Happy Birthday Mia!

On Saturday, Mia turned 8 years old! We spent a fairly relaxing day together as a family...with presents first thing in the morning, a dinner out at one of Mia's favorite restaurants, and then an outdoor performance of the "Sword and the Stone" at Chatsworth. She's enjoying a day with her friends today: a trip to the cinema to see the Lorax, lots of girly play time, and a sleepover! 

Camping & Picnicking

Since it was a nice weekend, we scheduled a last minute camping trip in Bakewell, a short drive from home. Most camping in the UK that we've heard about is car camping on a farmers field. A bit different than what we're used to...not trees for privacy at all. But it was really nice to be in a nice big space. Since we were only staying one night, we didn't have a lot to bring (not that we could fit much more in our car), and it was easy to set up and take down our camp "site". We enjoyed a relaxed evening playing volleyball and frisbee in the big field of grass. 

In the morning we decided to go for a walk in Monsal Dale, on the Chatsworth estate. It was quite beautiful, though unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me to take photos. From there we went to the Chatsworth park to lounge by the river there, soak up the sunshine, and splash in the river. The day ended with a brief visit to the Chatsworth Farmyard...always fun for the kids.

A bunch of Chatworth bulls came over to check out the scene by the river.

Olympics Gymnastics Finals

We were so lucky to get tickets to teh Finals of Mens Gymnastic Floor excercise, Womens Vault, and Mens Pommel Horse.  One of Sean's former coworkers has a daughter that works for NBC and produced the gymnastics events.  She was able to get us some reasonably priced tickets (OK, they were at the top of the arena) that for some reason weren't available on the web to purchase.  This time the girls were much more interested in attending, so we all took the train down to London for the day.

On the way we made signs to cheer on Team USA, who were competing in the first two events.  We also were ready to cheer for Team GB, with 2 athletes competing in the last event, Mens Pommel Horse.  

Unfortunately, USA didn't earn a medal, but it was fun to watch.

USA's Maroney was favored to win the Womens Vault final and she came out with the highest score on her first vault...15.86!  Unfortunately, she landed on her back side for her second vault which lost the Gold, but at least she got Silver.

We came to understand how unforgiving Gymnastics finals are.  For the vault, you get 2 attempts though, one forward facing and one backward facing, and they both count.  Very different from some other events, like certain athletics events that allow you several attempts and you get to keep your best score. 

So we got to see the American Flag raised, but didn't get to hear our National Anthem.  By the way...Princess Kate is the third from the bottom left corner in this photo, in Navy Blue.  Yes, Kate and I watched Olympic Gymnastics together ;-).

The next event was a highlight for us.  Team GB had 2 men competing on the Pommel Horse and they both performed amazingly well.  The stadium was SO LOUD cheering for the home team. 



Kate cheers on Team GB...center front in navy blue.

 Team GB takes Silver and Bronze!

We had a little bit of time before catching our train home, so we walked around a bit and saw the Mall outside the Beach Volleyball Venue.

On the escalator at the tube station....on our way home.

Olympic Womens Volleyball

Several months ago, we really didn't think we had any chance of going to the Olympics. We had missed the lottery in England, and it looked like only people who had previously applied could get any tickets that were becoming available.  Then we saw that the London 2012 website was releasing tickets to anyone in the UK and tickets in volleyball and many other events were becoming available at fairly reasonable prices.  We were so thrilled to get Womens Volleyball tickets in mid June. 

The day finally came, and yesterday Sean, Avery and I got up at 4am to catch the train to London from Derby. The girls weren't too interested in spending a long day watching volleyball, so they stayed behind with some good friends. The train ride to London was super fast...less than 2 hours! So we could take our time making our way to Earl's Court where the games were to start at 9:30am. 

 The Pool B Score Board.

 Avery posing with a Wenlock mascot.

Our seats for the first two matches were on one end of the court, which is where I like to be (as a coach).  You get a nice view of the blockers and also how the serves are moving as they come in.  We watched 2 exciting matches:

China vs. Turkey, China won 3-1...25-20, 25-20, 29-31(exciting!), and 25-22
Serbia vs. Korea, Korea won 3-1...25-12, 25-16, 16-25, 25-21

Then we took a break from the gym for a bit and got some sunshine and pizza outside.  When we returned we had tickets for the next two matches on the same side of the arena, but more in the corner of the court.

The first match of this session was Dominican Republic vs. Russia. Russia won, but it was another exciting 4-set match: 25-23, 25-15, 24-26, and 25-22.  Unfortunately, this 4 set match put the next match (USA vs. Brazil) behind schedule.  So we knew at that point that we would only be able to stay for 3 more sets...if it went to 4 or 5, we would have to miss the end so we could catch our train home.

The stands definitely had more fans for Brazil and they were very loud.  So it felt a bit like Brazil was the home team.  They would make lots of noise while the Americans were serving to try to create distraction.  As I watched team USA come onto the court, I just got the sense that they were a more mature and experienced team than the others that we had watched earlier in the day.  Though Brazil also had a similar presence, as the number 2 ranked team in the world.

