We went to the London Zoo with Oma, PapPap and Max. The girls had a blast, and it was a pretty nice zoo! Big hits were the pelicans, the butterfly house and the plush, green grass where the girls could run and play for a little bit.
 |
| ....in the amphibian house....my least favorite place ever. I hate snakes. |
 |
| PapPap was helping Lucy see all the critters |
 |
| ...it was cool to see where they filmed the zoo scene in the first Harry Potter movie, though! |
 |
| My little monkey trying to see the monkeys |
 |
| This little one loved to stretch her legs and walk all over the green grass! |
 |
| looking closely at the butterflies.... |
 |
| They had this really cool pool where penguins where swimming- you could stand on the deep-end side and watch them swim, or you could stand on the deck and see the penguins walk around. Lucy loved it! |
 |
| Annie liked it too- you could watch her head go back and forth watching the penguins swim |
The last weekend the Frizzells were in town, we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birth-place, for a day-trip.
It is a beautiful, quaint little town and was such a fun trip!
 |
| with Oma on the two-hour train ride there.... |
 |
| Don't smile, Max! (and here's my giant purse that doubles as the diaper bag) |
 |
| Hanging out with Daddy and PapPap on the train |
When we arrived, they had an open market in the center of the town. Amazing cheeses, chocolates, breads, vegetables- it looked so yummy!!
 |
| The gardens at Shakespeare's house... |
 |
| Lucy's favorite thing about the trip was the massive pin-wheel we bought her for a pound at the open-air market. She swung that thing around everywhere we went (and accidentally swiped a guy at Shakespeare's house!) |
They had the house set up like it most likely looked like when Shakespeare lived there....
Apparently his father was a tanner and made items such as leather gloves.
Lucy got to try on a pair...
In the open courtyard, they had an actor who would quote Shakespeare sonnets and plays:
Mike Sr. got to participate....
On the Shakespeare tour, there are two other houses where his daughter, Anne Hathaway, lived and the church where he is buried. These two houses were probably my favorite because they were less-commercialized (most people don't go to see them after they see Shakespeare's house), but they were bigger and nicer and had really beautiful gardens. In one of the gardens, we met one of the locals, a 105-year-old lady and her daughter. They told us about how Stratford used to be, many years ago, how they would often come to the park, etc. She told me I should cut a flower from the garden and press it so that we'd always remember our trip! Lucy did end up picking an illegal flower from one of the gardens...but I didn't press it. I bought a really cute tea-towel instead. :)
Anne Hathaway's house:
This is walking away from the church where he is buried.
My phone ran out of picture space, so I'm missing some good pics from the church and from walking down the river (the "upon-Avon" part).
Here's the whole clan at lunch at a really cute tavern right in the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon....
Such a fun day trip!
