Day 1 & 2     (Tue June 5th & Wed June 6th) THE JOURNEY We started by collecting my mom at her house and heading off to M.I.A. [Miami] for our flight to Boston. Everything went smooth for the first leg and we arrived on time.  We then had a layover of 5 hr’s in Boston so we made the best of it. Ate some food, had some drink and the kids read their books and played their video games. Next we boarded our second plane of the journey and to my surprise it was a small plane (757.)  The one good thing though was the plane was only 80% full so we managed to get 4 rows of seats which made it nice to be able to stretch out. As this is a BERTELSON family event, we are never lacking entertainment. Let me explain. After we finally settled into our seats the air hostess came up to us and said that we should make our own TV reality series like "The OSBORNES". With a big smile she told us that we were very entertaining with our family antics of "stop touching me", "I want to sit here" "leave me alone" "can’t you children ever get along" and so on. Needless to say we were the center of attention for a bit.  Of course to some this could be a time of embarrassment but over the years I have just learned to take whatever comes along.  We ate ,drank, watched a movie, and slept. Before we knew it we were landing in Manchester. We had to hire 2 taxi’s to take us to Gan Gan’s house. We arrived in less than 30 mins. We put Maddie, Kenzie, and Matt in the flat and Alice, Melanie and I were set up in the main house.  Everyone had a bit to eat and a good nap. Our body clocks were completely out of sorts. I now realize that the older you get, the harder it is to adjust to time changes. The time difference here is 5 hr’s ahead. The sun does not set until 10:00pm and it rises at 4:30am. So our bodies didn’t know when to sleep and when to be awake.

	Day 3  (Thu June 7th) THE SHOP & OUR FIRST WALK We set off for Tesco's and the Trafford center.  This was a mall that put the Gardens mall to shame. It was GINORMOUS. Multi level and full of enough shops to keep the most experienced shopper busy for days. Here we are thousands of miles away from America and wouldn’t you know the first store that the 2 younger girls wanted to go into was CLAIRE'S. They were happy and managed to spend most of their first weeks allowance (£15/wk = $30.00). Next stop was the THORNTONS TOFFEE shop. We figured it was best to just get the stock pile of toffee that we were going to bring home (10 lb’s) out of the way. Well I didn’t think this one through. Now I had to carry the sticky stuff around the rest of the day in my backpack. At this point we decided to set a time and go our separate ways. All but myself went to the iPod store (big what to do here). They stayed there for a while. I took off to find a sport's shop and a store to buy a Navi (GPS - [Global Positioning Satelite]). I found some good bargains at the sport's shop. TWO tennis rackets at £6 each and 2 really nice golf shirts for Matt and I that were £5 ea. Just to set things straight on the exchange it takes TWO US $ to buy ONE British £ .... so pretty much everything is double price for us. The dollar is weak. One good thing though is that the tax is already in the price tag so what you see is what you pay. Next stop for me was a store called Curry’s. It was like a BestBuy store but on a smaller scale. I looked over the GPS units and choose to buy a NAVMAN. The unit went for £149 and seemed like all we needed. Well wouldn’t you know that they were out of stock. This actually worked to my advantage. I looked at the next unit up the line and it was marked at £179. I figured I would see if you can bargain. I told the sales guy to go to his manager and ask him that since they were out of the unit I wanted to buy and the next unit is £30 more than the one I wanted, would he be willing to split the difference with me and take off £15. To my surprise he agreed. I pulled out the cash and off I went. Well I had spent enough money on goods for one day so I felt it was time to find a nice place to sit and have a nice cold pint while the rest of the gang wore themselves out. I found a nice Spanish restaurant and ordered a San Miguel. It was very nice and refreshing. This was the point that I decided to start collecting pint Glasses as souvenirs to bring home. Alice and the kids showed up and sat down for a little drink and snack. The waiter was really nice. I ordered some cheesy garlic bread and a cider for Alice and a pint for Matt. He is of legal age here so I felt no sense in making him try and sneak off to have a beer. The waiter didn’t charge us for the bread and when I asked him if I could maybe have the nice glass he said no problem. We left him a nice tip which he was not used to as the people don’t tip much here so it worked out well. Time to head back to Silverthorn (Gan Gan’s). We arrived to find a nicely prepared pork roast dinner waiting for us. Gan Gan had spent weeks prepairing all the meals for us. (way too kind and loving) After the delish meal we set off on a walk just behind the house We saw some rabbits, squirrels, cow’s, calves, and even a bull. The bull wasn’t very keen on us being in his house. He gave us that look like if you don’t leave I am going to have to make you leave. He even nudged the calves away from us. After some snorts and long stares we figured it was best that we left him his space and off we went. With the meadows so grand and the trees so tall, the long shadows of summer were upon us. We went to the play ground for a bit then back to Silverthorn. With all the daylight left I decided to do a little golf practice. Matt joined me and we set a flag up about 150 yards away and hit some practice shots for an hour or so. Finally darkness was starting to come on so we retreated to the house for some teli. We watched a show called SHIPWRECKED. It was like our show survivor. One of Alices cousins was one of the final competitors. In the end she didn’t win but the guy that did win had become her boyfriend so really she ended up winning anyway. Since the show Alices cousin has become quite popular. And you know how it goes the more skin you show the more $$$$ you make. She had worked her way up the magazine chain and we saw her on the covers of some not so family oriented magazines if you know what I mean. TV off and time for bed..

