The Day I Stormed the Castle

Day Five- A Picture of Somewhere You've Been

I love big cities, old buildings, and places that tell a story. I always talk about making it to Hawaii one day, but in truth, touring around Europe would be more of a paradise to me. I got just a taste of it when I joined my sister Kelly on her Senior Drama trip to London. Our drama teacher took a group to NY every year, and to London every 4 years. The London trip happened my Freshman year and my parents said I could go my Senior year. London was not an option for me, but I happily went to NY. Kelly's Senior year was a London year so she could have gone to either, and she chose London. I was married, but I had to take advantage of the student prices and accompany her.

We spent a week in London and wished that we lived there. We saw it all, and it was all fabulous. Then we spent 3 days in Stratford upon Avon, because what kind of drama people would we be if we didn't show a little Shakespeare love? On our way to Stratford, we stopped at Warwick castle and that was one of our very favorite days.

This is one of the smaller buildings on the castle grounds. Please excuse the janky pictures. I didn't even own a camera back then and took a disposable one.

We climbed to the top of this tower and I was so scared. The stairs are so narrow and should be climbed single file, but three of us went up arm in arm whimpering all the way.

We had a blast running around the castle grounds all day. I am so intrigued by old places and my imagination could run wild in Warwick. I spent the day laughing it up with these two.

We spent most of the trip with Kelly's classmate Gary, and we were all BFF's by the end of the trip.

Here is a funny story from our day at Warwick. In one room we decided that it would be funny to go pose with the fake butler in the middle of the room. There was a rope around the room so I took it down and walked over to pose with my wax friend. Loud sirens sounded and lights started flashing, all over the castle. Kelly and Gary made a run for it. I had to reattach the rope and by then another group of people came into the room and were laughing at me. I didn't even have my cohorts with me so I must have looked like a real fool. I ran to catch up with Kelly and Gary. I dragged them back into the room and we opened the rope again, only this time Kelly just quickly posed on the bed, rope still in hand, while I snapped a picture. I had to get a shot to remind us of the day we got caught storming the castle. Luckily no sirens went off and we ran out of the castle laughing our heads off. We were shaking for about an hour though. We were afraid they might throw me in the old torture chamber, or kick me out of the country. Wouldn't that have been humiliating if my old drama teacher had to send home one of her students, not a 17 year old current student, but a 25 year old previous student who had been trusted to help chaperone the kids. Anyway, I am aware that no one else probably finds that story funny. We told all our stories for days after we came home and usually we were telling them just for the sake of reminiscing because no one was listening to us, or laughing along.

But here is that picture anyway, and you can even see my butler friend behind the bed post.

That was such a great trip, and I desperately hope that I will be able to go back one day, and drag Seth and the kidlets along. But for now, since our kids are little, we have our sights set on Disneyworld or a Disney cruise at the end of 2012, but which one to choose? Oh, and we're hoping to convince one grandparent to join us, so speak now if you'd like to be in the running.