Sunday, October 21

Hello. Grandma Marge here.
Today Susan is 40 (or at least she says so; we really don't believe it). We celebrated with a special breakfast, roses, a fancy dinner out for Susan and Doug, and a trip to the Isle of Wight for all of us. As usual we got started at the crack of 2 p.m. We went over the "Solent" on a HoverCraft...a boat that glides over the water on a big blown up balloon.

The grandkids pronounced it as "cool." Our primary destination was the Osborn House, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's summer home. It's quite a cottage!

Day 3 -- Jacob is still sick

Yes it's true. Saturday morning Jacob was still sick. Not quite hospital sick but too sick to go out sightseeing. Jacob and I (Doug) stayed back at my aunt's flat and sang songs and played with tiny plastic knights and built a tiny plastic mangonel -- sort of a yarn-based catapult. Sue and Marna and Grandma and the kids, well, I'm not sure where they went. Maybe it had something to do with this.

Spinnaker Tower

Still a couple days behind! Hope to catch up tonight. After Arundel Castle we got back to my Aunt Anne's flat in Gosport (across the harbor from Portsmouth) and slept for about 14 hours. I like the UK. At home I have insomnia. Here it seems I can sleep at just about any time and stay asleep for days.

Friday found Jacob throwing up again. So he and Susan stayed home while the rest of us caught the ferry over to Portsmouth (a 3 minute trip) and looked around there. They've recently opened a new attraction in Portsmouth -- the Spinnaker Tower. It's pretty impressive, although it doesn't really fit with the rest of the city. Maybe they intend to build a bunch of similar buildings all around it in the next fifty years or so. There's an observation deck 110 meters up, with all glass walls and a section of glass floor that's mildly terrifying to walk across.

Arundel castle

Thursday morning Anne and her friend Richard picked us up at Gatwick Airport. Jacob was feeling a little better so they took us to Arundel Castle in West Sussex. Here's Ellen with what she remembers most about the castle.

My absolute favorite part about Arundel Castle was probably the huge gallery that probably was the ballroom or the main hall or something when the castle was built.
It has TONS of portraits of famous people that visited the castle a long time ago. IT WAS SOOOO COOL!!!! There were animal skins on the floors, and there were these two huge, beautiful fireplaces that I could easily imagine them heating up the gigantic room. My aunt said," When I thought of castles, I always thought that they were cold and somewhat depressing in the winter, but those fireplaces could really make things cozy in here!"

Pictures from the plane ride

We've arrived!

Doug posting... We left rainy Minneapolis behind on Wednesday night. The flight was lovely. Some ate chicken. Others ate pasta. We all watched movies and slept but poor Jacob got sick on the plane.