It's always an adventure when Megan comes to visit!!!

While Haylee naps *crossing my fingers that she's actually asleep* I figured I'd take my chance to recap my visit with Megan, my best friend from high school. We took her to the 2 sights that we have to take everyone-London and Cambridge- and they were fun trips but the real adventure was our girls weekend...

We wanted to take a big weekend trip to somewhere we hadn't been before so we decided to head west to see Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford and Warwick Castle. John found out that he had weekend duty so it became a girl's trip and I would have to be the only driver. I have done my fair share of driving here so I wasn't too worried but still not thrilled that there was no one to share the responsibility with. I learned a very important lesson on this trip...no matter how much you plan something, it will NEVER turn out the way you expect!!! It can be frustrating but it can also end up being the most unexpected adventure you could ever imagine...

I had carefully mapped out our trip, set our Navigon to exactly where all we would go, booked our hotels, and written down how far it was to each sight, how long it would take, total trip time and all the info we would need. (I know, I'm a freak when it comes to planning trips) So the plan for the first day was to leave at 9am, get to Stonehenge by 11:30, spend about 30 minutes there and get to Bath by 1 so that we could see everything before the town closed down at 5pm. We were on our way by about 9:30 and everything was going great until about 2 miles from Stonehenge. We hit terrible traffic going down the hill and were stuck in it for 45 minutes. People were walking by faster than we were driving...finally we made it and paid 6.50 pounds each (about $10) to go see this arrangement of rocks. Haylee was thrilled to be out of the car and didn't want to stay with me so I spent most of the time trying to keep hold of her while we made our way through the endless people, all trying to take pictures and blocking our way. It was a neat sight to see and I'm glad I can say that I've been there but as I had heard before, it's not a place you make a day of. It's best if you plan to see it on the way to somewhere else, which is exactly what we did. By this point it was already about 2:30 and we were eager to head the short distance to Bath.

After a quick lunch we got back in the car and were thrilled when the Navigon had me take a left out onto the road, away from the horrible traffic. Our excitement quickly vanished when we got down about 2 miles, hit a roundabout and the Navigon took me all the way around it, right back into that dreaded line of cars with nowhere else to go. So there we sat for another 45 minutes, cursing the stupid GPS and laughing at our luck.


We finally saw our first glimpse of Bath around 5pm and what a sight it was! It's a Roman city built up on a hill that looks like it belongs in Greece or Italy, not England. We were so excited to get to the Park & Ride and take the bus into town to go explore. As we pulled into the city, Haylee started crying because she needed a diaper change and I started telling her, "Don't worry sweetie, we're almost there". Little did I know...we drove down a hill into the city and got stuck behind about 15 cars at a stop light. Now, one thing I have learned about British driving is that they don't know how to use stop lights because they are very rare here. Instead they use roundabouts which they do very well with, but they seem to get very confused at stop lights. We sat there for about 20 minutes and I watched the light turn green a few times with only 1 or 2 cars going through and realized that this could take forever. So I decided to turn left instead and thankfully the Navigon rerouted us and we thought we were on our way. Not the case...I specifically remember telling Megan that I did NOT want to go up the hill towards the residential area because it was very steep, very narrow, and there was lots of rush hour traffic. About 2 minutes later, the Navigon told me to make a left and I headed straight up the hill, exactly where I said I didn't want to go. I started freaking out, Haylee was still crying because she needed her diaper changed, and Megan got out her video camera and taped the whole thing.

I finally made it up this crazy hill and was then told to continue up past the houses where the road became barely big enough for me to fit, let alone be the 2 lane road that it was supposed to be. On top of that, there were trees lining both sides of the road so there was no way to see around all the turns in case someone was going to run me over. After a few minutes we saw a little cut out in the road and I was able to pull over, change Haylee's diaper and catch my breath. It ended up being a really beautiful area overlooking Bath and I'm pretty sure we got to see a part of Bath that not many people get to experience. We got lucky and saw a lady walking so I stopped her and asked if she knew where we needed to go. Turned out, we were only about a mile from the Park & Ride that we were trying to find! So we headed up the rest of that tiny road and finally made it to our destination.

It was about 5:45 by that point and we didn't even care what else we saw in Bath, we just wanted to get some food and I didn't want to drive! We got on the bus and headed into town and were able to do the City Sightseeing bus tour, the one thing we had planned on doing there, so the trip wasn't a total bust. The tour was very relaxing and we were the only ones on it which was really nice. After spending about 2 hours in town we headed to our hotel and relaxed for the night.

The next day was our day in Oxford and I'm very happy to say that it was a lot less stressful than the previous day. We slept in, took our time getting there, had no problem finding the Park & Ride and found a nice sit down restaurant for lunch. The only drawback was that it rained on and off all day but I prefer the rain to heat any day. We did a little shopping and then hopped on the bus tour around the city. Megan, who is already obsessed with Oxford, fell even more in love with the city and decided that she was going to move there. And I would love to have her that close!! We spent about 4 hours in the city and decided to go ahead and go to our hotel to relax for the evening. That was the best idea we had all weekend!

Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and headed to Warwick. The drive was once again very uneventful, thank God, and we made it to the castle by 10:30 or 11. We toured one of the indoor parts of the castle and then decided to go up the Mound, the oldest part of the castle dating back to 1608. It's quite a walk up this hill and there are lots of stairs but John and I had done it before and I knew that we could handle it. Haylee even held my hand and walked up all the steps herself! After we got back down, we went over to another part like the Mound (or so we thought) and decided to try it. Now, our first clue that it may not have been the best idea was the warning out front that said it was 530 steps (doesn't sound that bad, does it?), there's only one way out and that's on the other side and that you shouldn't try it if you are elderly or have health problems. Well, I may be 7 months pregnant but I'm not elderly or have health problems and I apparently think I'm super woman so we headed up the steps. The first part wasn't so bad and we got a gorgeous view of the town of Warwick and then we headed down the first spiral staircase. Now, mind you, I have a huge belly that I was trying to balance and Megan was carrying Haylee the whole way because these spirals we had to climb were really narrow and not big enough to let her walk. So we went up and down about 20 (or so it seemed) spiral staircases, thinking that it would never end. I'm happy to say that it did eventually take us back to the ground and we all survived. And even though the climbing was rough, I thought it was worth it because of the amazing view we got from the top.

We spent a couple more hours at the castle and decided it was time to head home. Unfortunately, the trip was destined to have more bad luck as Megan ended up getting very dehydrated and sick on the way home. I'm thankful she didn't puke in my car but hated seeing her sick. We were thrilled when we arrived home and spent her last 24 hours here doing absolutely nothing. I had a really great time with Megan and am so thankful she made the trip out here. Hopefully we will be visiting her in Oxford soon! As long as she doesn't move to Bath because I don't know that I would be willing to visit her there...