UK

Quite a chill day today, which was welcome. We putzed around our little cottage this morning until it was time to head out on the short drive to Stroud to see my cousin Hannah and her family. The plan was a picnic so we stopped at a bakery to pick up some pastries. Everything was…

Our itinerary today originally had us doing a scenic drive through the Cotswolds, but we called it off yesterday after we’d had enough driving. Nick read about the closest city to us, Bristol, and learned a few things. It is where Blackbeard and Bansky are from, it is home to Aardman Animation Studio that made…

Today we ventured into Bath, or as Millie called it this morning, Tub. We started with a visit to the Royal Victoria Park playground. This playground felt like 6 playgrounds combined into one, like they had started with one and then added on to it over time. It even had a carousel, which Millie has…

We started our day with a big milestone: the first included-with-the-room hotel breakfast of the year. We’ve spent the last 4 years teaching Millie to eat when she’s hungry and stop when she’s full, but today she learned a new lesson: if the breakfast is free, you eat until you are stuffed. Then you take…

We had a late start today because we decided to do a load of laundry and it took seven thousand hours to dry. After I finish writing this post I’m going to google “do British dryers actually dry clothes or just heat them up and spin them around” because I think it might be the…

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…

We headed to Stonehenge this morning. Millie requested music and the song that came on was Willie Nelson’s “Blue Skies”. As we cruised through the countryside on yet another uncharacteristically sunny April day, young Willie sang “Blue skies, smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see” and I knew exactly what he was…

With just one morning in our Brighton hotel it was easy to pack up. We put our stuff in the car and walked to breakfast. After polishing off our plates we crossed over to visit a nearby playground. I’m starting to realize that this trip is going to be a tour of the world’s playgrounds.…

We had a lazy morning in London, packing up and chatting with our hosts (also old family friends who knew me as a baby). Eventually we got on the road and headed South to Lewes, just outside of Brighton. Nick did a great job driving on the left and I did an okay job of…

The full days and lack of bedtime started to catch up with Millie today and she woke up seeming tired. But we had big plans with family friends Alice and Joe and their kids… a real English tea party! The promise of little cakes and new friends kept her energy up on the walk to…