Buckingham Visit

Saturday proved to be an excellent Autumn day and we made plans to nip down to London. This was the last weekend that Buckingham Palace State Rooms were to be open for tours so we thought we better jump at the chance. We had never taken trains from Newmarket (closest stop for us) so we decided to start our journey there. With our rail card, we get cheaper tickets when we travel. It is amazing how many tourists are there at the end of September (oops, we are included in that tourist hoard). It was a most excellent day. In addition to the State Rooms, we saw the Queen's Gallery which had some amazing art. Maggie's favourite part was the Royal Mews. This is where they keep the cars, carriages, horses, and other parts of the wheeled fleet for the royal family. We also were able to see the changing of the guards which was quite a spectacle.

As is typical with our adventures, we tend to stumble onto the unexpected. We were in search of a quick bite as we had 45 minutes before our admission to the Queen's Gallery.

We ducked into one of the back streets of London and stumbled into a sandwich shop. Two sisters ran the place and we had a nice chat with them as we ordered. The kids saddled up onto a window

seat for their jacket potatoes and ham and cheese toasties. Mom and Dad had a little lunch date at one of the corner tables. We had noticed pictures of Pete Sampras on the wall (signed and all) and when one of the sisters stopped to chat, we asked her about it. She shared that when Pete was on his stretch of Wimbledon dominance, he stayed at a hotel just down from the shop.

He came in every morning for breakfast and the sister's father made Pete's lunch every day. After a couple of years, others joined the mix and it reached a stage where they were feeding a number of the Wimbledon players. It was really a nice little side treat.

Junior Skelton's get a taste of diving

After church today, we went on a little dive adventure. About 4 villages over, a dive shop in the area was hosting a session to give a

dive experience. A lady in the village hosted the event at the pool and her husband and three children participated. One of her children happened to be in Maggie's class at school. After a quick session on the side of the pool, everyone splashed and after some basic instructions, they were learning some of the basic mechanics. We must have talked about diving enough around the dinner table because MJ and Mags took right to it. We were quite happy that they both were very comfortable and were quickly going through the drills. Dad was deemed the photographer for the day and the dive shop wants the pictures to advertise for the next class. Dad also got to help the poor folks that were struggling with some aspects of diving. Like dumping air so you don't just bounce around on the top of the water. After a bit, the dive master realized that Dad really wanted to get wet so he gave me a tank and I got to jump right in with the crew. Now all they talk about is getting certified and going on a real dive trip to Egypt. We'll see how that goes.

The other news of the week is that John was named player of the week for his basketball league. He came home with a trophy and medal. He returns the trophy but gets to keep the medal. He was telling me about it on the phone and I asked him how many points he scored. The answer was none. I asked him if he tried real hard. He said he tried the hardest on the court. He said he kept trying to get the other kids to throw him the ball because he's the youngest out there. That is when I asked the question of the week, "did you touch the ball". The answer to that is no but since he was excited to play, that is what counts (I keep telling myself that is OK). It's all about having fun.

High Lodge

There is no better way to preserve a mother's sanity than to escape from the house when the natives are restless. The Downing Gang and the Skelton gaggle decided that a trip to High Lodge would present a better alternative than locking the kids in the woodshed. High Lodge is about 45 minutes from our village and is in the middle of Thetford Forrest. It is one of the coolest walking trails/play grounds you have ever seen. You hike for a bit and you then stumble upon a play area. You can climb a huge rabbit, spider, squirrel, bird or can slide down one of the tallest slides you have seen. They have swings and jungle gym looking things. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and later in the afternoon had an ice cream break. The ice cream of choice was the Magnum, a first for Mom. It's basically like an Eskimo Pie on a stick. High Lodge is also home to a huge ropes course called Go Ape. Marshall & Maggie are ready for the adventure and just waiting for Dad to be available to take them. John is not quite old enough and Mom thinks she should stay down on the ground with John. We hope to post pictures of that adventure one day soon! All were quiet on the drive home and everyone slept well that night!

Icknield Way and Mrs Bette

Saturday was a wonderfully sunny day. Dad just got back from the US and we all needed some sunshine. We took a nice leisurely stroll to the next village over, Ashley, and then took a nice cross country walk on the foot path between the villages. The entire country is covered with footpaths with many having interesting history. As we emerged on the Cheveley side of our path, two dogs came to greet us. The owner, an elderly gentleman emerged and asked us if we had hiked the entire distance of the Icknield Way. He shared that it was 106 miles (references indicate 105 miles but we'll stick with the wise man of Cheveley's measure). Parts of this trail follows old Roman Roads from times past.

The path cuts between houses and we are then out in the middle of horse country. The horses will come right up to visit with you. The

clump of trees between the horse and John is the church in

Cheveley. If you have superman eyes, you can see the church tower sticking up.

No walk is complete without a stop in

to visit Mrs Bette. She is probably one of the longest term residents in the village. She has a great goldfish pond and she will always invite us in to pick an apple off her tree. John always likes to remind that he is

almost as tall as Ms

Bette because she is hunched over.