	Day 4 (Fri June 8th) A COUPLE OF DAYS WITH PEANUT AND MARK With our brand new FORD GALAXY mini van that Gan Gan pre-booked [THANK YOU AGAIN!] for us and our new NAVMAN we were off. The van was very cool. 7 passenger, 6 speed stick shift, with a diesel motor (lots of power.) We were off. Driving here is definitely a challenge for any American. You drive on the left, the steering is on the right, the different road signs and roundabouts all make it quite a change from what we used to. Throw in some very impatient courteous drivers and the nerves are put to the test. Our journey was 31 miles. The NAVI worked great and we arrived in less than an hours time. We arrived at half past 10 and were treated with a very traditional English lunch. Meats, cheeses, pate, breads, veggies and some nice beverages. YUM YUM. After lunch we went for a really nice walk. It was a good mile or so of hilly footpaths that ended up at the top of a hill that overlooked the town of DIGGLE. We walked right through a herd of sheep and up, up, up to the top. What a breath taking view! We could tell who walks a lot and who doesn’t. All the Americans were huffing and puffing. We made it back to the house and had some refreshments. Now it was time for Matt and I to join Mark and his friend Murray for some golf. It started off with a little hiccup.... Matt decided to do some practice putting on the 18th GREEN. Well it just so happened that the group coming up the fairway consisted of all members. One member in particular was an older, very by the book and not so pleasant gentlemen. I realized what Matt was doing but it was too late. So we waited for the scolding that was coming. The upset man came directly over to Matt and angrily informed Matt that the 18th green is not the proper place to practice putting let alone when people are hitting into the green. I looked at Mark with my jaw dropped and my face a bit flushed and told him to just blame it on the RUDE AMERICANS. That’s when Mark told us that this particular man could be quite the unfriendly type. We shook it off and headed for the first tee. No golf carts here and we were unable to hire any pull carts so off we set with bag on shoulder to hit the little white ball around. The course was quite narrow and the rough made Augusta rough look like a putting green. It was very hilly and very challenging. I can say that I have never taken a shot at a green while sheep were mucking around and baaaaing at me on the green. We finished the first nine and unbenounced to us the club was having a bring your friend to the golf course day. So instead of making the turn and starting the back 9 we had 36 inexperienced golfers heading to all the tee boxes to clog up the course. We decided to change plans and go to the 19th hole for a couple pints and call it a day. Returned to Marks house and dinner was almost on the table. Good thing we didn’t play 18 as the girls were already wondering where we were. Neither of them play golf so they have no idea how long it takes to play 18 holes especially when you are walking. (Most American courses have electric carts and you are not allowed to walk) I wish we could walk more at home as it is good exercise. After dinner the girls went to the video store and rented a movie. The movie was HOLIDAY. Total chick flick. After 5 minutes or so I asked Mark it there was a dart board close by and he said that it just so happens that they have a board and a pool table at the pub 2 blocks away. So Matt, myself, Mark, and Maddy (Mark's daughter) were off. As soon as we walked in there were two blokes playing darts so it looked good to be able to get up a game. We played 501 partners. Although I was playing pretty good the competition was very good and we only managed to win a couple of the 6 games we played. Man these guys can do their math. 501 is a game that you start out with 501 points and when you through your darts you add up your score and subtract from your 501. You do this till you get down to a number that you can throw at the out side ring which is a double score hence" the out shot" . Anyway these guys would have the math done before I could even pull my darts out of the board. We had a really good time playing with these guys even if they did school us pretty good. They even bought us a round of shots. Matt and Maddie were having a good time playing pool most of the night. Last call was at 12:30 and the lot of us topped up and played one game of killer on the pool table. I can’t explain the game but all of us got to play at the same time. Very good evening and it was coming to an end. Bed for the adults but the kids [Matt & Maddy] decided to watch a movie till 3am.

	Day 5 (Sat June 9th) LAZY DAY FOR THE NIGHT OWLS Slept in till 10 or so and had a nice breakfast of ham and eggs prepared by Peanut and Mark. After breakfast we sat around and watched a test match of cricket on the teli. [TV] This is an all day event x 3 and it was ENGLAND vs WEST INDIES. So pretty much all day it was for the couch that is. I learned all about the game and how it was played. After lunch the girls decided to go for a long walk to a beautiful scenic place called pots and pans. They had a wonderful time and Alice took some awesome photos. The rest of us were very content with just chillin in front of the teli. The teenagers finally got up around 12:30 or so. The girls got home around 4pm. They did manage to stop at a little home made ice cream house on the way. Peanut and Mark made another wonderful dinner of Chicken ala fancy, potatoes and veg. YUM! We were on our way back to Silverthorn around 7:30pm. The journey home seemed to go a little faster and we were home before dark. A little teli and a chat with Gan Gan and off to bed.

