The wedding itself was fantastic, and we had a very lovely weekend away. But the weather...oh the weather.... We were getting a bit nostalgic about England and leaving in 5 weeks, and then...the weather went from spring-like and lovely to horrid and freezing cold (seriously, sleet was seen), and we remembered, "Oh that's right, we're moving to CALIFORNIA, hooray!"
On Friday Zack took a half day off and went out on a 'hunt' with the wedding party. Only clay pigeons were injured, luckily. Beatrice and I checked into the hotel, and Beatrice spent the afternoon accosting her new best friend - Lion, of the Red Lion Hotel in Salisbury. Seems he's famous. Beatrice appeared to like him because they are the same size. She giggled hysterically when she first saw him (be forewarned - there are lots of B and Lion photos).
The next day was more play time with Lion. Then went exploring around Salisbury a bit. Zack and I had been before, back in our pre-Beatrice days, so we stuck to the good parts. This time we did make it to Mompesson House on the Cathedral Close (www.timetravel-britain.com/07/April/mompesson.shtml), Mrs. Jennings' London house from the 1995 version of Sense & Sensibility. B enjoyed sleeping in the closet, again.
After that it was time to get dressed, for we were headed off to Trevor & Jason's wedding at Trafalgar Park (www.trafalgarpark.com), yet another film setting for Jane Austen's novels. We brought Alex, along with her friend Laura, to take care of Beatrice and all of the other babies and toddlers. The wedding was beautiful and the setting was fantastic - a truly English wedding. The dress code specified big hats for women...I think I may have won.
The next day we *tried* to sleep in, but someone wanted to play with Lion.
In the afternoon Alex and Laura were good enough to babysit again so Zack & I could join the rest of the gang for a tour of Wilton House (www.wiltonhouse.co.uk). Beatrice loved spending time with them, especially as this was her last few days with Alex before Alex headed home to Boston and Chicago.
Wilton House was a great house, if somewhat over the top. Again, yet another filming location for Pride & Prejudice... The best part? (besides the Civil War reenactors and ridiculously posh interiors) a serious playground!
Today, Monday, Beatrice was on her 4th outfit by 10:30am. Perhaps she objected to the piggy bib.
We left her with Alex again so we could go on the spire tour of Salisbury Cathedral (no kids under 5 allowed). With 300 steps it was tough, but luckily(?) we do our fair share of steps every day, so we didn't find it that tough. The interiors were amazing, especially the beams and 14th century iron reinforcements (Christopher Wren believed they were the finest in all of Europe)! I particularly enjoyed the graffiti from 1814 and our ridiculously posh English guide who harumphed his way through the tour (an excerpt: Me - "It is sleeting out there, I'm freezing!", Him: "Oh - harumph - you Americans! Isn't it you who always go on so about air conditioning? Well, here you have it. Harumph." Me [thinking] - "Going back to Cali...")
On our way back home we had to say goodbye to Alex. Lots of tears all around, we'll miss her so much. But back at home Beatrice enjoyed discovering that Lion had made the trip with us (no, I didn't steal him).
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