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Extra-curricular activities

2012-01-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

One Saturday morning, we headed up to Lawrence for Kaw Valley Eagles Day, where nature organizations had displays about area plants and wildlife. Coop in an eagle's nest:

And in the eagle hat he made:

The following day, we headed to the bowling alley for a classmate's birthday.

Turns out, we may need to put some more sports shows on tv. After Coop bowled, he would wait until the machine swept away any remaining pins, and then he would turn around and proudly announce, "Hey guys! I got a touchdown!!"

Cooper and his Daddy

2012-01-23T05:00:00.010-06:00

Going for a run during Christmas vacation:

Coop and I actually just went down to the track (1/4 mile away) while Alan took a real (3 mile) run through town. Coop was crushed that he couldn't go the full distance.

Playing pirate:

(Or at least one of them is. One may be sleeping...)

Reading at bedtime:

And finally, acting in a play Cooper wrote and directed called The Wizard and the Pirate. It may be a little difficult to hear the dialogue, but you'll get the general idea, I think:

One more: Christmas morning at our house

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-06:00

Cooper really enjoyed wrapping presents this year. Lots and lots of tape. And bows.

Christmas morning with the gifts Santa left:

Daddy got coal in his stocking, which Cooper still thinks is hilarious.

Coop and his Grinch:

Coop with the gifts from Santa -- Santa suit, Titanic model, Titanic book, misc toys and candy.

Success.

Christmas in Lyons

2012-01-09T05:00:00.004-06:00

With cousin Vada:

Cousin Zoey couldn't make it to Lyons this year, so we Skyped with her:

The Grandkid picture:

Decorating sugar cookies:

And Coop got some great gifts. A pirate watch, which he hasn't taken off since (except for bath time):

At home a few nights later, with watch still on. And also sporting his new robe. And Grinch doll.

A dinosaur model that he and Alan put together:

And some fake snow, which is actually pretty amazing.

You add water to this little pile of powder, and it fluffs up like snow. It doesn't pack well, but it's fun to drive trucks in and bury toys under.

Activities during our visit to Lyons

2012-01-05T05:00:00.001-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa had some snow on the ground, so Cooper spent hours outside sledding.

Even on day 2, when much of the snow had melted:

Snowball fight with Daddy:

We walked along the train tracks out behind the house:

And took the obligatory gator rides:

And to burn off even more energy, I plopped him on Mom's treadmill:

Christmas in Wichita

2011-12-28T05:00:00.003-06:00

We celebrated with Alan's family the weekend before Christmas when everyone was in town for Julie's wedding. The night we were supposed to have Christmas dinner and open presents, Cooper stood outside Jerry and Carol's house waiting (not at all patiently) for Julie, Jon, and Jen to arrive.

"Julie, where arrrrrre you? Jon, are you here yet? Jennnnnnny, where ARE you?"

He eventually found some fun things to play with, including this antique train that Alan's folks found:

Castle blocks:

The swing set:

"Push me higher Grandpa Jerry!"

And the washing machine:

"Mama, they have a lid, not a door." (We have a front-loading machine.) "You can watch it spin!"

And one evening, we took a horse-drawn carriage ride, which Coop really enjoyed:

Goin' to the chapel...

2011-12-22T05:00:00.001-06:00

Alan's sister Julie got married last weekend, and Cooper was the ring bearer.

Alan was an usher (aren't they cute?!):

I was Mom of 4-year-old Ring Bearer, which frankly took more than a little bit of effort:

Playing foosball with Jenny before the service:

Walking in with Jenny and Jon:

(Notice the red and black snow boots. We're classy like that.)

Giving Jon the rings:

Sleeping on his ring bearer pillow (on the floor) that night:

Cooper's "projects"

2011-12-19T05:00:00.002-06:00

Lately, instead of going to sleep at bedtime, Cooper has been working on "projects," as he calls them. They involve typing paper, scissors and tape. Witness:

A pirate, complete with hat, vest, and peg leg:

(Just for scale, the body is two regular sheets of paper, so these creations are all about 3 feet tall. Which makes them difficult to store...)

A horse:

Stirrups for Fuzzy:

Santa:

A snowman:

A grinch mask:

"Mama, ask me how I got it to stay on."
"Cooper, how did you get the grinch mask to stay on?"
"I taped it to my face."

At Grandma Carol's, we didn't have typing paper, so Cooper made her a complete grinch out of kleenex:

A note for Santa that Cooper left on his door:

Translation: "Night Number 3: My dad has been bad." Looks like it'll be lumps of coal for Alan!

And finally, a school project: a map of North America:

He traced each country, punched it out using a thumbtack, and then glued the map together. He can name United States, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and Panama. Ok, so Canada and Mexico are backwards, but cut him some slack.

Final Christmas preparations

2011-12-12T05:00:00.001-06:00

I ordered a 2011 ornament for Cooper, and I picked a school-themed one.

Coop has made such huge advances lately in his writing and reading and spelling. It's been so fun to watch, and we are ridiculoulsy proud.

I also (finally!) finished the Christmas stocking I started (four years ago). (And in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that a friend from church sewed it to the backing and made the little loop. Thank goodness she did or it would probably have been another four years before I got this done!)

Our mantel:

My stocking, which was the one Grandma Farm had for me at her house. Coop's stocking. Alan's stocking, which is a work-boot-themed stocking that he picked. And the nativity scene that my mom made for Grandma Farm. Perfect.

And finally, our yearly trip to Santa, who comes to visit our local gas station/McDonalds.

Coop asked for a Santa costume and a "own car" (that's the red and yellow plastic Cozy Coupe car that he rides in) that's big enough for a five-year-old. At least he didn't ask for "a watch, a van, and a sister," which is what he told me a couple of weeks ago.

If you're feeling nostalgic, here are previous posts about Coop's visit to Santa:
2010
2009
2008
2007

Spelling and drawing

2011-12-08T05:00:00.004-06:00

Miss Ann emailed us this photo of Cooper at school. He's working with the moveable alphabet, which helps children learn to spell words by sounding them out:

And yes, it's cursive. Montessori schools start preschool children out with cursive letters because they're easier to write for a child's natural hand motion and because it avoids reversal errors that can happen with lowercase print letters (like b and d, or g and p and q).

Shortly thereafter, the pictures Cooper drew at school started including words. Here was his depiction of the characters in Puss in Boots (which he saw at a birthday party a few weekends ago):

From left: Humpty Dumpty, the black cat, and Puss in Boots (spelled PS, which is probably about how it sounds to Cooper). Puss in Boots is holding his hat with a feather sticking out of it.

Here, Coop's holding hands with his friend Madeline. And standing nearby are Ruby and Ava:

Yikes -- Coop and Madeline and hearts?! What sassy pants girl is teaching my baby to draw hearts?!!

The top vehicle here is Alan's white truck. And the blue one is my car. Or rather, my "cor." Close enough.

A recent sign Cooper made: NO GRLS ULALD.

(Translation: No Girls Allowed. After all the hand-holding and hearts pictures, I should be pleased, except this sign was directed at me. Dangit!)

Misc fun stuff

2011-12-05T05:00:00.006-06:00

Grandma Joan came up to visit one weekend, and she and Coop walked down to the nearby track/soccer field. And then they played soccer with a paper plate.

Maybe we need more toys for the lad....

Actually, we really don't. Lately, he's been having fun building things with Lincoln logs. Here's a hotel:

And a pirate ship (naturally):

Finally, remember the tool box that Grandpa Cecil passed down to Cooper? The one that his grandpa had made for him? My Aunt Anita found this picture of Grandpa Cecil with the tool box:

How adorable is that?!

Cooperpalooza

2011-12-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

We had five (count 'em -- FIVE) days at home with Cooper over thanksgiving break. Christmas decorations only took 3.5 hours. So we busted out the craft projects.

First up, candy canes out of pipe cleaners:

Wreaths out of pipe cleaners:

Egads -- glitter art!

Alan's a show-off:

We made critters out of modeling clay:

We played with new tinker toys:

Cooper spent quite a bit of time working on a pirate ship project:

I made a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas while Coop continued work on the pirate ship:

At last, a new pirate ship ornament for the tree:

Whew. Sadly, all of these projects only took up about 10 hours total. Needless to say, several of us were glad to go back to school on Monday!

Decorating for Christmas

2011-11-28T05:00:00.002-06:00

After I unceremoniously ended Halloween, Coop was anxious to get out the Christmas tree. I kept stalling him by promising that we'd do it the day after Thanksgiving.

So on that Friday morning, Cooper popped out of bed at 7:01am, and by 7:15am, he and I were in the basement dragging out boxes of decorations.

First up, the Christmas books:

(That's Alan's first cup of coffee of the day. First of many.)

I didn't feel like having a battle about getting rid of the zombie in the living room, so we made him festive and called him a decoration:

Hanging a wreath:

Setting up his nativity scene:

Organizing his Christmas village:

And finally, the tree.

Checking out his stash of nutcrackers:

And then, it was 10:30am, and I was out of Christmas decorations. I tagged Alan, and it was his turn to entertain the holiday-spirited boy:

They played Santa and reindeer, while I relaxed on the couch and listened to Kenny Rogers's Christmas cd.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:17:00.000-06:00

Mom and Dad were able to come up on Wednesday to join Cooper for his Thanksgiving Feast at Raintree. The children spend all month preparing food for the event -- corn casserole, rolls, cranberry relish, pumpkin cake, mashed potatoes, peanut brittle, dressing, butter (made by shaking cream!). It's a fun event, and Coop was glad to have his grandparents there.

Back at home, Coop and Grandpa Cecil did some science experiments and played "will it float":

On Thanksgiving day, we hosted Alan's folks, plus a couple of students (one from Baker and one from Washburn) who weren't going home for the holiday. The only photo I took, though, was of my serving dishes, which I love:

The brown bowl from Grandma Farm's house, the silver tray that Grandpa Farm won at a brown swiss (cow) show, the square plate I bought just because I loved it, the oval serving platter we got as a wedding gift from one of my favorite law school professors, and the big white bowl I found at a garage sale for $1.

They were eventually filled with yummy food, and we had a great day. Tomorrow, time to dig out Christmas decorations!

Cooper projects

2011-11-21T05:00:00.002-06:00

After we finished the giant pirate ship project, Coop and I headed to the store to pick a new model project. Everything at the store is pretty tame. He selected an army tank and the only "assembly" included screwing on the six wheels.

After that massive pirate ship, this was pretty lame. Finished in about 10 minutes.

My Aunt Kathy made this quilt for me. It's called the Ella Mae sampler (Grandma Farm's name!) I love it!

And it makes a great fort roof, too.

Reading in the Love Sac:

And Cooper "reading" on the couch (with Little Bill).

At school, Coop's class has been listening to books on tape about "Jack and Annie." Turns out, they're books in the Magic Treehouse series. We ordered one, and Cooper was so excited when it arrived, he grabbed it and hunkered on the couch for about 15 minutes "reading" it.

(Unfortunately for him, he later lost the privilege of starting the new book that night, which resulted in tears. But we moved passed that...)

I made Cooper cry.

2011-11-14T20:50:00.000-06:00

I suggested that we put away the Halloween decorations. Actually, I just grabbed a big bucket and started loading up the ghosts and witches and skeletons. Bad move. The child loves Halloween.

So I let him pick three things to keep out. He chose knitted jack-o-lantern coasters, a big orange skeleton to hang in his room, and a foam haunted house that he decorated with stickers.

And he reminded us that we had not yet made a zombie this year. Remember Big Bill from last Halloween? Apparently it's now a yearly tradition we've started. Who knew.

But, it turns out that we're lazy. No one except Cooper really wanted to find a straw bale and old clothes and put together a zombie. So we compromised and made a small inside zombie by stuffing old Cooper clothes with newspaper.

Meet Little Bill:

Here's hoping we can put him away before it's time for the Christmas tree...

The obligatory Halloween photos

2011-10-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

Coop chose to be a witch this year for Halloween, and he really wanted green skin. I'm all about making dreams come true:

The witch hair, which has to be pulled back into pigtails because it gets in his face:

Ta-da!

Except that Coop didn't want to be the only green-skinned witch, so I ended up in the game, too:

Turns out, Parker was also a witch. (The boys had matching witch pigtails!)

Zachary was a bat:

Off for candy:

Coop ate a ring pop in the car on the way home, and went to bed with blue lips and tongue. That can't be good....

A little bit of work, a little bit of play

2011-10-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Cooper's ABCs:

The "100 Board" work at school. He had to sort and order the numbers from 1 to 100.

