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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Brief note on my last month - vacation and fun with family in the U.K.

My family arrived to spend three weeks with me in the UK on the 30th of September. We had a great time travelling across thousands of miles of England, visiting over 10 destinations. We even saw a bit of Scotland. It was three weeks well spent. I returned to my duty on the 18th, but my family stayed with me in Blackpool for a further two days, enjoying the local attractions and going on a spree of shopping. When I finally left them at Manchester airport on the morning of the 21st, it was a bitter-sweet parting. My return to work had already effected a few days earlier, but on those last two days, my heart had been with my dear wife and daughters. When I returned to work on the 21st, I plunged myself again into my work, and it has been over a week now. 

Where did we go? We visited Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge, Castle Comb, London, Cambridge, York, Durham, Edinburgh, Ambleside, Windermere and finally, Blackpool. We also made day trips to Liverpool and my family went to Manchester as well. We also visited Preston to see the Birds of Prey Sanctuary at Turbary Woods and Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Vindalonda Village while we were en route to Edinburgh. Finally, we did a day-long bus trip to the Scottish Highlands to reach the southern end of Loch Ness. A really fantastic schedule - and it all went off without any major hitch. 

There were a few minor issues, though. At Bath, while checking out, I fell down a flight of steps, my large bag following me down the steps and staying just short of landing atop my head. My back took a beating, though, and even as I write this, I still get the odd jolt of pain down the spine. The other setback was that I had a minor scratch on a rented car ... and had to pay some damages to the rental company. Other than these two incidents, a great time was had by us all. 

To read more about this phenomenal trip, do await the link backs from my travel blog. Thank you for your patience. 

To see a few snapshots from the long vacation, do visit this link.