Wimbleldon

Had a nice 'bucket list' item ticked off last week. Vivian's friend showed us how to get into the lottery for Wimbledon tickets and Vivian scored nicely. The kids decided that they had 70 or 80 years before they had to tick Wimbledon off their list so they passed. Big miss. I am going to bore you with details but for the guys out there, it is worth it to either read or skip to the end. The grounds were fabulous. If I wrote about all the flowers etc., I might get kicked out of guy club so let's just say it was very nice. First match we say was mixed doubles. What is cool is that one of the girls (Shvedova) is playing in the women's doubles final as we speak. She won her mixed doubles match but they were defeated later in the week.

Match number two was excellent. What was exceptionally cool about this match is that that this pair (Melzer and Petzschner) just won the men's doubles a few minutes ago. Very very cool. We then made our way to Henman Hill. This is a hill behind Court 1 where there is a big Jumbo Tron Screen. Everyone sits around on the grass and drinks Pimms (we tried one) and they eat strawberries and cream (Wimbledon tradition). We went there to watch Serena Williams win. She went on today to win it all. We trolled around a bit, went to the museum which was very cool. Grabbed a bite to eat. And strolled around some more of the grounds. Then we made our way to watch Tracy Austin in women's invitational doubles. As the sweetheart of tennis from back in day, that was quite a treat. We strolled through and watched some great junior players. What a thing to participate in.

Now for the grand finale. The last match of the day on our court was Anna Kornikova and Martina Hingis playing doubles. Vivian's magnificent draw had us on the first and second row of that match, right at the service line. Most excellent way to close out a 'bucket list' event.

York - The North

Half term provided our last opportunity for a week long adventure. We decided to explore the north. First stop, York. This first stop had all the trappings one could ask for: Vikings, ghosts, and castles. Guy Fawkes, the man that tried to blow up parliament was from York. The street to the left is the Shambles. This was butcher's row and there are nice tails of gore. One of the ghost stories has a headless corpse searching for his noggin. The original castle was constructed by William the Conqueror. This wooden structure was burned down during the Jewish Riots of 1190 and was replaced with the present day stone version thanks to Henry III. The coolest attractions for those over 40 was York Minster. It is claimed to be the largest Gothic cathedral in England. Quite incredible inside. What was exceptionally cool was that beneath, they have uncovered layer upon layer of history dating back to the Roman occupation in 71AD. There was later an 11th century Norman cathedral and the present minster was started in 1220. I could ramble on about the cool gardens in the old abbey or the amazing walk around the old city walls or the cool nooks like the courtyard at St Williams College (small picture on right) but all that would be boring. The kids highlight was the Haunted York tour we took the night we arrived. York claims to be the most haunted city in the world. One particular story involved the basement of the Treasury House. It is quite documented and studied and is quite the compelling story involving a young plumber being in the deep cellar (that sits on top of the old Roman road - you can even step on the original road). He sees Roman soldiers and there are even ghost horses). Others have also seen them and all the stories seem to match. Here are the kids at the wall where the troops emerge.

Other finds were the worlds best milkshake shop. You can see us slurping down York's finest. You can also see that dad is on his phone. Go figure.

There was also a very cool old church hidden in a small lane off a side street. It has the old stalls that the wealthy church members would buy for their families.