From New York to Old York……

We have  arrived in York, one of the oldest cities in Europe. York is a beautiful walled city with small cobblestone streets and alley ways full of shops, eaterys and pubs! Towering over the city is the York Minster, which is just an amazing gothic church. We attended an evening ‘Evensong’ service our first night, just an unreal experience to be there in such a historic building hearing the prayers sung by an all male choir.

The next day we boarded the train for a 20 minute ride to Malton. We hailed down a taxi and traveled to Castle Howard. About 10  minutes into the countryside, this mansion is beyond belief! It is 300 years old and is HUGE and screams of RICH.

After arriving back into the city, walking through the open market, stopping for some roasted chestnuts, we headed to the ‘Punch Bowl Pub’ for some tasty meat pies, ale and hot mulled wine.

Today we are checking out the local attractions in York. York Minster, Clifford’s Tower, Fairfax House and numerous shops and festivals. Tomorrow we board the train and head north to Edinburgh, Scotland. It is getting colder and the days are getting much shorter the farther north we go.

Robin & Bear

York Minster

York Minster Tower at Night

Streets of York

Castle Howard

Interior of Castle Howard

Waiting in the fog in Malton, for the train back to York…..

A relaxing country drive to visit two castles.....

We took a nice relaxing drive out in the english countryside to visit two excellent examples of castles, Leeds and Bodium Castles.

Bear


Our Wheels


Leeds Castle


Front entrance of Leeds Castle


Bodium Castle

So this is a vacation......

Well we finally made it to the United Kingdom and we are having a ball. At some point it will hit us and we will sleep for 24 hrs, but until then we are just sticking to our insane schedule! No one to blame but myself for that. There is alot here to see in just 2 weeks...... Anyways, here are some photo's from Days 1-3 (London) and Day 4, our first day traveling the countryside where we visited Stonehenge and then a very rainy visit to the south shore to walk the pier in Brighton. Today we are going to visit some castles in the southeast countryside and tomorrow we board the train for York.

Bear


Harrods


Big Ben


London Eye


Tower of London


Tower Bridge


Christmas Market in Hyde Park


Tea at Kensington Palace


Piccadilly Circus at Night


Stonehenge


Brighton Pier

2009 First Snowfall………..October 16th!

Well it was a very short summer where the average mean temperature was a balmy 67 ºF and we only experienced 1 day above 90ºF  Now Old Man Winter has decided to get a early start. This morning we woke to a fresh blanket of snow. It’s going to be a long winter

It’s Marshmallow Harvesting Time in New York State

If you have the hot cocoa , we have the Marshmallows up here in New York State. This years crop looks good!!

Wamba Jamba Jam 2009

The weather started out the day looking like a monsoon but at high noon the skies cleared and the sun shined as the 20th Anniversary of Wamba Jamba Jam went in the record books as another classic!

     

A Little Squirreling Around

 

Courtesy of Melissa Brandts

Minnesota residents Melissa Brandts and her husband, Jackson, set up their camera with a timer to take a picture of them by Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park in Canada when nature intervened.

"We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intrigued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot," Melissa Brandts writes. "It was a once in a lifetime moment -- we were laughing about this little guy for days!"