Day 10 (7/7/16)

We started the day looking at a house to rent.  The kids loved running around the garden (aka backyard).  They were deciding who got what room, even though we haven't made a decision on it. This house was our favorite of the ones we had seen online and we were happy with what we saw in person.  So, we headed back to the hotel, got our documents, and went to letting office to put in an application for the house.

We had lunch in the Barbican and checked out the Mayflower monument which commemorates the launch of the Mayflower.  We got some ice cream and walked around looking at the different shops. We found the Plymouth Distillery where they make Plymouth Gin. We will tour it another day without the kids.

We looked at another house in the afternoon.  The kids and us were much less excited about the 2nd house.  Keeping our fingers crossed we get the one from this morning.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  I ordered the chicken, bacon, avocado salad.  I keep forgetting that bacon isn't like bacon in the states, but beyond that it was seriously lacking as a salad in my opinion.

I'm not sure how 2 pieces of lettuce qualify as a salad.  Although I was happy with the quanity of avocado.  (I have ordered other salads here and at other restaurants since then that were true salads.)

Day 9 (7/6/16)

Ron headed up to Croughton AFB with all the other new members to take care of some paperwork, getting an APO address, setting up a bank account for his paychecks to go into, and getting his international driver's license.  Note: This bank account is only a clearing account to get Ron's paycheck over here into Pounds (£). We still have to get a local account, so all my posts relating bank experiences are to get a local account.
Anyone interested in our APO address, which doesn't require any additional postage than mail within the states, send me a PM on FB and I will give it to you.

The weather is beautiful today, so the kids and I decided to walk to Crownhill Fort which is only a mile from our hotel (Yes, we picked something close, so mom didn't have to drive).  Unfortunately, when we got there we found out it isn't always open to the public.  We will have to make a return trip to see inside.  There was a trail around the perimeter that we walked.  The kids enjoyed walking in the woods seeing the holes in the walls where the old cannons used to set.

While our food adventures have been fun, sometimes it is nice to have something familiar, so for lunch we ate at McDonald's.  For dinner we dined in the hotel restaurant.

Day 8 (7/5/16)

We spent the better part of the day in an 'In Doc' (Indoctrination) meeting.  We got to meet the other new members and families that are stationed here in Plymouth with us for the next 3 years.  We also got information about the services available on base, Ron's training schedule for the next 3 months, and a brief overview of the Royal Navy.
Lunch was provided and I had my first Pasty.  They are a big deal here and Devon (the county Plymouth is in) is credited for creating them....although there is debate as to whether they were originally created in Devon or neighboring Cornwall.  The best way to describe it is a hand-held meat and potato pot pie.  The ones we had at the meeting were beef, but in town there are many different varieties offered at local shops even vegetarian.

After the meeting was concluded and Ron changed out of his uniform we headed out to take the kids to a park.  Ron made me drive, even though I didn't want to given my incident from the day before.  I got us to the park without incident, but I hated every minute of it.  I have no confidence, especially being in an unfamiliar place.  It is so overwhelming considering I am on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car.  Then you add the fact that the streets are narrow especially when there are cars parked along the kerb (yes that is how it is spelled here, not curb).  And to complicate it even more, you don't have to park facing the direction of the traffic flow.  So, sometimes you are heading down the proper side of the street and the parked cars on your side are facing you, causing you to question whether you are on the correct side or not.  Ugh!! I better start looking into bus passes.

The highlight of our day was dinner.  We decided to try a pizza place called 'The Stable' that had been recommended to us by several different people.

It is a seat yourself restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and is located in the quaint Barbican section of town.  We headed for the upstairs, outdoor seating, but without sweaters we got chilly pretty quickly so we moved inside still upstairs.

There is a bar both upstairs (seen here) and downstairs.  I assume
during busier times both are open.

Ciders are very popular here, much more so than beer and they
had quite a selection.

