[This series of posts comes directly from the journal I wrote during our vacation. Most entries were written on the date noted. Some were written a couple of days later. I'm not editing them significantly, except where noted. The full collection of all posted pictures.]

7/6

On the plane to depart Heathrow for JFK. Everything went smoothly from the drive out of Cricklade to check-in and security. Emily got a random pat down at security, and I got a pat down and bag search in the gangway. They were very minor delays. We left the hotel at 8:30AM and were in the terminal, through security by 11AM, boarding time 11:45.

On-time departure from the gate @ 12:45PM. There are monitors in the headrests which the kids are loving.

1:10PM» There is evidently trash on the runway resulting in a 20 minute delay to remove it and clear the runway for use again.

1:35PM» Moving again, getting ready to take off.

1:40PM» Evidently there’s some sort of alarm going off in the flight deck–they’re checking it out with maintenance in Atlanta.

1:47PM» Cleared for take off–alarm was evidently related to GPS system.

4:00PM ET» Flying over Long Island, approved for landing.

4:35PM ET» Two different problems getting to the gate delayed us 15 minutes. Just now getting to gates. Also didn’t have gate staff ready.

8:53PM ET» It took a little bit longer than expected getting through customs (man with 3 wives and 3 kids in front of us) and security, but we got to our gate 5 minutes before scheduled departure. Had enough time to fill water bottles, use toilets, and buy a sandwich before we started boarding. We were boarded and ready for on-time departure, but evidently the runways were packed due to weather problems in other parts of the country. We waited a while at the gate (30-40 minutes?) then waited in a very long line of planes. Finally took off around 8PM, 90 minutes late. At this stage we should be touching down in Columbus at 9:20-9:30.

[That was my last entry in the journal that I carried through most of our vacation. I didn't write as frequently as I'd hoped, but there were some days that we came back to the hotel room and just crashed--too tired to think about writing. Fortunately we've got more pictures than we know what to do with, and a bunch of video thanks to Anne and her Flip. Three weeks in Europe. It really was the trip of a lifetime, and I'm glad we were able to do it. It was epic.]

[This series of posts comes directly from the journal I wrote during our vacation. Most entries were written on the date noted. Some were written a couple of days later. I'm not editing them significantly, except where noted. The full collection of all posted pictures. North Wales Flickr Set.]

7/1 continued

[Written 7/4] We ventured [i.e. drove for half a day] into North Wales on 7/1, and thus began our decent into vacation fatigue. We arrived at the Fairy Falls Hotel in Trefriw and were immediately worried by the squishy floors and the almost terrible dinner. We were really worried. We were also low on clean clothes [we hadn't done laundry since Germany] and were dismayed at what we found in nearby Llanrwst. [The "laundro-mat" was really another motel's laundry facility with sheets filling the dryers and no prices listed. We were resigned to take our laundry on the next day to a local dry cleaners who would do laundry by the pound. We were pretty stressed at this point.]

7/2

[Written 7/4]  At breakfast, we told Debbie [one of the owners of Fairy Falls] of our plan to take our clothes to the drycleaners and pay them by the pound to do our laundry. She insisted on doing a bag (we gave her two plus detergent), then hung it out to dry. When we got home, the clothes were clean and dry in our room. She made it possible for us to enjoy this day rather than waste it (or money) on laundry. Debbie saved this day for us.

We ventured up to Conwy, visiting the castle and exploring the town and water front. Tide was going out while we were there causing the river to go from very wide to little more than 50 feet across. Boats were all sitting on the muddy bottom. On they quay there was a “European” festival with some fun food vendors and other interesting crafts.

[it seems like I could have written a good bit more about this day, but that's a hazard of writing the entry a couple of days later. For example, we took a fun boat tour up the river, and could notice a difference in the tide from the time we went out to the time we returned. Also, we ate dinner at the Galleon, and I was getting a little tired of Fish & Chips. In fact, I didn't want chips (fries) at all. But just look at this menu--only one item doesn't come with chips.]

7/3

[Written 7/4] We started the day by taking the kids up the river by the hotel to the namesake Fairy Falls. While we were looking at the falls, Anne tried to pull some trash from the water, slipped, and fell in. She had a small cut on her finder, bruised her hip, and dropped the Flip into the water. It sat in the water for 3-4 minutes before we realized it. (We let the Flip dry out for a day and then it worked fine).

