Since Ethan is on half-term break this week, we took a three day trip to York, the North York Moors and the coast (Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, Scarborough).

Day 1

We took the train from London's King's Cross Station to York where we rented our car, had lunch and visited York Minster the Gothic Cathedral in York pictured below.

We left York and headed for Rievaulx Abbey which was the first Northern Cistercian monastery. This Abbey is currently a series of remains, but it was an extremely impressive site and very beautiful. This was my favorite stop on the entire trip.

Ethan took this picture of us; he is becoming quite the photographer!

That evening we travelled to Whitby a small town on the Atlantic Ocean which was once a prominent whaling port. Captain Cook sailed his first ship out of Whitby in 1747 where he trained. All of Captain Cook's sailing vessels were built in Whitby. Whitby is also home to a 7th Century Monastery (Whitby Abbey) dramatically located on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. To reach the Abbey, you have to climb 199 steps from the port. An interesting note, the graveyard of the church next to the Abbey was the sight of the filming of a scene from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Here is a night shot of the Abbey from the other side of town.

We had a great indian food meal (Ethan actually likes the rice and plain fried chicken at Indian food restaurants). We stayed in a small Bed and Breakfast in Whitby which served a huge English breakfast with the room. The English breakfast is a blessing and a curse. It is great, so you can fill up and eat a light lunch or no lunch at all, but it is also terrible if you have a sensitive stomach. There is something about all the butter, eggs, beans, and tomatoes (I eat mine without meat) that does not sit well for those with more delicate stomaches. I have decided to skip the full English from now on...

Day 2

After breakfast, we went for a walk on the Whitby beach - collected rocks and sea glass and then climbed the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey. Ethan enjoyed the Abbey, but mostly he enjoyed playing frisbee at all the sites we visited!

Here are the boys on the Whitby beach, and the Whitby Abbey is below this picture.

We actually used the timer on the camera to take this picture!

After the Abbey, we headed down the coast to Robin Hood's Bay. Robin Hood's Bay is a tiny fishing village on the North Yorkshire Coast. The tiny beach here was once a notorious smugglers landing, but has nothing to do with the actual Robin Hood. It was very windy, and we headed straight for the cliff top path and then to the beach.

After our short walk, we contined south down the coast to Scarborough Castle in Scarborough. The castle was built during Norman times on the site of a Roman signal station (the remains still visible). This castle is also situated on a rocky cliff with dramatic views of the coast.

We continued our journey to Helmsley Castle which was built in the 12th Century and was the site of a Civil War battle. Helmsley Castle located in Hemsley was also the site of a civil war battle. The town of Helmsley is a nice spot with cute shops and restaurants around a small town square.

After our visit to Helmsley castle, we got Ethan an ice cream cone and headed out for a walk on one of the thousands of footpaths that cover the English countryside. This footpath is called the Cleveland Way. We walked to the site of the ruins (barely visible) of a medieval village. In fact, when we got to the ruins and started to turn around Ethan said "where is our car" after which we explained to him that we were just walking on a path to the barely visible ruins and that we would have to turn around a go back to our car. He was a surprisingly good sport about this as we set a quick pace back to avoid nightfall.

Along the way we encountered a number of sheep wandering around the fields ....

Day 3

We woke up and had an early breakfast in Whitby and checked out of the bed and breakfast. We headed straight for the beach for one last stroll. After that we started our journey to Fountains Abbey. Along the way we came across a large road sign indicating the "Hole of Horkum" of course we could not resist stopping! It is basically a very large hole or valley which legend has it was created by the giant Kirk who scooped a large handful of mud out of the earth to throw at his wife Hilda. Here are the boys in front of the hole.

Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 but not completed until the early 1500s. Now only the ruins of the Abbey remain, but they are quite spectacular and include some beautiful gardens and a working water mill. Note the blue sky and sunshine!


Ethan and dad enjoyed some frisbee.

This week Ethan is on half term break, so he is off school all week. We have been spending some time seeing some sights around London on his break. We went to the London Zoo which is one of the best Zoos that I have been to in terms of presentation and treatment of the animals. We also did some research on tigers for his half term homework project where we are putting together a book about tigers. Here is Ethan jumping on one of the inflatables in the kids area.

I just had to include this exhibit which I thought was really funny. There are lots of "stone walls" all over England!

We also went to the Natural History Museum and visited an exhibit on the scientists who live and work in Antartica. Lots of other kids and their families had this same idea. The dinosaur room was so crowed it was almost unbearable. Here is Ethan trying on a jacket that the Scientists in Antartica wear.

Here is a big T-Rex -

We also went to Kew Gardens which is a botanical garden that has a indoor play ground and craft classes for kids. It was pretty cold outside, so we spent most of our time inside at the indoor playground. We will have to go back to explore the gardens. It was a long tube ride to Kew Gardens - 22 stops by Ethan's count! Here are some shots of Ethan playing.

Ethan took a paper scultpure class and made a volcano.

Here is a picture of Kew Palace and some flowers - signs of Spring! Tomorrow we take a weekend trip to York and the Yorkshire Dales.

Last weekend we went to the Tate Modern Art Galley on the south bank of the River Thames in London. We took a boat to the museum. We are waiting for the boat to arrive below. Notice Ethan has his scooter - he pretty much takes it everywhere.

Here is Ethan at the front of the boat!

After a day at the museum and some pizza for lunch, we headed to the river bank to skip rocks. It was a great day.

Just wanted to share a picture of the Bond family that my cousin Torrey just sent me. This is an artistic picture of my Aunt Terri, Cousin Torrey and Grandpa Bond.

This post is in loving memory of my grandmother and Ethan's Great Grandmother Glenna Bond (pictured on the right) who passed unexpectedly on Tuesday, February 12th 2008. This picture was taken the last time we saw her in Phoenix, Arizona Thanksgiving 2006. She will be remembered and missed.

We took our first weekend trip last weekend to Stonehenge, Old Sarum, Bradford on Avon, and to Wales to Caerphilly Castle. We left at 6:30am Saturday, took the tube to the airport, and picked up our rental car. William did the driving and was really good at driving on the wrong side of the road -

It took about an hour and 20 minutes from London to get to Stonehenge. We were very impressed. It used to be that you could walk right near and within the stones, but now you walk in a circle at a distance. You can still get a really good look at the stones. The weather was beautiful and sunny the entire weekend!

We arrived early and it is off-season, so there were not a lot of people which made the experience nicer. Ethan took the picture below -

After viewing Stonehenge, we went a few miles down the road to Old Sarum which is the remains of a site built during the Iron Age and later a Normal castle and then a palace. Here are Ethan and Dad walking up to Old Sarum:

We purchased two wooden swords from the gift shop which lead to Ethan storming the site and a sword fight.

After a good day, we headed to Bradford on Avon - a small scenic town outside of Bath. We found a cute inn to stay for the evening which came with a full English breakfast (yummy - eggs, beans, tomatoes, and sausage (nut loaf for me)). Here are some evening shots of the town and the inn.

After breakfast we started our drive to Wales where we went to Caerphilly castle. Caerphilly is a Medieval castle situated on a river and is truly amazing. The funny thing about the castle is that the town of Caerphilly built up entirely around the castle. You find an interesting juxtaposition of old and new. For example, directly across the street from the castle is a Tesco (a local supermarket).

Here is Ethan taking a shot at the giant cross bow and our picnic lunch outside of the castle!