	Day 6    (Sun June 10th) CHURCH and CHILL Off to church around 9:30am. We met the fellow that has organized the golf match for us next Sunday. He informed us that Matt needed to have trousers for going into the club after the match. He told us about a good place to go to after church to pick up a pair. It was called TJ HUGHES (like TJ MAXX in USA) After church we went back to Gan’s Gan’s for lunch and some relaxations i.e. naps, tv and computer. We went out to the fields and playground after dinner. I managed to get in a little golf practice as well.

	Day 7    (Mon June 11th) THE EDGE Kenzie came in and woke me up at 5:30am to go see the bunnies in the field out back. We managed to see like 25 or so. Then we scared them off which wasn’t hard as I think they can feel us walking from a good distance. The quiet in the early morning is very surreal and it was really nice to spend some time like that with my youngest daughter. Kenz and I went and sat on a bench and waited for the bunnies to come back out. After 10 or 15 minutes the bunnies began to come back out. We remained real still and off to the side and just watched as they came out to eat the grass. Some of the babies were so cute you just wanted to go pick them up. Twix and twizzler would have had a blast chasing these guys around. Back to the house around 6:30am for breakfast. Ah breakfast. This would be thick pieces of toast with marmite and jam and butter, cereal, milk and coffee. The TOAST is AWESOME. Brant Hansen eat your heart out, the toast is to die for here! After breakfast we piled in the people mover (minivan) and off to Alderly Edge. We stopped in the town of Alderley for some coffee and treats. After a walk through the small town, we headed for "The Edge". This was a real nice cliffy drop off area that is very pretty. We walked in the woods for a bit and saw some fire pits and animals. Alice was telling us that witches and spell casters would come here to practice their craft. We returned to Silverthorn for lunch and some play in the garden. I did some gardening for Gan Gan and enjoyed it quite thoroughly. Dinner, watched some teli, and conversation and it was time for bed.

	Day 8    (Tue June 12th) ALTON TOWERS (Official AltonTowers.com website) We got a relatively early start and we arrived at Alton towers around 10:40 am. As we drove in we didn’t see many cars or buses and we thought we would have the park to ourselves. WRONG ... We just couldn’t see the car park until we were right in it. It wasn’t really crowded, so the lines were still pretty light. We had a blast going on all the rollercoasters and such. This one ride was really cool. About 30 people all get on at once and the ride is like a giant roller coaster. It creeps up to this ledge and your feet are dangling and then it stops and then WAM you drop straight down for like 150 feet right into a big hole in the ground. Real gut dropper. We did have one glitch during the day and that was on the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" ride. It was supposed to be one of those virtual rides where stuff moves around you and you look into this big room size screen. Well the computer had a hiccup in it and the effect never took place. No shaking, no movement, no nothing but a lame cartoon on a small screen. Everyone was looking at each other like what is this? This is just LAME. Then one of the workers came in and informed us that they were having a problem with the ride and that if we wanted we could get right back in line with the token she was handing out. We chose not to but kept the token for a souvenir. After a lot of walking, some food and lots of rides, we headed for the car park. We thought we were going to play some putt-putt golf but most of us were knackered. Except for Matt and Kenzie. So we let them play and Maddie even took some video. On the way home we found a pub to have dinner at. We ended up sitting in the garden area (pic) that had a play area, nice tables with a special area that you could pay to sit at but there were some people already using it. In fact we got the strong eye from them for most of the meal. After all we are the BERTELSONS and we do make our presence known!  The food was ok but very pricey. 6 meals, a couple pints and some dessert and we shelled out 70 quid. Or 140.00 bucks. Back to Silverthorn. When we arrived we thought we were in trouble as the table was laid and the dessert bowls with berrys were out. Ut OH! No worries though. Gan Gan was just being prepared incase we hadn’t eaten yet. She told us that she hadn’t defrosted the stew yet so we could have it tomorrow night. We watched a little teli and told Gan Gan all about the day and then off to bed. Did I mention how Matt, Maddie, and Kenzie had their own flat? Well they do and it is a pretty nice setup. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, nice big tub in the bath and a view to die for out Matts window. (pic) The kids have been getting along pretty well with very few squabbles. Kenzie and I have gotten up 3 times to see the bunnies.

