Stratford-upon-Avon

This week we went to Stratford-upon-Avon to choke ourselves with all things Shakespeare. We saw and heard so many things about Shakespeare. The problem is that nobody knows very much about him, so a lot of "facts" were presented like "this may very well have been the book that he used..." etc. If you couldn't tell, I am Shakespeare'd out.

But lets start at the beginning. Our first stop we made was at Kenilworth Castle, where Queen Elizabeth's favorite Earl lived. It's all ruins now, but it was very cool. There were guides there that were dressed in costume and you could learn archery and the art of sword fighting.Lexy and Shelby took a lesson.



This is also the place where a fellow in my group dropped my camera. It broked--it broked good. This was the last picture.
I look threatening, but apparently no threatening enough. So, this was also the place where I split off from everyone and wandered around by myself without a camera to mourn my loss and to keep from punching people physically and emotionally. But Shelby took some lovely pictures.


Next we stopped at Mary Arden's Farm (Shakespeare's mother)and Anne Hathaway's Cottage (Shakespeare's wife). At the farm, the had a bunch of owls and they did a little bird show type thing. They lady who showed us the birds just happened to be Mormon. She told us that after the show and it was like she said a secret code and was admitted into the clubhouse. People in the group were so excited and they were shaking her hand and basically acting like she was a celebrity.

Anyway, the grounds and gardens in both of these places are amazing. I needed a little more alone time to cope with my camera loss, so I wandered around here in a slow, peaceful way, just soaking it all in. It was glorious.

I've had this post saved forever and now I'm just going to post it even though it's not quite finished nor does it have enough pictures. I've been reluctant to post since my camera broke. Yes, I am that big of a baby, thank you.