Posts Tagged ‘Family’
The next stop on our family tour of the UK was Durham, where my brother is working on his PhD. He recently bought a house, so we were excited to see him and to check out his new place. He gave us a wonderful tour of castle and abbey ruins and I had a blast taking tons of photos.
We started out with a bit of a walking tour of the town, cathedral, and the castle which is part of the university.
It was a beautiful walk along the river. The cathedral is in the background.
Walking along the river into town
From Oban we had a quick overnight stop back in Edinburgh, then took the train south to visit my gran in Doncaster. It was so good to see her and her husband Ken and they very kindly let us stay in their very deluxe motor home in their back garden. This motor home was better equipped than many houses I’ve lived in and was a really comfy place to stay!
We had several very competitive games of Rummikub, saw my aunt and uncle, ate lots of tasty food, and really enjoyed hanging out and chatting. We stayed for two nights, so we had bits of two days and one whole day there. Gran and Ken offered to take us to see one of their favorite castles in the area, so of course we couldn’t say no to that!
They took us to Castle Howard and it was spectacular! The grounds were beautiful and the house/castle is absolutely huge. This castle has been used twice for filming major productions of Brideshead Revisited and part of the upper level had an exhibition about how the filming was done.
We walked through the rose garden and the other beautifully landscaped gardens.
The roses were in bloom
Dr. DeWitt the veterinarian!
We had a very fun and joyful stop in Ithaca, NY to watch Justin’s sister Jessica graduate from veterinary school at Cornell University. Â It’s good to have a doctor in the family!
We made it to Niagara Falls, Canada and checked in to a cute little cabin. Â It had two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and really nice lawn with picnic table out back. Â We were worried about the weather since there were thunderstorms in the area, but in the end we were so lucky because it was sunny during the day and the big storms came at night. Â Our hotel was close enough to the falls that we could walk down, and we had fun taking lots of photos on the way. Â Click on any of these to see the photo gallery!
Canadian Phone Booth
We’re having such a wonderful time here in New Jersey! Â It’s pretty amazing to be living in a house for a little while again, speaking a language we know well, and getting to spend a lot of time with family. Â We’ve even managed to have some adventures, a haircut, and a bit of new clothing!
A few days ago we went down to Cape May, a nice town in the far south of New Jersey. Â It is one of the best birdwatching places in the US and since my dad was with us we got to see a lot of different birds – 80 species in the same day! Â We had a guest photographer, my mom, since she is looking at cameras for when she meets up with us in Africa, so all of the photos in this post were taken by her.
Hundreds of birds at Cape May
The day after the San Fernando Vendimia was my dad’s last day with us. We decided to have a final birdwatching expedition to try to get the number of species seen up – after all, we had a bet. We headed back up north towards Santiago and went to the Rio Clarillo National Park to try our luck. On our way we had to stop for one last reineta lunch, which was really tasty, but HUGE.
Up to this point I haven’t explained about the road signs in Chile. Or the maps. Navigating in this country is surprisingly difficult. There is an unpleasant trend for stuff to be signposted once or twice and then the signs just disappear. And then there is a T junction and you have to randomly pick a way to go. And then when you finally realize you’re going the wrong way you turn around and realize that there are more signs to where you are going, but you couldn’t possibly have seen them from the direction you came in. Many towns are not marked on the maps (we had a map in the guidebook and one we bought). You pretty much need a combination of lucky guesses, a willingness to turn around several times, and a lot of extra time. It can be hugely frustrating and very time consuming to get anywhere. We managed ok, but on this trip to the park we spent over an hour lost if you count both coming in and going out. We made it eventually though.
We headed south from Los Vilos, past Santiago, to the city of San Fernando for the 2011 Fiesta de la Vendmia. This was the second year this festival occurred and it showcases wines from the Colchagua Valley, which is considered one of the best wine regions in Chile. We had a blast!
We stayed for two nights in the town at the Hotel España, which was a slightly bizarre place, but not in a bad way. Half of the interior of the hotel was filled with giant plants and greek looking statues like a strange indoor mini-plaza. It was a bit shabby, but a nice place to stay and an easy walk from the square with the wine festival.
The festival itself was really well put together and the wine was absolutely awesome. There were booths all around the main square with the wineries in the middle and all kinds of delicious bbq and ceviche and other tasty foods around the outside. There were even booths from a couple of local breweries. The bbq was done over large piles of coals and whole animals were cooked at a time – pork and lamb. The air smelled like delicious roasting meat, wood smoke and red wine!
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We arrived after dark, but quickly found a hotel and a very tasty meal. Â Dad and Justin both tried the Pastel de Choclo (Corn Pie) which is basically a steaming hot bowl of cornmeal pudding/pie with all kinds of meat, egg, and other treats inside. Â People often sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the top. Â It is really tasty, but didn’t turn out to be the light dinner they were hoping for! Â We also discovered at our meal that there was a very local brewery in the area, and since we liked what we tasted we decided to head there the next day.
Guayacán brewery
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