We started our day on Wednesday Oct. 21st with a waffle breakfast - American Style - over at Peter and Elaine's! Elaine wanted Tyler to teach her how to make them. :) We went over there at 9am and I helped Tyler finish making them. It took a while because we only had 1 waffle iron! But they were yummy. We ate them with real maple syrup, whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries. Mmmm.

Barbara, Peter & Elaine enjoying waffles

Chef Tyler

After breakfast we went for a walk with Peter and Elaine. We walked through a nice forested area in their town, and then through the old village of Wolverley (their town).

The backs of these homes go into the red sandstone cliffside! 

A natural garage in the redrock sandstone mountainside!

This back conservatory of a home is in the mountainside!

We are in front of the baptist church where some of our Penn ancestors attended church and were baptized until the 1850s. The Wolverley cathedral.

The Wolverley Cathedral. 

Elaine and Barbara's dad's (Ernest Penn) grave marker. I believe their mom is buried there, too. Dave cleared it off for them so the inscription can be read again. :)

For lunch we went to the Arboretum and had a roast buffet. It was beautiful there and the food was delicious.

 Then we went back to Barbara and Bill's. The kids did some school work, and I did laundry, and went and got a haircut. I decided to get it cut shorter. It'll take a little getting used to, but I mostly like it.
Later we went for a walk with Barbara around more of Bewdley. It was a lovely fall day.

The Ribbesford Church (the next town over). It was built over a number of years, in stages, hence some stone pillars, and some wood, in different styles. 

The Ribbesford Church graveyard, where Great-great ?? Aunt Lil Gardner and her son Cyril are buried.

This tree is about 500 years old and grew "out" and all over the place!!! It's awesome.

Later, the boys and I went for a drive with Barbara to Kidderminster to see some places where our ancestors lived.

The red section of house on the left is where my Grandpa Albert (Bert) Penn's father George Penn, was raised! His parents had 9 children, and I think they all lived here for a time! Barbara said that the front area was all a nicely manicured garden back then.

This is the house where my Grandpa Penn's dad's family moved to when George was a teen. Barbara said it was larger than the other townhome, as it has the attic and a basement. Barbara's dad Ernest stayed in this home and raised his family here, so this is where Barbara grew up! She said that they didn't have running water and electricity as they grew up! 

The Baptist church where my great-grandpa's family attended church.

Wednesday evening we played Ripple Golf with Barbara and Bill, and Bill had prepared a chocolate comparison activity for us. We rated 4 different chocolate bars without knowing the manufacturers, by taste, meltability, sweetness (personal preference), and overall rating, from 1 - 6. It was a fun activity. The winner was a Lidl special bar, I think! And interestingly, it was the 2nd least expensive bar of the 4. 

Tyler, Bill & Dave

Tuesday, Oct. 20th we did school, laundry, payroll, etc. in the morning. Then in the afternoon we went into Worcester again. 

First we went to the cathedral. They allowed taking pictures, which was nice. Dave and I remember being here with Jessica, Austin and Brooke 19 years ago. Fond memories and now some fun new ones!

This is King John's tomb.

Tyler and by Prince Arthur's tomb. He was the older brother of King Henry VIII. He died in his early 20s and so he never became king. If only.....

A guess at what King John's tomb originally looked like. It's interesting to think of the old cathedrals and tombs with bright paint everywhere. We are so used to old things just in grey, or brown tones, but many of them were painted brightly.

Gorgeous stained glass window 

A chapel down in the catacombs

Eating ice cream :)

Janae - after licking her ice-cream bowl!

We visited the Royal Porcelain Museum after the cathedral. Bill and Barbara recommended it to us. It is about the Royal Worcester Porcelain company, who is unfortunately out of business now. We are glad that we went. It was interesting, and they have many beautiful pieces there. Josh was bored out of his mind, unfortunately, but everyone else enjoyed it. (Maybe "enjoyed" is a strong word for Janae's feelings about it.) Dave, Tyler and I enjoyed it! :)

Gorgeous hand painted pieces

This vase was designed and created to take to the world's fair, in hopes of gaining more interest in the company and therefore more orders (from the US and other countries). Unfortunately, it didn't do the trick.

Lovely Janae modeling a beautiful porcelain piece. 

Lastly we went into the shopping area. We got shakes at a popular place called "Shake Away". They weren't as good as we expected, but they were tasty. They were in the UK style of using milk with flavoring and mix-ins, not ice-cream.  We also saw the Greyfriar's house there, but just from the outside, as it was closing as we arrived.

I swear that some of the buildings here would be condemned and torn down for safety reasons in the USA! 

Notice the house/building on the right that bows outward on the top floor!

Greyfriar's house on the right - black and white.

We spent all day on Monday, Oct. 19th at Warwick Castle. Dave & I have fun memories of being here with our 3 oldest kids when they were young, 19 years ago, so we have been looking forward to bringing Tyler, Janae, and Josh here also. 

Apparently this bed is the bed that Queen Victoria died in! It was brought here after her death, and the family told stories about Queen Victoria visiting Warwick Castle and sleeping in this bed, but the stories weren't true!  

A clock that Marie Antionette owned

The grand trebuchet. They aren't actually firing it right now, like they usually do, because last spring when they were doing a demonstration, the thatched-roof boathouse nearby caught fire and burned to the ground!  

Archery demonstration. In this picture he's saying how the bowmen would aim for the ears, eyes, or nose of their enemy. Lovely!

Funny story: Janae and I watched this archery demonstration while the boys went in the Dungeon Tour (which they came out of freaked out, by the way!). At one point in the demonstration the man said, "Who thinks I can hit the helmet over there in 4 tries?" Most of the crowd cheered, but one boy in the school group called out, "Not me", in his English accent of course. Everyone laughed, and then the man said, "Alright, who thinks I can hit that kid in 4 tries"! It was pretty funny, and we've been mimicking "Not me" ever since! Haha.

The castle used to be owned by Madame Tussaud's, so there are a lot of lifelike wax figures on the property.

We went to the bird show, which was really cool. This is an eagle.

An owl 

A falcon, I think. It needs a lot of height to begin it's flights because of it's size. So they've trained it to hop up the steps before it flies back to it's cage on the other side. 

With a "princess" just for fun.

And of course Tyler wanted his picture taken with the princess. Josh refused, though. :)

Janae and I doing the "Scotland" yell! If only that Sunday School teacher in Scotland knew what she started!

The view from the highest tower. It was really high up there!

Before leaving the town of Warwick, we took a picture of this hospital. I kind of think that this wouldn't pass the building/occupancy codes in the States!

This is a picture of Peter & Elaine's home, where we picked up Tyler and Janae each morning and dropped them off each night.