Portsmouth

My goodness, I have been remiss!  It is already Wednesday, June 26 and we are on our way to Stonehenge this morning.  We had a great 3 days in Portsmouth.  We looked at or toured ships from Henry the VIII’s Mary Rose to modern British naval vessels.  It was interesting to follow history through ships 🚢! We also spent a day learning about D-Day from the British perspective.  The D- Day museum did an excellent job and we really left with a better understanding of the impact that this operation had on England as well as the world.  There was a power standing on the earth where my father, as well as thousands of others, stood before loading on ships to the beaches of France.  I had not anticipated the emotion that this experience brought.

We are in England🤗!!!  Pictures will come tomorrow 🤪 because we kind of missed last night.  Norwegian Air was great.  Easy check in, beautiful new plane, friendly staff, and a decent system for ordering food. The flight from Boston was under 6 hours and I just don’t know how people can really sleep on these flights.  I finally had to turn off my reading light because most everyone was sleeping🙃, but thankfully I had Trevor Noah’s book as an audio book so I could listen in the dark.  Our connection to the train at Gatwick was smooth and the ride to Porthsmouth easy.  We spent the afternoon in the Mary Rose, King Henry VIII’s boat that has been raised and restored.  Tomorrow we are beginning of wit The Victory.  Michael is loving the navel history and artifacts.  The weather is gorgeous and this was certainly a good place to catch up on our time zone changes.

Riding on the Swan Boat 

We parked under Boston Common and walked over to The Public Garden where we rode the swan boat made famous in Make Way for Ducklings.  It was just a short ride around the pond, but lovely with the beautiful weather and lush greenery.

Barry gave us an educational tour of Google in Cambridge.  We had lunch in their expansive cafeteria and Michael got to play mandolin in their music room!  We

are on day three of 49.  It is like counting the Omer 😊

A great sister picture!  This is the perfect time to mention what great hosts Barry and Marilyn are💕

We never planned to go to Scandinavia.  It was not on my list. But..... Debbie called one day and told us she and her family were going to Scandinavia for three weeks because it was family friendly, not too hot in the summer, and had fiords!  We were invited to come on this trip, but we hesitated.  Limited resources, not on the list, blah, blah, blah.  We decided not to go and then we spent the day at Roaring Camp with Ari and Levi making memories.  Michael and I looked at each other and decided on the spot that we could not miss the opportunity to join this family and make memories in Scandinavia - besides - there were fiords!
We began to plan and Sarah and Mark were having FOMO (fear of missing out :).  Now were were ten.  Our trip was getting larger.
Next, I began thinking that since were were flying so far, maybe we could connect some travel to this trip that had been on our list.  We thought about Scotland, Iceland, England, Spain....the list was pretty long.  We (I with Michael's coaxing) got a bit more realistic and got the trip add-ons down to England with stops on the East coast to visit family and break up the long plane flights.
Michael hates to leave home, but loves trips once we are there- challenging conundrum for sure.  I told him it was only six weeks - half of June and most of July.  One day he came up to me and announced that 49 days was not six weeks.  True that.

So here we are - just four days until we take off to adventures for 49 days!