The United States really dominated the first 2 sets.  It was quite impressive to watch...and kind of fun to see the Brazilian fans quiet down a bit.  I was excited because it really looked like we might get ot see the USA win this match before we had to leave for the train.

But then came the 3rd set, the US got down by a few points early on and then were able to tie it up at 15-15.  Unfortunately though, Brazil held onto their momentum and were able to win the third set 25-22.  As you can imagine, the stadium was ROCKIN!  Like every other match that we had watched that day, it was going to a 4th set. I was confident that the US would win the 4th as all the other teams earlier had done, but unfortunately, we had to leave.  We were in St. Pancras Station when we found out that the USA had won the 4th set and the match at 25-21.  Though I was a little disappointed to not see the end, I was so thankful that I was able to see them play at all and thrilled that the US had come out on top.

Alnwick Castle

We decided at the last minute on our last day in Edinburgh that we would drive a little bit out of our way on the way home to see Alnwick Castle, about 2 hours from Edinburgh, 4 hours from Derby. Alnwick Castle is where many scenes, especially outdoor scenes were filmed for the first 2 Harry Potter movies. I was so happy that we went. I think the Castle has become my favorite, even above Warwick, in terms of its beauty and arrangment. I loved that it is still used a family home for part of the year. We took a tour that described all the scenes from the movies that were filmed there along with some interesting facts and stories that happened during the filming.

When we arrived we were greeted by a dragon!

Almost immediately we were able to see the location where the first flying lesson took place.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late for the kids to take a flying lesson themselves.  I suppose that's a reason to go back for a second visit.

 In this big yard is where the fist flying lesson took place along with some quidditch scenes.

 Hogwarts Castle from a distance doesn't really look much like Alnwick, the distance view is all computer graphics, but the scenes from within the castle are definitely recognizable.

Sean got caught up in a Jester show.  I am so glad that I didn't get picked...it was a bit embarrassing, he handled it so well!

After the Jester show, we went over to the Knights Quest area where the girls decided to get all dressed up in lovely costumes.  Avery isn't really into the dressing up thing, but there were lots of fun games for the kids to play too.  There was more for us to see there that we just didn't have time for so maybe will make it back next year.

It was so fun to come back home and watch the Harry Potter movies again and recognize all the places we had scene in Scotland and at Alnwick.  Visiting the Castle was the perfect way to end our holiday.

Scotland Tour: Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland...and it's pronounced "Edinbura". It's funny because Brits that come to the US and visit Pittsburgh would say "Pittsbura"! After spending a couple days in the Highlands, we traveled to Edinburgh for a day in the city.  I found it to be a very comfortable and safe city.  We stayed in an apartment right on the "Royal Mile" which is a road a little over a mile long between the Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.  We didn't actually go in the castle or the Palace, but caught some views from the outside and checked out the shops along the way.  I always enjoy perusing the royal gift shops with Queen Elizabeth merchandise.  Somehow though when my husband is with me I don't spend as much money!

 The view from outside the Castle, in the center of the arena where they are getting ready for the Edinburgh Military Tatoo, an annual August military performance.

 While on our way to the Palace, we reached the "world's end".  The alleyways between buildings are called "closes" and Sean stood in the World's End Close.  Just outside the close is where the original wall of the city was, and so for the residents of the city that was "the end of the world."

The view of Holyroodhouse Palace, a royal residence.  I would have loved to go inside, but the kids were a bit exhausted from a day of walking in the rain. 

This is St. Giles Cathedral, just outside of our apartment.  We took a little walk through at the beginning of our day and saw the Thistle Chapel, which is a small chapel in the corner which seemed to be entirely constructed of wood carvings.  It is in the Thistle Chapel, that Prince William was inducted as a Knight of the Order of the Thistle on July 5th.

Our apartment in Edinburgh was just lovely and in a perfect location.  We lived on the 3rd floor of this building above.  The rooms felt old with huge, thick doors, enormous windows and cathedral ceilings. After spending 2 of the previous nights packed into a single hotel room, the space felt really nice!

Scotland Tour: West Coast Railway

The next day in Scotland was a drizzly day...not uncommon, I'm told. We road the West Coast Railway on a train that goes over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, made famous by the 2nd Harry Potter Movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This is the scenic route that the Hogwarts Express takes to get to Hogwarts.  Just after the bridge, the train stopped in Glenfinnan, where the children got to try riding a broom stick.  Avery actually had a bit of success and got airborn. 

It was a beautiful ride to Maillag, where we found some lunch and then hopped on the train again to ride back. Maillag felt like a small fishing village with a bunch of restaurants to feed all the tourists that come on the train.

 Some views from the train....

 

One of the cars on the train, was arranged with "Harry Potter Style" cabins.  We wished that we could have ridden the whole way in one of those, but at least we got to sit in one for a few minutes.