Sunday’s Repast...

We returned to Esher, outside London, and our friend’s place there, from the coast Sunday morning. And the plans were for a little party with their friends, BBQ, watching the World Cup final (go USA!), and relaxing in general. But we did throw in a history stop, too, as Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace is just up the road, on the Thames, a mile or so from their house. And it’s something!! Gorgeous gardens, stately and massive in scale, certainly. One room holds the armor and weapons: 2,871 of them—swords, guns, etc! And the kitchens are enormous. Really neat displays/exhibits of how things worked in Henry’s day.

(Below) Eli and Clark in the oven area — so huge! 

After that, back for the party. And it was lovely. The Meacham’s have really nice friends, and we enjoyed hanging out and seeing the US women win the match fiercely! So great!! In case you’re wondering, English BBQ means cooking on the grill, and Paul—Deb’s husband—made fantastic chicken, burgers, venison burgers (I didn’t taste those), and sausage homemade from his uncle that includes pheasant meat and was quite tasty! Baked beans were served, too, because beans are served with everything here...including breakfast! One of the families that came—their 13 year old son made a classic Victoria sponge cake dessert with strawberries that was delicious. So, Sunday was all-around a great day!

Goodbye friends and Castle Number One

Hi, it’s India on day four of our trip—so- Saturday. Mom said that each of us will write something at least one day we’re here; so here I am. In the morning our friends came to pick us up and take us to the Arundel castle. It was outstanding and far above what I expected. It is very interesting because it was built in 1066- the rest of the late 1000’s. Lots of the things there are from different places. It had so much stuff to look at on the inside not to mention the architecture. It had long narrow staircases, decorated ceilings, and very old stone walls. It was just magnificent. There was also an amazing garden with the most beautiful plants. After the wonderful castle our friends came to pick us up and take us back to their house. We had some tea (or other drinks if you didn’t want tea) and we thanked them for such a nice time. Then it was time to say our goodbyes. For pictures, see Mom or Dad’s FB posts!

Old Friends and the English Channel...

Friday: If you saw Clark’s FB pic, we were wheeling our bags this morning to the Esher train station in order to head South to Brighton Beach, England style! Our dear family friends, Paul and Lynda West, were collecting us (as they say here) at the train station to enjoy a couple days with them around the coast. Train was hot and crowded; guess lots of people want to beach for the weekend. But we made it readily enough and found Paul and Lynda, who we haven’t seen in 10 years. The kids were tiny back then compared to now.
We explored Brighton first with Lynda, enjoying the pier, that’s 120 years old!, having lunch there by the water, seeing the massive Royal Pavilion that is a palace that was built for King George IV, in the style of Russian and Indian architecture interestingly enough, and its lovely gardens. Then, Paul collected us and gave the running commentary on the towns we drove through as we headed to their town, Seaford. We stopped at their home for tea and biscuits and to enjoy their gorgeous gardens!
After our afternoon break, Paul served as tour guide to Seven Sisters Country Park to see the Seven Sisters (white chalk cliffs), Seaford Head, Beechy Head, and the Channel at Birling Gap where we could walk down to the water and get the perspective of how big those cliffs truly are! Our walks to the vistas included tromping through a sheep field that is privately owned, but that the owner happily allows folks to walk through for the views. It was perfect and all that comes to mind when I think of England! We even touched the water at the Gap and found it not too cold really. I did find approaching the cliffs’ edge quite unnerving and even blood-pressure-raising. But they are gorgeous and beautifully wild, defying the sea to cut more and more into the earth it would seem, as it breaks against the shore in its relentless and habitual way.
Our day’s journey ended in Eastbourne where we are staying at the Cavendish Hotel directly across from the Sea. How marvelous! It was all fabulous, and we look forward to seeing our friends again tomorrow.
P.S.—not sure why, but unable to add pics here...I’ll post a few on FB

“To the Keep” and “What Time Is It?...Showtime!!”

