More Updatage - at LAST!

Hello dear ones over the ocean! Oy vay - we have been staying in SO many places w/o wireless internet. Argh! But at LAST we're somewhere where I can actually connect with the rest of my known universe.

And so, now that I'm connected, I'd like to say: I am officially loving this trip. Since my last update I was blown away by Wordsworth's home and the fact that I was there, endeared to the Bronte's home, intrigued by the medieval reenactments and the history at Warwick castle, awed by Shakespeare's birthplace and the many literary giants who've visited there to pay their respects (many of them etched their names in the glass of the actual room - Keats, Scott, Tennyson, Dickens, Emerson, Longfellow, and Twain, at least), delighted by the beauty and quaintness of the villages of the Cotswolds, satisfied by Oxford (it lived up to my expectations!), inspired by Tintern Abbey, charmed by Bath, envigorated by Tintagel (where King Arthur was supposed to have been born - a fitting castle waaay up on a cliff above the sea), fascinated by the geographic marvel of Land's End - the little tip of England jutting into the Atlantic, grateful to the Pilgrims in Plymouth (they grow palm trees in Plymouth - what a shock New England must have been...), thrilled by wild horses (they were ponies, actually, but wild horses sounds so much better!) in Dartmoor, delighted by Gold Hill, reverent-ed by Winchester Cathedral (not to be confused with Winchestertonfieldville Cathedral), historied-out by Portsmouth (esp. the HMS Victory where Nelson defeated the French but lost his life), and moved by a day trip (via overnight ferry) to the beaches of Normandy in FRANCE. Whew! What amazing days these have been!

And we're also having a GOOD time in prayer, over and over again. Praise the Lord - I'm believing for a difference here because of FAITH in GOD!

And now, I'll repeat some of the highlights via photographs! Wheeee!

This is a "Royal Tournament" we watched at Warwick Castle. The guy getting bashed about is the bad knight. The guy doing the bashing is the good knight! Yay!

I just want to add this picture because I love it! It is me, crying, after bashing my head on the post at which I am pointing. That commie post. It was right over my bed, and it hurt so bad. Grrr. Anyway, I told KJ to take a picture while I was crying, and the result was great gales of laughter. "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!"

This is Broadway Castle - a little one-man castle, as it were, built for fun by some Duke or other. It commanded an amazing view of the Cotswold region. Daddy was quite taken by it, so I think I'll have one built for him when my teaching career starts pulling in the big bucks...

Here is some of that famous Cotwold stone, golden in the evening light. Ahhh, what a place. So many totally charming little villages like this one!

Here's KJ and me at Tintagel. We're in the arch-way after having just entered, and behind us (faaaaar below) are the cliffs of the Cornwall Coast looking their wildest. WHEW! Breathtaking.

The wild "horses" of which I spoke! These two don't look especially wild, but the boy horses (um, stallions?) were a pretty lively bunch, thundering around the turf. It was pretty exhilarating to behold.

THIS is Tintern Abbey, one of my all-time favorite locals. Its grandeur was amazing. I've never been so moved to worship by architecture.

This is "Gold Hill" in Shaftsbury. Do you love it?! Can't get much more "charming English village" than that! You should have seen how smitten Mama was - I think that was half the charm right there!

Speaking of things that are quintessentially English - we "happened" upon this CRICKET GAME! Isn't it beautiful? And one of the players actually spent 15 min or so explaining what was going on! I felt like I'd had an epiphany:) And in return, I got to explain to him what an RBI was - something that had been puzzling him for awhile. What a great event!

And this is Omaha beach, one of the two American beaches in D-Day. Stunning beauty to commemorate stunning heroism and valor.

So there you have it! Another glimpse into our merry travels.