There are menus on the table for you to look over and decide what you want to eat and drink, then you head to the counter to order.  They give you a number and deliver the food to your table once it is ready.  All the pizzas are individual sizes, so everyone gets to have what they want.....no compromises necessary.  I chose the Margherita pizza, a simple cheese pizza with basil.

Each pizza arrives on it's own pizza board with a pizza cutter.  The crust is a thin cracker style crust with a good crisp to it.  The pizza was delicious.  I just wish it had more basil on it.

Ron ordered the Barbican Blaster, which is spicy chopped pork, Naga chillies, garlic, red onion, basil leaves, field mushrooms, fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella.  It looked amazing.

He wasn't familiar with Naga chilies when he ordered the pizza, but as a lover of spicy food he went for it.  About halfway through the pizza his mouth was on fire.  A quick google search revealed that it is one of the hottest chili peppers ever measured and in 2011 it was considered the hottest chili with a rating of 1,382,118 Scoville Heat Units. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_Viper_pepper). Even after learning that fact he was a trooper and finished the pizza.....although I think he probably regretted it the next morning.

It was absolutely delicious and we'll definitely be back. (My mouth has been watering just writing this post.)

Day 6 & 7 (7/3 & 7/4/16)

Day 6
We just hung out and had a lazy morning in the hotel.  Then we headed to Asda to pick-up some items.  We have to remember to bring our own bags.  They charge £0.15 here for plastic bags.  And to think I thought $0.05 in the US was bad.  After that we headed to Exeter to have an early 4th of July BBQ with some other Coastie & Navy families in the area.  The kids had a blast playing and the parents had a great time getting to know new friends.

Day 7
Of course, there is nothing happening here for Independence Day. Rightly so, since it is a day we celebrate in the US as a day we officially succeeded from the British government.

**Note: My goal is to keep the blog real.....so I am going to post this next part in order to adhere to that goal although I am embarrassed by it and would prefer to keep it to myself.

We returned the rental car today. That required both Ron and I to drive in separate cars until we reached the rental place.  On the way, I hit a parked car.  Yes, you read that right, a parked car.  I know I have always wondered how that is possible and now I know.  Because I am used to driving on the left side of the car and keeping a cushion on the right side, I still have the tendency to keep a cushion on the right instead of the left like I need to.  I was following Ron and some people started to cross the street in front of me, so I slowed down and drifted to the left, hitting a parked Land Rover.  I was totally mortified.  Ron saw it in his mirror and parked, while I pulled over at the closest spot possible.  Ron went and inspected the other vehicle and much to my relief there was no damage to it.  The only damage to our car was a scraped left side mirror where it rubbed the other vehicle as it folded in and the rim was scuffed from brushing against the wheel of the other vehicle.  It was really the best outcome for a bad situation.  Needless to say this didn't help my already existing insecurities about driving here.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Beefeater.  Ron and I both had the fish and chips which were really good.  We headed to the hotel to do some laundry while waiting for our house viewing appointment.  Unfortunately the letting agent had to cancel our appointment, so that will happen another day.  We had dinner downstairs at the Fishbone.  We tried the sticky toffee pudding for dessert.  It was really yummy.  It is a dark sponge cake with warm toffee sauce poured over it and served with either ice cream, custard, or cream, we opted for ice cream which was a great compliment to it.

Day 5 (7/2/16)

Unfortunately the day didn't start well for me, I woke up with headache. On a good note, we made an appointment to look at another house.  After a slow start, we headed out to lunch.  We had sushi at one of those place that uses a conveyor belt to move the sushi around to the tables.  The kids loved it.

Then it was time to head to the bank for our appointment to open a local account.  We had opened an HSBC account in the states to make the transition to HSBC abroad easier.  That didn't work out as planned.  Upon arriving at the HSBC here, we were told we couldn't open an account until we could provide them with a lease with a local address.  So, that will have to wait until we find a house.  Now off to the cell phone store to get a local phone number to make contacting letting agents easier.  No local bank account = no cell phone account except a 'pay as you go' phone.  We got the smallest , no frills phone available and £10.00 of use. Isn't it cute?