“To the Keep” — Wednesday morning, and we hit the ground running!
We met my childhood friend, Deb, without a hitch pretty much in Heathrow airport. She graciously took our luggage and sent us off to the big city. We headed there via train, got the Original Tour Hop on/Hop Off bus to see some sights and get our bearings ‘round the city (kind of), and stopped at the Tower. As in The Tower of London. Made our way to see the fortress it is, the “keep” that is the White Tower, and the crown jewel of all—the Crown Jewels. Those are some gems! It was a gorgeous day, enjoyed lunch there, too, then traveled more on the tour bus. But by afternoon, jet lag was catching us, and we headed out SE of city to Esher, where we’d be staying with our friends.
What a lovely little town, and our hosts have a lovely, really beautiful, home! With a whole third floor for our use. Kids were asleep before 8 p.m.! And we weren’t far behind. Early London impressions: Clark—a lot of young(ish) people in city and the men dress well (for work, we think). Eli—it’s peaceful (we all kind of agreed, less loud, busy, and hectic than NYC, for example). All of us—everyone is super nice/helpful.

Thursday morning we awoke well-rested and ready for new day - first up, British Museum. WOW! It’s impressive! Art, fine art, history, science, natural history, politics, all in one really!! The Rosetta Stone, two-headed serpent, Easter Island statue, cuneiform fragment from Ur, Parthenon and Halicarnassus pieces....splendid artifacts. And the building/setting itself! We were bowled over. Loved it!! Then, we took a cab to the Westend for what we knew would be a highlight of this adventure for us. Our taxi driver, John, was super—fun, informative, sharing info about sights on the way—really cool. And got us to....
“What Time Is It?...Showtime!” —Indeed!! “Hamilton” at Victoria Palace Theater. It was sensational!! Best musical I’ve ever seen. Truly! And King George—the guy who played him—seeing him/his interpretation of the role was worth the ticket price. It was such a treat for us as a family! And on July 4th. Pretty ironic. Too wonderful really!!
Then, huge bonus: we were outside, figuring out what was next, and ended up in a line of people without knowing/realizing we were in such a line. It was where the cast came out to greet audience members, shake hands, take pics, sign programs!! OMDL! So, Clark got photo of kids with “Hamilton” himself 😀!! Wild and fun.

As if all that wasn’t enough, then we went to the Thames, and we enjoyed an early evening river cruise. Lovely way to see city, especially bridges, particularly Tower Bridge. And finished with dinner at an English Pub—Hung Drawn and Quartered. Great name and traditional pub atmosphere. With good ale and pretty decent food!

That’s some way to do Day 2, if you ask us!! Headed South to Brighton (the Coast) tomorrow for a couple days. ~

Planes, Trains, Automobiles...

Day 1: Travel Tuesday! And in our case, planes, trains, automobiles, and buses! Eli said only thing missing was a boat!! After full day driving, being driven, shuttling, and waiting, we were in-flight for 6+ hours that went quite smoothly. In the midst, we caught the USA va  England in women’s World Cup—yay! U.S.A. won! —and the kids were troopers!
Eli took cool plane photos:

 Coming into Heathrow

 Sunrise in the sky

Wednesday morning our London adventures begin!!
~ Donna

A Return - Chronicles of Our July Adventure

Hi, Friends and Family!

I have not written for 5 years. Can't believe it's been that long. I think this blogging thing just has not turned-out to be for me so much. But, as many of you know, we are about to embark on an adventure of the grandest design...our family is traveling to the U.K. and Europe for a month! Clark is calling it the trip of a lifetime and a real odyssey, like nothing we've ever done.

I thought I might try my hand at a post a day (maybe?!) - we'll see if I am able to do so - to chronicle our adventures. If you're inclined to see what we're up to, what we see and enjoy, have a look.

Hope your July is as FUN as ours surely will prove to be! We head-out Tuesday (7/2). First stop, London. So, here's to strawberries and cream, tea and biscuits, the crown jewels, and perhaps cooler weather than here. Time to pack now, and be prepared for last Sunday before we leave, so that's it for now.

