The Adventures of A & M: Our First Visitors!

We had our first visitors! Cassie and Kevin Wilson visited us the first week of October. They happened to come during record high temperatures and beautiful sunny weather. The average temperature was 75 degrees while they were here. It was amazing! Ty loved getting to spend quality time with his aunt and uncle. They really seemed to enjoy Ty as well. After they got acclimated to the time difference for a couple days we went on a real adventure. We decided to drive to Dover and see the white cliffs, the Dover castle and World War II bunkers, and try to see France.

It was a gorgeous day! We started the few hour drive and on our way we passed by a sign for Leeds Castle and once again we all decided to be spontaneous and go for it. Plus it was Cassie's special wish that she get to see some castles. So we drove up to the car park and we didn't see the castle. Very strange...so we bought our rather expensive tickets and started on the walk towards the alleged castle. As we were walking we couldn't stop commenting on how beautiful the grounds were. There was a forest of Weeping Willows, lots of ducks, a pond, black swans, white swans, trails and just natural beauty all around.

A black swan.

Matty and Kevin were our photographers.

Prehistoric plants. They were HUGE!!! And they had these weird roots that were above ground. I felt like I was at Jurassic Park.

Then we finally saw the castle and it was the most beautiful castle we had seen. Once we got inside there were so many rooms to tour and so many interesting facts. I am in awe that we got to go through rooms that Henry VIII and his court lived in. It's so cool to look down at the stone floor and see how worn it is and imagine who's feet have walked these very halls and what they were wearing. I love having this experience to live among building with such rich histories.

The super cool thing about this castle was that it was never ending. When we first bought our ticket I couldn't help but cringe but as the day went on it felt totally worth it. Especially since they are good for a year. So we walked through the amazing grounds then we toured the castle and by that time we were starved so we ate lunch at their restaurant that actually had decent food. Also it had outdoor seating that gave you a perfect view of the castle while you ate. Then we went to their DOG COLLAR MUSEUM!! Yes I am laughing as I am writing this. It was SOOOO bizarre. The dog collars were kinda cool (like the Carousel of Progress is at Disney World). But the funniest thing was they had all these collars in cases with little cards that told you interesting facts about them and then they had these 2 dog collars outside of a case and all they had were braille panels next to them. So yea I have no idea what their story was. Weird!!

After the museum we went through the formal garden and then their aviary. They had a really great collection of birds. We saw Macaws, parrots, cranes, lots of birds that I have do idea what their names were and TOUCANS. A man fed one a piece of an apple and it was so fun watching him try to get the fruit and then to eat it. He was so cute! Then we went on to their hedge maze. It was so fun to try to find your way through. We finally had to get a tip from the maze expert helper. Once you get through the maze you go to a tower in the center and then down through a cave called "the grotto" to get out. It was kinda creepy, if someone had popped out I probably would've passed out.

By this time we had seen everything and we were pooped so we rode their "train" (a tram that looks like a train) back to the car park. Then we headed on to Dover.

We finally saw the beautiful castle. Stunning.


The shades didn't stay on for long.

It had a moat!

Under the gate, Matty thought it was the coolest thing!

Can you believe they actually have castles like this?

Don't ask. Just being silly. :)

Suit of armor obviously Matt's pic.

The queen's bedroom, it's just for show. She would receive guests here to show off her wealth. But, she would sleep in a normal bed. Does not make sense to me.

Cool Fireplace.

In the castle's chapel. Henry VIII had it taken out but they restored it to what it would've been.

Gorgeous view from the Castle.

How adorable is that?

My boys.

Family pic in front of the castle.

Ty's first real experience getting a shoulder ride on daddy. He LOVED it!!!

The castle had a hedge maze and it was so confusing but super fun to get lost in. Luckily they have helpers that are there in case you have a meltdown.

The maze and all the pastoral views from the tower in the center of the maze.

You can't tell because of my flash but we're in a dark cave called "the grotto" that has all these creepy people carved out and lighted. This is a giant face with red eyes and mouth. You have to go through "the grotto" to exit the maze.

On the "train" ride to the exit. We're too pooped to walk all the way back.

He likes trains.

When we finally got to Dover after a really long wrong turn loop through a random city the castle was already closed to visitors. (Everything closes by 3:30 or 4pm here) But we were still able to drive pretty close to it and get some pictures. As you can see Dover castle is totally a fortress. Not so much a pretty leisure castle like Leeds Castle. Then we drove to the white cliffs national park. We could've spent the whole day just at that park! It was huge and beautiful with great trails along the cliffs. Cassie and Kevin did their own thing while Matt and I explored. We found a cave which we were quite sure they used as a make shift bunker during WWII. After seeing the cave I got a little bunker obsessed and thought I saw one up above us and I swore there was a pathway that would lead us there. So Matt carried Ty in one arm and literally climbed the cliff face to get us there. Turns out it wasn't a bunker (sorry) but just a who knows what thing. By this time we figured Cassie and Kevin would probably be worried about us so we started trying to find our way back just going a different way. We weren't going to try to go down that cow trail we'd climbed up. So after getting a little lost we found them and we started on our journey home.

Though I don't have any pics it wasn't really the end of our adventure. We stopped by Canterbury on the way back. Yes, Canterbury from The Canterbury Tales. We even saw the Cathedral, which was so majestic and ginormous! We were just going to drive through until we saw what we thought was some type of church that had people walking in and out all the time. We parked and decided to check it out. Come to find out it was a private college and the security guards said we couldn't go in. AKWARD!! But let me tell you I wish that was my school! It was all medieval and stone and old. Then we had to walk a ways to get to the Cathedral but it was worth it. It's all walled in and has gates that you have to go through. They were doing construction and there was a part that would've been so easy to climb in and explore but there were other people around. Too bad. I really wanted to do it but at the same time it looked pretty creepy. After that we actually called it a day and went home.