School friends Ava and Madeline. Each week, Coop alternates between which of these girls he's planning to marry. I think it's Madeline this week (but Grayson also wants to marry Madeline, so we'll see...).

Over Labor Day, we went to Topeka with Michael and Kristen. BNSF had a "family day" event at their huge railyard. Fun.

Then we stopped by my office at Washburn. Cooper, Thomas Jefferson, and Parker enjoyed the lovely afternoon.

Finally.... it's done.

2011-10-10T05:00:00.017-05:00

Cooper and I finished our model pirate ship project:

(Excuse the bad hair on both of us. It was a Saturday morning.)

It's not pretty (the craftsmenship, not the hair), it won't win any awards, but by golly, it's done:

Cooper insisted we add a plank, even though the plans didn't call for one:

It lives, for now, on our fireplace.

Our annual trip to the Ren Fest

2011-10-03T05:00:00.001-05:00

Coop, Alan, and I headed to Bonner Springs this past Saturday for the KC Ren Fest. This year, we stumbled into the children's play area, which included this fabulous pirate ship playground thing.

That's Coop, standing at the front (bow? port? who knows...) with the pirate spyglass he made out of a toilet paper tube and some cellophane.

There was also a station where you could make a magic wand with feathers and glitter and beads. And then you had to go to the wizard to get it tested.

Coop's got the magic!

Alan and Coop (and a couple of strangers) rode the elephant. It's always a toss-up between the elephant and the camel. This year, the elephant won out.

Quick stop at Ye Olde McDonald's for some ice cream before heading home for a nap.

Like a true witch...

2011-09-22T05:00:00.004-05:00

More randomness

2011-09-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

One of my Washburn co-workers has a four-year-old daughter who likes to dress up like a pirate. Score.

She came over in full regalia, and she and Coop vanquished dragons from the yard, had sword fights, and shared the parrot.

I'm guessing Halloween is one of Cooper's favorite holidays. Not because he can dress up in costume; he does that all year long. But because there are more props readily available. His latest acquisition was a witch wig.

Turns out, he hates having hair in his eyes and mouth, so we made witch pigtails. And fittingly, my witch wig has gray hair in it.

One recent Saturday, we headed out to the Baker wetlands for the monarch butterfly tagging event.

It turned out to be a chilly, rainy day, so all the monarchs were about 40 feet up in the air in the tops of the trees. That made them a little hard to catch.

But Michael whacked one down with his net. As it lay on the ground stunned, I swooped in to pick him up.

We were instructed to put a small sticker on the butterfly and to record the sticker number and the butterfly's gender.

After the obligatory photo op, we let him go and told him to "fly away to Mexico!"

Given the blow this one took from Michael's net, we're not entirely confident he'll make it to Mexico, but he's wearing a tag nonetheless!

Summer travel

2011-09-12T20:50:00.007-05:00

Alan and I took a three-day trip to San Francisco this summer. Without Cooper. For the first time. We had a great time.

For the first day and a half, this was the only photo we took:

These seven Victorian houses are known as the "painted ladies." The middle one is the house where the Full House family (from the 80s sit-com) lived.

Then I felt bad that the only photo I had taken in SF was a pop culture reference from my childhood. So we took some more:

A cable car:

Us:

The flag from the boat we took to Alcatraz:

Alcatraz island:

We had a great tour of the island and the prison. Fantastic!

In other, less-fun travel, Cooper and I took a trip to Joplin, Missouri. He had been pretty obsessed with talking about and reading about the tornado. We had a couple of days off this summer, so we went down to Missouri to visit a high school friend of mine, and we detoured through Joplin.

The devastation is pretty astounding.

Fun new things

2011-09-05T05:00:00.022-05:00

Alan went to Steamboat Springs for a family reunion, and he come home with bandanas. Perfect for pirate head scarves.

Or to be cowbow bandits with the help of Fuzzy the Stick Horse.

Grandpa Cecil cleaned out his shed and sent this toolbox for Cooper.

Grandpa Cecil's grandpa made it for him when he was a boy. Coop loved putting his little plastic tools in it. I'm guessing it'll get more use when his tools get bigger and sharper!

Grandma Carol found a new pirate hook, as well as a styrofoam parrot to complete Cooper's pirate outfit.

He was crazy-excited and didn't take off the hook, the bird, or the costume all weekend long.

Coop used a box of pencil erasers for witch fingernails.

Never a dull moment around here!

Garage sale season

2011-08-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

We've had a fun summer of garage sales around town. Cheap fun, but it does result in a large increase in ~~crap~~ toys around the house.

We kicked off the season with the Baldwin Citywide sales. At the first one or two places we stopped, Cooper didn't really find anything he truly wanted, but he would pick something up and say "well, I guess we can buy this." I certainly didn't want to foster the idea of buying stuff just for the sake of buying stuff. So we talked about waiting to find something he really wanted, that way if we came across something a little bigger (instead of just a small car or something), we could get it.

He found this:

A 3-foot by 4-foot doll house. It's the Little Tykes Grand Mansion from the 90s, and it's in spectacular condition. Good thing, because now it's in our living room.

Also notice the outfit -- a clown costume to go with the jester hat he got for his birthday in England.

Cooper's doctor outfit became a vet outfit when we found a plastic animal crate, stuff dog (he named Ralph), and vet tools.

And it's possible I may have lost my mind here. Coop found a box with a pirate ship on it. We bought it for $1 and then I noticed that it contains a zillion tiny plastic pieces that we're supposed to glue together.

So bit by bit, Cooper and I have been piecing it together. He much prefers to watch me do it and then count to 20 while we hold the freshly-glued piece in place. So far, we've built about 45 cannons, three decks, and the hull.

Many more steps to go.

Fuzzy the Stick Horse

2011-08-22T05:00:00.001-05:00

Coop and I were in Dollar General a few weeks ago buying random supplies. He's had his eye on a stick horse there for quite some time. So we decided we would take it up to the front register and ask how much it costs.

[Rookie mistake. I should have found out what it cost first before we actually had it in our cart.]

Anyway, it was $8. I explained it's a bit more expensive than I was thinking, so we're not going to buy it today, but that we'll go home and make a plan about how he can earn/save money and come back to get it later. He cried for a while, which I expected. And we talked about how hard it is to have to wait to buy something you really want, but that we can use his sticker chart (which currently earns him books) to maybe earn the horse over the next week or so. I got him calmed down, we gave the horse a hug, took him back to his box, and headed to the door.

We were half-way out the door when the woman who was paying for her items at the register yells out to us, "Ma'am he can buy the horse!" And I say "Oh, no thanks. We're ok. We'll come back and get in some other time." But she insists, "No really, he can buy it." And she digs money out of her purse. I keep saying no, and I'm frantically shaking my head at the cashier (a friend of mine) to see if she can help. But then the woman hands Cooper $8 and tells him to go get the horse.

We did. And he was overjoyed. With honest-to-goodness tears of joy. It was sweet.

But so much for the lesson I was trying to teach. So now we're using the sticker chart to earn the $8 and then do something nice for someone else.

Summer fun

2011-08-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

Carmen and Toban got this helmet/handlebar set for Cooper for Christmas a year and a half ago. We just now figured out that it only works when the handlebars are in close proximity to the helmet. And then it makes all kinds of great noise.

This is Coop's motorcyle-riding position.

One Saturday morning, we made a beard to go with Coop's Santa costume:

Coop designed this train track, complete with the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye on the back corner.

The Lawrence Community Theatre put on a production of How I Became A Pirate, based on a book that Coop loves. So naturally, he donned his pirate costume so we could go see it.

Cooper with Captain Braidbeard, the pirate lead in the show:

Summertime

2011-07-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Alan and Cooper (and Grandma Joan) worked at the water stop for a local 5K.

All of the cousins got together in Lyons around the 4th of July. Popsicles:

Bubbles:

iPads:

This photo is titled Sweet Revenge:

Coop got stung by a wasp (his first sting!), so he and Alan eradicated the nest, which the wasps had built in the fence right next to our car. Bad move.

Other random activities

2011-07-11T05:00:00.004-05:00

Riding in the new booster seat (instead of a five-point harness!) with Woody doll.

Ice cream beard:

With Cooper Bear, a gift from Aunt Jill. It's a talking, interactive bear from Hallmark that's actually named Cooper! He comes with books that you read to him, and he responds to certain words and phrases.

Coop loves him. For the last month or so, he's gone everywhere with Cooper. He rides in the car (with his seatbelt, of course) to school, sleeps in Coop's bed, and sits at the table with us for meals.

Playing with the dollhouse at Grandma Carol and Grandpa Jerry's.

Singing into Grandma Margaret's cane -- the perfect height for a stand-up mic!

Care to guess what this creation is:

It's Cooper's version of Joplin, Missouri.

Coop and I took a trip to Omaha with our friend Carrie and her son Gus. We had fun playing in the hotel pool and we really, REALLY enjoyed the Omaha Zoo. It's fabulous. The only picture I took of the trip, though, was this one of the boys in the bathtub:

Right brain activities

2011-07-07T05:00:00.000-05:00

We played with sidewalk chalk. Coop drew this picture of a person, and then he wrote his name. Note: He can properly write his name with all the letters facing the correct way. But for this masterpiece, he was writing it upside down, and he still got it pretty close. I was impressed.

A tractor:

Baking some sugar cookies:

Cross stitching:

Baking Grandma Farm's rolls:

Visit to the Lyons area

2011-07-04T05:00:00.004-05:00

Cooper enjoyed a (belated) Easter egg hunt at Grandma Joan and Grandpa Cecil's. (Prince was not much help.)

We went out to Grandpa's pasture to walk around and play at the pond:

Fish!

And then we visited Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farm in Nickerson, where we got to pet kangaroos:

Kiss giraffes:

And listen to the talking parrot:

Activities back at home

2011-06-27T22:39:00.000-05:00

Cooper's had fun driving his jeep around the yard. It's really been the first time he's played with it, despite that it's been sitting in our barn for a couple of years. Up until now, it was a little scary (I maybe didn't adequately warn him what would happen the first time he sat in it and stepped on the gas pedal... oops).

But he loves it now!

And the bicycle has gotten lots of use too:

Cooper started back to preschool when we got home from England, and he's been doing lots of writing practice. And he's drawing more pictures now, so he decided to write a book called "The Birthday Party." It's riveting. Look for it in bookstores near you...

Yay for garage sale season! We picked up this pile o' train tracks and Thomas engines for a mere $20.

Actual retail price: probably in the neighborhood of $300. Score.

You know it's been too long since you've udpated your blog when...

2011-06-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

Your dad nags you about it on Facebook. I got the hint, Dad.

But I'm really worn out from all the England blogging. And all of the Nothing I've been doing since we got home.

So I'm going to ease into things by posting some photos from last Christmas. I had set these aside to blog after the holidays, but then we left for England and I had other things to post.

Cooper's new reading chair:

Cooper trying out his new baker's outfit:

Cousin Zoey came to our house for a bit over Christmas. And she got to play with Coop's pirate stuff. She even got to wear the hat!

We spent an afternoon shredding a bunch of documents that had piled up. Coop really enjoyed it, and danced a cute little jig as his papers went through.

Cousins playing with a parachute at Grandma and Gramdpa's house:

Finally, an adorable video of Cooper and his friend Jackson. The boys started at Raintree at the same time, and were fast friends. They got together once over Christmas break before we left for England, and apparently did a lot of giggling:

(I'm a little afraid that they do that all during the school day, too!)

In case you missed it...

2011-06-08T22:37:00.000-05:00

I was looking over my England posts, and I realized that I had created one but it never actually posted. (I sent it through recently, but it's dated May 12, so you might not find it.)

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, go check out our photos from the Costume Ball in Harlaxton.

Harlaxton: Final Thoughts

2011-05-24T05:00:00.003-05:00

We had a fantastic semester in Harlaxton. We would love to go again whenever Alan gets another turn (maybe in five or six years?).

The manor is a wonderful place to live, and the folks at Harlaxton run a good ship. The housekeeping and grounds crews keep the place immaculate. And we were all made to feel right at home—every detail was arranged for our arrival, including snacks in our apartment and children’s books on the shelves.

Food in the Refectory was ok. It was cafeteria food cooked to serve a large number of people. So there were inherently some limitations in quality. But definitely passable. Coop maybe wouldn’t entirely agree, but they always had a dessert, which was a big hit with him, and he ate a lot of yogurt. (I’ve convinced myself that yogurt is some kind of miracle food, and as long as he eats that, he’ll be ok...) Given that all of our meals were provided, we didn’t eat out much. When we were traveling, we usually found a local pub. And pub food is always yummy!

