Our Isle of Wight trip...

On 6th & 7th April, I took Mom and the kids away for an overnight trip to the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of mainland England. The IOW is my Grandma's birthplace and with a bit of detective work at the local records office in the town of Newport I was able to locate my Grandma's house in the town of Freshwater...how cool is that?

The pink & white cottages are both called "Emberly", we know she lived here but we're not sure if they were both one house at one time or separate homes. You can see the church at the end of the street and this is where she was baptized on 29 August 1920. A little bit of my history!

We were on an overnight trip and I was a bit concerned how we would keep the kids occupied for two days but I needn't have worried! The island is full of things to do from Roman ruins, 11th century churches, historic homes, castles, to zoo's, amusement parks, horse riding, etc. etc. As it turns out they didn't want to do any of that stuff, all they wanted to do was be on the beach playing in the sand and sea. Fantastic! While Mom and I would have loved to explore some of the sights, we did see tons on our drives around the island and it was wonderful to watch the kids spending hours playing in the sun and fresh air! The weather was great, just a bit hazy, but it turned out for the best otherwise we would have been fried I think! Our hotel was, ummmm, tourist class, but it was clean, had very friendly staff, and was an absolute bargain! It was just us and a bus load of seniors, hehe. It didn't matter though as we only put our heads down to sleep for one night and we were on the go for the rest of the time. Mom loved the trip and is so happy she got to see the island before we head back to Canada for good.

Now I will bore you silly with a pile of pictures...I only took 300 on this trip so be happy I'm only posting this many...mwah ha ha.

Our first stop heading to Freshwater, the kids loved seeing the sea!
The view from our cliff-side hotel
Looking back up at our hotel (the larger 3rd building from the left on the cliff)
Having an early dinner on our first day
Grandma and Mae tuck into some yummy mussels!!
The kids building castles on the beach
Working together!
Connor
Cameron
Maeghan
Delsin
Going back up to the hotel after fun on the beach...**pant pant**

I have tons more great pics, between my camera and my Mom's, so I'll do up an album and post the link...someday...hehe.

Laura :o)