Travelling through England to visit our Son Day 3

 

Fabulous lunch was waiting for
us when we arrived at our son's
house!  And delightfully 
presented!

After 2 days of travelling, this was the day we finally got to visit our son after an absence of being in the London area for almost 2 years!  The last time we came to London to see him was October 2019.  The pandemic stopped us from travelling for a long time, although we have not gone 23 months without actually seeing him...he has come up to Scotland for various and allowable reasons (when needing an allowable reason was required). But we have still missed being in his home turf and also seeing the house he and his partner recently bought. 

 But first, we had to get there! 

Breakfast at the Falcon was lovely and, this time, we remembered to go to the dining room and get our orange juice and cereal!  They gave Skye a sausage so she was very pleased with the way her day started!  

I missed the last walk to Haseley church since I had to wash my hair....

Then, we did take a slight detour and visited Hatton Locks before heading down London way.  

Hatton Locks was almost directly across the street from our hotel and we passed the turn off each way when we were going places the 2 days before. So curiosity got hte better of us and we turned in to have a look.  We had no idea this was such an amazing place! So we paid for parking and spent about 30 minutes there, enjoying a short walk and also watching one narrow boat deal with a few of the 21 locks.  

What the Captain and the crew of the 
Whippet Express had to look 
forward to!

This boat was called The Whippet Express and is a privatley owned narrow boat which is usually permanently docked elsewhere, but the owners had been on holiday and were on their way home. Just watching the sheer physical labour it takes to maneuver the locks exhausted me! And they had only just begun! 

If we are lucky enough to return to this
area, I hope we are able to do the walk
along the Locks!

Patience and sheer physical strength is
all you need to travel by canal boat!

After this refreshing interlude, we headed off to the London area. Our son no longer lives in actual London but closer to Windsor and this whole area looks incredible.

We were greeted with a tour of their new home, which is beautiful and very interesting. And then a delicious lunch sitting out on their patio. 

Well, the 3 of them and the two dogs were out there, I was sat at the dining room table attending an AGM of Trefoil Guild Scotland!  After having to cancel last year's we all felt the need to have an AGM, even if it had to be virtual.  And it worked out very well!  We had a great number of members attending and our guest speaker, Jess Smith, was as entertaining as she was in person when I saw her with another organisation.  The first time I saw Jess Smith, I was inspired to buy 2 of her books, but I now realise, I need to buy them all!  

Yes, here I am in the living room while they are
in the sunshine!

The dogs didn't mind 
waiting for me!

This is the second meeting I have "attended" since leaving our home in Scotland on this trip. And it is so nice to have the freedom to not be home and still attend and participate in meetings.  I am not sure I am going to cope with having to be physically present at any one location and particular time anymore.  The pandemic might have had some very terrible consequences, as we all know, but there are other tweaks that have been made to everyday life that I cannot see changing back.

The family waited very patiently for me to finish and then we drove to Virginia Water, part of the Windsor Great Park, to walk around this lovely park. It also has interesting ruins that reminded me a bit of other places we have visited.  It must have been all the rage in parts of Britain during a certain era to change the direction of waterways and build all kinds of follies and other structures.  

There is even  a bit of actual Roman ruins, called the Leptis Magna ruins!  This park is huge and it was quite late thanks to my meeting so we did not walk much further than the ruins.  Before we turned back though, our son bought us all ice cream!  It was so nice to stand along the shore of Virginia Water, simply being with them, eating ice cream on a lovely summer' day.

Two friends on the drive back 
to our son's house

Drove back to their house and then walked to a pub nearby for a drink in the afternoon.  Another lovely thing to do while it is still summertime.

Back to their house for a fabulous bbq.  

We wanted to watch the final of the US Tennis Open with the two teenage players.  Such a wonderful accomplishment for both of them.  Found the station at the right time and placed ourselves around the tv to settle in. However, there was over an hour of build up before the game and this was too much for the men. Both gave up the ghost and fell sleep sitting on opposite ends of the sofa.  I gave up being in the middle of these sleeping beauties and sat on the floor - where I promptly also fell asleep. 

It ended up just the two females as the men went to bed. And it was fascinating watching these two perfectly matched young women play against each other.  I really wanted to hold on to the end, but I couldn't and I went to bed.  It was nice waking up to the news that Emma Raducanu won!