Long weekend: Swindon (Stonehenge, swimming, and a goodbye)

Family photo at the Oldfields' home

We have spent the last two Easters with my cousins, the Oldfields.  This year we were in Germany for Easter, so we made the trip down at the end of the school break.  Such is doable when the break is two weeks long with inset days added at the beginning and end.  Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold both raise the hair on my neck because our first trip through them was so painfully slow (despite subsequent trips not having any problems).  Our experience this trip fell in the "good ones we won't remember" category instead of "painful ones we will remember."

The girls had four items on their agenda.  They wanted to play with Jasmine the cat.  They wanted to visit Stonehenge.  They wanted to go back to the adventure playground at Bowood, and they wanted to swim.  Unlike our trip to Edinburgh, the ratio relative to days in the trip wasn't that bad.  It should have been straightforward, right?

Not exactly.  It turned out that Jasmine has added a term to her title.  She is now the cantankerous cat, having reverted to pre-Oldfield behaviour for reasons they didn't understand.  This meant constantly reminding the girls that they needed to be very careful with how much love and attention they gave Jasmine.  For other reasons nobody really understood, Jasmine had also evidently decided that anyone who ignored her deserved her affection.  She deigned to honour my lap with her presence several times during the visit, while the poor girls had to keep their affection in check.  I guess that's par for the course in terms of cat affection.

Cranky cat bestowing affection on someone who didn't want it

Stonehenge is only a 45 minute drive from the Oldfields.  It should have been a no-brainer destination on one of our Swindon trips.  Except Kristine and I are pretty stingy about paying for expensive tourist traps.  And we justified our stinginess by convincing ourselves the girls were too young to appreciate an expensive tourist trap.  We changed our mind this time for two reasons.  We found out Stonehenge is free for National Trust members (hence not having to fork out 50 pounds for the family).  Elise and Charis have both studied enough British history that they know about Stonehenge now.  That means it's not just the parents dragging them to an educationally enriching experience.  They asked to get dragged to an educationally enriching experience.

The GPS in our trusty Golf is usually reliable.  This time she took us to Stonehenge via some pretty windy and narrow (even by UK standards) village roads.  As we got to within a mile and traffic ground to a halt, I began to mutter under my breath.  It turns out that traffic grinds to a halt at this point because everyone is slowing down to look at Stonehenge, which is viewable from the road.  The girls looked out the window, saw Stonehenge, and were excited.  The parents looked out the window, saw Stonehenge, and understood why the halted traffic suddenly moved quicker just 500 m down the road.

The weather forecast called for cold rain in the afternoon.  We gambled that we could get to Stonehenge in the morning, spend a couple hours there, and be back in the car before the predicted rain hit.  Yes, we knew this was England.  Yes, we still took the weather forecast seriously.  No, we evidently haven't lived here long enough to know better.  The sun was shining when we left Swindon.  It was cloudy and cold when we pulled into the parking lot at the Stonehenge visitor's centre.  Kristine wisely pulled raincoats out of the back and insisted we all put them on.  By the time we collected tickets, boarded the shuttle, and made the 3 minute drive to the stones, we started seeing raindrops on the shuttle windows.  By the time we disembarked from the shuttle, the heavens had opened with cold, sleety, rain.  This meant we had a memorable visit to Stonehenge.  It also meant we had a pretty short visit to Stonehenge.  A figurative silver lining to the real clouds was that the rain meant there weren't many people coming out from the visitor's centre to see Stonehenge.  As a result, we didn't have many crowds to battle for either our view or our photos.

Kristine: What kind of crazy person would want ice cream on a day like this?
Elise: Look, Mommy - an ice cream truck!

Only one daughter obeyed my instructions to look gloomy in the rain

Trying to look gloomy

Failing at looking gloomy

Gloominess reduced thanks to rook landing on the Ranger's arm

Note the iconic rainy English landscape in the background

Bedraggled hero shot in front of Stonehenge

Viewing of Stonehenge and walking the circuit around it complete, we made our way through the rain back to the shuttle, felt sorry for the Stonehenge staff who had to stand in the rain (one woman was dancing around in what we took as an attempt to stay both cheerful and warm), and spent a little time exploring the visitor's centre.  The huts were marginally interesting (beds made out of sticks after you duck your head through a door doesn't exactly capture the imagination).  Pulling the stone was fun (although by this time the rain had subsided so lots of people wanted a go).  The museum was engaging.  The girls enjoyed the display that showed Stonehenge changing through the centuries.  I appreciated the way the museum gave voice to the different theories and opinions about Stonehenge's origins without implying that there is a conclusive single answer.  Visit complete, we checked the return route on Google and made our way back through wider, slightly less winding roads.

Spot the stone?

Come on, Elise - pull harder!

We decided the huts were more fun to look at from the outside than the inside

Enjoying the "Stonehenge through the centuries" display

Rain on Sunday and Monday meant we got extra swimming in, but no trip to the adventure playground.  So on the girls' agenda we hit 2 out of 4.  I enjoyed these trips to the swimming pool as much as any that we've done recently.  Elise has started weekly swimming lessons at school.  In her words, "I had a good foundation from IUPUI and Butler.  These lessons have helped me remember it."  She even experimented with butterfly on this trip (dolphin kick - pretty good; arm motion - needs practice).  Charis was doing basic doggie-paddle during our visit last Thanksgiving.  This time she started using proper arm motion for front crawl, and made it the full length of the pool on her own.  Clare cheerfully made friends with anyone in the kiddie pool, and spent lots of time with her own head fully under water. 

The Gospel reading was Jesus' appearance to his disciples by the lake.  Not sure decorating fish helped Clare remember the reading much, but it kept her busy and happy

Elise helped John work on the crossword puzzle

I've taken lots of flack for my supposed Marmite obsession, but I couldn't resist bringing this with me

Despite visiting a family of Marmite-lovers, Clare was the only other person who liked it

The weather that rained out hopes of the adventure playground

Elise (no cap) and Charis (yellow cap) enjoying their swim

The gloomy skies Monday afternoon mirrored our moods as we said goodbye to the Oldfields and drove home.  I told Carol that I'm sure we could have done the secondment without family. After all, most people don't have a choice.  I'm glad we got to do our secondment with family.  The time with the Oldfields during our stay in the UK is high on the list of things memories I will treasure.

Farewell photo with the Oldfields