We’ve had a wonderful time on the first few days of our UK vacation.  Our 11-hour flight from San Francisco was half empty, so we had a bulkhead row to ourselves. Claire hit all the superlatives: cute as a teddy bear, quiet as a church mouse, and slept like a bear in winter.

We whizzed through customs at Heathrow and ran into our first real problem at the rental car desk.  Turns out the car we had reserved, an inexpensive economy wagon chosen to help offset the feeble dollar, was two-sizes too small to fit our baggage which included three duffel bags of Claire’s things (two massive and one that was merely large), an infant seat / stroller / base, a diaper bag, and a small bag each for Katherine and me.  The Hertz agent patiently explained to his groggy customers that there was no way our heap of bags (Mt. Claire?) would fit into the car we ordered.  Fortunately, he gave us a deal on an upgrade to a bigger wagon and we ended up with stylish and sporty all-wheel drive turbo diesel German station wagon.

My cousins Anne and Peter Storey were incredibly generous, turning over half the rooms in their house to Claire and her things, feeding the three of us, and exhibiting great patience with the most feared monster in Great Britain since Nessie the Loch Ness Monster:  Jetlag Baby.  They even took us on a few tours including to Hampstead Heath.

Saturday night we caught up with our friends Sean and Jessica, and met their daughter Honor, over some of London’s legendary Indian food. Sunday morning we drove by the house my Dad grew up in (see photo in slideshow), then stopped off in Oxford to see my old traveling pal Peter Coombe, his wife Nikki, and their energetic trio of sons Rufus, Noah and Elliot.  We walked through Oxford and had lunch on the Christ Church college lawn with an ice cream stop for the kids.

After a quick drive up to the North of England, we’re now safely ensconced in our little cottage in the tiny village of Braithwaite in the northern part of the Lake District.  We’re looking forward to a relaxing week!

Click on the photo below for a slideshow with some photographs from us and Peter & Anne.