Just Around the Corner

Exploring our first public footpath the day we arrived.

Wow! I get to write a paragraph all by myself about England! So many things to write about…   I could write an expository essay on driving on the left side of the road, but then again maybe such an interesting topic should be left to an engineer who could tell you the science of everything you didn’t know you needed to know about this totally new concept of driving. Also, I haven’t driven on the left side of the road (yet), so maybe I should talk about something I AM an expert on, like maybe walking!

Well, in England there many places to walk. When I say “many” I am really just referring to two. Namely, sidewalks and public footpaths. Sidewalks are very interesting. They are long, thin strips of concrete that are next to roads. The idea is that you walk on them so you won't get smashed by the oncoming traffic (as opposed to walking on roads).

The “public footpaths” that I mentioned are practically magical creations that seem to create a “middle of nowhere” feel, when you are really in the heart of the city. Basically, these narrow, dirt paths bring the English countryside into the center of the city. Some public footpaths though really are in the middle of nowhere. In fact, you can find public footpaths just about anywhere. I have been on public footpaths up to cliffs, through cow pastures (avoid the cow pies), through sheep pastures (likewise), through random fields, and in forests that I didn’t even know existed until I went on the path. In fact I am still not sure those forests do exist. There were buildings on every side when you looked from the outside! Plus they have an abundant supply of plants that aren’t even supposed to exist in the wild. There are endless fields of wildflowers that you would think only existed in Disney films. There are also so many blackberries that it makes you wonder why anyone who lives here would buy them for 3 pounds. I swear these public footpaths are sometimes` portals to another world!

Check out a few of the photos we've taken from our walks below.

The author of the post on the edge of a bluff in the Peak District.

Enjoying the wild blackberries.  It looks like Jeremy found a sour one.

       The beautiful English countryside.

This sure is higher than the top bunk.  Looking over the cliff on a walk in the Peak District above Sheffield.

Some wildflowers we found in an open field.

Contributed by Jeremy.

Across the Pond

When Jeremy (now 13) was a pre-schooler, he looked out his grandparent's window and saw the water beyond.  He turned to grandpa and asked, "Is that a pond?".  Grandpa said it was and suggested that we call it "Jeremy's pond."  And so, when we visited Grandma and Grandpa's house we would enjoy Jeremy's pond.  While he played a bit around the edges of Jeremy's pond, Jeremy never saw much of it until we traveled across it to Hawaii for a family vacation.  Yes, most of you probably know "Jeremy's pond" as the "Pacific Ocean."

While the family still hasn't made it all the way across Jeremy's Pond, we are excited to take a hop, skip, and a jump across "the pond" to spend 5 months in England.  I have a one semester sabbatical from my position at the University of South Florida.  With the help of a Fulbright award, we are off to the Univesity of Sheffield to work with the Neil Hopkinson and his great associates working on Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing).

So here I am now with my beautiful wife Rachel and our five great children, Sarah (16), Allison (14), Jeremy (13), Janean (11), and Brad (7) trying to remember to drive on the left side of the road.  We look forward to sharing some of our adventures with you through our blog.  Check back as we get lost, make friends, and explore the lands of many of our ancestors.  

Our Magic Number

See those smiles?  That is the relief of parting with 349.9 lb of checked luggage.  

Fifty was the magic number of our preparations, as in fifty pounds--the maximum weight for a checked bag before the baggage fees move into the realm of extortion.  With seven members of the family, we allotted each a backpack, a carry-on bag, and a single suitcase.  Every decision about what to bring came down to whether it could fit within these limits.

Fortunately, we found a little pocket-sized scale for weighing our luggage.  We must of weighed and re-weighed our bags dozens of times as we shifted things from one bag to another.  In the end, we decided that we probably would need more pairs of gloves than short pants (trousers).  Some things that made the cut:  a box of Kinex for Brad, cans of pumpkin and frozen cranberries for Thanksgiving, and a trombone mouthpiece.  In the end, I watched with satisfaction as each bag was weighed and we saw 50.0, 50.0, 49.8, 49.6, 50.0, 50.4--wait that rounds down to 50 right?