This is Grams (Jason's mother) making a guest blog entry: I've been fortunate to be out East spending time around Seth, Amy, and Jason, and--unsurprisingly--Seth continues to be adorable! Is it possible that he could be even more darling than before? He's now sporting beautiful curls, and is on the go all the time. He accurately kicked and threw the ball to me one evening for at least a half hour, and his aim was dead-on.
(more)Seth takes road trip to Hall Tavern Farm. Not the least intimidated by playing his game away from the home gym, Seth dazzled the audience with a series of new feats: a graceful turn around the corner of the sofa, a 180 turn with an object in one hand, six unaided steps with both hands raised, and a hilarious confrontation with a shower nozzle during the bath. For his final feat he held five adults completely captive over the entire dinner hour on Friday night. What a charmer!
Papa
(more)Carolyn: We've made it back to London! We left Joanne's this morning after a quick trip to Innos Market. We took the Metro across town to the Gare du Nord station to pick up the Eurostar train to Waterloo. We were early arriving to the station so we sat at a table and were promptly berated my a mean French guy who wanted us to buy three strawberry tarts in order to sit at the table. (We left.) We finally boarded the train and waved goodbye to Paris.
(more)Carolyn: Today's agenda: Île de la Citè. The Île de la Citè is one of two islands smack in the middle of the Seine. It's very big and easily accessible by metro. We arrived on the Île de la Citè at about 11:30 and headed straight for Notre Dame. Notre Dame is, of course, the grand cathedral in Paris. It continues to hold daily masses and is free to the public. We went in and Jay began to videotape. I lit a prayer candle and talked about Catholicism with the Healys. I also paid 3€ and went into the sacristy, which holds old reliquaries and the outfit that Napoleon wore to his son's baptism. After leaving the cathedral, we took a leisurely walk towards the Holocaust Memorial, with several souvenir stops along the way. When we arrived at the Memorial, we discovered it was closed for lunch (these Parisian landmarks close daily for a two-hour lunch). So we headed over to Saint-Chappelle, to find that it too closed for lunch. Finally we made it into the Conciergerie, the old Revolution-era prison that was home to Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre and others until their respective executions. (They kept talking about tumbrils and I kept seeing A Tale of Two Cities in my head.) We saw Marie-Antoinette's cell (a replica) and other prison miscellany.
(more)Carolyn: It's wedding day! Today we got up for breakfast at the usual time, but instead of dressing for the beach, we groomed ourselves to look fab for Sarah and Max's wedding. We cabbed down to the wedding, which was held at the Methodist Church in Bournemouth. The service was about 45 minutes long, and had lovely readings and hymns. The minister made a point to say that friends and family help to make a marriage successful, and we all had to vow to support the bride and groom, which was a touching addition to the ceremony.
(more)Carolyn: Today was the day of multiple modes of transportation. However, our first ride on the tube was delayed by about 25 minutes in a very curious fashion. We walked to the Victoria tube station in plenty of time to begin our journey. There had been some sort of hold-up on the tube, and they were only letting people up; we couldn't get down. We thought they might, say, alternate every 5 minutes or so, but no - we were still waiting for way too long (which later caused us to miss the first bus to Wantage). In any case, we trekked out to Wantage to see Sarah and Max's apartment (flat?) and in doing so, we walked, took the tube, rode a train, and experienced a double-decker bus. Folks, riding a double-decker bus through the English countryside is not for the faint of heart. The streets are incredibly narrow and bordered by trees. These trees often hang into the road and will smack into the upper windshield. It's like a Russian roulette game of when one will be heavy enough to break the windshield and decapitate you. However, the British drivers seem confident and progress down these road with speed. (Even a guy in a motorized wheelchair scooter was in the middle of the road doing at least 20 mph.) England is also different from the US as there is very little "suburban sprawl." When a town ends, it just completely stops and all of a sudden the bus is careening through fields. Fields of what, we never quite figured out, even though Jason tried mightily. Maybe wheat?
(more)