We liked living with (among) the students. I wasn’t sure we would; I thought it might get old after a while. But our room was tucked out of the way so we saw very few people and heard even fewer. The students were so kind to Cooper, which really helped. And they always had fun stories to tell about their previous weekend’s travels or their itineraries for the following weekend.

Alan’s classes (you know... the official reason we were there) went well. He greatly appreciated the quality of his students’ work. Most schools require a minimum GPA for a Harlaxton semester, so on average, this group of students was sharper than student body back here. His classes were small, which meant way less grading. And he had plenty of time in the evenings to work on some other projects. (Though he did miss his wood shop!)

My time in Harlaxton was great, though different from my expectations going in. I had envisioned dropping Cooper off at preschool, and then having a large chunk of time at the manor to read or exercise or walk the trails. But because preschool was in Grantham (10 minutes away from Harlaxton) and because we were tied to the school shuttle schedule, I spent all of my non-Cooper hours in Grantham, which put a damper on lounging around the castle and taking leisurely strolls through the woods. It worked out well, though. I camped out at a pub and got a lot of work done for my Judge in Kansas City. I explored town and found some neat shops (and some great bargains!). And then I had a lot of time in the evenings, after Coop went to bed, to read or catch up on email.

Cooper also did really well. At four, he’s adaptable enough to be at home anywhere. He slid right into preschool without much trouble. And he loved the attention of all the college kids! But we realized early on that we were placing huge expectations on him in a number of areas of his development.

Physically, we were asking Coop to walk more than he ever does at home—70 stairs from our room down to the ground floor, at least three times a day, and a half-mile from the shuttle drop-off to preschool (and back at the end of the day). Not to mention all of the walking we did while we were sightseeing. In some ways, he was at a bad age for this—too old to strap in a stroller (or carry) and drag wherever we wanted to go, too young to walk as far and as fast as we would like. But we quickly adjusted our travel expectations and learned to do things in bite-sized chunks, with lots of snacks in between excursions.

Socially and emotionally, we wanted Cooper to behave whenever we were around people (which was always). At dinner, we expected him to sit and eat and not hop on his chair or smear butter on the table or sing eleventy-five verses of Wheels on the Bus.

One stressor from the semester that I had not anticipated was trying to parent a four-year-old with 200 other people around. Mind you, everyone was kind and helpful and no one said anything negative (except for once, but I’m trying to block that out). Only a few times did we even get a stink eye from anyone (that I saw). But living in a manor with so many other people means that there’s always a pair of eyes or ears to catch my Bad Mommy moments. Oh well. We did the best we could.

And hopefully we’ll have a chance to do it again. On the slate for next time, when Coop’s older: more guided tours (like the Tower of London!), more time in Scotland, more walking the footpaths in the area, a trip to the Lake District, and maybe a trip to Ireland. We'll keep you posted!

Heading Home

2011-05-22T05:00:00.030-05:00

We spent our last few days at Harlaxton saying goodbye to our new dear friends. For Cooper, that meant having a party (with cake!) at Puddleducks. His teachers and friends waved goodbye.

Cooper said something pithy like "Well guys, I guess you won't ever see me again." And then he walked out. He's apparently not one for long drawn-out goodbyes.

One of his favority teachers, Rory.

With Miss Mollie, a student at Harlaxton who babysat him quite a bit.

With Miss Samantha, one of Alan's students who was just generally lovely to Cooper.

Zyggy, our favorite shuttle bus driver.

Miss Terry, the wife of a journalism professor from Illinois. Miss Terry didn't arrive until mid-March (she was recovering from knee surgery), but even in her short month here, she won Cooper's heart.

So. That's it. Time to go home.

We managed to get everything packed (disclaimer: we sent two wheelie-bags-full home with our mothers!) and to the airport.

And we settled in for a nice long flight back to the States.

Cooper's Tea Party

2011-05-20T05:00:00.017-05:00

To raise money for charity, Harlaxton students auctioned off a chance to "pie a professor" (with a cool whip pie in the face) or to have a tea party with Cooper! After the winners were announced, we arranged a tea date with the three lucky winners.

Coop served them all pretend tea with pretend cream and pretend sugar.

But I didn't figure that would be good enough since they actually paid money for this, so we spent about an hour decorating cookies and drinking pink lemonade in the Conservatory.

I was pretty excited about the British plates!

We scheduled the tea party during finals week, so I think the girls were glad to have a break from studying.

Somewhere near the end of the party, Cooper said "gosh, I've had a lot of sugar." Yes indeed, son. Yes indeed.

Photo Contest Entries

2011-05-18T05:00:00.007-05:00

Each semester, the college has a photo contest. As you can imagine, with so many people traveling to so many interesting places, the photos are outstanding. Here were are entries (none of which won a prize):

"My Parents" by Cooper

"Puddles" by Alan

"Supermen" by Emily

Here and There

2011-05-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

As you may remember from Cooper's British accent videos, he's been playing book store in his room. One day, we finally sorted through the inventory and tried to stack it by type: sound books, pirate books, animal books, people books, tv character books, Mr. Men/Little Miss books, and board books.

And then we had to make Open and Closed signs for the store. Except Cooper's really wordy, so just Open and Closed wouldn't do. This was my favorite series:

Zyggy let Coop help drive the shuttle bus again! Ack!

For some reason, Cooper wanted to make a rectangle on his sheets (with packing tape) and then he and all four "kids" have to stay in the rectangle at night. I'm not sure how well it works. We can usually hear him putting Baby (the fox puppet) in time-out for getting outside the rectangle...

A tea party with the kids:

A story for this next photo: When we were packing for this trip, I decided to pack a cross-stitch project to work on (it's actually a Christmas stocking for Cooper; I started it in November 2007. Heh.). When we unpacked here, I stuck it in my nightstand drawer. And promptly forgot about.

We've been trying to pack up some things in anticipation of the trip home, and I came across the stocking. I was so hacked that I missed out on 3 1/2 months of cross-stitch, that I got it out and started it. We'll see how much progress I can make in our remaining days here.

One morning, Alan and I took Jack and Cooper to Muddle Go Nowhere.

It's a lovely pub attached to this play place:

Brilliant idea. Parents can eat lunch and drink beer. Kids can run around in the giant hamster cage.

And we've been spending as much time as possible with our friends Jack and Abby and Tilda.

Abby painted Cooper's toe nails -- he loved it!

Mid Lent Fair

2011-05-14T05:00:00.041-05:00

Two weeks before Easter, Grantham held a Mid Lent Fair, open for four days along the Market Street area (where the Saturday market is held):

No craft vendors, just rides and games and food.

First up, food. Donuts, always a winner with me:

Bulk candy (you could, for example, fill a bag of random gummies for a pound). I like candy. Again, I'm a fan.

But it sort of went downhill after that. We grabbed a couple of hamburgers for dinner, but they must have been made with some kind of soy mixture because they tasted like veggie burgers that are trying to be beef burgers.

So we opted for a Toffee Apple to supplement our meal:

But it wasn't caramel or toffee really at all. The outer coating was a hard, cinnamon-y flavored shell. It was ok, just not what we were expecting.

Lots of booths had cotton candy, which they call Candy Floss here. But otherwise, no typical carnival food that you would see in the States. No corn dogs or funnel cakes or elephant ears.

I did see this booth that had corn on the cob and "hot peas with mint sauce."

We opted instead of extra M&Ms when we got back to our apartment.

Besides the food and the games (which we didn't try because we don't need a goldfish or a giant stuffed animal to try to get back to Kansas), there were tons of rides. And lots for little kids. Coop must have ridden on seven different vehicle things that go in a circle on a track -- helicopter, double decker bus, train, another train, school bus.

And then we talked him into the bumper cars:

Lots of fun! But he spent much of the ride holding the back of his head. Some of those bumps aren't so gentle!

Costume Ball

2011-05-12T05:00:00.014-05:00

Every semester, Harlaxton has a Costume Ball. Coop's been in costume much of the semester, so I wanted to come up with a new one for him. After a trip to the costume shop, we settled on wizards.

Casting a spell:

Some of my other favorite costumes of the night included Kate Middleton and Jane Austen:

A formal apology:

And my all-time favorite, bowling pins:

Here's the seventh member of the bowling pin team, rolling down the aisle:

Strike!

Warm Weather and Signs of Spring

2011-05-10T05:00:00.014-05:00

Every fall, Harlaxton students plant thousands of daffodils. So springtime around here is gorgeous.

Cherry trees add to the landscape:

And I love the purple flowers that grow through and over the rock walls in the village:

Magnolia tree:

Fields of rapeseed:

The Bluebell Woods:

We took advantage of the warm weather (and the plethora of babysitters!) to walk down the drive to The Gregory for dinner with our friends:

The princess in the middle is our friend Tilda. She turned 7 this semester and had a fabulous springtime birthday on the manor lawn.

We also spent one afternoon outside on the sports field learning to play cricket.

(I think it was the first day Alan left the room without long underwear!)

Skegness

2011-05-08T05:00:00.048-05:00

Cooper and I took a day trip to Skegness, a coastal city about 90 minutes from here (by train). It's a big touristy place during the summer months -- great beach and a big pier with tons of arcade games and kid play areas and food stands.

It looks a little desolate now, but add in some sunshine, a carpet of beach towels, and about 300 colorful umbrellas, and I'm guessing this is a hopping place!

A portion of the pier:

Again, add in some people and loud music, and I bet it's fun. Things seemed pretty cheap. You could play those claw games (where you try to grab a toy) for only 10 or 20 pence (cents, essentially), and there were tons of ride-on vehicles (for kids) that you could operate for only 30 or 50 pence.

Seems like it would be a fun summer destination.

But I specifically chose a quiet Thursday, before the school kids' term break, to enjoy Skegness. Coop and I had two things on our agenda. First up, Natureland Seal Sanctuary. Natureland has been open since 1965, and its primary work is to rescue and rehabilitate seals, though it also occasionally gets injured birds, whales, dolphins, etc.

Natureland has five adult seals in residence:

And four baby seals, who were rescued from a nearby beach area, given medication and food, and are now learning how to swim, socialize, and hunt before they'll be released back into the ocean.

Natureland also has five Jackass Penguins (heh -- I'm not making that up),

in addition to a wide variety (though not a large quantity) of other animals -- fish, crocodiles, parrots, snakes, turtles, lizards. Coop and I also walked through a tropical plant enclosure and a butterfly house that, like the rest of the beach, was pretty sparsely populated during the cold-ish spring months.

The second item on our schedule: Captain Kids, an indoor play area that is ostensibly pirate-themed (which just means that the "Rules" of the place say things like "no outside grub" and "pirates must remove shoes" and "the friendly crew is here to help").

Coop wore his pirate costume and seemed to have a good time!

He told Alan that night that it was "amazing!"

4.5-mile Fun Run

2011-05-06T05:00:00.024-05:00

One of the British professors is a prostate cancer survivor and he participates in a fun run every year to raise money for cancer research. He drummed up a few other brave Harlaxton souls, including Alan, to join him in Hose Village for the 4.5-mile Belvoir Fun Run.

Our group, before the race:

Jack and Abby's mom Nancy (in the red t-shirt above) and Tilda's dad Chris (reddish shirt, blue shorts) ran, so all four kids came along to cheer. While the runners were galavanting around the countryside, I organized a kids race to keep them entertained and burn off some energy.

(As you can see from the START banner, in addition to the 4.5-mile run, there was also a half-marathon, which served as a training race for people participating in the London Marathon.)

(One more note: Belvoir is pronounced like beaver. Really, it is.)

Cooper running into the finish.

Alan running into the finish.

(So fast, the photo's blurry!!)

And how about this for a cheering section:

Paris: Not in the Guidebooks

2011-05-04T05:00:00.054-05:00

Sidewalk musicians (with a piano!?!):

The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

Since we stayed right near the Notre Dame Cathedral, we walked by it several times. Each time, this man with a creepy mask was walking around entertaining the crowd and making everyone laugh by scaring people. He came up behind me, for example, and held onto my hand while we were walking.

Cooper was fascinated by him. So we tried telling him the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and explained that this man was hanging around the cathedral sort of acting like the Hunchback. Except neither Alan or I could really remember how the story went. "Well... a man was hunched over and ugly and people were mean to him, so he went to live in the cathedral's bell tower and rang the bells at the right times..."