	Day 9    (Wed June 13th) THE GOKARTS A few days ago I was looking for a place to rent a mountain bike. I was looking through the yellow pages and some how I ended up in a section called corporate entertainment and there it was. A big advert saying Daytona.uk.usa. It caught my eye and it was an indoor gokart place. GP style racing. It was in Manchester so I phoned them up to see if we had to pre-book. They said it was wide open. We punched in the post code into the NAVI and we were ready to go. Prior to leaving Matt and I went into Macclesfield to take back a DVD player that wasn’t going to work with Gan Gans TV. At the same time we went to TJ HUGHES to get Matt some trousers. Took the DVD player back without of a hitch. Got Matt some trousers at TJ Hughes and a nice shirt to match. I also nipped into Tescos and picked out some nice beers to bring back to America. Good thing we have a big luggage allotment with all the kids as the beer and candy and toffee will take up some space. After getting the purchases out of the way Matt and I walked around a bit and found a pool table and a pint. Matt beat me at pool and we headed home. Back at Siverthorn dinner was waiting. We had an early dinner and then off to the gokarts. I wish you could hear all the baaaaing of the sheep as I write this entry. Anyway back to the gokarts. We arrived in a good time, thanks to the NAVMAN. Matt, Mel, and myself got registered, watched a training video, and were kitted out with jumpsuit and helmet. Now we were ready to hit the track. Our group consisted of ourselves and 6 other drivers. We had 1/2 an hour to do as many laps as we could do. It was a total BLAST. Matt and I tangled a little bit and even got told off by one of the refs for bumping. Each lap was recorded by computer. When the checker flag came out all of us got a print out of our lap times. They listed the drivers in order of the fastest lap run. I ended up in third but that was just by fastest lap. Matt came in 5th and Mel was in the back of the pack. It was a bit intimidating for Mel as the competition level was very high. She has never driven a kart like this and she did really good. She said she had fun so that’s all that matters. With fun time over it was time to find some food and drink. Alice wanted to try and find a pub that one of her old school teachers had purchased. We found the pub but the teacher no longer owned it. We sat for a bit but were unable to get any food as the kitchen had just closed. The 2 girls working told us that we might be able to get some food at another pub in Prestbury. Since it was only the two girls working I asked if I could buy one of the Stella glasses. They looked at each other and said I won’t tell if you don’t tell and they gave me the glass. My collection is now up to 4. The one girl called up the pub and asked if the kitchen was still open. They told her that if we could get there in 10 minutes they would keep the kitchen open for us. Alice knew where the pub was and said we could make it. Time to do some more racing. We made it in time and sat down for a nice meal. Not cheap though. But nothing is cheap so you just got to suck it up and enjoy. I did manage to get my guiness glass at this stop so the collection grows. We were home by 11:30 and straight to bed we went.

	Day 10    (Thu June 14th) THE DAY OF RAIN It was raining when we came home last night and it is still raining now. It seems it is going to rain all day. I had a little project to take care of today and that was to sharpen 2 sets of hedge trimmers and a pair of lopping shears. I set to work on them in the garage. Put a nice edge on all 3. Oiled them up and even sanded and painted the handles on the loppers. Gan Gan was pleased and I had a good time doodling around in the garage. As far as the rest of the family, it was eating, playing cards and board games and reading. Oh and don’t forget the teli and the computer. The rain stayed with us for all of the day with very brief times of cloudy grey skies. We were all in bed by 11:30 but I had a hard time falling asleep. By 1:30am I finally nodded off.

	Day 11    (Fri June 15th) ROAD TRIP TO THE BUSH'S & THE NARROWBOAT With the post code to Melanie & Andy’s punched in the NAVI we were off. A little over 3 hr’s on the motorway and we arrived at our destination. Melanie and James were home and Andy had gone to collect Jon who was taking exam’s. When the boys returned we sat down for a nice ENGLISH lunch. After lunch we packed up and made our way to the launch for the NARROW BOAT TRIP. We were on time and after a training video and some instruction on how to run the boat we were off to the north. These boats are 75 ft long and about 7 ft wide. We had 2 loo’s, a kitchen, and enough beds to sleep 12. Our crew was 10 and that would be the 6 of us and 4 Bush’s (Jon, James, Andy, and Melanie.) The boat had a big diesel motor with a tiller/keel drive system. So whoever was running the boat would sit or stand and operate the long handle to the keel and control the speed with the throttle. The speed limit is like 4mph as any faster than that and the boat would create a wake and errode the sides of the canals. This was actually a good thing as the steering of these boats is very slow in response. Once you get the boat to start to turn it takes a while for it to stop turning. You really had to think ahead of what you wanted to do as far as navigating. As far as reverse, there wasn’t much of it other than getting the boat to gain reverse momentum and then steer the boat when you would go forward again. Lots of fun trying to turn this thing around. After a few hours of running the boat I started to get the hang of it and it was really fun (pic). We made our way to the north and found a good place to Moore the boat for the night. The pub that we chose for dinner was several blocks away but it was good to get out and walk. Forester’s Arm’s was the name of the pub and the food was pretty good. I don’t know if you remember a game called skittles but they had the real deal at the pub. It was very big and it was 10 wooden pins setup in a triangle and you would stand back around 10 feet and hurl the baseball size wooden balls at the pins. It looked to be a very noisy game. With the pub very full of patrons, we decided to abstain from playing in order to avoid any good stares from the crowd. After dinner we strolled next door to the little convenient store to pick out some yummy ice cream treats from Wells. MAGNUM’S are YUM! Good thing for the walk back to the boat as we were all pretty full. The kids played some cards for a bit and the adults went to bed.

