We knew it wasn’t fair to drag Millie to a second day of long walks to giant old stones so we kicked off the day by paying our kid tax. We visited Finkley Down Farm which is a hybrid farm, petting zoo, playground, cafe, norovirus Petri dish. We lucked out with yet another day of incredible weather so Nick and I were happy to sit on a bench while Millie made friends with various kids (goats and humans).

Once we had gotten Millie tired enough to cry about not getting a toy at the gift shop, we loaded up and headed out to see some more ancient sites. She passed out immediately on the drive.

We first drove to the site of the Avebury stones, which are a series of stones placed in the ground. They went on for a while as we drove and we couldn’t figure out where to park. With a sleeping child in the back, we decided the “drive by” was good enough and kept driving on to the West Kennet Long Barrow. Similarly, this site was hardly signposted and we had to make a few turns while looking at Google maps to get to it. As we were walking up towards it we asked another couple if it was at the top of the hill and they said they didn’t know.

We walked faithfully up the hill, surrounded by privately owned wheat fields, hoping we were going in the right direction. Millie was still waking up from her car nap and sucked her thumb the whole way up. Eventually we came upon the large stones that were blocking the entrance of the tomb.

Part of the tomb was uncovered and we were able to go inside. The sign explained that they think families were buried together in sections. We explained this to Millie and for a moment I worried it might be too dark or scary but she didn’t seem to have much issue with it. She just said “so our family would be dead here and our friends’ families would be there?” Discomfort with death must come later in life.

After exploring in the 5500 year old tombs, we walked to the top of them. Only the first ~10% have been excavated so it was neat to imagine everything else we were walking on.

We returned to the car without seeing a single other person. This was a funny contrast to Stonehenge, which is a similar site but required £25 prebookings, a shuttle bus, and paid parking. The longbarrow needs better PR and marketing because it was equally as cool.

We then tried to visit Old Saram, but we arrived at 4:55 and they closed at 5. GPS predicted we’d get there earlier but it didn’t account for our unwillingness to drive >60mph on the world’s smallest single-lane two-way roads. Top gear drivers we are not.

With the hot weather continuing into the evening we decided to go into downtown Salisbury to find a nice place outside for an early dinner. We settled in at a nice pub in the town square.

Millie made a friend her own age. When I asked her what her friend’s name was she said “I don’t know, something like Get? I can’t understand anything she’s saying” This is probably the first of many friends that Millie won’t understand over the course of this year.

Eventually we started talking to Get’s parents, who gave us a ton of great recommendations for the area. It was a good reminder to us to make friends too, instead of just pressuring Millie to do so.

We all decided to leave together so the girls would have an easier time ending the impromptu play date. As we were parting ways I asked what their little girl’s name was. It was Juliet.