We spent a lot of time talking about both this man and the Hunchback, and trying to remind Cooper of the difference between what's real (the man) and what's pretend (that the man is the Hunchback; the Hunchback himself, for that matter). I'm not sure we succeeded...

But Cooper was very excited to have a photo of the man.

Alan wanted this photo:

A homeless person asking for money, but with a dog. As if to say, "I love animals, too. I would never use your money to buy booze; I've got to take care of my faithful pup."

We saw these green wooden boxes along the riverbank.

Turns out, they're little store fronts. They serve as storage containers for various books and prints and whatnot, and they open up into these stands for display the items for sale. Clever.

When our tour bus was parked at the Eiffel Tower picking up new passengers, we saw this street performer (trickster?) putting on a show. He was playing the shell game -- one of those round brown discs was white on the bottom side. He would show the people which one, mix them up a bit, and let folks guess where the white one was. No, not guess. Bet. And not a cheap bet either. 50 Euros (so about $65, I think) at a time. And he paid out, too. We saw him give away quite a bit of money.

BUT. From our vantage point, we could see how he makes his money. The people in his audience watched him move the discs around. It really was pretty easy to follow, so the audience was confident that they knew where the white one was. They reached into their purse or back pocket for money. And when they turned away ever-so-briefly, the man moved the discs. The most common and effective move was just to spin the piece of cardboard around. It was actually pretty shocking how many people he tricked (repeatedly!) doing that. I was sorely tempted to hop off the bus and play, but I didn't have the 50 Euro ante. Probably a good thing...

This little pod is a public toilet.

But it's a fancy toilet. It cleans itself:

"The toilet bowl is washed, disinfected and dried automatically with each use. The floor is also washed after each use."

So someone would come out, the door would shut, you could hear some water noises, and about 45 seconds later, the door opens for the next person. With a freshly washed floor and toilet bowl.

Paris: Notable Landmarks

2011-05-02T05:00:00.006-05:00

As I mentioned, our hotel was right across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe. Construction began on the cathedral in 1163 and was essentially complete by 1345. It was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports).

We peeked our head in early one morning, avoiding the crowds.

This was a display illustrating how the cathedral was built.

Most of these next photos were taken from our bus tour, which is why they're at a cock-eyed angle and include other people's heads.

This is the July Column, which stands in the Place de la Bastille, a square where the Bastille Prison stood until the Storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction in 1789-1790 during the French Revolution.

The July Column commemorates the events of the French Revolution of (July) 1830, and is actually unrelated to the Storming of the Bastille. Except that it stands in the center of the Bastille square.

This is the Arc de Triomphe, which stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.

I didn't study up on my Paris monuments before the trip; the only thing I know about the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées (a fancy schmancy avenue) is that it is the location of that final stage of the Tour de France bike race in the summer.

Luckily, we managed to take in a bit of the art scene in Paris. In between the triangle trees, you can see the butt of The Thinker, the 1902 sculpture by Rodin.

This glass pyramid serves as the entrance to the Louvre Museum, one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world.

The pyramid was designed by architect I.M. Pei, and was opened in October 1988.

This is the Luxor Obelisk, which sits in the center of the Place de la Concorde. It was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple in Egypt, like Cleopatra's Needle that we saw in London.

It is 3300 years old, and it was moved to Paris in 1833 (its twin remains in Egypt). It is 75 feet tall, and like the obelisk in London, is covered with hieroglyphics.

After a long day of sight-seeing, we were ready to relax with some ice cream. So we checked out Berthillon, a French manufacturer and retailer of luxury ice cream and sorbet.

Worth the 30-minute wait and the extra Euros for the name recognition? Probably not. But still delicious!

Paris: The Eiffel Tower

2011-04-30T05:00:00.031-05:00

The only thing we planned in advance to do in Paris, other than the bus tour of the city, was spend some time at the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower, named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, was built in 1889. It is the tallest building in Paris, standing 1,063 feet tall, about the same height as an 81-story building.

We saw an advertisement with a small Eiffel Tower stuck on someone's head, so Cooper was pretty fascinated with taking pictures to look like the Tower was on Daddy's head.

A shot straight up the middle:

The footing of one of the towers:

You can walk (we did not) 300 stairs up to the first level, and another 300 up to the second level, or you can take an elevator, which can also take you to the very top.

We did:

I wasn't a huge fan of being up there, which is why we're all sort of crouched on the floor. It took me a couple of minutes to actually stand up and walk around.

I held my camera over the edge and took a picture straight down. The legs of the Tower seem much closer together from this angle:

Coop also enjoyed the nearby carousel ride:

And we picked up a souvenir "to remind me of this visit to the real Eiffel Tower."

He carried it with him the next day on our bus tour.

And held it up to show the real Eiffel Tower.

Paris: An Introduction

2011-04-28T05:00:00.050-05:00

One item on my must-do list for the semester was a quick trip to Paris. We booked tickets on the Eurostar, a high-speed train connecting London with Paris and Brussels.

The Eurostar crosses through the Channel Tunnel, also known as the Chunnel, which is a 31-mile rail tunnel connecting England and France under the English Channel.

We booked a room at Hotel Dieu. Hotel Dieu ("hostel" or "house" of God) is the name given to hospitals in French towns, and Hotel Dieu is the oldest hospital in Paris. It was founded by Saint Landry in 651 on the same site as it now stands, although it has been destroyed several times by fires. The architecture of the present building dates from 1877.

On the sixth floor of the hospital, there are about 15 hotel rooms for rent. So we checked in, walked past doctors in scrubs and x-ray machines parked in the hallway to get to our room. It was lovely and in a fabulous location -- just across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral on a little island in the middle of the Seine River.

Since we were next to a major tourist attraction, there were lots of food stands and souvenir shops. We tried the sidewalk crepe stand -- delicious!

Alan picked caramel; I got one loaded with Nutella!

We didn't figure Cooper would like to spend days in museums, despite the fabulous art in the city, so we opted instead for a bus tour:

Photos of the various attractions coming later.

We walked a little bit around our little neighborhood, and we quickly discovered the fastest way to move:

Solves a lot of problems, not the least of which is Cooper's seemingly unquenchable need to buy things "to remind me of this trip."

More misc photos

2011-04-26T05:00:00.027-05:00

Cooper misses his musical instruments, I think. Sticks frequently become guitars. Or, as here, drumsticks to be used on the upside down trashcan.

This is Ralph and Judith Poore. Ralph used to work at Harlaxton and they've been involved as a "Meet-a-Family" (local British families assigned to students to welcome them to the area) for years. Our Baker coordinator Martha suggested we introduce ourselves to them. Turns out, we didn't need to. Alan was out running one day, he said hello to some men working in the Grantham Canal, one of the men stopped to ask if Alan was from Harlaxton, and it was Ralph!

They invited us over for tea one afternoon, and it was easy to see why they're so popular among our Baker students. Perfectly lovely.

Cooper found his ice-cream-lover-soul-mate when Aunt Ellen came to visit.

This is the Refectory (dining hall). It's such a light and airy room (even if the food is not).

One of the security guards found this Superman towel cape for Cooper.

"So now people can tell I'm Superman from the front an from the back." Indeed.

We took a special field trip with the Baker students (six of the ten of them anyway).

This is in the village of Sproxton, about fifteen minutes from Harlaxton. And it's the place where the Baker chapel used to live before we moved it to Baldwin City.

Celebrating Spring

2011-04-24T05:00:00.028-05:00

We had a flurry of activities one Wednesday scheduled to ring in spring (though note that we're still wearing our winter coats in most of the photos!).

First, we could take a tour of the Walled Garden (which Cooper calls the Walter Garden). The Walled Garden sits along the manor's driveway, and is surrounded, as you might guess, by a twelve-ish-foot-high wall. The manor's head gardener lives in a cottage inside the wall, so the garden isn't generally open to the public.

There's not much going on right now in the Walled Garden, but the gardening staff (all three of them) have done a tremendous amount of work in there. About ten years ago, someone cleaned out the garden and prettied it up for a television program, and then no one touched it for about eight years. Two years ago, the staff started working on it again, and had to hack through ten-foot-high brush and ivy and weeds that had completely overtaken the garden.

The Walled Garden was built at the same time as the manor (1830s), and was largely for fruits and vegetables for the manor. Many of the tall walls were designed to support fruit trees. You can see small brackets every so often along the top of this wall, which held the fruit tree branches in position.

The brick wall was hollow, and a boiler (fire pit) in one portion of the wall was used to heat the fruit trees in cold months. (Note in the above photo the ivy and weeds still on the top of the wall and in the middle, and imagine that covering all six acres of the garden. Oof.)

This is one of the original fruit trees, no longer bearing fruit, but still in the T-shape that the fruit trees would have been pruned to allow for easy harvesting.

To honor spring, local school children came to do several May pole dances:

They were quite good. (Though I do find it amusing that the weather was so cold and wet that the "Spring is Here" event had to be moved into the gym!)

Another sign of spring -- baby lambs!

We got to see this one poop, which was a big hit with the under-five crowd.

Finally, we had a big Spring Equinox bonfire. (It wasn't actually on the spring equinox; we just needed a catchy name to stay within the theme of the day.)

Alan looks sad (wearing his winter coat and stocking cap) thinking about all the heat being lost instead of being used to heat the manor.

Coop was just excited about the marshmellows!

Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

2011-04-22T05:00:00.034-05:00

A pork pie is a traditional British meat pie made with pork and pork jelly (don't google that one) in a pastry crust. The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie is named after the town we visited, and that name can only be applied to "uncured pork-filled pies cooked without supporting hoops and made within a 1,800 square mile zone around the town. Permissible ingredients are fresh pork (pies must be at least 30% meat), shortening (usually lard), pork gelatine or stock, wheat flour, water, salt and spices (predominantly pepper). Artificial colours, flavours and preservatives are not allowed."

When we were in Melton, we visited Dickinson & Morris's Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe, the oldest pork pie bakery in town, operating since 1851.

We bought a couple of individual pies to try. First up, a plain one:

Check out the nutritional information:

542 calories in this thing. It's dense. (And just for reference, that's a small salad plate, not a regular dinner-sized plate.)

We learned that pork pies are always eaten cold. Cold. Everyone we talked to looked at us like we had a third eye when we suggested that it might be yummy heated up. No. Pork pies are never eaten warm. Just cold. (I think they were originally created to be lunch that men took to work with them. No need to worry about heating it up. Nice and hearty; very filling and compact.)

Alan and I liked it. The crust is really quite buttery and flaky, and the pork is good, even cold.

Sometimes pork pies are eaten with mustard or with some kind of onion relish or chutney. We bought one that was baked with stilton cheese (a type of bleu cheese) on it:

Also quite tasty!

The livestock part of the market

2011-04-20T05:00:00.044-05:00

[Side note: This is our last day at the castle! We're headed to London tonight, and we leave for the States tomorrow morning. I've still got about a month's worth of blogging to do, though, so here in blog-land, we'll just pretend like we're still in England!]

Recall the line-up for the Melton Mowbray market:

We saw the Farmers Market and Trade Stalls in the last post. Everything else was an auction of some sort. Let's start in the Fur & Feathers barn.

Cage by cage, chickens, ducks, geese, and pigeons are auctioned off:

Along with free-range eggs. If you win the bid, you can pick however many dozen you'd like to buy at that price:

And the Game area of the barn, you could bid for (hopefully recently) dead animals including deer, pigeons, and rabbits.

There was a Pets section where you could bid for hamsters, ginea pigs, and canaries.

The Cattle barn was exactly what you'd expect.

This was the sheep auction.

The folks in green on the ledge are the auction staff. The people on the right bid for first choice of the sheep in each pen, and the guy standing in the sheep pen spray paints the ones each winner chooses so they can sort them out later.

In this corner of the barn, you could buy planks of wood. You bid per plank (20 cents, 50 cents, whatever), and then can choose however many you want at that price.

Again, every Tuesday this happens. I couldn't believe the number of people and animals in these barns... And it was a neat experience for Alan's kids to see the auctions and watch markets (in the econ sense of the word) working for things like a 20-cent piece of wood and a bundle of dead pigeons.

Melton Mowbray Market

2011-04-18T05:00:00.028-05:00

Alan took his econ classes on a field trip to nearby Melton Mowbray to check out the town market, which is allegedly the third oldest market in England. Melton Mowbray has been a market town for over 1000 years, and Tuesday has been the market day since royal approval was given in 1324.

Here's the line-up for Tuesdays:

Let's start with the Farmer's Market and Trade Stalls. Vendor tables filled three giant butler buildings, in addition to about six blocks of street space outside. The sheer quantity and variety of things available for sale was astonishing.

