Playing Catch Up

I am staying with a man and his son (through a connection with my mother) out in Didcot which is 45 minutes or so away from London. This puts me a lot closer to Bath, so instead of trying to find another tour, I decided to just go by myself (it's better that way anyways!). It's only around a mile to the train station, and the walk was actually really pleasant. I found an apple tree hanging over a fence towards the sidewalk, so I helped myself to one that had actually fallen on the ground since I was too short to reach the others. What's worse than finding a worm in an apple? Half a worm in an apple. Just kidding guys, the apple was worm-free and delicious! Better than any apple in a grocery store for sure.

I got to Bath and just walked. I walked in circles, zigzags... I just walked all over the city, admiring the beauty of this old Roman town. The river Avon runs through the middle, with the beautiful Parade Gardens following it for a short time.

Bath was much more on my level than London... Cities can be fun, but on a windy, almost rainy day, a city like this is just perfect. There are a lot less people, more unique stores, and it's just more calm. That, is what I loved about it.

There was a tour bus with "Stonehenge" painted on the side sitting in the town square, so I walked up and talked to the operator for a few minutes. He was waiting on 2 more people, and if they didn't show, he said I could have one of their seats. After waiting a few minutes past the designated time of departure, he let me on! The ride out to Stonehenge took about an hour and was quite scenic. We would speed around tight corners, up through trees and buildings, and then just pop out next to amazing views of the country side. 

Stonehenge itself has an air of mystery and intrigue... No one truly knows why it was there, other than it can be used as a calendar. It is not the biggest, or the oldest, grouping of stones similar to it, but it has become the most famous due to the design and how it was built. It used to be a lot bigger, but there are many stones missing. People carved holes into the horizontal stones to go on top of the vertical stones which they fashioned "knots" or bumps into (think of how legos fit together). These bumps would fit into the holes on the stones, making the 3 stones actually attached, and like one piece. You can see this in some of the photos if you look closely.

My new camera that I got for graduation is doing it's job perfectly, and I'm so thankful that I have it. (Thanks Mom). It's even easy to take "selfies" with it. One of you guys need to start coming on these trips because I really need a personal photographer!

After getting back to Bath, and then back to Didcot, I walked to James' house and as soon as I arrived, we left for dinner. We drove in what I thought were circles until we ended up at this beautiful little pub with a thatched roof. The servers were all having to bend over to walk under the ceiling joists without hitting their heads, but I was short enough to just walk through with no hindrance. See, there are some perks to being short!

At dinner, James' and his son Daniel entertained me with all kinds of stories, questions, and just good conversation. Daniel (age 11) wanted to know all the rules of college football, which I surprisingly was able to provide (for the most part). He told me about rugby, which he is now participating in with his school. I tried to get him to talk about school itself, but he didn't want to deal with that. I had a Sweet Chili Satay Chicken with pineapple to start, and a Wild Boar burger with apple and chips for dinner. The food was very tasty, and the company was unbeatable.

We discussed Sweet Home Alabama, Forrest Gump, Guns in the US and specifically Alabama (people always find it strange that I own a pistol). Both James and Daniel mimicked (very well, actually) Forrest Gump with his famous line, "Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."