After Anne changed, we headed out, stopped by Dolbadarn Castle, then onto the Isle of Anglesey. After lunch, we went to Beaumaris, visited the castle, and hung out quay-side.

After Beaumaris, we went to the southern tip of Anglesey to a beach new Niwbwrch. Again, it was low tide and the beach sand was amazing–easily 1/4 mile of beach was exposed at low tide, and we could walk another 200 meters in the water before it got above our knees. The North Wales mountains were in the background, making for another incredibly scenic beach evening.

We headed home not knowing where to eat. We stopped at an inn close to the beach and all ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. It took forever for the food to arrive, but when it did, it was amazing.

7/4

Today we toured the woolen mill in Trefriw, then found a very old church nearby. We went to the Snowdon Mountain Railway hoping to pay them handsomely for a ride to the top (86£ [$144]) but were told upon entering the parking lot that if we didn’t have reserved tickets, we weren’t getting on. Bummer.

So we headed toward Caernarfon to visit the castle. Before the castle, we were eating lunch on some steps near a fountain in a public square [watching a dog and kids playing in the water]. Before I was 1/4 into my sandwich, a sea gull had swooped down on me and pulled on the sandwich–it ended up getting about half the meat! I watched the theif attempt the same trick with several others, none as successful as the attempt on me.

[After lunch, we went into the castle.] Even Nathan’s enthusiasm for castles was waning, such that he wanted to explore only about half of it. Just as we were about to leave, a Canadian choir started to practice in the middle of the castle–it was absolutely gorgeous, and having them echo offt he walls added an incredible quality. [Anne learned that the choir is Cantilon Choir, and that they were in Wales for a competition the next day, which they won. I spent a good bit of time taking video of them, with the intention of working the audio into my slideshow video of the trip. I really enjoyed hearing them at that point in our trip--travel weary though we were. They sang so beautifully, I got a little choked up at the time, and still feel incredibly lucky that we got to see them in Caernarfon Castle.]

After the castle, we found a beach a few miles away at Dinas Dinlle. It wasn’t as nice as Niwbwrch, but it was still fun to explore. Anne was really tickled to find hermit crabs in one pool.

We stopped for dinner at [the famous] Pete’s Eats (in Llanberis) which clearly catered to the hiking/rock climbing crowd. I felt just a little out of place wearing flip-flops while most other patrons were in hiking boots.

One note among the family–the trip has been so long that Edinburgh (for example) feels like a completely separate vacation. Looking back over those pictures, it really does feel like an age ago. I have pics from the vacation broken into eight different folders so far to keep them manageable: Travels, Edinburgh, Borders, London, Germany, England, South Wales and North Wales. Each of these alone would be an incredible trip. All together, it has become an epic journey. [To date, I've posted 242 pictures to Flickr and Facebook. I could probably post another 200.]

7/5

[Written 7/6] Travel day from Trefriw to Cricklade. Debbie, our host at Fairy Falls made us breakfast to order, then we headed toward Shrewsbury, birthplace of Charles Darwin and (we later learned) the film location for George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol. We ate lunch at the Cornwal Past Company. We explored a little bit of the ancient town and stopped in a book store where the kids and Anne picked out reading material [for the flight home].

Next we headed to Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds. The architecture was pretty cool but most of the shops closed at 5PM and most of the properties near the town center appeared to be holiday rentals. We did a Rick Steves walking tour despite being a bit worn out.

We drove toward Cricklade, but stopped for dinner at an Indian restaurant in Stowe-on-wold. Rick Steves had recommended it, and the food was very good. We arrived in Cricklade, dropped our bags in our room, and within minutes the kids and I headed to a local town playground [that we'd visited on our first trip through Cricklade]. Their favorite-a zip line that had a sudden stop at the end. I’m pretty sure nothing like that could ever exist in the states due to safety regulations. We played for 45 minutes then headed back to the room for a couple of showers and last minute planning for departure.

[This series of posts comes directly from the journal I wrote during our vacation. Most entries were written on the date noted. Some were written a couple of days later. I'm not editing them significantly, except where noted. The full collection of all posted pictures. South Wales Flickr Set.]

6/28 Continued

[Written 6/30] Punch House was our cheapest room-and the building was very cool. Our room over-looked a square and all seemed great until we felt the beds–no padding over the springs. Then in the middle of the night, some drunk dudes made a bunch of noise waking Anne and me.

