Day 16

We went down to breakfast around 8:15am, right before they closed the kitchen. It was a breakfast made to order. We mostly had eggs, toast, and bacon or sausage. The coffee was also very good…the strongest we’ve had yet! Cece would have loved it! We checked out by 10am and drove to Bath. The countryside was beautiful, but I got so frustrated with the bushes by the side of the highway that blocked me from taking pictures! Argh! Tami says they are called Braken. It even sounds icky! Bath was not what I had expected. It was very hilly. Tomtom took us right to Tami’s Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah’s house. Mike was the only one home. His artwork was all over the house. He was about to show another exhibition so much of his work was not there. Aunt Sarah was still at work. She is a Speech Pathologist (they call it something else in the U.K.). Mike drove us around Bath and showed us the sites. He said there were two major universities here. I never knew that! This would be an excellent place to come study. He said that most of the architecture was Georgian, and that this used to be the favorite hangout of royalty. They built houses here called crescents. It is a series of houses connected to form a crescent shape. There are also Roman ruins here and roman baths with mineral springs. He dropped us off downtown and we found an excellent pub for lunch called “The Grapes.” The proprietor said he just started today and that he had a whole new staff that he was training. I had to laugh at Adamm’s typical American attitude. He kept asking when the food would arrive! Lol It was a wonderful pub experience. You have to go up to the bar to place your order and pay. Then they bring you your meal, and you have to get your own condiments that are up at the bar. The food was so good, and I finally had my English fish and chips! Serena had a chocolate fudge cake that was so good! I just had to help her finish it! Then we walked around a bit window shopping. Tami was trying to find a jacket for James because it was raining a little and it was chilly. We made our way to the spa and checked it out. Both Serena and Adamm were old enough (12 being the minimum age) but they needed an adult each to go in. James was not allowed at all. Paul insisted on going into the “adult” spa which offered a restaurant, steam room, massages, and pool. That left the four of us with James unable to enter. Adamm and Serena decided that Serena would come with me into the “children’s” spa and that Adamm would hang out with Tami and James (shopping!) for two hours. They went to 4 different stores, I guess. Tami found some really cute clothes (dresses) that we had to check out later. Serena and I had to wait about 15 minutes for an attendant to accompany us across the street to the Cross Bath. He opened the door for us, and we changed into our suits. Serena had a slight problem: the strap on her suit was broken! I happened to have a sewing kit from one of the hotels with me, so I quickly sewed it up and we entered the pool. There was no roof, and there was nobody there. We had the pool to ourselves for an hour and a half! They had noodles, too! Serena was a bit let down. She thought it would be hotter and bubblier. It was like bath water…nice and warm. Every time we got out and back in it felt even warmer. We also played with our cameras a bit. We set the timers then jumped in for our pictures together. The water coming out of the little ball was very hot. You could see the steam rising from it. When we finally emerged from our fun in the bath, the rest of the gang was waiting for us. We did some more shopping at Marks and Spencer. They had wonderful sales and we tried on many clothes. There was a black dress that I really liked and it looked really good on me, and I had been looking for a little black dress, but it was unfortunately not on sale! Bummer! Tami bought Serena a pretty pink sundress and herself a sweater and some jewelry. We also picked up some wine and flowers to take to Mike and Sarah for dinner. Tami called Mike to come pick us up where he dropped us off. For dinner we had pork (with the cracklings…it had been roasting all day), potatoes, peas, cheese and biscuits (crackers), and raspberries and cream for dessert. The meal was delectable! Mike told us that his dinner table is huge when all of the leaves are in, spanning the width of the room. He also said that it had been in his family for years, and that King George the VI and his queen ate at this very table! I shared a table with royalty! James amused himself with a train set that Sarah had brought down for him. We left pretty late and got home even later…around midnight. Talk about tired people! James fell asleep on the way home and was easily transferred to his bed. We stopped for petrol (gas) and caffeine to keep us awake. It was funny, because Sarah mentioned that the spa made your skin softer, and Serena commented, “Oh, so that’s why it feels so soft!” lol It was really nice! Oh, and Mike told us that they had all of these pigs painted around the town. I took a picture of the one by the spa. It reminded me of the cows in Chicago! What a long, but satisfying day!