Although our ultimate destination changed multiple times that morning (lake district, beach, Angel of the North, High Force), it turned out to be a blessing. We ended up going a route that had us stumble upon a great area with streams and waterfalls everywhere. It had an amazing cafe and it was a great detour as it let me practice getting the right exposure and aperture to blur water from waterfalls. As we walked around, Gertrude the dog was having a lot of fun jumping about in the water and learning how to swim. Between the visitor's centre and the car park was a river with a bridge. Katy decided that she was too cool to use said bridge and attempted to navigate the slippery rocks to ford the river. Unfortunately for Carolyn and me, she was eventually successful depriving us the chance to laugh at a dripping Katy.

After we had a great lunch, we headed over to High Force. It's a fairly short walk from the parking lot to the falls, but you do have to buy tickets first (proceeds go towards upkeep, etc.).

The walk down to the falls was really nice, as it followed a very luscious path on the side of a hill and wove around some streams and over a bridge. High Force was one of the neater waterfalls I've ever seen, and quite tall. The water at the bottom of the falls looked like black ice and it made the photos look pretty cool!

We then headed to the Upper Falls, which were much busier. Since there was more calm water upstream, Dan decided to skip some rocks. I would say "we," but I am awful at skipping rocks, so for all intents and purposes it was just him. We did attract the attention of a dog who would chase and "retrieve" the rocks after Dan threw them, but more often than not he would try and pick up a rock much bigger than the one Dan had thrown (much to our and his owners' amusement).

After exploring the Upper Falls, we went back to the visitors center for a cup of tea and a snack. I had one of the best flapjacks I have ever had, with as much fruit as there were oats, and I was barely able to finish it. Carolyn and Billy each had a scone the size of a barn, with so much cream Billy thought he was going to be sick!

After parking and getting our bearings, we decided to head to the "Lower" and "Middle" falls first. These falls were a little farther away from the visitor's center (and in a completely different direction) than the "Upper" falls, so there were very few people moving that way. There was a great random element thrown into this trip as we were accompanied by Gertrude, their 9-month-old black Labrador.

The falls were beautiful and gave me a chance to have some photography fun, particularly when achieving the much sought-after blurred water effect. I succeeded to an extent, but there was a lot of ambient light (since I didn't have a filter and it was sunny) so I wasn't too happy with the results. We did take a group picture (see left), thanks to my Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility.

After driving around for a bit, we stumbled upon one of the coolest places I've been, for several reasons. Firstly, it was on a "main" road (so it wasn't particularly secluded and it was easy to get to) but unless you pulled over and stopped, it didn't really look like much. Secondly, there was no one else there (it was probably private property to be honest) and almost no cars driving by, so it was very quiet and peaceful.

Dan and I again skipped rocks (well at least one of us did) and I think "our" record was 8 skips with one rock. Carolyn and Billy set about exploring, and almost got stranded on a spit of rocks. Being the nice guys that we are, we threw rocks at the water next to them and got them wet.

We left the pond and continued on, stopping at a small stream in which Gertrude learned that she doesn't like water she can't stand in. She's still learning how to swim and would make progressively farther trips away from the banks.

After we left Aysgarth Falls, we drove around the moors a little. These were half what I saw the other day (massive open spaces dedicated to hunting) and half brilliantly green grazing fields segmented by stone walls. There were also some massive hills, and Billy took us on part of the course for the Tour de France, which would be riding through in a few months. Let me tell you: I do NOT envy those poor riders who will have to somehow make it up those mountains! Just take a look at some of the panoramas below and you'll see what I mean (click each image to view it larger).

Eventually we went past a massive hill, around which Billy had ridden his bike, so we stopped and walked to the top. While it didn't look so big from where we parked the car, the summit was probably a mile or so away. I don't think I've ever been in a place quite as windy as the sides and top of that mountain. It was so windy, you could lean into the wind, relax your legs, and remain upright! There was a pile of rocks marking the top and we found that if you sat up against the leeward side of the pile there was no wind whatsoever. Oh yeah, and the view was awesome! The panorama I took was bad because I lost my footing on the pile and people kept moving in the way, but click here to see the 360.

After climbing the massive hill, we stopped off at a town and had lunch, then headed back home after what was a long day!

Today Carolyn, Billy, Dan, and I went to Raby Castle in Staindrop, County Durham. Apparently it was quite busy compared to what it normally is (slight inside joke there) but it was Easter so we weren't particularly surprised. Initial impressions were interesting, particularly because I couldn't see any walls, just a gatehouse (see left).