6/29

[Written 6/30] We thought we had breakfast included with the room, so we headed down in the morning. It was a pathetic selection of cold cereal and juice-but we thought “Hey, its free!” On check out, we learned that it was 3£ each [$5]. Oh well, even at 52£ [$87] (including the price of the breakfast) it was still our cheapest room.

[My journal doesn't mention the bit of exploring we did in Monmouth, checking out the Monnow Bridge, where I took the picture of the ducks above.]

We left Punch House and Monmouth and went back to Tintern Abbey to explore it further. It was really gorgeous and further impressed upon me just how amazing that stone architecture really was–all the wood was gone and the stone walls and arches just stood there against the elements, seemingly precarious.

After Tintern, we went into Cardiff where we did the premium guided tour of the Cardiff Castle. It was absolutely gorgous and the guide was a real treat. The view from teh keep was phenomenal. One point of note: none of us wanted the audio guide for Cardiff Castle–we were audio-guide-ed out. So we explored at our own pace after the tour.

When we were wiped out, we headed toward our next destination, Blaen-nant-y-Groes Farm Cottages in Aberdare, an old coal mining community. This was my first “Oh Shit, I hate driving in Wales” experience because the city streets were 0.9 lanes wide and damn-near vertical.

When we arrived at the cottages, the view blew us away – looking over Aberdare in the valley, very pretty. Oh, and miniature horses in the field in front of the cottage. [Emily, of course, fell in love.]

6/30

Today we ventured a short hike into Brecon Beacons National Park. We went to the visitors center, were told about a 90 minute hike to the site of a Norman hill fort, and we set off. The views were amazing through nearly all of the hike, sheep getting spooked at every turn. We had lunch at the center over-looking a pair of peaks–very nice food and a killer view.

Next we ventured down to Gower peninsula and the town of Rhossili, which sits atop a cliff edge, probably 200 feet above the bay. More stunning views every step of the way.

First we played on the rocks near Worms Head island as the tide was coming in. [There is another tidal causeway out to Worms Head, passable by foot only, but tide was in so it was submerged.] Next we went to the beach side and hunted shells and played in the waves.

Nathan got especially wet, and felt miserable most of the way home. The wind and sun beat on us all afternoon, but the wind was cool so we didn’t feel the sun burns developing. Yet another amazing day.

7/1

[Written 7/4] Before we headed to Treffriw [in North Wales] we stopped in the Big Pit coal mine at Nathan’s request. Emily really didn’t want to go underground, but was not allowed to explore unattended above ground without a parent, so we convinced her to go with us. (She later said sardonically “I’ll never forgive you.”) Mike, our tour guide was a great ham [with a wonderful Welsh lilt to his voice] and always ended a sentence spoke to a woman with “m’love”.

[This series of posts comes directly from the journal I wrote during our vacation. Most entries were written on the date noted. Some were written a couple of days later. I'm not editing them significantly, except where noted. The full collection of all posted pictures. England Flickr Set.]

6/27

Had some confusion getting  to the car rental log from the airport [the doors we were supposed to use were label only "Emergency Exit"] otherwise everything went smoothly after we landed in England. In fact border control was “no waiting” – walked right up, stamp, stamp.

Drove to Cricklade easily and found the hotel [White Hart] without too much trouble–its a very small town. Checked in, then explored the town which took 10 minutes on foot. Found a tiny little Thames river–barely more than a creek. Got take out Indian food and ate on a picnic bench behind the hotel-phenomenal.

Explored a little further by car, found Cotswold’s water park, and locals gave us some bread to feed the water fowl. After it was all gone, we saw the sign that said “don’t feed the wildlife.” Whoops.

6/28

[Written 6/30] We left Cricklade and explored Bath. As soon as we stepped out of the car, I realized that I had forgotten to turn in the room key at the White Hart. We called and they weren’t too worried about it, so we stayed in Bath to explore the Roman Baths. The site was very cool, but a good bit too long with too much audio guide.

After Bath, we went back to Cricklade to return the room key, then went to Avebury. It’s possible to walk right up to the stones (and sheep were grazing there too!) so we walked the complete circle.

After Avebury, we went to Stonehenge–couldn’t get close to the stones and the audio guide was a bit long, but it was all very cool nonetheless. By the time we were done, we were completely wiped out and wanted to head toward Monmouth (Punch House Inn).

On our way, we saw Tintern Abbey at sunset–the site wasn’t open, but the sunlight was coloring the clouds right behind it–very beautiful.