Au revoir, Auf wiedersehen, and Cheerio ~
Donna

Domestic Violence Awareness Month - Our Absurd World

Does it strike anyone else that we've most certainly breached the absurd here in our world?
I mean, ESPN has suspended Simmons because he called NFL Commissioner, Goodell, a liar.  He dared them to do it, so they kind of had to, admittedly, but certainly he's most likely not wrong.  And Goodell is on the hot-seat for how he's handled, or mishandled, as the case may be, the "Ray Rice incident" and by extension, the issue of domestic violence more generally, in the NFL. Good grief.  It makes my stomach turn just to refer to "it" that way - the incident, "the issue of..." ....it's about power and violence. It's about our legal system and its laws and how it protects men first, over/against women and children.  Period.  And no one is talking about that.  No one.

Yes, some are talking about systemic problems.  Or want to.  Some want the league and the nation and communities and coaches and players to talk about power and systems and agencies and services to talk about gender and roles and jokes and what zero tolerance means.  Kudos to Hannah Storm.  And Keith Olbermann.  And Bill Simmons.  But where is the conversation about how the law does not protect women and children.  Where is the conversation about an assault that was recorded on video, resulting in an arrest and a charge, ended in a plea of  not guilty and no conviction.  How do our laws result in that?  And how does that happen even with an uncooperative victim?  Even if the victim does not want to press charges (and there are all kinds of reasons why she might not want to, and I do not begrudge her that or blame her or question her - she has rights and reasons for how her life moves forward that are hers to choose - I wish for her the strength and respect and space she deserves, and I wish for her every access to support that victims of domestic violence ought have.), THERE IS A VIDEO TAPE OF THE ASSAULT!  That should be enough for a District Attorney to press charges and find the assaulting party guilty of something more than anger management or behavioral correction classes.  Mr. Rice, himself, admits remorse for his actions, though he pleads not guilty - how absurd!

And that brings us to the NFL and the continued absurdity.  After it happened, the coach of the Ravens says you have to look to Ray Rice's character...what?! He hit her and knocked her unconscious.  If he has "good" character, he admits what he has done and takes responsibility for his actions.  And the Commissioner and the league...the only reason they backpedaled this summer is because of the outcry after TMZ released the actual recording of the hit.  Good grief.  Again.  You have to see the video of the actual assault.  You can't just know it occurred.  And the fans, too, for that matter.  They were okay until they saw the actual assault.  The video makes the difference.  Not the transcript and reports of the assault.  What's the message here - pictures make the difference. They do say, "a picture's  worth a thousand words." All of this returns to the point - our legal system and laws do not protect women and children.  They are written and enforced to protect men.  And until we as a society acknowledge this truth, domestic violence will continue to occur at the rates it does, to the extent it does, as viciously as it does, and women and children, in particular will suffer.

I could end by saying - "and so the absurdity abounds" and that's the end of it.  And while I don't exactly feel so optimistic about the situation - I mean, the NFL is a billion-dollar industry-run by white men and so is the broadcasting industry (both rather disheartening truths with a capital T, really!!) and it's ultimately about the bottomline, right?!, I'm the parent of three children, and I can't accept that we just accept such absurdity.  I can't accept that we abandon the safety and livelihood and esteem of my sisters and our children in this world.  I can't accept that we abandon victims of domestic violence to those exercising power over them just because they think they can and think they can get away with it.  We have to work harder.  We have to be serious about changing our laws to protect everyone more and better.  We have to. I hope that those who have called out all the perpetrators and Commissioner Goodell and the NFL as a whole, includes addressing our politicians, too, in an effort to work to change our laws.  That's the only way we really start to change our culture that so allows the absurd world in which we're living where domestic violence just goes on and on and on, and people suffer so horribly.  If it's not the world we want, together we have to do something about it.