Snowdonia and Isle of Anglesey (N Wales 2)

While I knew I wanted to drive in Snowdonia National Park I wasn't quite sure where the day would take us.  The hosts of the caravan had kindly supplied some tourist pamphlets and I found a copper mine that looked promising.  The Sat Nav/GPS took us a totally crazy way and I almost scratched up the rental bad several times going through tiny little passages but anyway we got there.  We bought our tickets that included hard hats.  The kids' were mostly for fun and show, but I actually needed mine as we walked through the mine tunnels.  I was even walking crouched over.  I loved how mad the place was--they just sent us unaccompanied into this old mine shaft.  I'm sure it was all Health and Safety regulated but it didn't feel like it.  The walls dripped and the floor was slippery, it was lit but just barely, the ceiling was low and rough and I would have conked my head open without the hardhat, and there was a rickety old stairway to climb up inside the mountain (we only got partway up that before the kids begged to go back down).  I was imagining Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn the whole time, it felt like a place they'd love.

I enjoyed the mine very much but the kids much preferred the outside play area--old mine carts and play equipment.

Then happily back in the car (thank goodness for Harry Potter on Audible!) for a drive through Snowdonia.  The morning was foggy and I didn't see the top of the mountain.  I think it was all the more impressive for me to imagine how tall it may have been without actually seeing it!  (I am from Utah.)  I feel like my current taste in photography is all deep color and natural tones and moody grey lighting.  Wales was good for all that jazz.

I found it hard to be a driver with the scenery, I almost wrecked us craning my head around a corner.  So then I started pulling off at every lookout until the kids came out of their Harry Potter daze and noticed it was taking a long time to get anywhere for lunch.

And then the sun came out!  We were on our way back to the Isle of Anglesey to find the longest place name in Wales (a gazillion more wrong turns later).  But some of the wrong turns got us to pretty places like this, to see the little lambs.

And the Notting Hill of Wales, pretty pastel colored cottages all in a row.

And Welsh pride.

And one of the first pickable flowers of the year.

Until we finally found it!  Just look at that name.  It means "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave."  It was fun hearing Davy and Eddy try to pronounce it.  We got nowhere near close.  But I found this fun video to try and help us say it!

 

We were fortunate the weather held for us to go to a beach for a few minutes.  I always want to stay longer at the beach (but toilets and food start being needed).  We had a ball in the back of the car and Eddy found a net and we were set.  I love how you don't need anything extra at the beach--it is perfection already.

As dusk fell we made our way back to the caravan for our last night.  Eddy "collected wood" (from the basket our hosts had so thoughtfully provided us with) and we started our evening fire.  I recall we had chocolate cheerios for dinner that night, and I requested that we sing "Oregon Gypsy Jew" all together.  Everyone cooperated and we laughed and hugged and so all was well in the world for this mom and kids team of adventurers.

Smallest House in Britain (N Wales 1)

The boys had a half term break in February, smack dab in the middle of Collin's busy season.  I was planning on doing some London things and doing a lot of Lego at home.  Both of which are good, but I was a little sad to lose a chance to do something extra when our time abroad feels so short.  When Collin suggested that I take the kids somewhere I pounced on it.  In a day I'd rented a car and found an amazing place to stay.  I'd already had an itinerary pretty much planned out for months, just in case, as one does.  I cannot even tell you how excited I was to be excited that I could head off with my well seasoned travelers--all of them toilet trained and somewhat whine-proofed (or at least able to reason logically with i.e. bribe).  I felt such freedom as a mother to be able to genuinely enjoy the company of my kids.  I've loved the baby and toddling stages of each and all the children, when going to the park was the biggest attempt at an adventure I dared.  But we all know each pretty well by now--they know my and my strengths (and weaknesses) and I know their limits and their potential.  I was prepared for the worst (up to and including A&E trips from the middle of nowhere familiar and roadside potty breaks).  I had high hopes we could make a grand trip of it.  And we did.  My high hopes won out.

Collin saw us off at the care hire place at Euston and we headed north toward Liverpool, then over to Wales.  I intended to stop by the Beatles statue in Liverpool but, oops, took the wrong exit at a critical roundabout and ended up under a toll tunnel and too late for a U-turn.  So moving on, chasing the sun, we found our way to Conwy to the Smallest House in Britain.  It was a fisherman's cottage--a tall fisherman by the account--set into the castle walls and directly facing the harbor.  The kids had a much needed leg stretching break, measuring against the little house, playing Sly Fox, and digging in the sand.

As the sun set we walked the castle walls and imagined being knights guarding the fortress at night.

Then we hopped back in the car with snacks to fortify us for the rest of the trip to our accommodations.  With plenty more wrong turns and frantic map reading along the way.  I still can't believe I found the place in the dark.  But what a place!  Now that I have the hang of it, Airbnb never ceases to delight me.  I found a GYPSY CARAVAN!!  I cannot even describe how thrilled I was to live a dream.  My family has a ballad brought by an ancestor across the plains to join the settlers in Utah.  The song has been handed down in my family for generations.  It's called the Oregon Gypsy Jew, about a gypsy girl who goes to London where a young squire falls in love with her, marries her, and takes her home to his manor house.  I've always loved it.  The romance, the Romantic fantasy of Romany life.  To stay in a caravan (all spruced up and in keeping with the Romantic rustic fairy tale) on the isle of Anglesey in Wales was SO FUN!

The kids were as hyped up as I was about the bunk beds and cute little kitchen.  We called Collin when we arrived to let him know we were okay.  Davy summed up our day's adventures by saying, "We took A LOT of U-Turns!"  I just laughed and laughed.  So true.  But we did make it.  And came in to magical fairy lights and lanterns.  All worth it.

I'd been worried we would be cold, it being February in Northern Wales.  We wore long johns in case, but the caravan was cosy with a wood burning stove and the days warmed up nicely.  Plus the fact we were in a car, so luxurious.

The loo was an outhouse and that was an adventure of its own.  The stars at night were glorious.  The tree above the path had awesome pine cones for the kids to kick around.  You can't tell in my picture, but the scale of them is huge--they are massive and dense.  I brought one home as a nature souvenir, my favorite kind.

We rested up, sleeping really well.  It's funny how exhausting traveling sitting down can be.  Ready for our second day in beautiful Wales.

Mom's Birthday Present

I learned from a Belmont friend that with mom's birthdays you don't wait around and expect anyone else to throw you a party--you do your own!  Some years I have wanted/needed a party with friends, sometimes I have wanted just all the cake to myself, sometimes I hold out for a date with Collin when he can be all mine.  This year was wonderful--I took the kids on a special trip (way more about that soon) then celebrated belatedly with a dinner of my choice (super healthy salmon and quinoa salad) and a triple chocolate and strawberry cake and Ben and Jerry's ice cream (not as healthy).  Collin was able to be home early from work for the dinner and presents.  I gave myself a few of them, as my habit is, and Collin surprised me with an indulgent British rom com book--and time to read! 

The main present that I have asked for the past few years is to be in the frame with my kids.  I find it difficult to hand over control of a shot to someone else.  I also have the common adult woman syndrome of cringing at myself in photographs, noticing all the ways I wish I looked different or remember myself appearing fifteen years ago.  Trying to get over that silliness.  Moreover, I know these pictures of me and my children will grow exponentially in value to me, and hopefully them, as the years pass.  Thank you, children, for your cooperation.  And Collin, for your patience and skills.

Eddy took those last two of me and Collin.  Sharing the camera around is hard for me but I rarely regret it (still insisting on the neck strap to be worn at all times).