Antiques:

Household appliances:

Groceries:

Clothing:

Wine:

Greeting cards:

Cleaning products:

In addition, about twenty-five vendors had food for sale, including hot dogs, cheese, cookies, bread, and sausages. This table had honest-to-goodness fruit pies, which warranted a special photo because most "pie" you find here includes meat and isn't intended to be dessert. But these... now these are real pies!

More to come in the next post, but keep in mind -- this market takes place every Tuesday. I can't fathom having enough junk or buyers to make it worth your time to set up a table!

The Naked Mile

2011-04-16T05:00:00.011-05:00

This is the gate at the end of the driveway up to Harlaxton Manor.

Just inside the gate, you'll see this:

The long driveway with the castle waaaaaaaay in the distance. A mile away. (Just for the record, Alan disputes that it's actually a full mile. But that's the conventional wisdom, and I'm going with it for now.)

Across the street from the main gate is The Gregory, a restaurant named for the man who built Harlaxton, Gregory Gregory.

At one point in time, The Gregory was a main student hang-out (read: bar). Which makes sense really -- the students are legal to drink at age 18 here, they don't have access to cars, a cab ride into Grantham costs six pounds. Why not just walk to the end of the drive to get drunk. And then, when the bar closes down, just walk (or stumble) back up the drive to their bedrooms.

Legend has it that sometimes alcohol would lower inhibitions, as it is apt to do, and the students would strip off all of their clothes and run the mile up to the manor. And such was born the Naked Mile. As one student put it, "The road to alcoholism is a mile long... and most of us run down it naked!"

As a Baker student many years ago, even one who did not come to Harlaxton to study, I heard about the Naked Mile from friends who participated. During the last several years, as Alan's faculty friends came over here, we continued to hear about the Naked Mile. The bar across the street is no longer a student hang-out, however, so the Naked Mile has sort of changed into an event -- something to plan and do just for the sake of doing it, though I'm guessing it still usually involves alcohol.

I've been intrigued with the Naked Mile since we got here. I keep asking around ("Are you going to do the Naked Mile? Do you know anyone who has? How many students do you think will do it?"), probably enough so that the students now think I'm creepy. There's no "official" position on the Naked Mile from Harlaxton administration other than to not acknowledge it and to hope it goes away by itself. (Heh.)

Anyway, I was determined to do the Naked Mile this semester. With Alan and Cooper. A family adventure!! But there were a lot of details to sort out -- logistically, how do we get down to the end of the drive? I don't really want to run TWO miles with Cooper. Where do we stash our clothes? Carry them with us? Leave a change on the front steps of the manor? And when should we attempt this? In the dark, obviously, but when would we avoid traffic? 3:30am? Or will the college students just be getting home then? And we would have to wait until the weather gets warm so that it's not freezing cold during the night. What about the closed circuit televisions all over the property? Will the security guard monitoring those see us? Will he turn us in to the Principal??

The planets aligned one night in March, and we went for it. It was a long four-day weekend, which meant that nearly all the students and faculty were gone traveling. I would guess there were 30 people at most at the manor that night. We had a warm spell, so the night temperatures were up in the 50s. And there wasn't a full moon, so except for lights on some buildings, it was pretty dark.

Feeling brave, we decided to try it just after midnight. We didn't really want to wait until 3am, and we figured that with so few people around, we could get away with being out a little earlier.

So just after midnight, I woke Cooper up and promised him a really Fun! Secret! Family adventure!! He wasn't convinced, but he did let me put on his shoes and carry him downstairs. We had borrowed a stroller from Cooper's friend Jack, thinking that Coop probably wouldn't want to walk both directions. But he was nervous enough on the way out that he didn't want to get in the stroller.

When we got to the gate, we explained the Really Fun! part of the Adventure! "So now, we're all going to take our clothes off and run back up to the manor. Won't that be fun and silly?!!"

He was having none of it. We at least talked him into getting into the stroller, though, so we could go quickly back up the drive.

Then Alan and I stripped down, put our clothes in a grocery bag, and ran for glory. There aren't really many photos I can post here, though I will be honest and tell you that I was hoping I would have a cute picture of Cooper's little naked butt running down the drive. Alas, no. You'll have to make do with Alan's calves.

The lowest white dot, the one in the middle of the road in this photo:

is the reflector on the stroller that Coop's in, and the pale line to the right of that light is Alan!

When we got up to the castle gate, we put our clothes back on and walked into the manor like there's nothing odd about coming home sweaty and red-faced, carrying a stroller and a cold four-year-old at 1:15am.

We made the entire mile (or 0.8, or whatever Alan says it is) without seeing another person or vehicle. Thank goodness. Only the security cameras saw our Secret Family Adventure!

I ordered t-shirts to commemorate the event:

Ceramics

2011-04-14T05:00:00.059-05:00

On one trip to York, our guests were visiting the big cathedral in town. I didn't figure Coop would be too interested, so he and I made a special trip to a paint-your-own-pottery shop.

Cooper chose a train for his project:

He was having fun, I swear. He was just concentrating. It's tough to paint small areas when your fine motor control is still developing!

I also asked him to do a square tile for me; I requested a picture of me.

We had to leave the pieces for a week so the shop could fire them in a kiln (or bake them in a big oven, as the lady told Cooper). And he could not stop talking about that train. He was so excited to take Daddy to the ceramics store to show him the steam engine he painted and take it home.

At last!

Both pieces (recognize me?):

The train was immediately initiated into Cooper's train collection, and it got its own parking spot at the train station on our floor:

Success!

A second (and third) trip to York

2011-04-12T05:00:00.038-05:00

When my folks came to visit, we went with them to York. We did the same when Carol and Ellen came a few days later. Cooper and I had been once, to visit the National Railway Museum, but we were looking forward to seeing some other sights.

Mom and Dad visited the York Minster (cathedral), with an amazing stained glass window.

We saw a street performer who padlocked himself into a long chain, stood on a ladder, and shimmied out of the chains in two minutes.

A couple of days later, Cooper wound the elastic string of his mittens around both wrists and said, "Can I escape? I don't know... I've never done this before! I'll try to get out in two minutes!"

A future street performer?

We also visited the York Castle Museum, which included exhibits about the York Castle Prison. Each prison cell had a video of a prisoner who lived there, telling stories about their time in the prison.

They appeared to be motion-sensitive, or at least incredibly well-timed to scare the bejeezus out of you whenever you walked into an empty room.

Cooper tried out the bed:

And then promptly requested a blanket. After which he learned that no one brings blankets to people in prison. (We're laying the groundwork and implementing the early stages of our family's Scared Straight program.)

We also walked a bit on the walls in the city, which have been there since Roman times to help defend it.

York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England.

We finally made it to the Jorvik Viking Center, which chronicles York's history as a viking community and has fabulous artifacts from archaeological digs in the area.

And, at Cooper's request, we went back to the train museum, this time by way of the "road train" that drives through town.

I really like York, I've decided. Neat, unusual museums in addition to the typical English cathedral stuff. Cute little twisty streets with fun shops. Street performers all over the pedestrian areas. Mostly walkable, and only an hour away from here by train!

Does Cooper have a British accent?

2011-04-10T05:00:00.025-05:00

Well no, not really. Occasionally, we can hear just a touch of a British lilt in his voice based the inflections on certain words. "Daddy," for example, became something like "Duh-dee" pretty early on. And we definitely use British vocabulary for things: the elevator is the lift; a clothes pin is a peg; the parking garage is a car park.

But we have noticed that Cooper's "fake voice" -- the voice he uses when he's pretending -- is totally British. Listen to Cooper describe how he made the car park in his room:

Here, Cooper is describing his various double decker buses (he now has three) and his London taxi:

Here, Cooper has set up a book store in his room. (We collect books, it seems, no matter where we live!) And the book store proprietor is noticeably British.

Cooper's trip to London

2011-04-08T05:00:00.002-05:00

Cooper had a very different narrative of our trip to London, just judging from his phone calls back to Alan.

I took off my coat and ate an ice cream cone:

We went to the park with a big pirate ship.

(It was the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens.)

I had to cross a big rope to get on it.

I got to steer the big heavy wheel. A real wheel!

And I stood on a row boat that rocked back and forth.

I rode in a London taxi.

And had a pickle hamburger in the hotel room.

I saw the witch poster. It's my favorite.

And the ghost, I mean phantom, poster.

We rode on a double decker bus and I picked out a double decker bus from the store. It's got shiny wheels and my other double decker buses don't.

Touristy London

2011-04-06T05:00:00.041-05:00

Trafalgar Square:

This is Nelson's Column, which was built in the 1840s to commemorate the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The column is guarded by four lion statues.

Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives:

The London Eye, also known as Millennium Wheel, because it was opened on December 31, 1999, to commemorate the new millennium:

The ferris wheel has 32 capsules, each of which can hold 25 people. One complete rotation takes about 30 minutes.

Cooper and I with a mounted trooper of the Household Cavalry on duty at Horse Guards building:

Big Ben and Big Cooper:

This is Cleopatra's Needle:

I hadn't heard of it before, but we saw it on our bus tour and also from the boat tour we took. Each time, the tour guide mentioned that it was over 3500 years old. I was intrigued, so I did a little research and found out that the obelisk is 68 feet tall, it was originally erected in Egypt around 1450 BC and is inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs, it was given to the UK in 1890, it has nothing to do with Cleopatra, and it has a twin in New York. So there you go.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre:

Except that it's not the original Globe Theatre. It's a "modern reconstruction" built in 1997 near the site of the original Globe Theatre. And at least according to one tour guide, it's the only building in London allowed to have a thatched roof.

We crossed under the London Bridge on our boat tour:

It did not fall down.

My Mom and Dad visit London

2011-04-04T05:00:00.002-05:00

Cooper and I spent a couple of days with my folks in London. We saw all the usual sights on a double decker bus tour. (Photos of that to come.) But I pulled out some of my favorite pictures of Mom and Dad in the city.

First, hot dogs from a street vendor:

Second, ready to see Jersey Boys:

And finally, my favorite series. We visited Trafalgar Square, which has very large lion statutes. Mom, who collects all things lion-related, wanted to sit by one of the lions for a photo. But there were no stairs up to the lions. So she climbed, with a not-so-gentle shove from Dad:

Totally worth it:

Getting down:

And then we saw another lady trying to get up there. Dad, ever the kind Midwesterner, went to help, at which point I turned to Mom and said "Oh my gosh, he's going to grab that lady's a$$." And he pretty much did. She seemed thankful and not offended, so all was well in the end (heh).

Gotta love my dad.

My parents come to visit!

2011-04-02T05:00:00.004-05:00

Cooper waiting at the airport for the first ten minutes:

Cooper waiting at the airport after about 20 minutes:

At last! They arrived!!

(And yes, Cooper's wearing different clothes than in the "waiting" pictures. I'm not ready to talk about that just yet.)

We've been whining all semester about how cold we are here. Mom and Dad show up, and it's sunny and clear:

(That's Dad and Alan walking down the drive.)

Cooper gave them a tour of the manor and insisted we stop in the Drawing Room for a classroom meeting, where he was the teacher:

Mom and Dad were pretty wiped out after their journey:

But the perked up in time for fish and chips and mushy peas!

Oh that silly, sweet Cooper

2011-03-31T05:00:00.000-05:00

Coop made his own costume out of a yellow hard hat, a lace doily, and long piece of elastic, and a ballpoint pen clipped to his shirt.

Yeah, I don't know either.

Walking with Daddy wearing matching British hats:

One night, Coop stayed awake two hours past bedtime "reading" to himself. When he finally went to sleep, I found him like this:

I love it!

I am, however, less enamored with his new physical comedy schitck. He walks into a pole (or other stationary object):

And then falls dramatically to the ground:

Funny to watch. Once. Though the college kids humor him by laughing repeatedly. And we certainly get some interesting glances from passersby.

One of my all-time favorite photos from the semester:

Supermen!

Important places around Grantham

2011-03-29T05:00:00.045-05:00

This is my little corner of Wetherspoons pub.

It's the one table close to an outlet, so I can plug in my laptop. The fireplace is just to my left. And I've got a pint Diet Pepsi sitting on the table next to me. Perfect. (Well, not as perfect as Diet Coke would be, but I manage.)

Alan found the B&Q store, which is eerily similar to Home Depot, right down to the orange theme colors.

This next photo really is a place of national importance in Grantham, and I'm sure Coop will someday be quite glad to have this momento:

What? You don't know why?!

