Weekend with the Students---Bath

 The next day of our trip we spent on a tour of Bath. Here at the Crescent, we have fabulously expensive homes in this crescent-shaped building. The guide helpfully pointed out places where Jane Austen characters had their escapades, but unfortunately I didn't hear most of them. :) Today I tried to have an attitude adjustment after Mark pointed out that perhaps I was having a pity party the night before. I may congratulate myself when I am an empty-nester with a grown-ups only repeat of this trip, in which I will go on tours and hear it all. So. I gave up on hearing anything and just concentrated on having fun while trying to keep the little ones entertained.

 The group walked down hill a ways to this....______ Circus. I didn't catch the name of it, but the kids and I found this great ring of gigantic trees in the middle of it. We had fun running around until Marky fell and hit his head on the one piece of concrete in the whole thing. He is standing on it in the picture above. Boy the sound of screaming toddler sure rings out loud and clear in a circus. Hahaha.

 This is what happens when you tell these two that you want to take a picture that looks like they love each other.

 I'm telling you, those trees were huge!

 I do not know the significance of this building, except that it was extremely helpful to ask a fussing Marky, "See that lady? How did she get up there? Do you think she used a ladder, or did she jump down from the roof?" Marky spent the next five minutes at least in wonder, repeating, "How did she get up there?" He was stuck on that question until we got down to the river (Avon, again) and wanted to know if he could go in the river. When I said no, but look at the ducks swimming! He asked in all seriousness, "Please can I be a duck?"

 We were fortunate enough to tour the Roman baths complex that has been excavated here. Even without the benefit of the audio guide, it's pretty amazing--they had a whole temple for Sulis Minerva (Athena) and everything.

 I enjoy watching Mark explain things to the kids. I think this is where he's trying to tell them how the hot water comes up from the ground.

 Joel found this man demonstrating Roman armor. Joel watched and asked questions for several minutes.

 At the end of the tour, visitors are invited to drink the water as so many have done for health over the years. Blech! Warm (duh) and quite flavorful...in a negative way.

The highlight of our day family-wise was Royal Victoria Park and playground, which is gigantic and delightful. It's full of equipment I don't think one would find in the States, mostly because you could hurt yourself! Look at this tube slide! This playground had all kinds of playsets for all ages--even teenagers were here having fun. This playground time stands out in the kids' minds as the best part of the whole weekend. Yes, we could have gone out to the shops or toured Bath Abbey; but taking the munchkins here was definitely the right choice for us on this trip.