My dear faithful readers, I am terribly sorry for letting my
blog slide by the wayside. The last time that I wrote described our first three
weeks spent in England. This post will cover a visit from my in-laws, the next
post will cover my visit to Springfield, and a third post will cover our recent
trip to Dover, England this past weekend. Whew, by the end of those three posts
you should be caught up on our lives. I could combine them into one long post,
but since I am a winded writer as it is, well you would all be asleep by the
end of it. So join me in a trip back in time, the weekend of October 19
th-
21
st to be exact…
Sam’s parents came to visit Rachel for two weeks in October.
One of their scheduled tours, made possible by their travel agent of Baird
vacations.com, was to visit us in Mildenhall. Though we had found another place
to live we were still staying in our temporary lodging on base, good thing
everyone was already use to sharing a shower. With the help of a pull out couch
and an air mattress we were able to keep everyone at one place. The in-laws
(plus Rachel and Josh) arrived by train around 7pm on Friday night. Sam and I
picked them up in Bury St. Edmunds, drove them to base, got them guest passes
and finished the delectable meal we had started. I decided since we weren’t going
to be home for the holidays that we would share a traditional holiday meal
together in England. We made ham (Christmas), green bean casserole (Thanksgiving),
Cranberry pecan salad (Thanksgiving/Christmas), garlic mashed potatoes (my
personal favorite for Thanksgiving, but still not as yummy as my mom’s),
pumpkin roll (Thanksgiving/Christmas), and Sugar cookies (Halloween). My mouth
is watering just typing about this delicious meal and with the help of my
wonderful husband we were able to pull it off as well as clean the TLF more than
they ever get cleaned. Side note- We bought a vacuum just to clean for their
visit, Sam had to carry it down the streets of Mildenhall, in the rain, yet he
did not seem to think it was ridiculous like he thought carrying a washing
machine across the street of Vance AFB was plain craziness, well I think
someone carrying a vacuum down the streets of England is weird, but a washing
machine in America is totally normal.
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| The only part of the meal I photographed, the cookies, but the rest was delicious |
On Saturday we had coffee on base (at Starbucks) then headed
to the ops (operation) side of base where Sam was going to give a tour of his
plane, the KC-135 Stratotanker. Sam was excited to show his family the big gas
tank he flies and everyone was excited to see it, I even think Kevin could do a
takeoff and landing after his short tutorial by Sam about all the buttons in
the cockpit. The plane we saw was sick (that is what I call planes that are in
the hanger and instead of hanger, I call it the hospital), but the awesome maintenance
crew cured the plane and Sam actually flew the exact plane he showed us (and
that is pictured below) last week! After looking at the plane and getting our
minds blown by all the pilot lingo and buttons we headed to lunch. We went to a
cute little tea room in our new village of Chippenham called LA Hogue. If you
ever visit us in England, you will also get to experience the awesomeness of
this tea room as we are known to take everyone (as in Rachel and the rest of
Sam’s family) to LA Hogue. This restaurant is also just a mile from our new
cottage! After lunch we headed to Cambridge, but due to traffic we missed our
walking tour, bummer! Luckily, they were still doing punting (which is a fancy
word for a type of rowing, not a game you play on the river which I originally
thought) and since it was the off season it was a discounted tour, cha ching!
We walked around Cambridge a bit, since we had time to kill, eating ice cream
and creepily staring at the recent college graduates from Hogwarts, or one of
the other major universities in Cambridge. The punting tour was neat, I couldn’t
hear a thing the guide said, but we saw lots of bridges, colleges, and pretty
trees so I loved taking pictures, oh yeah and there were some inappropriate
things hanging out of a dorm room window, I will let your mind decide what that
could’ve been. After the tour we went to church at a beautiful place and had dinner
at a wanna be (but not even close) Qdoba and then headed back to Mildenhall.