See that small brown rectangle up to the right of the second story window? It's this:

That's right, Maggie Thatcher was born in this corner building, presumably before it was a "Chiropractic Clinic and Holistic Retreat." And that small plaque is all there is to mark the spot. Apparently, as one of the locals tells it, there's no love lost between Mags and the town of her birthplace, although Grantham does historically vote for the Conservative Party candidate, perhaps as a nod to its famous (if estranged) political daughter.

Another famous Grantham native is Isaac Newton. He was born and raised outside of town at a place called Woolsthorpe. (Woolsthorpe by Colsterworld, not Woolsthrope by Belvoir, just fyi.) Here is Carol outside of Isaac's childhood home:

And here is Cooper "Gravity" Grant thinking some deep thoughts beneath the very apple tree that inspired Isaac Newton's revelation about gravity.

(There's some dispute in our party about whether it's actually THE tree. Alan's always a skeptic. Apparently Isaac's tree fell over in 1820, but this current tree grew out of the roots that took hold where the trunk fell. I call it good enough for bragging rights.)

Finally, when Carol and Ellen were here visiting, I went back to St. Wulfram's Church in Grantham with them. This time, the church's Chained Library was open. The library was established in 1598 when a local reverend gave £100 for the purchase of books. It was the first public reference library in England. The reverend provided that his library was to be kept in the porch room at St. Wulfram's (where it remains to this day) and that the books were to be chained to desks and read in the library. Over 80 volumes are still attached by chain to the shelves, preventing their loan or theft.

The books are Bible commentaries, sermon collections, church histories, in addition to books about law, medicine, and history. The majority of the books were printed in the 16th Century, but there are about ten books printed prior to 1500.

The grown-ups go to London

2011-03-27T05:00:00.101-05:00

Jack's parents offered to host Cooper for a day so Alan and I could go somewhere by ourselves. We took advantage of their generosity by heading to London to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It was spectacular!!

We knew we would have some extra time in London, so we picked one thing we wanted to do that we thought Cooper wouldn't care about. Frankly, there are about 750 things that fit in that category, but we chose Winston Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms.

The War Rooms served as the British government's secret underground shelter during World War II. The government transformed basement storage rooms under the Board of Trade and the Office of Works to serve as the central emergency working place for the War Cabinet and the Chiefs of Staff.

Churchill disliked the underground shelter and worked here only when bombing raids made working on the surface too dangerous. He famously commented about the Cabinet War Room (pictured below): "This is the room from which I will lead the war."

Churchill's seat is along the back wall, directly in front of the map.

(The photos are all taken through glass barriers, so the quality isn't terrific.)

Several of the rooms are just as they were in 1945. It's almost as if the war ended, Churchill and his people ran upstairs to celebrate, and the building was sealed. There are original maps decorating the walls, boxes of push-pins that the officers used to track the progress of ships during the war, a line of 10 different colored telephones, a chalkboard keeping tally of aircraft losses, and rows and rows of keys for all of the doors down in the bunker.

Although developed as a temporary work space, the War Rooms eventually became home to a host of civil servants (typists, telephone operators, clerks, kitchen workers) and military personnel. In addition, Churchill and his wife Clementine both had bedrooms down in the bunker, along with a dining suite. This is Churchill's room, restored to its 1945 state, including the maps on his walls and a cigar and ashtray on the bedside table.

The War Rooms museum was fantastic---quite a treasure trove of artifacts from WWII, including interviews with people who lived and worked there with Churchill and his cabinet. Fascinating.

As we were walking around town (at a grown-up walking speed without constantly exhorting a sweet but distractable four-year-old to "come on, hon... keep walking"), we passed a few notable landmarks.

This is the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament. The clock tower is commonly called Big Ben, although that name technically refers to the great bell inside the clock.

This is Westminster Abbey, a church that is the traditional place of coronation and burial for British monarchs, as well as a popular place for royal weddings (including the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton).

We also just happened to notice the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, so we ducked inside to look around.

I was surprised by a couple of things. First, the UK Supreme Court is quite new, having sat for the first time in October 2009. It hears cases from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. The building itself is the former Middlesex Guildhall, which served as the home for justices of the county in the 1800s. It was restored and renovated beginning in 2007. It's lovely.

For our special grown-up London meal? McDonald's. The first we've had since we've been here! Delicious!

(And just so you don't think we're totally lame, we did enjoy a quiet meal at a great Indian restaurant when we got back to Grantham.)

Twin Lakes

2011-03-25T05:00:00.045-05:00

One Saturday, we made our way to Twin Lakes Theme Park in nearby Melton Mowbray with some of the other Harlaxton children. According to its website, "Twinlakes Theme Park has endless adventures of family fun packed with variety, adventure and fun for every member of your family." That's right, folks. Adventure. Fun. Family. What could be better?

And truly, it didn't disappoint. Our kids were precisely the right ages to enjoy the park. We had a park map before hand, so we knew we wanted to hit Buccaneer Island. (Coop even wore his pirate costume!) Turns out, it was a giant butler building with all sorts of pirate-themed things to do inside. And tables for the grown-ups to sit and enjoy a Diet Coke!

First up, Cooper and Jack in Captain Hook's Clockwork Wheel:

Sitting in the front row of Lost Boys Stormy Sloop:

Taking a pirate break to play in the cars/houses area:

We also visited the Labyrinth Venture Zone, which was a gladiator-themed butler building with similar activities.

Outside, we found a few roller coasters (Alan and Cooper are in the third seat back):

A giant sand pit:

Some peacocks:

And a barn with farm animals, including sweet baby lambs:

We came home completely tuckered out. What a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Horse Racing

2011-03-23T05:00:00.012-05:00

Alan's only real request this semester was to see a steeple chase. So I hunted down a schedule of races and hoped for one nearby. Turns out, we're sort of in the middle of some pretty serious horse race country.

We took a Saturday and headed up to Doncaster, a short 40-minute train ride away, for an afternoon of steeple chases. Had the weather been just slightly warmer, it would have been an absolutely perfect day (but then it probably would have been incredibly crowded too, so maybe we got lucky with the cold weather).

We talked our friends Jack and Abby (and their mom Nancy) into coming with us.

So here's Cooper (and Alan down in his orange coat right by the fence) watching the horses warm up.

Right near the family area of the stands was a small kids play area, including this ride. Coop's in the firetruck in this picture, but he drove every one of these vehicles at least three times.

And he went in the bounce house with Jack and Abby.

Another go on the firetruck, as a group:

Look! More horses!

We bet on four horse races. Our friend Nancy hit the jackpot and won money three of the four times (maybe 12 pounds total, after betting 1 pound on each horse). Alan broke even. I, on the other hand, better not quit my day job. Three of the four horses I bet on came in dead last, and two of those finished without a rider. Oops.

Headed home:

Nooks and Crannies around the Manor

2011-03-21T05:00:00.000-05:00

The longer we've been here, the more time we've had to explore the castle we call home. We've made some fun discoveries.

This small little doorway is at the end of the hall right before you get to our room. We had a brief glimpse into it when we first arrived, but it's usually padlocked shut.

Mr. Joe, one of our favorite maintenance workers, heard us playing in the room one day, knocked on our door, and offered to show us inside this secret door.

It's an old train track. Way back when, a train with supplies for the manor would roll right into this passageway and dump its goods down the chutes on either side. Coal or wood for the house fires, potatoes or other food stuffs, etc.

At the end of the tunnel is another locked door with this sign:

We didn't ask, and Joe didn't offer, to open this door.

Another day, our friends Jack and Abby offered to show us around the woods behind the manor.

Abby had previously scoped out this hideaway under a ginormous canopy of brush. I'm guessing at one point it was a drinking spot for college kids. But the six-and-under crowd has reclaimed it now.

There's even a cute little chandelier (for candles) handing on a branch.

This is another of Cooper's favorite little places. It's just a small cranny along the stairs coming down from the floor above ours. He stops there every time and calls it his "house."

Southwell Workhouse

2011-03-19T05:00:00.118-05:00

One Tuesday, we went with the college students on a field trip to the Southwell Workhouse. It's a large beautiful building, with a fantastically interesting history. It was my turn to enjoy the guided tour while Alan kept Cooper entertained running around the yard and picking up sticks and leaves and hunks of moss for our nature collection. Here's what I learned.

First, some history as it relates to England taking care of its poor people. Prior to the 1500s, monasteries provided for poor people as part of the medieval social structure. But then Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church to become the head of the Church of England. As monasteries declined, the country needed a new plan to care for poor people.

The Act for the Relief of the Poor (known as the Old Poor Law) was passed in 1601, and it provided that each individual parish was responsible for the poor people who lived in that parish. In 1824, the Southwell Workhouse was built as a prototype workhouse---a building sponsored and supported by several area parishes where they could send their poor people to live. The idea of the workhouse was to provide a centralized location for poor people to work and be cared for, rather than leaving the burden on individual parishes. Economies of scale, if you will.

In 1832, the Poor Law Amendment Act (also known as the New Poor Law) was passed, which applied the workhouse model to the entire country. Parishes were organized into unions and a workhouse was built in each union for the care of the poor people from the member parishes. This system of workhouses largely usurped any "outdoor" forms of relief (in the form of money or clothing or food, as opposed to "indoor" relief of having poor people live in workhouse).

Southwell Workhouse was built to hold 158 people. Families were separated upon arrival; men, women, and children were segregated from each other at all times, except for a short "family time" on Sunday afternoons and on Christmas day.

This room was the women's sleeping area:

On arrival, poor people were examined by a medical officer who determined if they were old and infirm ("innocent" poor) or if they were able-bodied ("idle and profligate" poor). The old and inform poor, which made up the vast majority of Southwell's residents, had very light work requirements, compared to the harder tasks assigned the able-bodied poor. Women were in charge of cleaning, food preparation, and laundry. Men worked in the garden and the wood shop, they did regular building maintenance, and they broke up stones to be used as gravel for roads. If they found themselves with nothing to do, they could turn a crank in the yard. It served no purpose except to keep them busy.

One job that sounded particularly dreadful was picking oakum. Oakum refers to the individual fibers of rope that are unthreaded, mixed with tar, and then used to caulk wooden planks in boats. People would bring old, dirty, worn out ropes to the workhouse, and the workhouse residents would spend their time unraveling the rope until they could pull apart the individual threads.

(As I mentioned, Cooper was mostly running around outside, but he ducked back inside while our tour guide showed us these ropes and explained the oakum-picking task. The information stuck with him; he told several people over the next few days about how this job hurt your fingers and gave you blisters.)

Children spent days in a school classroom learning the basics of reading, writing, and math. Ideally, the workhouse wanted to help children eventually find work, perhaps as a scullery maid in a local manor somewhere.

Here's my own scullery maid pointing out the privies, the only bathrooms available to the workhouse residents.

The Southwell Workhouse had only three paid staff people: the house master and his wife the house matron, and the school teacher who was in charge of the children at all times. Other than these three, the poor people did all the work of the house.

Another picture of the front of the workhouse -- you can see the big garden plots.

Also notice the brick wall that surrounds the yard. Poor people came to workhouses voluntarily and they could leave at any time (after asking and being properly discharged by the master). It wasn't a prison (even though our tour guide kept referring to them as "inmates"), but it definitely was a harsh place to live. Life was very regimented, controlled, and monotonous. The work was hard and unpleasant. The food, although nutritionally adequate (bread, broth, vegetables, meat every other day), was boring and bland. But the people at least had a bed, warm clothes (they wore uniforms), and three meals a day.

The Southwell Workhouse continued in operation until the 1940s when England established its modern welfare system.

Nottingham Castle

2011-03-17T05:00:00.035-05:00

Nottingham Castle, like many others in the area, was built in 1067 by William the Conqueror following his coronation after the Battle of Hastings. It was first constructed of wood and then rebuilt in stone nearly a century later by Henry II.

I didn't read my guidebooks very well prior to our visit to Nottingham, however. The castle was destroyed after the Civil War of 1651. In its place now stands a palace built by the Duke of Newcastle in the 1670s.

Today, the palace is an art gallery and museum. It houses most of Nottingham's fine art collections, galleries on the history and archaeology of the area, and outfits and artifacts of the Sherwood Foresters, a local army regiment formed in 1881.

I had heard, however, that the castle (museum, whatever) had a nice children's room. And indeed it did.

We spent several hours down in this basement play room. Cooper cooked lots of meals.

And dressed up as a Tree Monster. (The tiger costume is his; he chose the tree mask to complete the ensemble.)

