Two volunteers

Kate and Anna are so great with kids. 

This is them volunteering for Family Gathering Night for HIPPY.

Back in my day...

The twins were talking about some of the naughty things the kids in their classes do. 

Kate commented, "Kids didn't act that way when I was in sixth grade."

Ally explained, "Yeah, but back then, the kids didn't have Tik Tok influencing them."

I think I'm raising middle age children who reminisce about how much better things were when they were young and blame technology.

Best. Trip. Ever!

Kate and I took one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on. 

(I'd say it was the most amazing, but I'm married to someone who has planned and taken our family to some incredible national parks, including my favorite, Yellowstone, and a very close second, The Dry Tortugas, where we got to snorkel with barracudas, electric eels, and less deadly beautiful fish.) 

As long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to England and Ireland. I've been obsessed with British culture. I've been telling Dave for years that we should go, but the trip isn't practical, or affordable, with a family of six. So, in early February, I told Dave that I really wanted to go soon... like now. We talked about how he travels with friends every couple years, and I never do. I'd rather go with one of the kids, so maybe I should look into taking each of the kids on a special trip when they're in high school. He thought this spring break would be perfect, since he had to work.

So I got to work planning a surprise trip for Kate. I began by looking at everything I'd like to see in England, Scotland, and Ireland. When I realized that spring break was a good six months too short to see  everything I wanted to see, I began to prioritize. I decided to focus on Ireland, but I knew Kate really wanted to see London, so I also planned to go there for a couple days.

I talked to a travel agent, but the price was way out of our budget. When Dave and I were at Costco, I joked that I wondered if Costco Travel had trips to Ireland. Well, it turned out they absolutely did. They had options for just Ireland, for London, Scotland, and Dublin, and they had one that was London and part of Ireland, just what I wanted. I found one that covered the flights, including a flight from London to Dublin, shuttles to and from the airport to the hotels, all the hotels, a car rental, and breakfast every day for about half of what the travel agent had quoted.

On March 18, I picked Kate up from school and my parents drove us to Chicago to get a flight to New York. From New York, we flew overnight and landed in London Saturday morning.

I hadn't gotten any sleep on the flight, and Kate had only gotten a little. When we got into the shuttle at the airport, I got in behind what I was thinking was the passenger seat and wondered why it was so far back. Then I noticed the steering wheel on the opposite side, and in my exhaustion, I found this completely amazing. It was like it dawned on me we really were in England. I began to giggle and giggle. Kate just raised her eyebrows at me.

When we arrived at the hotel, it was only about 9 am, so our room wasn't ready. We washed up in the bathroom and went to walk around. We hadn't gotten far when they called and said our room was ready. I was so exhausted, I really wanted an hour and a half nap, but Kate convinced me to limit myself to 20 minutes. That, and the first of many, many cups of tea, actually rejuvenated me, since we were so excited.

So we hit the town.

Every room had wonderful English Breakfast (or Irish Breakfast in Ireland) tea and all the fixin's, milk, sugar, and brown sugar. I have never thought of adding brown sugar to my tea, but I loooved it. 
Since I'm a tea drinker living in a coffee drinking country, I loved the priority placed on tea. 

We saw the red telephone boxes!

We noticed that in London, there are basically no street signs.
The streets themselves are labeled.
This zig zag means that you're approaching a crossing area.

We ended up taking the Underground all over. It was incredibly convenient. 
We never waited more than two or three minutes and it felt completely safe.

.

The complimentary breakfasts were not like continental breakfasts you get in the states.
They were fancy, full service breakfasts with more food options than anyone could eat.

Since the majority of the world drives on the right side,
they remind you everywhere what way the traffic will be approaching from.
Even with the reminders, I almost walked in front of traffic more than once.

On Sunday, we went on a 12 hour tour that went to Windsor Castle (where the queen lives on the weekends), the Roman Baths, and Stonehenge.

Windsor Castle was incredible.
You couldn't take any pictures, but they had incredible collections of art and pottery,
much of which was over five hundred years old. 

Stonehenge was awe inspiring. To think that these rocks were brought hundreds of miles before any modern technology was invented...

The Roman Baths were fascinating.
We saw a collection of coins that dated back over a thousand years...
maybe more... and were so detailed.

Every hotel room had robes and slippers.

We saw most of the landmarks we wanted to see in London on Saturday,
 and we saw the rest Monday morning. Tower Bridge and Buckingham palace were two of my favorites.

Monday afternoon we flew to Dublin and explored the city a bit that evening.
Tuesday morning we rented a car and started out exploring Ireland. 
I did NOT do well driving that first day. We drove five hours that day, and I barely made it.
Thankfully Kate was incredibly helpful.

This castle was in a tiny little town. We ate at a diner there with all the locals.

The roads in Ireland were crazy.
They were very narrow, very curvy, lined with rock walls, hedges, or mounds, and full of sheep.

I was getting the hang of the whole left side of the road,
right side of the car thing by this time.

You can't be fat in the stairwells in these castles.

Neither of us understood that kissing the Blarney Stone
required us to be hanging upside down 85 feet in the air.

This fern garden at Blarney Castle was so lush and green.

One day for lunch we got chips (fries) and...

...crisps (chips).

The Cliffs of Moher!

We hired (rented) bikes to ride around one of the Arran Islands.
It was very hilly, and very beautiful!

This is the Library at Trinity College where they have the Book of Kells
and a huge collection of very old books.

Trinity College... I think it would be so cool to go to school in Ireland or England.

We ate in a pub our last night in Dublin and soaked up the local life.

A New "Oh, Anna" Moment, Hand-me-downs

Anna - Kate, if you have any hand-me-downs, I want them really much.

Kate - You never want my hand-me-downs.

Anna - But, now that I have to buy everything... I don't have that kind of money!