Spring Half Term Break

Sutton and Sloane had their Spring half-term break a couple of weeks ago.  In the UK the school year is broken into 3 terms, and you get a week off for a half-term break in the middle of each term.  It was a little early for the typical Spring Break we are used to at home, but it was nice to sleep late all week and hang out.

We also got ourselves together enough to make a couple of day trips.  On Monday of that week, we made a road trip to Stonhenge and Salisbury Cathedral.  Keith did an excellent job of navigating the thousands of roundabouts we had to drive through on the way to Stonehenge (it felt very National Lampoon's European Vacation - "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament"), and it took us about 2 hours to drive there.

It was FREEZING (no surprise there) on the big open plain surrounding Stonehenge.  Luckily, it didn't rain until later in the day, so at least we weren't cold and wet.  Before we left the house, like the good mother that I am, I made a big deal about the girls grabbing all their cold weather items (hats, gloves, scarves).  When we were getting out of the car, I asked Sloane where her coat was.  She told me that she didn't bring it because I forgot to remind her.  Seriously, I didn't think I needed to actually say that out loud - seemed a little obvious to me.  Needless to say, Sloane froze in her sweatshirt, but she didn't get a lot of sympathy from me.

For some reason Sutton did not want us to take any pictures of her.  She really doesn't ever like to have her picture taken, but not taking pictures at Stonehenge just wasn't an option.  This of course led to tears and very annoyed parents, but we all pulled through in the end.  Despite the cold and the brief photo drama, we all enjoyed Stonehenge.  I was the only one who had been there before, and it was actually better than I remembered it.  I think that you are able to get closer now than 15 years ago when I last visited. 

After visiting Stonehenge, we went to the nearby city of Salisbury.  We walked through town and found a place to eat and warm up.  After refueling, we headed to Salisbury Cathedral.  The cathedral has Britain's tallest spire and the best preserved of only four original Magna Cartas.  It was really beautiful, and surprisingly, we all enjoyed our visit to the cathedral also.  I think the highlight of the trip for the girls happened when we were leaving town.  On our way back to the car, we passed a shop called Cupcake Heaven, so we got some amazing cupcakes for the road.

On Wednesday, we had good intentions of going walking on the beach in Brighton, but the weather just didn't cooperate.  As usual, it was cold and wet.  Instead we went down to the Marina and had lunch and looked around at some of the shops.  We felt good that we had at least made the effort to get out of the house on such a dreary day.

On Thursday we got a train to London and went to see the Tower of London, and it ended up being a beautiful, sunny day.  The Tower was a little crowded because it was a school holiday, but we were able to see all the things we wanted.  We were able to take a tour with one of the Beefeaters, and we saw the Crown Jewels.  After lunch, we headed over to the National Gallery.  We saw all of the "must see" paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Cezanne and Michaelangelo.  We also went outside and hung out in Trafalgar Square until it was time for dinner. 

Like our last visit to London, we went back to eat at Wahaca.  It is a Mexican food restaurant in Covent Garden that is actually really good.  It is the closest thing to real Mexican food we have found in the UK, so we just keep going back.  It wil have to hold us until we get home this summer for some real Tex Mex.