The castle was built on a huge sandstone hill, and underneath the castle are man-made caves and tunnels, dating back to the 1300s and including a wine cellar and a dungeon.

We took a tour of the caves, which included about 300 steps, give or take a few.

Cooper loved the texture of the sandstone.

While we were in Nottingham, we had planned to visit Sherwood Forest, but I wasn't feel well. So we saved that for another (hopefully sunnier) day.

Cooper and Jack

2011-03-15T05:00:00.016-05:00

Fast friends:

Jack stayed over at our house one evening while his parents were traveling and entertaining some friends.

In absence of train track or roads, we made our own with tape.

Cooper "reading" Little Miss Naughty to Jack.

Alan took the boys on a walk to feed the ducks. They found every puddle and speck of mud along the way and jumped and splashed and dug right in it.

Walking back to the apartment.

And you should note that Cooper's pants really aren't dark gray. They are (or rather were) light gray prior to the water and mud.

Relaxing with a little Bob the Builder after a hard day of getting dirty.

Planting the crops:

National Railway Museum

2011-03-13T05:00:00.072-05:00

Several toys that Cooper has chosen to buy here (one at Poundland and one with his birthday money) have been trains. And he's expressed regret that we couldn't bring his train set from Baldwin City. So one morning, he and I hopped the train up to York to visit the National Railway Museum. He liked walking around looking at the various trains on display.

A quick word about the outfit. Remember the really clever lion mane that I created for Homecoming? This is what's left of the vest after I cut off the hood. He picked it as his coat this day. And the mask (which I think is a raccoon but Cooper calls a fox) came in a package of eight masks purchased as part of my unsuccessful search for a legit lion mask. He got more than a few strange looks this day, but he was pretty easy to keep track of. I just kept saying "does anyone see the boy in the fur?"

There was a playground at the museum, but it was positively crawling with kids. We went during "half-term break," which is sort of like an early spring break when the kids are out of school for an entire week.

(Can you see fur boy sitting calming in the train?)

Cooper really enjoyed the Thomas mechanical rides. He also found a double-decker bus to sit in and "drive."

In honor of half-term break, the museum had Wizard Week, which included lots of Harry Potter exhibits. Cooper liked the owl display and he got to hold a tiny owl on his arm.

The biggest draw of Wizard Week was an honest-to-goodness steam train billed as the Hogwarts Express. Here she is in all her steamy sooty glory.

I mentioned the possibility of riding on a steam train when I was first telling Cooper about the museum. I started to second guess myself when I saw the long queue (look at me -- I'm talking British!), but Cooper was adamant. And to his credit, he did a fantastic job being patient the entire one hour and 15 minutes we were in line. Yup. 75 minutes waiting in line to ride a train. After that wait, you'd think it would be fantastic, right?

Holy cats, it was lame. The ride lasted just shy of five minutes. FIVE minutes. That's less than 300 seconds, people. And the train literally just went backwards out of the station for 2.5 minutes and then reversed direction and pulled back in. There was nothing Hogwarts about it -- no announcer saying anything wizardlike, no theme music, no posters in the train cars. And this was the scenery for our magical journey:

Hogwarts better up its game if it wants to continue drawing students to its wizard school.

Finally, like most places we go, we visited the gift shop where Cooper selected a green steam train (with lights and sounds!) to complement his collection.

A week in the life...

2011-03-11T05:00:00.041-06:00

Monday: Moustache Monday as part of the college's homecoming festivities.

Tuesday: Toy gun?

Nope. Toy starter pistol for the race Cooper organized around our apartment. Take that, childhood obesity epidemic.

Wednesday: Homecoming! Cooper was asked to be the mascot for the Harlaxton Lions basketball team. Our school color is blue, so I had Coop wear his Blue's Clues outfit and I went on a hunt for a lion mask. I ended up buying a fur vest thing at a charity store and then cutting off the hood for Cooper to wear as his mane. On top, he wore his king crown.

Coop attended the pregame pep rally and got the team fired up with a "ROAR!"

Wednesday night: The Spring 2011 Harlaxton Homecoming Court:

King Phil Collins (#24), Queen Josh Rydberg (#7) (don't ask...), and Prince/Mascot Cooper. (Coop actually got the second highest vote total to be King! Better watch your back, Phil!)

Thursday: I found the McDonald's! It has free wi-fi, so I worked there for an afternoon. I also ordered a large Diet Coke. Apparently size inflation hasn't reached England yet. The large I ordered was only as big as the mediums back home.

Friday: Coop wore his tiger costume for the first time. It's one we brought from home, but he hadn't yet worn it around the castle.

Whew. Busy week.

[Note: The author has taken some artistic license with the precise timing of all of these events in order to make the narrative flow better.]

Afternoon tea

2011-03-09T05:00:00.003-06:00

So we're in England where they drink a lot (A LOT) of tea. Unfortunately, I don't particularly care for tea. Or coffee. So, just like at home, I pretty much constantly have a Diet Coke bottle in my backpack.

One day, the college had a formal "afternoon tea" for us in the Great Hall, complete with yummy little finger sandwiches and desserts.

I'm very sorry I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of his "after" face, because it was hilarious. Apparently, Cooper isn't a big fan of tea either.

He much preferred his own tea party:

Getting everyone's cup and place (it's not a saucer, thankyouverymuch) ready.

Cheers!

A batch of miscellaneous pictures

2011-03-07T05:00:00.031-06:00

This chocolate bar showed up in one of our sack lunches:

I ate it (and liked it!) just to spite them.

Alan's got an extra-curricular activity. He and three other faculty/spouses serve as barristas every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, whipping up lattes and cappucinos for the students.

It's become very popular, particularly since the drinks are free!

"Hey look -- this car says my name!"

And this sign says Daddy's name!

One place we stayed had bunk beds and Cooper was in love! He spent lots of time climbing up and down the ladder and standing on top of the bed. Luckily, the beds were wide enough that I could sleep with him on the top bunk to keep him from falling out.

Every morning, Coop and I wait outside to catch the 10:10am shuttle into town. At that same time, Alan is usually working in the library, so Coop stops to chat with him (hanging out the window) before we leave for school.

Cooper and I with Pastor Jones Eyles from New Life Fellowship, our church in Grantham:

And finally, a photo from this morning -- Alan's 44th birthday! Coop and I picked out some fun presents: a Superman hoodie, Heat Force thermal socks (2.5 times warmer than regular thermal socks!), a hot water bottle of his very own, and a fuzzy blue cover for his hot water bottle.

(Can you tell that Alan's been cold every minute of every day since we've been here?)

Lacock and Castle Combe

2011-03-05T05:00:00.117-06:00

One good thing about bus tours, like the one we took to Stonehenge and Avebury, is that they often take you to out-of-the-way places that you probably wouldn't make time for by yourself. And we got to see some really sweet little English towns.

First up, Lacock (pronounced Lay-cock, though I prefer the original pronunciation of Lack-uck). Lacock is unique because it is owned by the National Trust, a non-profit organization supported in large part by the government. Up until WWII, most of the town was owned by and passed down between the heirs of only one or two different families. During WWII, however, property taxes became so high and the town manor was in such poor shape, the owners simply donated the manor and the village to the National Trust, retaining rights of occupancy for their family. Today, the 1000 residents of Lacock pay rent to the National Trust, and most of the houses are lived in by people whose families go back several generations.

We had lunch in Lacock at The George Inn, a pub that dates back to 1361.

"See our famous dog wheel" -- what's a dog wheel, you ask? Good question. It's this:

In the 18th and 19th centuries, this wheel was hooked to the spit, on which a hunk of meat (or a pig or something) would hang over the fire. A small dog with short legs (think corgi + dachshund) was placed inside this wheel and poked with a stick so that he would run in the wheel (like a mouse on the wheel in his cage) which would turn the spit which would spin the meat so it would cook evenly on all side.

The George also had stocks in the backyard.

Lacock attracts visitors predominantly because of its "unspoiled appearance" -- most of the houses were built in the 18th Century or earlier, and there aren't annoying things like tv antennae mucking up the view. It has therefore become an ideal setting for filming movies or television shows, including Pride and Prejudice (1995), Emma (1996), and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).

Below, Paddington is standing on the fence of a house that played a part in the Harry Potter movies. Do you recognize it?

It's the house in which Harry's parents lived -- the house he was to have grown up in.

We next drove through a village called Tiddlywinks, which made me giggle, on our way to a small (pop. 350) village called Castle Combe (pronounced coom). Like Lacock, Castle Combe is well-known for its tranquility and attractiveness. In fact, in 1962, it was named the Prettiest Village in England. The village houses are all typical of this area, constructed in stone with thick walls and roofs made from split natural stone tiles. The properties are many hundreds of years old and are listed as ancient monuments.

Also like Lacock, Castle Combe has made an appearance in some tv shows and movies. The 1967 film Doctor Dolittle (with Rex Harrison) was made in Castle Combe, and this little brook was turned into a bustling fishing harbor with boats and fishing nets and plastic cobblestones.

Just a few months ago, Steven Spielberg was in town filming an upcoming movie called War Horse.

We also poked our heads into St. Andrew's Church, which is home to one of the very few English medieval clocks still in use. In the 1400s, the story goes, wealthy businessmen (wool merchants) gave money for the church to build a clock tower. The church decided against "wasting" the money by putting a four-sided clock up in the tower because very few people could actually tell time. Instead, a local blacksmith built this faceless clock and it was placed inside the church at the base of the tower, where it still sits today.

More impressive than the clock itself is the fact that it still keeps accurate time. It's driven by the large hunk of limestone on the right (partially obscured by the wood post). Once a day, the electric motor on the left hoists the stone back into position for another day's run.

A trip to Bath

2011-03-03T05:00:00.027-06:00

The beauty of a three-day weekend, I've discovered, is that you can travel on Friday and Saturday, and then spend Sunday resting and recuperating and doing laundry and enjoying church. We're trying to take advantage of that.

One thing on our "must do" list was Stonehenge, just because it's, well, Stonehenge. So we planned a Friday-Saturday trip to Bath and booked a bus tour from there to get us to and around Stonehenge.

We first had to get to Bath, which involved a cab ride to the Grantham train station, a one-hour(ish) train ride to London, a tube (London subway) ride to a different train station, a one-and-a-half-hour train ride to Bath, and a half-mile walk to our hotel. Interspersed with all of those train rides was much walking through very large London train stations. Traveling is tough when you have small four-year-old legs.

One of the train stations was Paddington Station. We had read a book or two about Paddington Bear, named because he was found by Mr. and Mrs. Brown in Paddington Station, so Cooper was excited to look around Paddington Station for a "polite-mannered bear behind a bike rack." Whaddya know, there's an entire display of Paddington Bears that you can buy.

We did.

Once we got to Bath and checked into our hotel, we scouted out a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at a pizza place with fancy-ish (but not very hearty) pizza. And then we ordered this for dessert:

Dough balls with a bowl of Nutella for dipping! YUM!

On to more well-known and important things than dessert. (But seriously, warm dough balls dipped in Nutella were amazing. I licked the bowl clean.)

Stonehenge evolved over several construction periods. It was begun about 5000 years ago, around 3000 BC, with circular hill with a ditch lining the inside, approximately 360 feet in diameter. The stones were moved to the area to form an inner circle beginning about 2500 BC. The larger stones, some of which weigh over 40 tons, are sarsen stones (a type of hard sandstone) likely transported to the area from over 20 miles away. The smaller stones are bluestones, which came from a location over 150 miles away. The alignment of Stonehenge coincides with the sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices, suggesting that it was established to acknowledge and presumably celebrate those events.

It's fairly astounding to imagine people building this structure at a time with the most sophisticated tools were deer antlers and the shoulder bones and jaw bones of cattle.

We also visited Avebury, another stone circle formation near Stonehenge. Avebury is perhaps as much as 500 years older than Stonehenge, but they are considered contemporary structures. Avebury, however, is much, much larger. Much more spread out. The outer circle is formed by a hill approximately 12 feet high, and is lined on the inside by a 17-foot-deep ditch. This outer circle is nearly 1400 feet in diameter (compared to Stonehenge's 360-foot-diameter outer circle). Alan took this picture standing on the the hill that forms the outer ring of Avebury. Just below, you can see the ditch that also runs the circumference of the monument.

Inside the ditch is a ring of nearly 100 sarsen (sandstone) stones. In addition, there are two smaller rings of stones inside the larger one. And you can actually go touch and climb on the stones! Cooper and Paddington did:

It is unknown why Avebury was built, though some suggest it was a great temple to hold ceremonies relating to fertility (both of the land and of the women).

