We spent last Sunday at the Hampstead Heath. This is the huge park with lots of trails where I go for all of my runs. We had a picnic, went to the playground, and flew a kite last weekend. Here are some images of the weekend and some images of the trails I run on...

Ethan and dad fly a kite on Parliment Hill ...

Here is a view of the London Skyline from Parliment Hill -

We had a picnic in front of the Kenwood House and toured it after lunch. I run on the path by this house on every run and finally got to tour it!

Here is a view of the pond in front of the Kenwood House in the Hampstead Heath.

There is a beautiful flower garden just around the side of the Kenwood House.

Dad takes a spin on Ethan's scooter -

Baby ducks -

Here are some shots of Highgate village just around the corner from our flat.

For my running buddies, here are some shots of the trails that I run in Hampstead Heath.

At long last and not a moment too soon - summer has finally arrived in England. We were so happy about this that we headed straight for the coast last weekend. We went to an area of England known as Dorset. This area was recommended to us by one of the mothers at Ethan's school who described the area as "unspoilt." She was exactly right. It was amazing. We took the train to Poole where we rented a small car and drove straight to the Isle of Purbeck; not an actual island, it is a peninsula almost separated from the mainland by the River Frome.

We stayed in a town called Lulworth Cove - an amazing small town, quaint with thatch roofs. We actually stayed at an inn that was also a family friendly pub. We got keys to the front door of the pub, so we could come and go as we please after the pub was closed. Here is a picture of the boys playing a giant game of chess out front. Hmm.... where should I go next?

This area is particularly nice because it is linked by a long walking path called the "Costal Path." This area links several hundred miles of magnificent English coast line an beaches. We took a short walk on the path one evening. Here is a picture of the path ....









Here is Ethan walking on the path with is "hat" that he fashioned out of a very large leaf.





This area is also known as the Jurassic Coast and is a World Heritage Site. Many of the beaches are covered with fossiliferous 'Purbeck marble' and chalk. Many dinosaur bones and footprints have been discovered here. Here are dad and Ethan on Kimmeridge Beach playing a game where they try to hit a stack of rocks with another rock.

Here is one of the fossils on the beach.

We also visited another beach in the town of Worth Matravers, a tiny village with little more than a church, village green, pub, and pond. We walked from the town on the costal path to Winspit Bay, a beautiful rocky bay with clear blue water. Here are some pictures of Winspit.

In addition to all the beach activities, we also visited Corfe Castle, a truly amazing castle ruin. The 11th century castle, improved with a tall tower by Henry III in the 13th, was built on top of a Roman fort, which was built on top of an Iron Age hill fort, and which was probably inhabited for a thousand years before that as well. The castle was destroyed by Cromwell's army in the 17th century with huge stores of gunpowder packed under the foundation walls and ignited, resulting in bizarrely inclined and half-buried fragments. Here are some shots of the castle.

Ethan got a new scooter which we took on the trip. Here is Ethan with his scooter. The scooter is even big enough for dad to ride!

We stopped for lunch at a pub in Worth Matravers - the Square and Compass - a really nice place. Here is one of the roosters that was walking around checking out Ethan's scooter.

The sun was shining last Saturday, and we took a short weekend trip to Cambridge. I don't know if it was simply because the sun was out and it was warm, but I loved Cambridge. It is a beautiful city with lots to see and do. We took advantage of the nice weather and hired bikes the moment we stepped off the train. We headed to the tourist office and booked a B&B for the night and then started off towards the B&B to leave our bags. This was a minor fiasco as the lady at the tourist office wrote the street address incorrectly - instead of 780 it was 80 .... Needless to say we went way, way out of our way. Ethan was not happy. We finally decided to call. Then we began the long ride back to nearly where we started. At this point, we were all hungry and Ethan was not a happy camper. After dropping our bags off, we headed for lunch at a great pub/cafe with an outdoor patio. After lunch, we decided to hire a punt ( a long flat boat - sort of like a canoe) to float down the river Cam. Ethan insisted we rent our own instead of doing the guided tour. It was lots of fun. William drove the punt, and Ethan and I assisted with a paddle as best we could. The river was quite crowded, and punting was pretty hard work for William since there were so many other punts to dodge.

The punting culture is sort of like preppy tubing culture. Most people drink wine and eat berries while punting instead of beer and chips and it is great fun to watch people punt and see if they fall in....luckily, we stayed dry. Here Ethan helps dad out.

The next day we headed towards a rural cycling route to a small town up the river for a picnic after stocking up at the farmer's market. We made it to the other town, but then it started pouring rain. We took shelter under an awning outside a pub and had our picnic there. Luckily the rest of the day was dry and beautiful, so we did not get too wet.

We stopped by the botanical gardens which were beautiful, and Ethan got to see and photograph some tropical rainforest plants for his school project.

Here we are outside of St. Johns College. One thing we did on this trip that was outstanding was to go hear the Kings College Choir sing evensong at Kings College Church.

Ethan is such a monkey! Here he is doing a headstand and then hanging from a tree.

Here are some shots of two weeks ago when we went to the London Aquarium and Ethan got some geckos painted on his cheek.