Anyway after parking, we decided to walk into the castle and have a quick tour around. I wrote a 17-page research paper analyzing Templar castles and military tactics last semester, so getting to visit a castle instead of just looking at them in a book was quite nice. Don't get me wrong, I've been to dozens of castles before (thanks mum), but never having done a great deal of research beforehand.

After we left the castle, we took a quick walk on the grounds and went to the gardens. These were very pretty, with ornamental bushes and plenty of flowers. Since it was Easter, there was an Easter egg treasure hunt for kids as well as a poor man in a bunny suit  to haunt their dreams (see right).

Billy, Dan and I got distracted by the old, bright-orange mechanical plow, and lost Carolyn. It turns out she had gone to the tea room, having gotten bored of us I suppose, so after looking for about 10 minutes we finally found her having a lemonade (Americans: fizzy, Sprite-like drink).

Great day out and I really loved spending time with Dan and my adopted parents, Billy and Carolyn.

Instead of writing any more about the trip, I'll just show you some pictures....

We went to Battle today, which we had planned to do yesterday but were so tired we decided to push it back a day. Last night we also consolidated some more of my luggage, getting my normal clothes into a small rolling suitcase. The only problem was my uniforms which I bring to schools when I observe and give a little presentation about my school. Unfortunately I was heading up north to Darlington (see left) later that afternoon to visit family friends and would have to leave straight from Battle. This meant lugging all my luggage to and around Battle, and the train station is about half a mile from the abbey which marks the battlefield. Luckily it wasn't too bad, but it definitely was not fun going uphill. 

We entered the abbey and went to buy our tickets. We did ask if there was anywhere I could leave my stuff, but the only place was out in the open and would've been unattended. Once we got onto the grounds, it was time for lunch and we devised a plan to see the area and watch the luggage (and stroller, diaper bag, etc.): only two of us would go and do the quick, 10-15 minute walk at a time.

I went first with the older of the two cousins (Freddy, who's 2). As you can imagine, walking around an English Heritage site with a 2-year-old can be a bit boring for them, but as long as you're continually pointing out things for them to look at, it's not bad. I must have said "Wow Freddy, look at the castle" about 40 times, but I was impressed he did the whole walk with only a decent amount of coaxing ("Come on, let's go see daddy, he's this way"). It was cool spending some time with him, as the last time I saw him he had just been born and I had been the first in my family (the American branch) to meet him!

The battlefield itself wasn't anything particularly spectacular to look at, but I'm told to do it properly you need about an hour or 90 minutes. We had less time, AND two small children. As you can imagine, the going was slow and the 10-15 minute walk ended up being 25 minutes.

After we each had gone around, we packed up and started heading back to the train station. The only problem was that Chey had been about 5 minutes getting back to our base at the Abbey's cafe, and we were only leaving 15 minutes for us to catch the train out of Battle. It was crucial I make this train (1344, arriving at 1526), because I'd then have to use the underground through London to get to London Kings Cross for the 1622 train to Darlington (which would get me there the same time Dan was getting in from Birmingham). Long story short: a lot of well-laid plans wouldn't work if I missed this train.

As the station came into sight, we saw the train pull into the train station, then pull out again! Although I had missed the train, it turned into a blessing as I had time to buy a ticket for London to Darlington, then plan a new route through the underground which (with a bit of running) got me into Kings Cross with 10 minutes to spare! Unfortunately, it was the Thursday before Easter weekend, so my train was standing room only (see the picture left). Luckily, my train was an express to Edinburgh so it only stopped at York on the way up, at which point I got out to take a picture because the pedestrian bridge was where Harry Potter first receives his train ticket from Hagrid.

Luckily everything worked out in the end and I managed to sit on my luggage for a portion of the 3-hour journey to Darlington, so it wasn't too bad!

The town of Hastings is well known for the Battle of Hastings (1066), even though it took place on a field in the town called Battle (one could call it a "Battle field," yuk yuk yuk). While our original plans included going to visit the actual battlefield, we had such a great time in Hastings that we were exhausted and decided we'd go tomorrow.

Hastings is an extraordinarily unique place, and it's kind of difficult to explain. There's thousand-year-old buildings, and you can tell the city has been there for a very long time, but it also has newer sections with tall, modern-looking constructions. On top of that, the whole place has a sort of misfit feel to it. Like I said, it's tough to explain, but I kind of felt like I was in a modern version of an 18th-century port because of the wide variety of people there. From the wealthy and well-to-do to the people you wouldn't want to bump into on the street, Hastings has them all.