Next stop, the car dealer to get our vehicle, so we can stop using the tiny Fiat.  We got a 2008 Vauxhall Astra. Thank goodness for a 4-door car, it is much easier with kids climbing in and out.

For dinner we went to Toby Carvery.  It is a buffet style restaurant, but much smaller than ones we have in the US. There are 4 kinds of meat to choose from, several vegetable options, and sauces/condiments.  We had Yorkshire pudding for the first time.  To eliminate any confusion, it doesn't resemble any kind of pudding we are used to.  It is more of a bread, although hollow in the middle.  I believe we were supposed to put gravy in it, but in our naivety we ate it like we would a biscuit with our meal. It was good.  Next time I will try it with gravy.

Yorkshire Pudding

The sundaes on the pudding menu looked amazing, so we had to have some.  They were delicious.

New words we learned:
Gammon = Ham
Take away = Take-out or to go meals
Lift = Elevator
Letting Agent = Real Estate Agent (Houses are up "to let", not "for rent")
Pudding = Typical means dessert, at least that is how the dessert portion of the menu is labeled
And you 'tic' the box, you don't 'check' the box.

Day 3 & 4 (6/30-7/1/16)

Day 3 was a slow day.  Laundry had to be done before we were streaking around the countryside.  I did drive twice today.  Once home from Asda, which is the UK version of Wal-Mart, but much smaller and a larger focus on groceries.  I also drove to dinner.  There are so many roundabouts and street signs.  The street signs are all symbols with no words, so it makes learning to drive very challenging.  Again, I curb-checked the car on the left side, this time in a roundabout.
Tipping wait staff here is very different than in the US.  We had read online that most waiter/waitress' don't expect tips as they make a good wage.  So, at dinner we inquired to make sure we weren't being rude.  We were told that most people just leave the change from their check.  So, if the bill is £36.75, you just leave £0.25. She said she has been left 2 pence before, as in 2 pennies.

Day 4 started with my first trip to a tea room. One of the local Coast Guard wives picked me up and took me to the Tudor Rose Tea Room in the Barbican.  The Barbican is an area that is very old world, complete with cobblestone streets.  I had my first fruit scone.  They are not like scones you get in the US, they look more like a biscuit, but they don't taste like them.  They are so yummy, especially with strawberry jam on it.

I met back up with the family at the hotel and we headed out for lunch.  We went to the Dartmoor Diner where I ordered bacon, egg, and chips from the breakfast menu. It proved to be a learning experience.  Bacon in the UK is nothing like bacon in the US. It is much thicker, so much so that there is no chance of it getting crispy.  It requires a fork and knife to eat it, but is salty like bacon. You don't get a choice of how you want your egg, it comes poached (although we have learned some places serve them sunny side up). And the fact that you get french fries for breakfast is funny to me.  Although when I think about it, it isn't much different than hashbrowns.

We looked at our first house today.  It was a cute house, on a cul-de-sac, with a decent backyard.  The kitchen had the washer/dryer combo machine, as well as the water heater and boiler.  While I had been looking for houses online and knew the rooms would be smaller than we are used to, I wasn't fully prepared for how much smaller they really were.  One of the bedrooms would barely fit a twin bed and a small dresser and that would just leave a path wide enough to walk.


On our drive back to the hotel, we saw free roaming sheep on the side of the road.  They were just eating the shrubs along the road. Most of the farms in the area don't use fences to keep their animals in but instead just use hedge rows. So sometimes the animals can just roam where they please, hence sheep in the road.

Fun fact: The Dartmoor Zoo, located here in Plymouth, was made famous from the book and movie 'We Bought a Zoo.'  (We will visit it sometime in the future.)

