England

Sam had a business trip to a city north of London. We have not had a trip without the kids since we had the kids so we thought this was a good chance to get away. He left on a Sunday (while Caroline was in the ER getting her stitches) and I left on Thursday. I sat on the airplane next to a delightful chap (doesn't that sound British) who had gone hunting with and had tea with the Queen. Pretty impressive. I can say I have 2 degrees to the Queen.

When I arrived I had a company car take me straight to the hotel. It was so nice to not have to navigate the train, subway and train when exhausted from travel. Sam was waiting for me. I was exhausted so I took a short nap before we explored the city a bit. Stevenage did not have much but there was a small city museum and a street that was "old town" where we walked to eat dinner. We had a lot of typical pub food such as bangers and mash, fish and chips and shepherd's pie on this trip. I decided to take photos of some of the cool pub signs.

When I arrived we literally had NO plans. We did not know if we were renting a car or taking the train. We had no hotel reservations and we had no itinerary. We also had no working cell phones. I still don't know what the deal is with that because I talked to AT&T before and after the trip and they just shrug their shoulders and say it should have worked. Luckily we did have a laptop and most hotels and B&B's have WiFi now so we would stay one day ahead.

Saturday we rented a car and drove across the countryside towards Oxford which we never actually saw. We stopped first at Wrest Park. It was a former Abbey turned residence. Most of the residence is not open to the public. The real attraction was the beautiful gardens designed by "Capability" Brown. They were huge and beautiful. After posting the photo below on facebook, a friend commented that she did not recognize us as we were so relaxed and well rested. It has been a tough summer and fall with Sam traveling most of the time so we really did need this trip and we really did relax. Next we drove through the countryside and small towns to Woburn where we had lunch in a delightful tearoom before heading to Woburn Abbey, which also is now a residence. The Duke and Duchess of Bedford live there and the current Duke appears to be about my age with a 5 and 9 year old. We would be in a room with 17th century paintings on the walls and pictures of the kids on the coffee table. Woburn Abbey also has a deer preserve and wildlife park. We saw a lot of pheasant and deer including two bucks sparring. It was pretty spectacular to watch.
We had a bit of trouble that night as we arrived to Oxford after dark. Street signs are not well marked or well lit so we ended up on the other side of the town from where all the hotels I had marked were located. We pulled into a B&B with restaurant where they helped us find a reservation and served us an amazing meal.