Photos from my trip!

Finally- I downloaded my pictures to the computer- and on to Snapfish- and am now pulling them into the blog for your viewing pleasure! These first pictures are from our first full day in England. We went to a place called the Isle of Wight. It was a hover craft ride over from the "mainland". The hovercraft is shown below although not blown up sadly. They only get all of that going once everyone is aboard. It only took us about 10 minutes to get across to the Isle of Wight. That was pretty cool. Also, it took the waves pretty smoothly and we didn't really bounce even though the water was pretty choppy.

The next photos are from the Osbourne House. This was the main reason we went over to the Isle of Wight. The Osbourne House was a vacation home for Queen Victoria and her family. (One husband and NINE children.) If I remember correctly, Queen Victoria is like the great, great grandmother of the current queen. Here's me at the fountain in the garden at Osbourne House.


This next photo is looking up at the Osbourne House. We took the tour of the home, but couldn't take any photos inside. It's now a Historical site owned by the English Heritage group. We paid for a 2 week pass that helped us get into other sites either 1/2 price or "free". The outside of the home and the gardens were so beautiful.



These next two shots are of me with my vacation buddies! Zonia is posed with me here...

and this is KT...

We had our first cream tea at the Osbourne House. A cream tea consists of a scone served with clotted cream, jam and this one had fresh strawberries. We had hot chocolate instead of tea. I also ordered a Victoria Sponge- which is a layered sponge cake with cream and jam in-between the layers. Yum! This pretty room we are in is actually a part of the Osbourne House. There were other buildings on the campus, however, we stayed and toured the main building and grounds.

Here are some more pictures of the grounds...
The one below was the view from the gardens. I think that a lot of the rooms faced out over the gardens. The gardens were in the back of the home and the view would have been spectacular from the rooms. (We never got close enough to the windows in the house to verify this. All of the rooms were staged and you couldn't pass the ropes...



Later that evening we ate fish and chips at a place called the "Cod Father". I had a cute picture of the sign, but the blog isn't cooperating so you'll just have to trust me! I don't really like fish or seafood for that matter. But, I decided that I was on a vacation and there to try new things. So, I got brave, threw a little vinegar on my chips and actually had a few bites of battered and deep-fat fried cod. (Bones, skins and whatever else.) Yeah, I know, I'm pretty brave! I am not an expert on fish, but KT said that it was a bit dry. I'll take her word for it!

More photos to come!