What I did on my Summer Vacation: England, Day One

  I'm still somewhat recovering from the trip. In other words I'm still sleepy and getting back on American time. No nasty jet lag feeling though, so that's something. I think it helped that I forced myself to stay up fairly late the night we got home, instead of giving in to going to bed as soon as I entered the house. That would have had me waking up too early the next morning, (or even in the middle of the night.) As it worked out I am pretty much on schedule and waking up between 7 and 9 in the morning. (Not that the first morning I didn't go back to bed when I woke up at 9!)

Tammy World was my travel doll, although she complained she didn't get out of my purse often enough. Here she is at the airport in Columbus right before we boarded.

  Flying was different for me this time around. I hadn't flown since 1986, at which point I was an unmarried 24 year old, traveling alone. With nobody but me to worry about I was uncomfortable with take off, but not too uncomfortable. This time, traveling with a husband and two of my kids I was VERY uncomfortable. (I know they say you are more likely to be hit by a truck while crossing the street than you are to be in a plane crash, but isn't that a lot more to do with averages---after all, you cross the road more often than you fly on a plane. At least I do.---than with the safety of airplanes? Just saying...)

Tammy posed with Ken's pretzel on the flight from Columbus to Atlanta Georgia. She was perfectly happy to relinquish it after that though, because, like me, she hates pretzels...

The pretzels on the flight to England were much better. They weren't actually made of pretzel dough, but were more like crackers, and were sour cream and chive flavour. We did NOT give those to Ken.

 Ivy had never flown and she was totally looking down her nose at me because flying didn't bother her at all. I think if it had bothered her she would have pretended it didn't just so she could lord her nonchalance over me. As usual, I couldn't sleep on the plane. This time around it was partly because I'm old now and my twitchy legs were acting up from sitting too long. Whatever the case, I was so sleepy the last part of the flight, (Also because I'm old now.), that it was like torture not to be able to be comfortable and sleep. It probably worked out better though, because I didn't sleep until a short nap in the evening, which got me on English time.
  Anyway we arrived safely at Manchester airport, where we were met by 2 out of 3 sisters and corresponding spouses. Of course it was raining.

Ken's sister Marjorie, who treated us to the trip, on the stop for petrol on the way to Hull. Thank you Marjorie!

Not because,in spite of popular belief,that it rains in England all the time, but because it rains everywhere I go. (The first time I went to England they had the rainiest Spring in 50 years, and the rainiest April in recent memory, or something like that. Once when I went to see my friend in San Antonio, Texas, they were having a terrible drought. As I was leaving for the airport to go home it began to rain and before my plane took off they were having flash floods.)

Ivy, Emma, sister Marjorie and husband Cliff, and me.

  The girls had slept on and off on the plane,  that didn't stop them from catching a few z's on the ride to Bilton.

They missed some beautiful scenery by doing it though.

  The family drove us to Bilton, near Hull, where sister Gloria lives and Ken used to live.

For some reason Gloria brought down her husband's police helmet, (he's a retired policeman.) and had us try it on.Ivy resembled Stan Laurel when she made the face that held the chin strap on.

And oddly enough, I resembled Harpo Marx without making a face. The helmet was left on the stairs to take back up later, and at some point Alan fell down the stairs and broke it. By the way, I do NOT have webbed hands. Not quite sure why it looks so weird.

  After Marjorie and spouse left for home in Hull we proceeded on foot to Asda, where sister Gloria works. Asda is owned by Walmart, but doesn't resemble it much. Ken started his shopping for food, and the girls and I got some vegetarian items we had never seen before. England has several Quorn products we don't have in America. I love Quorn and eat a lot of it at home, so I was anxious to try them. We got vegetarian versions of some classic British foods, like Scotch eggs and pork pie. It was also at this time that I began to be followed by Peppa Pig.

 My kids are all big now, so I'm not familiar with Peppa. Apparently she's hugely popular in England, because she was everywhere. (Peppa Pig is shown in America on Nick Jr. too.When I went to the grocery store yesterday to restock a bit there was a big Peppa Pig DVD display at the registers.) I also spotted these Pixie Punks, which appear to be Monster High rip offs.

  Of course they had Monster High too. There wasn't a massive choice in dolls, not much of anything different from America, and Asda had a tiny toy section.
  I began to loose my oomph at Asda and sat down to feel queasy and fall asleep. (I didn't fall asleep, but I easily could have if I could have lain down.)
  Once back at Gloria's, Tammy World was glad to kick her shoes off and relax...and get out of the purse.

  As I said, I fell asleep briefly later in the evening, but saved myself up for the sleep at bedtime. Ken didn't wait on his sleep.

He conked out right after we got back to sister Gloria's house.
  So that was our first day in England. Next post: Day 2.