Driving to England

Cole needed to head to the University of Warwick (pronounced "War-Ick") to give a presentation and work with some professors there. After our last adventure driving in the UK, a sane person would refuse to do it again. Not us! We thought, hey, why don't we throw 3 kids in the back seat of a car and drive 6 hours south to England on the wrong side of the road?!?! I used to think we were smart people. Now, I'm not so sure. It was significantly cheaper to rent a car with 3 car seats and GPS than it was to pay for the 3 train tickets. Plus, once in Coventry, we wanted to be able to see some of the sights. We were told that we'd probably want a car to do this. 

So, we rented a car. I got to drive again. This time, I went to the rental place by myself rather than with 4 extra people in tow. Right before it was time to leave, I got rather nervous and we tried to find out if we could get out of the rental. No such luck. It was a bit of an adventure getting to the car rental place. I just missed the one bus that goes there from our flat. The next one wasn't coming for 30 minutes. So, I walked and ran to Princes St. to get the next bus. But, that one was delayed. So, I went to Starbucks (big sacrifice, right?!?!) and asked for a latte and directions. As I left Starbucks, the bus I needed drove by! So, I walked the rest of the way. 

After getting to the car rental place, nobody could help me with the car seats. The cars and car seats are a bit different in the UK. The seat belts don't lock like I thought they should, and the latch system is different. After getting rather frustrated, I tried to get out of the rental with no luck. I just had to calm down and suck it up. I got the car, and drove back to the flat with no problems. We got some lunch and crammed ourselves in the car. The drive was long, and the kids were a bit grumpy about being stuck in the car for 6 hours. Claire had to scream herself to sleep and Dani was really upset that she didn't have a paci-puppy to help her take a nap. We only had to stop once, and we actually made it there in 6 hours. Pretty good time!

The university provided a flat for us. We were pretty excited when we saw it! It has 2 floors, which the kids LOVE. There are 2 bedrooms upstairs with a double bed and a twin bed. Downstairs there is a sitting area, a table with 6 chairs, and a good sized kitchen. Plus, there's another room that has a chalk board around 2 of the walls. There's also plenty of chalk and another twin bed. Katie immediately claimed this as "the COOLEST room ever!" Now, when we get back to Florida, I think I'll have to put some black board paint up in her room! It looks like we're off to a good start in our English adventure!


And, yes, it is Father's Day! We basically celebrated the day before. The girls picked out some running shirts, shorts, and socks at a UK running store named "Run 4 It." Cole also got a new iPad to play with!