Another unique feature of this area was the series of giant white horses on hillsides. The white horses, carved into the chalk hills, range in size from 45-feet high to over 360-feet high. They were created for unknown reasons, perhaps as an emblem of the local people or for ritualistic/religious reasons.

The oldest white horse in the area is probably 3000 years old, but the rest were carved within the past 300 years. The newest white horse in this county was created to celebrate the new millennium (11 years ago). At one time, there were 24 such figures in Britain, 13 of which were in this area (Wiltshire County). Eight are still visible and they get periodic upkeep, including a complete overhaul every five years, to keep the chalk from getting too overgrown and gray.

Cooper at play

2011-03-01T05:00:00.006-06:00

Doing puzzles in his room:

Miss Samantha, one of Alan's students, bought this Loch Ness Monster costume/hat for Cooper when she went to Scotland:

We borrowed a Clifford (the Big Red Dog) computer game at the library. It's really the first time Coop has spent serious time working on the computer. He figured out the touchpad and clicking buttons pretty well, and seems to enjoy the game:

When Jonathan was here, Coop talked him into going down the Cedar Stairs like alligators.

All of the cars and trucks are having a meeting:

(This was followed by a very serious morning of play during which Alan taught Cooper proper parliamentary procedure for meetings.)

On the scooter at Puddleducks:

A couple of students gave Coop this doctor's costume for his birthday. He took his notebook, asked this girl how she was feeling, and said that she would feel better tomorrow.

Interesting things from the week

2011-02-27T05:00:00.008-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, a group of Morris Dancers came to the college to entertain us for an evening. Morris dancing is an English folk dance, accompanied by accordian music, that incorporates bells (strapped to the men's shins), handkerchiefs, and rhythm sticks.

And the men were all wearing hats with flowers on them. ??

Later in the evening, as they were heading down the the Bistro (the pub in the basement of the castle) to continue the revelry, they looked like this:

A group of female clog dancers also performed for us, in much less flamboyant costumes:

Sort of like tap dancing with wooden-soled shoes:

Unrelated to the dancing (but just the right number of photos to round out a blog post) -- I went with some friends walking on the footpaths through the area. Footpaths are public right-of-ways that criss cross the entire country.

(That's Jack.)

Land owners are required to maintain these footpaths, including stiles to help people cross over fences:

(Jack and his mom Nancy.)

Even through agricultural land or back yards, people must maintain these public walkways:

Edinburgh

2011-02-25T05:00:00.074-06:00

When Jerry, Carol, and Jonathan were here, we took a train up to Edinburgh Scotland. The countryside, even just from the train, was beautiful with rolling green hills everywhere. But other than the train ride, we spent the whole weekend in the city. I think we all have plans to take another vacation to Scotland so we can explore more both in and out of Edinburgh.

Anyway, Alan and I are quickly coming to realize that it's difficult to sightsee with a now-4-year-old. He's too big to just strap in a stroller or backpack and carry where we want to go. But he's too little to walk as far and as fast as we would sometimes like. And he's just not all that interested in the history of United Kingdom castles and cathedrals. So our visit to Edinburgh probably doesn't look much like Edinburgh. But we had a great time, which is key.

First, here is Edinburgh Castle. Alan, Coop, and I didn't go in, but the others did, and they really enjoyed it.

It sits atop an extinct volcano, which I think is cool. And it also holds the One O'clock Gun, which is fired every day at (you guessed it) 1:00pm (except for Sunday, Good Friday, and Christmas). You can read more about the castle, if you're so inclined, here.

While Jerry, Carol, and Jon were touring the castle, I was left with these two grumps:

(Cooper tires quickly of all my picture-taking. Too bad for you, bub. Better just deal with it.)

We three found the perfect place to spend a couple of hours -- Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. "Camera obscura" is Latin for darkened chamber, and it refers to a series of lenses and mirrors that can project an image into another surface. Sort of like a camera + periscope. The camera obscura in Edinburgh was actually set up in the 1850s, up on the roof of the building that it's currently in. We started our visit with a show to demonstrate the camera obscura. The tour guide panned the camera 360 degrees around the city to give us a bird's eye tour.

The rest of the building is now an optical illusion/magic museum, and Coop had a great time. (Ok, so did the grown-ups.)

This was some kind of computerized floor mat that responded to touch (or stepping).

So the picture here is like you're looking into a pond -- water ripples, big rocks, and little fish swimming around. Wherever you stepped, the water rippled and the fish swam away from you.

This was a traffic scene and Coop caused all sorts of car accidents by stepping on the vehicles.

There was a whole floor of holograms, which unfortunately don't make for great photos. And an entire room of those magic eye things that I still can't figure out.

Here's Alan's head on a platter:

And GIANT Alan with tiny Cooper:

Notice that when it's Coop's turn to be BIG, he flexes his muscles. Well played, son.

One whole floor was various light/mirror displays including the maze of mirrors:

After we left Camera Obscura and the others were done in the castle, we took a double-decker bus tour around the city:

Other than a stop for lunch and a stop to buy a souvenir, we didn't really see much else. This trip anyway. But we started a list of things to do next time!

Day trip to London

2011-02-23T05:00:00.002-06:00

One of the benefits of our location is that we're a short one-hour (and change) train ride from London. So one Saturday, we decided to go to London for the day to get our feet wet with the train and the Tube and the city.

Coop was excited. His first train ride in England!

The magic green box next to him is called "100 Things for Little Children to Do on a Trip." Score.

Our plan was to start taking bit-sized chunks out of our "Things to Do in London" list. We quickly discovered that bite-sized chunks is the only way any of it will be doable with a 4-year-old. The city, despite its fantastic public transportation, is pretty big for small kids. Even going to station A, taking the train to station B, switching trains to station C, and walking to an attraction puts about a mile on your shoes. Poor Coop!

So on our first day trip, we managed to do two things. First, visit the famous Tower Bridge:

We paid the seven pounds per adult to go up in the tower, walk across the upper level walkway, and see some exhibits about how the bridge was built.

The Tower Bridge (which actually is *not* the London Bridge) is a suspension bridge that crosses the Thames River. Construction on the bridge started in 1886 and took eight years to complete. It is 800 feet long and has two towers, each 213 feet high, built on piers.

Originally, the bridge had two giant steam engines to raise and lower the draw bridge for passing ships. Here, Alan is ~~feeding Cooper into~~ showing Cooper the coal bin.

The steam engine:

In 1974, the bridge was modernized and a hydraulic system was installed to raise and lower the bridge.

Coop was most taken with the "stunts on the bridge" display that showed a drawing of a double-decker bus that had accidentally driven on the bridge when it was open (to let a big ship pass underneath) and was forced to jump the gap. And there was a big display of a motorcycle rider (ala Evel Knievel) who jumped the bridge and then donated his bike and his outfit to the museum showcase. Coop's up next, it looks like!

Alan sitting by a fountain with lots of naked girls. (He requested this photo.)

Our second big attraction of the day (not counting the naked-girl fountain) was the Tower of London. It's a spectacular place (a prison, which always intrigues me!), and could easily become my favorite London spot. Admittedly, I've only been to two London "spots" so far (this tower and the bridge; wait -- three if you could the airport!), but still...

There's so much good stuff about the Tower of London; a blog post just can't do it justice, particularly because so much that makes the place interesting are the stories of people who were imprisoned there. I even ponied up the five pounds to buy the official Tower of London souvenir guidebook so I could revisit all the stories and the places of the Tower.

Anyway, the Tower of London is technically a castle fortress, made up of several different buildings and towers. It gets its name from the White Tower, the most prominent part of the castle grounds, which was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. (Like the Lincoln Castle, this place was founded by William the Conqueror after his coronation at the conclusion of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.)

As a castle, the whole place had various defense systems in place, including a moat and tons of soldiers with cross bows.

Probably none with four-year-old kids playing hide-and-seek nearby, but you get the idea.

The most interesting part of the castle's history for me is its use as a prison, which really came to fruition in the 16th Century. Famous people were incarcerated at the Tower, including Sir Walter Raleigh, Guy Fawkes, and Elizabeth (before she became Queen Elizabeth I). And, of course, Cooper:

Walking through some of the prison areas today, you can still see fairly extensive graffiti that prisoners left:

Ten people were beheaded on the grounds of the castle, including three English queens: Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII's wives; Catherine Howard, Henry V's wife; and Lady Jane Gray, queen for only nine days when she was sixteen years old.

Since the 1300s, the Tower of London has also held the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, including the crowns of various royal family members as well as scepters, orbs (small fancy Christmas-ornament-looking balls that the king or queen holds), rings, swords, spoons, plates, and the largest soup tureen I have ever seen (seriously, you could stuff a whole person inside it!). We couldn't take photos inside that exhibit, but it was pretty glitzy! This website has a few photos if you want to browse a bit.

All in all, a busy day. We were on our feet for about six solid hours, and much of that was spent looking at things targeted at grown-ups. Next time we go, we'll try to hit the science museum and the natural history museum for Cooper!

More interior photos

2011-02-21T05:00:00.006-06:00

This is the inside of the front door of our castle. It's actually always locked, except special occasions (our arrival, the day the manor hosted a wedding, etc.).

The front foyer:

A close-up of the guys with headaches that are all around the Great Hall.

A lovely intricate ceiling in one room. (I can't remember which now, and I'm too lazy to walk all through the castle to find it.)

There's a separate building for sports-related activities. (I laughed at the personalized sign. Impressive.)

The exercise area:

And there's also a basketball court available to students -- the Harlaxton Lions, our team is called! And they play in some area rec league.

One night, I unlocked the magic that is the Bosendorfer piano:

I left all of my music at home, so I set my laptop on top of the piano and pulled up music on-line. It was fantastic, and I played until my laptop battery died.

Lincoln Cathedral

2011-02-19T05:00:00.001-06:00

Seen one, seen 'em all? Maybe a little for Cooper. And certainly the initial shock of being in a building so big and so old and so majestic has worn off a bit for Alan and I. But holy moly. These places are amazing. The sheer size is just overwhelming. And the level of craftsmanship is unbelievable, particularly given the age of these places.

This is the cathedral in Lincoln. It towers over the city---we could see it from the highway as we were driving in.

Portions of this side of the cathedral (below) date back to the 11th Century, but much of the cathedral was rebuilt in 1186 after fire and an earthquake destroyed it.

You can also notice the change in architectural styles as the cathedral was expanded. The round arches in the center of the building are traditional Norman style. But the pointed arches on the right and left sides are typical Gothic style, dating from 1200-1400.

Inside the main part of the cathedral.

This cathedral, like the others we've seen, has several smaller chapels throughout, as well as regular church service things (like a lectern, choir loft, altar, and hymnals), in addition to a scattering of tombs.

This is the front door of the cathedral:

An example of some of the ornate stone carving:

This cathedral, like many others I assume, is incredibly expensive to maintain. Through the cathedral, there were these signs (along with financial support information):

Alan was impressed with the annual fabric budget. (Roughly, about $1.6 million.)

Lincoln Castle

2011-02-17T05:00:00.002-06:00

We took a college-sponsored day trip to Lincoln, a town about an hour away, with all of the college students. It was a trip for their required British Studies course, so it was full of history and culture.

One fantastically interesting place we visited was Lincoln Castle. In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned King of England after the Battle of Hastings. He began taking over the country by building a network of castles, including this one in Lincoln, built in 1068.

For over 900 years, Lincoln Castle was used as a court and a prison, so its history is rich with stories of trials and bad guys and executions. Lincoln Castle was the place of the first long-drop hanging, where the prisoner stands on a trap door and the length of rope on the noose is long enough that the prisoner drops a distance great enough to break his neck. Clearly a more humane way of executing people than letting them strangle at the end of a short rope.

The view above is of the main prison building (red brick), the observatory tower and turret (with the flag), and the Lincoln Cathedral in the way back. (More on the cathedral in my next post.)

Observatory Tower:

The hill below is Lucy Tower, an original fortress that served as the last defense station of the castle, complete with a steep hill, slick clay terrain, and soldiers shooting down at you from on top. Up on top of Lucy Tower are grave stones of some of the last prisoners executed in Lincoln Castle in the 1800s.

Lincoln Castle is also home to one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta (1215). This is not a photo of the Magna Carta.

You couldn't take pictures of the Magna Carta, but this is Cooper sticking his head in a soldier's helmet, presumably to protest war and taxes in preparation for writing the Magna Carta.

We had the afternoon to wander around Lincoln. One of the main shopping drags is this street, appropriately named Steep Hill.

Yes. Yes, indeed.