our first day in bristol

so we landed tuesday & joe was expected at work on wednesday.

that meant i would have the children entirely to myself. for the entire day. in a new city. without a car. and without internet. the latter could have been used to determine the exact GPS coordinates of the nearest play area. although from i have been told, english parks have the most dangerous, unsafe play equipment known to man/childkind.

hmmm.

thank goodness we had the sense to bring a single stroller. although now both children are claiming crippleness & saying they are "unable to walk". awesome.

it was sprinkling lightly outside on wednesday, so here is a breakdown of how i dressed the kids for a walk around our new neighborhood:
- rain coat
- rain hat
- rain boots
- scarves
- hoodies
- heavy pants (no, for those of you wondering, i did not break out the snow pants)

a little overkill?, um, yes. just a little bit. but better too warm & dry than cold, sad & wet, i say.

we head towards this enormous silver ball, which turns out is the planetarium of the explore@bristol. had no idea this kid fun zone was thisclose. it's kinda like kidspace in pasadena but we go there tomorrow so let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

i have a rudiementary map that was drawn up by some 15th century pirate, mostly just dots, dashes, lines & "x"s. so we blindly set off & i only pray that i have enough brain cells to retain memory of where we are actually staying.

we cross over pero's bridge, which joe refers to as "the bridge with the shrek ears" & head into city centre. near the tesco express, i meet troy, a bristol university student who lives over on whiteladies road, which joe thinks is "code" for something.

not getting much of a kid vibe near the tesco express (the brit equiv of our AM/PM or 7-11), i turn us around & head in the other direction.

we pass the bristol cathedral, college green & troy's place of education, bristol university. still raining but nothing that seems to faze either myself or the peanuts too much.

it is getting close to lunchtime & i am thinking, i forgot to eat breakfast this morning so we'd better get home before i pass out.

i am able to successfully navigate us home (surprise, surprise) as well as pass off last night's leftovers as lunch which my children literally gobble up.

with full tummies all around, i figure now is the time to suggest a nap. for everyone. i envision everyone piled in my bed, with all their own pillows, blankets & lovies sleeping off jet lag peacefully.

then joe comes home early.

so much for everyone napping.