My mom and Benson flew into England on the first sunny, 70-degree day to break our cold, rain-soaked winter. It was B’s first trip to Europe (and the only thing that gave him away was asking how old everything was!) so I thought I’d blast him with a little history from the beginning and drove from the airport straight to Stonehenge. I walked the hills surrounding Stonehenge (sweating!) while they toured the site and then we ate a picnic lunch together on some little tables in the sun. It was such a happy day for me; catching some rays and some much overdue family time! We drove home for dinner and spent a few hours just chatting before jet lag hit mom and B and they fell fast asleep on the couch around 8 o’clock.
Benson at Stonehenge.
The next day, the second 70+ and sunny degree day in a row (and the second one in the past 8 months… see the trend?!), we went to the Old Hurst farm shop to buy some local cheeses and veggies and then met Chris for lunch. On sunny days I’m always blown away by the big skies on the drive to Chris’ work. We really do live in an amazing part of this country. From lunch I took the fam to Ely, a town nearby with a gorgeous cathedral. The previous time I’d visited was on a (shocker) cold, rainy day. This visit was so much more pleasant as we were able to walk around the pretty town, had a tour guide that wasn’t archaic, and stopped for a tea along the river. Poor Benson wasn’t impressed with British ice cream after striking out twice in one day: first with an ‘ice cream’ cone that we’re pretty sure was cool whip and the second with a milkshake that literally was shaken milk. He and my mom were such good sports about everything, though, and just laughed off anything that didn’t go quite right.
Happy Anniversary mom and B!
Ely Cathedral
Chris took Thursday off work, so we all hopped in the car to go to Wimpole Hall, a manor house nearby. The sun and 70° weather had returned for day #3! Lord knows where my summer clothes are, and mom & B hadn’t packed any (oops, my bad) so we took a 20-minute super successful detour to the BX to buy some tanks and t-shirts. Armed with proper attire, we spent a really nice couple hours admiring the grandeur of Wimpole Hall and again ate lunch outside in the sun. It was glorious.
Wow, that's a big house.
All the rooms had bells which would ring down in the servants' quarters.
Remember South Farm? It’s where Katherine worked last summer and I’ve been volunteering at on occasion this year. It’s only a few minutes from Wimpole Hall. I warned Farmer Bart that I’d be bringing inquisitive guests along and he welcomed mom and B with open arms (and his famous short shorts). He’s such a gracious person and took more than an hour of his precious time (we’re in the midst of planting season) to answer B’s greenhouse questions and teach him how to prune tomatoes. Bart sent us home with freshly pulled potatoes and carrots and green garlic, all of which (along with the fresh bread and selection of cheeses from the farm shop!) mom turned into a delicious supper. Instead of being tired of plants and soil, the guys were inspired to till a little corn patch in our yard that evening. B is totally a plant person and I think this may have been his favorite part of the entire trip.
Farmer Bart sketching solutions to B's greenhouse problems.
Piggies
Friday dawned just as warm and sunny as the rest of the week. Mom, Benson, and I drove to Cambridge and took a funny and informative walking tour around the town. The guide kept mentioning how much better Cambridge was than ‘other university’ (that would be Oxford) and it made me smile because Katherine is going to Oxford on a full ride for the next three years and I bet she’d have something to say about THAT! And speaking of rivalries, my other cousin Sarah just graduated Duke Nursing and is going straight to work at Chapel Hill. I’m surprised that’s legal… :D Anyway, our tour of Cambridge included entrance into Kings College Chapel which was pretty amazing inside.
Impressive Kings College Chapel in Cambridge.
Katherine would be better able to explain this, but I’ll try since it’s so interesting; universities here are broken up into colleges, but not at all like ours are in the States. After being admitted into a university (Cambridge, for example) you then apply and try to match to a college within the university (Kings or Clare for example). The colleges are the social center of your uni life – you take meals there, can live there, and study there. Each college has its own library and sports teams. It’s almost like a fraternity system except everyone on campus is involved and the colleges vie for diversity instead of the homogony that tends to be the norm in the Greek life of our schools. The main goal of colleges seems to be innovation through collaboration, and it’s felt that diversity within a college encourages such important and successful collaboration amongst its members. Cool.
All that history and learning made us hungry, so we stopped back at The Eagle, the pub in which Watson and Crick (using Rosalind Franklin’s research) figured out the double helix structure of DNA. Just as a lot of business decisions are made on a golf course some amazing ‘ah-ha!’ moments in science seem to be had over a pint of ale. Katherine said her entire lab goes for a beer every Friday evening. I guess the key is to mix it up a little! After lunch we completed our Cambridge experience by going ‘punting’, basically getting propelled lazily by boat along the river by a guy with a long pole.
Our punter.
A view from our boat as we punted along the River Cam.
We said g’bye to Cambridge and drove home in time to go to our weekly lake swim with the great folks from our club called BRJ Run & Tri. Every Friday about thirty of us swim a lap or two in the lake about a mile from our house in Hinchingbrooke Park. The lake water is cold - about 50° - but it’s fine once you get past the awful moment when cold water leaks through your wetsuit zipper. Mom and B got to meet some of our British friends and our neighbors walked over to watch as well. We didn’t swim long as we had a huge triathlon the next day but that has its own entry so I’ll end here for now!
Friday night swim at Hinchingbrooke Park... great way to end the week!
Everyone building up courage to get all the way in.
We love the Fewells!
No comments:
Post a Comment