	Day 12    (Sat June 16th) THE LOCKS Had the boat on her way by 8am and the girls were busy in the galley making breakfast. Sausage, eggs and toast. Our first series of locks consisted of 7 in a row. The way it worked was you pulled up to the lock and opened the front gates. Next you opened the valves to let the water in so the level would be equal. Then you would shut the gates behind you and the valves and pull out and shut the gates behind you and off you went. The reason of the locks are so you can go up or down the grade of the land. Kind of like the panama canal. Once we got the hang of it we really enjoyed it. I am sure it is hard to appreciate it unless you are doing it. Ok so we had our fun with the locks and now it was time to go through the tunnel. It was pitch black and about 2 miles long (took us 33 minutes to go through it.)  We did have light but only from what was on the boat. I was on the helm and we made it through with no collisions. We even had a couple boats coming from the other direction and still no mishaps. Next up was another series of 6 locks. We pressed on enjoying our surroundings and came to the northerly end our journey. Now it was time to turn around. We found a turnaround spot but it was still quite the challenge. I would say it was like a 15 point turn. But we were successful with no incident. With the turn around complete we were south bound. We moored up for the night and went to a highly recommended pub for dinner, "The Admiral Nelson."  We had to wait about 10 minutes or so for a table but it was well worth it. The food was the best so far. Our only sour note was that the food for our table was taking a long time to arrive. The kids had finished their meal and we hadn’t received ours yet. I finally said something to the manager and he informed us that the kitchen got a little confused and thought that the food that was brought out first was like starters. I think it was just an excuse for the messup. Things worked out in the end. I saw this as a golden opportunity to add to my glass collection. I asked the manager if he would sell me one of the pint glasses for my collection. He would have nothing of the sort. He went through all the different pint glasses he had and asked me if I would like one of each. He was trying to give me shot glasses, bar towels and the lot. I should have taken a bar towel, but I didn’t get greedy and kept it to the 4 nice glasses that he offered. Up to 8 now and I think I will call it enough. I have to get these things back to America without breaking them. After dinner some walked back to the boat and the rest of us stayed a played a few games like the skittles game I told you about before only this time it was in a room on its own so the noise was not an issue. We threw some darts and I must say Jon did really well for throwing with his opposite hand. All gamed out and full we made the short walk back to the boat. We stayed up and played games and talked and then off to bed.

	Day 13    (Sun June 17th) THE RETURN VOYAGE Up at 7:30am and we began our journey back to the south. We had 13 different locks to go through but driving the boat has become pretty comfy for me so it was just another day on the canal. We decided that we would make it through all the locks and then look for a spot to moore for the night. We had lots of fun driving (me mostly) the boat and operating the locks. We moored up close to another recommended pub called the NARROWBOAT PUB. Very POSH, in fact it was way too expensive and we decided to just have starters and drinks and that still set us back a few quid. Back to the boat to chill. Mel, Kenzie, Matt, James, Mummy, and Melanie played a good game of Monopoly. Not sure who won but it sounded fun. Jon had bought tickets to a concert months ago and he was on a mission to get there. He ended up running for like 8 miles to get where he needed to go. He’s young so he didn’t seem to bothered. Just a few blisters. I went to bed early as I was planning on getting up at 5:30am to get a good start on our journey home. We had to have the boat back by 10am and we were not sure how far away we were. Nite Nite.

