in awe that we were actually here.   It was the one thing he had told me he wanted to do when I asked the kids one thing they wanted to do.  I had been planning this for a while and had been working with the tour manager to arrange.  There was a main tour and our VIP tour.  I decided on the VIP tour as I thought it would be better for the kids and I was not wrong.  The regular tour left the store about 30 minutes before ours and it was a mass of people herding behind the guide, I want to say there were about 30 people or so.  Ours left soon after (yes it took them that long to get organized) and it was just the 5 of us, heaven.  Our guide John was fantastic, he grew up supporting Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur) and had a wealth of history and knowledge.  We made our way into the press room and the kids got to experience sitting in the press chairs.  Next up the suites, if you could call them that, again that smalls vs. US big comparison came to mind.

We made our way into the stadium and sat in the seats as if we were watching a game, looking at all the details of the stadium, one fact that I found interesting was the stadium was on the grounds of what used to be allotments (gardens with vegetable patches).  We saw the police pod that was suspended from the roof that enabled the police to zoom in on any trouble and radio to the stewards and police on the ground.  After soaking in the ground and stadium we made our way to the trophy room and changing rooms (or as US call Locker rooms).  The referees had their own and when they are ready for the game to start and make their way to the tunnel they ring a door bell that rings in the changing rooms of the visitors and Spurs, another mouth dropping moment for the kids, they loved ringing the bell.

The kids loved the changing room of Spurs, all the shirts were hung up with the players names and there was a white board with magnets.  Boo Boo screamed "They have a board like daddy uses for coaching" I smiled thinking "More like daddy has a board like Spurs" but I won't burst her bubble.  Now for the walk down the tunnel, AMAZING!!!!! and to finish up a chance to sit as manager for a moment....interesting given the owners of Spurs just fired the manager

So after a GREAT day at Tottenham and some goodies purchased at the store, unfortunately the new shirts were not out, we started to make our way to our hotel for the night...Not so fast as it turned out we had to stay out of London for 30 minutes to avoid the congestion charge ( A premium fee to try and discourage cars into the center of London) so we decided we had to try and waste some time, shopping and eating was out of the question so what would we come up with.......well Arsenal's ground was fairly close I mean that is why Tottenham and Arsenal a fierce rivals.  So we made our way over to Emirates Stadium.  I couldn't believe how Americanized the new stadium was, it reminded me of the Panthers Stadium the Oval feel as appose to the old school rectangular stadiums like Tottenham.  We parked up so we could take a bathroom break and take some pictures but Bambeano refused to get out of the car, what in the world, after back in forth discussion I finally asked him why was he not getting out of the car, he whispered he couldn't.  I asked why and he pointed to his shirt.  He had his new Tottenham shirt on and knew he was in Arsenal Territory, I smiled and passed him a different shirt.

After a rested night at the hotel we got up early and made our way to the Tower of London.  I had read up in Nannie's tour book that when visiting the Tower of London it is best to go straight to the crown jewels as lines can get long.  So we made our way in and started to walk towards the crown jewels at least where we thought we were going, so I stopped a "beefeater" to ask if we were going the right way and he immediately saw Boo Boo's Charlotte Soccer Academy sweatshirt and told us he had friends that lived in Matthews, WOW small world or what, so not only did he tell us where we needed to go he walked with us and gave some off the cuff history, nothing like a personal tour and we loved it even if it was short.

On our arrival to the crown jewels we stopped to get some pictures of the guard outside and to our surprise they started a change of guards, so we stayed and watched, another first for the kids.  We saw so much during the visit and the kids were very involved and interested with no whining "Are we done yet?" that I had prepared myself for.  Our stomachs told us it must be lunch after looking at my watch I was surprised to see it was 3pm.  Wow we had been in the Tower of London since 9.30am no wonder my stomach was telling me it was hungry, how time flies when you are having fun, a quick stop for lunch at Subway before we embarked on a river cruise down to Big Ben so the kids could visit Hamley's.

Our busy week end didn't end there......Sunday saw us make a visit to Chessington.  This truly was a family outing, huge mini bus to accommodate Nannie, Grandad, me and the kids and my sister, her 2 kids and her husband.  Weather started fairly reasonable, shorts but sweaters were still needed.  Upon arrival we made our way to the rides, Bambeano was the daredevil wanting to do all the "big rides" I was happy to oblige while Nannie watched the bags.  Boo Boo made it towards some easier rides with her cousin.  We came to one ride that none of the kids could ride so back to my childhood I went, Grandad (my dad, my sister and I) all made our way to ride Rameses Revenge.  This ride turns you upside down, spins you around and lowers you head first over water fountains well we were wet anyway due to HUGE downpour.  Nannie and my brother in law were on kid duty and thanks to the huge downpour we had no line for the ride.  We go on and it started.  The ride lowered us head first and soaked me right in the face, my sister was laughing so hard while I tried to wipe the hair out of my face, but y'know what the laugh was on her as she was laughing so hard at me she didn't see or realize the huge fountain aiming right for her....BAM she got hit worse that I did, my turn to laugh at her, so while we grasped some relief the ride started to make it's way back up, or so we thought, hmmm we were swinging back and forth a bit too long or were we.....An announcement then came over the speaker that everyone dreads while on a ride..... "sorry but we are experiencing some technical difficulties please bear with us while we try to fix the situation"....thankfully we were not upside down....so after a few minutes the ride started to make the descend.  It appeared that a man a few seats up was too "wide" as the attendant stated.  So while he was escorted of the ride, the sun now out, the line for the ride forming, the attendant asked all of us currently on the ride if we wanted to go again...HELL YEAH!!!!!

Well I will leave it there and promise PART 3 will come soon as well as our recent adventures to Atlanta......until then my friends :)