July 2008
The wedding was not the only event in July. We also took the opportunity to visit family and friends and to have a little vacation to ourselves. We stayed with Mike’s sister in her Martello Tower and it was great to see our US grandchildren playing with Mary’s grandchildren for the first time. It will be a very long time before that happens again we suspect.
Christopher had just started to crawl and he though that English grass lawns were amazing as they are unavailable to him in Colorado.
Felixstowe is on the East Coast of England and is a typical Victorian seaside resort with Fish and Chips, a pier and amusement parks. We took all the children to ride on the Wild West Adventure Railroad, an irony not understood by the Colorado children! Repeated rides on the train and the horses were definitely a requirement of the visit!

Christopher enjoying the delights of a soft English lawn
The 'Wild West Railroad'
The train itself

Barbecues outdoors and bracing seaside walks kept us busy until the wedding and then our plan was to become tourists. We needed to visit Angie’s aunt and uncle in the Midlands and revisit Jodi’s parents in Shropshire where they were tied up at the time of Chris and Jodi’s wedding in April. The last visits were to meet Martin’s parents in the Birmingham area before Martin and Eleanor get married next year.
We went to London and stayed in Jo’s flat while she went on a canal narrow boat honeymoon and then borrowed her car to do the travelling. It was lovely to be back in the English countryside at its best and we had a great time. Our last port of call was to Mike’s cousin Dave and his wife Judi who live in Birdham south of Chichester on the Solent. A great place to go to be entertained to mountains of Dungeness Crab and plenty of good wines. We also managed to sail in Chichester Harbour and the Solent by way of a change.

The local rodeo with Aspen and Fasil
The formal gardens and Orangery at Weston Park
The facade of Weston Park from the gardens of Capability Brown
The beautiful interior with amazing portaiture

While in Shropshire we went back to stay in the same cottage we had used for Chris’ wedding in April. We were determined to visit some of the local countryside and attractions and Weston Park was the first one. This is the family seat of the Earls of Bradford although it now belongs to the State as there were problems with death duties for the current earl. The gardens were by Capability Brown and the interior retains all the decoration, furnishings and very valuable paintings.

The Ironbridge
The Gorge from the Bridge

There were few visitors and we found it very interesting and absorbing both in the house and the surroundings.
Our other visit was to the Ironbridge Gorge. This is undoubtedly the cradle of the Industrial Revolution where Adam Darby developed a new process for smelting iron using coke. The cheap and efficient process led to wider use of structural iron. His son and grandson (both Adam Darby too) went on to build the Ironbridge over the Gorge. It is all cast iron and really pretty. There are lots of museums to visit if they take your fancy.

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