	Day 14    (Mon June 18th) THE WONDERFUL MORNING I was up at 5:30am and had the motor running and the mooring lines untied and we were on our way. Everyone else was still fast asleep so I was the solo skipper. It was very nice being by myself on the tiller. I really enjoyed the solitude. The sounds were so easy to listen to. The mallard ducks flying straight over head quacking at me. The sheep in the vast meadows baaaaaaaing at me and the occasional neigh from the horses. The bird chirping was endless and the soothing sound of the passing commuter trains were very pleasant. The water was so still. It was like one big giant mirror with the only thing disturbing it was the minor wake that the boat put out. I had one duck paddling in front of me making this perfect little V wake as he went along. I had a couple of real old long boats pass me going to the north and they were coal burning engines so again the sound was peaceful. The past 3 days on the narrow boat were by far my most cherished times of this holiday. We arrived back at the marina on time and unloaded all our belongings and loaded everything into the cars. We filled out the survey for the trip and made our way back to the Bush’s house. The sky’s are mostly grey today. No time to stop now. We needed to put together what we needed for several days in London as we had a hotel booked for 4 days Thanks again (Gan Gan ). Melanie and Andy took us to the train station and off we went. .... OOPs I forgot to mention the wonderful lunch Melanie made for us before we started off to the train station. She made a wonderful tomato bisk soup and all the cheeses and meats to go with it. YUM again. Plus there was the little treck to drop Jon off so he could shop for a suit for his upcoming prom. After that Andy and I nipped into B&Q (like Home Depot in USA) to look around a bit. Also got in a little nap beforehand as well. We got to the train station around 5pm and made it to the hotel by 7pm. Who would have thought we would be eating dinner at Subway? But that was the case and it was very good and one of the best values we had gotten so far. I think we will be back here again. Not only was the meal good , but we were privey to some good entertainment as well. We sat at the front window watching the people go by. First a lady in her 30’s came stumbling into Subway with a beer in each hand and dancing around making a scene until the manager made her leave. She stumbled her way out shaking and mumbling along the way. Next we had another bloke with a little too much to drink, or at least that is what it seemed. He tripped over a crack in the walkway and dumped out his big cup of fried looking bread crumbs. Then another stumbler came along and decided to help this guy. Well he leaned over the guy and like all of a sudden this BIG pool of drool comes pouring out of his mouth and lands right on the guy he is trying to help. Matt almost lost his sandwich. I must say it was pretty gross. The guy didn’t even realize it either. They finally got it together sort of and moved on their way. Back to the room for showers and relax. I need to go call Stewart and make sure the plans are set to bring Maddie to the train station so she can go visit her friend Rosalind. Ended the night with a visit to the internet café across the street. Some TV with Kenzie, Matt, and Maddie. Night Night.

	Day 15    (Tue June 19th) THE HOTEL We arrived last night, settled in and got some dinner. If we wanted we could just stay put. We have the internet across the street. Subway, pool hall and convenience store and shops all just out the front door. We got ready to go have some breakfast and then take a train to see the Camden lock or Camden town. This was a place that Jon told us about where we could find lots of bargains on clothes, jewelry and T-shirts. We ate at McDonalds for breakfast. Like I keep saying the weak dollar is killing us. Breakfast was £16 or S32 . Enough with the cost already I am bring myself down thinking about it. We went to the tube station (underground train) and figured out how to get to Camden. It would be the black line tube. We got there in like 10 minutes. This tube system is pretty cool. You can buy a pass good for the day and you can pretty much get anywhere in London you want. I would have loved to just get on a tube and not know where I was going and just get lost for the day. At the end of the day you just look at the chart and connect the route you need to get back home. Very efficient system. On the other hand, the high security alert was very apparent. Every 10 minutes or so you would hear a security alert about how you should not leave your bags unattended and that you should not take any bags from strangers. It was kind of scary sometimes. I remember one train at the end of the day and a middle eastern man was sitting with a backpack in his lap and looking to be asleep and my brain started ticking. Could this guy be taking his last nap. I even put myself between him and Kenzie. Once your brain starts getting paranoid it doesn’t stop. Nothing happened. But just 2 days after we left England bombs started showing up around London. I think one even went off in a car or something. I remember picking up a paper earlier and reading that the Taliban had just sent a warning tape to the UK about committing terrorist acts now. Spooky. We spent the day walking around Camden looking at all the crazy shops and colorful people. Lots of tattoos, body piercings and bizarre hair styles. Lots of head shops. I was looking at what seemed to be a bag of dirt and chips. What it was was a bag of mushrooms and not the kind you would use to make a nice salad. Although it would be a salad you wouldn’t forget. They even had a warning label on them saying HALLUCINATIONS are very possible. While I was looking at them the store merchant came up to me and informed me that he had some better ones in the back. Maybe 30 yr’s ago but no thanks. They call Camden "the Amsterdam of London". We did buy some clothes and stuff. Maddie got some earings and Matt bought a ring. And I got a nice red T-shirt. Matt got approached on the street by a guy walking behind him saying GANJA GANJA GANJA. He wanted to sell him some pot. Matt found this one graffiti that was done by some famous artist(pic) called Banksy and took a picture. He bought a book that was full of the guys art work. Hunger was setting in so we found some food. Kenzie got some noodles from an area where it was all asian food shops and the people really tried to sell you their stuff. They would get right in your face with a sample and really work it hard. T The kids managed to do quite a bit of shopping today and bought lots of clothes. At 3pm we left Alice so she could go visit her friend Sarah for a day and half. The kids and I made it back to the hotel and took a little rest. We searched out some food for dinner. The girls chose Subway and Matt myself and Maddie gave it a try at a Chippy. Fish and chip shop. I wasn’t impressed but it filled the void. I think it will be Subway for the next few nights.  Spent some time at the internet café and that made Mel happy. She could talk to her friends. Some teli and off to bed.