By the time we left the house (two small kids are never easy to travel with) and got to Hastings on the train, it was midday and time for lunch. Luckily Tiff and Chey knew a great place to get fish and chips, so we sat down amidst the seagulls and had some lunch.

After walking to the sea with my cousin, we all walked East along the shoreline towards the activity areas. I highly recommend going to Hastings for a day because of the abundant activities for kids of all ages. There were at least three mini-golf courses, two go-kart tracks (for 2 different ages of kids), paddle boats, a small train, trampoline area, caged in soccer pitches, carnival rides and games, and many different places to eat. They also have something called a "Funicular."

Incidentally, the tall spiky thing in the picture above is one of the beacons constructed along the coast of England to signal the spotting of the Spanish Armada.

While we were content to stay at the top of the hill looking towards the city, I did a little more exploring and found what I consider to be the quietest place on Earth (besides some of the Oxford libraries). It was so quiet, all I could hear was the sound of the grass crunching like snow under my feet. The older of my cousins had fallen asleep by this point but the younger one had a ball scooting around on the soft grass. By a mile, Hastings was one of the coolest places I've been yet on this tour, and we hadn't really even gone into the city itself yet...

View the Panorama: http://360.io/gmUZVg

The quietest place in the world: http://360.io/b6CQMH

After descending on the funicular, we decided to go into the older part of the city, which proved to endear me to Hastings even more than I was already! Victorian/Tudor buildings were interspersed with 13th century buildings that looked like they were about to fall down and really cool little alleyways, and one resident was nice enough to stop and explain the history behind one of the houses. In fact, it looked as though there were buildings wherever there was space, crammed in on top of each other and piled helter skelter. A great example was the building shaped like a piece of cheese, shown left: they had a gap that size, so they  filled it appropriately!

All-in-all it was a great day out and I had a lot of fun hanging out with family. Definitely a place worth visiting if you come to England!

This past week has been a great deal of fun! My godfather Steve’s kids are awesome and I’m glad I got to come visit them again while I was here.

Since the kids were on their spring break, most of the days were fairly relaxed, although we did visit Chartwell and London (twice). We’d walk the dog, mess about on the trampoline (I didn’t squash anyone), watch or play a bit of football, do some gardening, read, or do homework. One day we attempted to make dinner and another day we made extremely sweet American-style lemonade (my fault: too much sugar).

While I was there, I read Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden  (which is the first book I’ve read for fun in a very long time) and I must say it was very good. It is a historical fiction novel on Genghis Khan’s childhood and it was fascinating to read about life on the plains of Mongolia. 

After we came into London on the train, we headed out to Greenwich with the intent of standing near the Cutty Sark. We did find a spot very close to the 7 mile marker, further down the marathon's route from the famous ship. Caroline and her friend Annie did know we would be in the vicinity, but to make it easier for them to spot us, we used a "Big Red" from The Citadel! There were some great costumes as well, ranging from the obvious (Superman, Spiderman, etc.) to the absurd (bananas, rhinos, men dressed as brides, the list goes on and on).

Thanks to the flag (which Caroline later said stood out like a sore thumb), the pair found us and the first stage of our mission was a success. From Greenwich, we took the DLR (Docklands Light Railway, similar to a monorail) to Mudchute, the best name for a station since Shepherd's Bush (how good does a piece of shrubbery need to be for them to name a station after it?). Right behind the 17 mile marker we had some lunch and met up with friends whose runner (Jimmy from Long Island, NY oddly enough) was raising money for the same cause as Caroline and Annie. First Jimmy ran by, then Caroline, then Annie.

After Mudchute, we got back on the DLR and headed to Westferry, only a few stops away and somewhere between the 20 and 21 mile marks. Our spot here was not right up against the rail (like our others were), nor was it one of our planned locations at which Caroline knew to look for us. As a result, I went farther up the course to act as a scout and to try and spot Annie or Caroline and let the others know one of them was coming. Somehow I did manage to see them and we were able to say hello! I also got to see a celebrity at this stop, but he's in a fairly obscure (but hilarious) British show and while I recognized him, I couldn't quite place where I knew him from until I was well past him on the stairs. Since we were in a rush, I didn't have time to get his autograph (although the show he's in) but I did snap a quick picture of him from afar.