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| Sam showing off the plane |
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| America! |
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| Can't kick ass without tanker gas |
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| Rachel and Becky in the cockpit. Rachel would be the pilot and Becky would be the copilot |
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| Sam giving Kevin a tutorial about all the buttons functions |
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| How Sam gets in and out of his plane |
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| Josh was fascinated! Sadly, he had to leave us early on Sunday because he wasn't feeling well :( |
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| Love my pilot! |
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| Cambridge |
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| Cambridge |
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| Cambridge |
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| He is getting better at imitating statues |
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| Punting |
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| Punting |
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| I love fall in England...it is incredible |
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| Bridge |
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| some college and chapel possibly the tallest one in Cambridge, possibly not |
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| Bridge |
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| Our tour guide |
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| Another bridge! |
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| More fall in England |
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| More bridges |
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| More colleges |
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| Love the ivy on this building |
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| Punting-Where you row by sticking a large metal stick into the water and pulling it back out, much harder than it sounds |
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| Hogwarts graduates |
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| Hercules bonded with his Uncle Josh |
On Sunday we took everyone to Lakenheath so they could see
the fighter jet base, which of course is nicer, because fighter pilots seem to
get the bigger, nicer stuff, but hey I have a military ID that gets me onto
their base, with the huge grocery store, so I am not complaining! Plus, Sam
bought me some really cute boots that matched my really cute dress I bought for
Stephanie’s bachelorette party, but I didn’t end up getting to go to that (see
next blog) but at least I have a cute outfit! For lunch we headed to Sam’s second
cousin Mike’s house! Oh man, were we in for a treat! Mike made ribs and tons of
other food, enough to put you in a food coma! Mike is retired from the AF and
he works for them now as a civilian, which I think seems like a cooler gig, but
anyway he and his family live in a town called Ely and they have a gorgeous
house! Such a small world to move across the Atlantic Ocean and suddenly be so
close to family (or family-in-laws for me, come on Henson’s/Smith’s get on
moving to this side of the world). After lunch Mike took us to the Ely
Cathedral, which was pretty much as breath taking as everyone made it out to
be, but pictures don’t do it justice. After a stroll around Ely we headed back
to Mike’s house for tea and crumpets (or tea and dessert as American’s might
call it) and enjoyed great company, such a relaxing afternoon! Around 4:00pm it
was time for Sam’s family to head back to London with Rachel, so we made sure
they had some dinner and sent them on their way. It was sad to see them go, but
a very fun weekend!
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Inside Ely Cathedral- A camera could never capture its beauty |
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| They have candles in every cathedral/church you visit, anyway I have a small obsession with them. You make a small donation, light a candle and pray. I do it once, twice, sometimes three times in every church we visit, hey you can never have too much prayer and its a good way to get rid of small change. |
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| At the Ely Cathedral there was a room where a bunch of statues use to stand from when the church was Roman Catholic, but during the protestant reformation King Henry ordered that all the catholic churches and statues, etc be destroyed, so this is the remains of what was once a statue of a saint. There were some others where just their head was destroyed. |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Its the simple things... |
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| Outside Mike's house |
Upon returning to base Sunday evening we noticed our keys wouldn’t
unlock our room, so we headed to lodging and they informed us we were supposed
to check out that day. Oops! They had sent housekeeping by and even called Sam’s
squad multiple times…our bad! Luckily, no one was scheduled to check in that
night, but we had to be out by 11am on Monday and we weren’t signing our lease
until Tuesday…AHHHH! Sam and I got packed up late Sunday night; I am so over
packing, and loaded up the van and car on Monday morning. Hercules and I
aimlessly drove around, homeless, while Sam went into his squadron to do work.
Luckily, Sam worked his charm (I also smiled and held a pathetic looking dog)
and they took pity on us, letting us sign our lease a day early and get the
keys to the house! Yay, for no longer being homeless and for the cottage
passing inspection! We got to the cottage and moved everything in, bought a
queen size air mattress, and we were ready to camp! Upon arriving we quickly
realized our water wouldn’t turn on and after dark decided to find a hotel, so
we ended up back at base for two nights, with running water, until I left for
America on Wednesday morning. Everything with the Air Force has to have a good
story with it, nothing is easy, but we are now living in our cottage and should
receive our household goods tomorrow! Yay!
Thanks for reading!
Amanda
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