	Day 16 THE LONDON EYE We got moving around 8:45am. Headed for the underground and purchased our tickets for the day. This is one of the good values of the trip. It cost us £12.50 for all of us for the day. Our first task was to find Stuart and Rosalind. Roz is the friend Maddie made when we were on the island of Alderney back in 2001. She lives in Norwich (where our dogs come from) (pic of dogs) They were taking the train and meeting us in London. Maddie is going home with them for a day and a half. We found them and headed for the London eye. This is a huge 170 meter ferris wheel that you can see all of London from the top. We got off the circle line at Westminster station which was right next to BIG BEN. As we came out Ben was striking 12 noon. Over the bridge and down a bit and we heard a loud whistle. It was a very familiar whistle one that us Bertelsons knew well. It was Alice. She was with Sarah down by the line for the EYE. We met up and purchased the tickets. The view was spectacular. Only most of us didn’t know what we were looking at. Except for Stuart. He pointed out quite a bit of stuff. At the end of the ride we had a little scare as some young kid with a back pack was being escorted off the ride by several policemen. We were stuck on the ride for an extra 10 minutes while they checked out the carriage that the boy was on. We even got to go backwards for a bit. After our little delay we exited and hunger was upon us. Sarah knew the area so we followed her lead on a place to get some lunch. Along the way we came upon some street performers. They were painted up with all kinds of different themes. They did mime performances for tips. They looked like statues The next little site was the skateboard area. It was like under a motorway. All the walls were done up with some wild graffiti. There was some kids laying down some fresh work and the police walked over and talked to them but they didn’t stop them. Apparently it is legal in designated areas if you are of age. The skaters were very entertaining as well.. We pressed on. We ended up in this open area court yard with lots of choices to eat. I had a baguette and it was yummy. Time is getting on and we need to make our way back to the hotel and Stuart, Maddie and Roz needed to catch their train home. Back at the hotel room we took a little nap and went to Subway for dinner. We managed to pick up some coupons from someone on the street for free subs. A little check on the internet, some telly and night night at 12:30.

	Day 17 THE UNDERGROUND Easy start in the morning and on the tube by 10am. Our first stop would be at Westminster. We made our way to one of the BIGGEST and most EXPENSIVE department stores in the world. HARRODS. This is the store that unless you make like 10 grand an hour you have no business shopping here. It is fun to walk around and fantasize as if you had won the lottery. But some of the stuff is just unheard of. Like the fountain pen that Matt watched a gentleman purchase. £2000 for a pen? Come on I just don’t see it. The genuine Hummer golf cart was pretty cool. We looked around for a couple hours and took a few pictures of different stuff. I just couldn’t get myself to shell out the $5000.00 for the backgammon set so we headed for the food court to get something to eat. Had a little incident in the food court. All of us picked out what we wanted to eat and got in line. I was at the head of the line. I paid for my sandwich but forgot to get a drink. I set my backpack down by the girl at the register and went to get a drink. BIG MISTAKE! Alice was behind me and she is the one who noticed the response from the check out girl. The girl felt my bag down by her feet and Alice said she had a look of severe panic across her face. She looked as if she were going to call for an alert to the manager. Alice noticed the very nervious facial expression and called out to me. "Nils is this your backpack" I said yes and a big sign of relief came across the girls face and everything was fine. The alert level for terrorism is extremely high right now. Melanie and Kenzie wanted McDonalds so we bagged our food and walked to the Golden Arches down the road. Man this place was a ZOO. I went upstairs to try and get a table. By the time the girls had got their food, I had secured a place to sit. We finished up and headed for the Buckingham Palace. A short walk and we were watching the guards prance around. The flag was flying and that means that the Queen is in. This means that the main gate is kept shut and you can not get up real close to the guards. Back on the tube to Covent Garden. We came upon lots of street performers again. One guy was juggling these big giant YO YO looking things and throwing them up in the air on a rope and catching them. He was pretty good. Well the kids have had enough walking for one day and we decided to make our way back to the hotel. Matt wanted to stay so we left him there on his own and headed home. I think Matt had a great time on his own as he only had himself to please. That is one of the toughest things to accomplish on this trip and that is pleasing 4 kids at the same time. Almost impossible! We bought some Cornish Pasties from a Cornish bakery and took them home for dinner. After a little rest and a shower Mel and I took off to meet Maddie at the train station. We got there a little early so we sat down at a table in front of a pub across from the train station. I had a pint of Guinness and Mel had some lemonade. We had some potato skins as well. While we were sitting a beggar came up to us and tried to sell us a lighter. I tried to just talk in Spanish and not understand what he was saying. He kind of saw right through it but got the message and walked away. On another note Mel had her first encounter with pigeon pooo. We were just sitting and talking. All of a sudden Mel said ewww and looked down at her foot to discover a nice warm puddle of pigeon poo dripping off her foot. I got a good laugh out of it and it didn’t hit any of her clothing so it wasn’t that bad. It was getting on 9pm and Maddies train should be arriving. We walked over to the station and Maddie was standing by the info desk looking a little worried. She said she was getting ready to find out how to get back to kings cross station and the hotel. Maddie was very relieved as soon as she heard and saw us. She did really good to do the 3 hr train ride all on her own. So the 3 of us made our way back to the hotel. Lots of smiles from Maddie.  She said she had a wonderful time and they stayed up till 3:30am and slept till noon the next day. During the day they went to the town of Norwich and just kind of goofed off. Back to the room by 10ish. Watched some telly and off to bed.

