Royalty!

Today was great. We woke up all rested (ok, mostly rested) at 7.15 AM England time, of course, and John, David & I went for a walk up the creek near where John's Granny lives. It was awesome, because there's so much WWII stuff around! There's tank stoppers left on the banks, which were put up around 1939-1940 in fear of a Nazi invasion, and we climbed the barb wire fence toward to get to a bunker which was set up - super duper cool - none of us went in it but we got some cool photos. Maybe by the end of the trip we'll get the nerve to do it. It's too creepy! But full of history. Canada's so different, we REALLY take care of all of our historical.. things.. because we have so little of it. England is steeping in history and so 'little things' like tank stoppers or bunkers are left to the community to protect. I find it so neat.

Then after breakfast we went to Hampton Court for the day (AKA my new second home, I think it is calling me to live there?), which was Henry the 8th's "pleasure palace" - the palace was beautiful, we went inside the kitchens, which were huge (I'm sure John would love to prepare a meal in there!) and saw the apartments of Henry which had this amazing tapestry around, which told the story of Abraham.. so cool.. and Mary's apartment which was lavish to say the least.

We brought our own picnic, instead of getting suckered into their meals, which was fun because we found a courtyard with cute little tables & chairs but it was empty so we got it all to ourselves!! We had awesome, homemade sandwhiches, 'fruit in a corner' yogurt (which is really good, I'm glad I've come into the world of richer dairy), amaaaazing cheese, some delicious chocolate, etc.

Next we went out to the gardens, walked around, went into the world famous maze - John and I didn't find it so easy but David, Carol, Sophie and Rory were waiting for us at the end - and an awesome part was to see the tennis courts where King Henry played tennis (duh), but what was cool about it was that Carol had been there when she was 9  - just about 10 years ago - and it had changed so much & so little at the same time, since then. It's living history, it's so awesome.

After a long but good day, the guys are sleeping, pizza and salad are for dinner, and tomorrow me, John and David are off to explore the local town (we're in Crookham) while Carol, Sophie and Rory visit some old friends.

Peace!