	Day 18 LAST DAY WITH THE BUSH'S We made it back on the train from London to Milton Keynes. Melanie and Andy both came in their cars to pick us all up and we got back to the Bush’s in good time. We had a nice lunch and then Alice and I went into Towcester (pronounced toaster - Brant you'd love to live there!) to walk around. Melanie and Jon went for an acupuncture treatment while we walked around. Back to the Bush's thatched cottage and some rest and relaxation before dinner. Melanie made a wonderful dinner of salmon, cod, English sausages, and Ratatouille. Andy picked some fresh lettuce from the garden. We sat around after dinner and chatted for a while until it was time to start the trek in the minivan back to Silverthorn. The kids wanted to spend the night and after doing the drive I wish we would have. But with the size of the cottage and the amount of people we are, it would of meant some people would be sleeping in the fireplace, the garden tree fort and so on. Did I mention that the roof is made of thatch? This is bundles of reeds strapped together and fitted all over the roof. Melanie and Andy have to keep this roof as part of the contract they signed when they bought the house. It is a historical preserved house. Ok back to the drive. It was almost dark and we had a 3 hr journey ahead of us. Most of the route was on the motorway (expressway) and the rain was not letting up. Throw in lots of Lorrys (semi tractor trailers) and all the other differences of driving here, this would prove to be my most challenging trip. Everything was going well and then the surroundings started playing tricks on my head. The white lines on the road are much closer together here as well as the reflectors. The lighting was hit and miss. Some sections had no lights at all. With the roads very twisty and up and down, I found myself having to look away from the lines and reflectors as they started to strobe and make the road look like it was moving instead of us moving. Also the barrier in the middle was made of lots of little poles that the oncoming lights would hit and cause another strobe like effect. Maybe if I had my glasses it would not have been so bad. In the end it was just a long white knuckle drive that would prefer to not repeat. Next time we will stay the night. We got home around midnight and went straight to bed.

	Day 19 THE CANDY RUN Pretty slow day. I took Mel and Maddie into Macclesfield to purchase our cargo of sweets. We already had 10 lb’s of Thorntons Toffee but I got a little more anyway. Over to Tescos to load up on all the good chocolate bars and the like. Curly wurly’s, white chocolate, and so on. I think we have enough, so time to go home. Back at the house we just laid around and didn’t do much but be lazy. It’s nice to be Lazy sometimes. The kids played games with Gan-Gan and laughed a lot too.

	Day 20 CHURCH AND GOLF MATCH The weather has turned British on us and it is mostly rain, clouds, wind with a little sunshine mixed in. Church was over around Noon. We had some coffee and biscuits with the congregation. Matt and I were off to Macclesfield Golf club. We met up with the 2 gents we were playing with. Our start time was 2:15pm and as soon as we stepped up to the tee box, the rain began to fall. ... and fall and fall and fall. By the time we made it to the sixth hole Matt looked like a COLD WET RAT. I was ready to throw in the towel and call it a day but we pressed on. With a little prayer and patience the clouds gave way to the sun. the rest of the day was beautiful . The course was very different. Very narrow fairways and the rough was like nothing I had ever played on. You were lucky if you found your ball let alone try and hit it out. The views were spectacular and I forgot my camera. We played fairly well with some good holes and some bad ones. The walk was something I hadn’t done in 20 yr’s . My legs were sore for days. But it was well worth it and I wish we could walk on more courses here in America. The greens were very fast and very hard to read. A lot of times it would be dead flat but the ball would still roll in many different directions other than into the hole. In the end it was a SUPER TIME. I would love to do it again some day. Afterwords we went into the club for some food and drink. As I walked in to order a pint the bartender gave me this AWFUL looking stare like what was I doing. He was referring to my hat I had on. This was a BIG NO NO in the club. He would not even talk to me until I took my hat off. I apologized and he poured me a cold Stella. The group consisted of 24 of us from Gan-Gan’s church. This was the first annual golf outing for the church. It was a great success. Some food, chit chat and the awards were given out. We came in 8th place out of the 12 teams. Time to head back to Silverthorn. We watched a movie and talked with Gan-Gan for a bit and then to bed.

	Day 21 THE LAST DAY We slept in till 9am today. Matt and Maddie till 11am. With lots of packing to do we got started. We packed, ate, slept some more, played some games, ate, watched tv, ate, talked, and slept some more. The entire holliday was wonderful. We did a lot as you have read. We had a lot of nice visits. I can honestly say that I do not see another trip abroad as a whole family in the works for a long time. I’m sure Alice, myself and maybe one or two children will get back over here soon. With only a little more packing and a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG journey ahead of us I will end my Journal here. Next journal will be my COSTA RICA TRIP I leave on July 11th for 10 days. Nils