New words:
Boot Sale = Garage sale, but from the back of your car in a common, public area like a parking lot.
Garden = Backyard
Water Butt = Rain Barrel
Conservatory = Sunroom

Day 2 (6/29/16)

The UK weather is making sure we get properly acclimated.....today is the 2nd day of rain since we arrived. That being said, our first order of business is getting raincoats.  We got a recommendation for an outdoor store that has good prices, so armed with our little Fiat 500 and a GPS, we headed out.

Isn't it cute?!

Holy smokes there are soooooo many roundabouts, it is truly worse than Jersey with the jug-handles......never in my life did I think I would utter those words, but it is the truth.  We did fairly well navigating there, although we pulled into the wrong car park.  At this point Ron decided I needed to have a turn driving....I was less than excited.  I managed to get us successfully parked after a curb check and heading the wrong way down an aisle.
Now that we had the appropriate outerwear, we were off to lunch at 'The Roundabout' a pub-style eatery. There are no waiters/waitresses, you order your food from the bar, tell them what table you are sitting at, and then they deliver the food once it is ready. I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was delicious.  Unfortunately the sweet potato fries that came with it were over-cooked, but I was sufficiently full from the sandwich so it wasn't a big deal.

After lunch we test drove a couple of cars.  We found one to purchase, but would have to come back on the weekend with cash to buy it after our appointment with the bank.  Another area where things work differently here.  You can't just walk into a bank branch and open an account, you must make an appointment and the first appointment we could get was on Saturday.  So, the car purchase would have to wait until then.
We learned a lot of new words today especially related to cars......
Boot = Trunk                  Bonnet = Hood
Hire Car = Rental Car    Park Sensors = Back-up Sensors
Petrol = Gas                   Zebra Crossing = Crosswalk
Car Park = Parking Garage or Parking Lot
Quid = Pounds (It is slang like bucks is for dollars)

Day 1 (6/28/16)

After so many days on the road it was nice to sleep in and not worry about going anywhere.  Everyone slept in until 10:30 am.  This adventure is proving to be good for getting my kids to sleep-in. The kids both woke-up not feeling well.  Since neither of them ate a good dinner we just chalked it up to being hungry.  We all got ready and headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch.  I ordered a coffee and the waiter asked if I wanted black coffee, white coffee, or americano? Here is where I show my American ignorance....."What is white coffee?"  He kindly explained it is coffee with milk.  They don't put cream on the table, they pour your coffee and add milk, not cream, to it before they bring it to you. Sugar cubes are on the table for you to add to your coffee, but there are white cubes and brown cubes, cue ignorant question #2, what are the difference in the the sugar cubes.  The white is granulated sugar and the brown is brown sugar. Brown sugar is typically used in coffee and white in other things.  I have learned I prefer the brown sugar in mine with the milk as I was used to flavored cream back in the states.
Before our food arrived Lil Ron got sick.  We aren't sure if he got a bug from the plane or if all the traveling caught up with him.  Either way we were grateful that he didn't get sick during our travels.
The kids and I spent the rest of the day in the hotel room.  Ron ventured out in the rain and got a rental car.  He also went by the grocery store and picked up some staples and some pre-made salads for dinner.  While having a sick kid isn't ideal, it was a nice excuse to just hang out and relax for the day.

The Journey

Our journey started in Sacramento, CA where we boarded the Amtrak for New York with a train change in Chicago.  We had a family sleeper car for the journey.  This consisted of a couch that made into a bed and 2 beds that folded down from the wall at bunk bed height.

While it wasn't the most comfortable set-up, it worked.  There was also bathrooms close by, think airplane bathroom, and a shower similar to that of a camping trailer.  While on the train we got to see a lot of the beautiful landscape of this country that most traveling by car don't get to see.  My favorites were Utah and Colorado. While traveling through Colorado we saw eagles on 2 occasions.  The first time was a solo eagle in a tree.  The 2nd sighting the conductor had prepared us for viewing, there was an adult eagle with 2 eaglets that were perched on a branch as they were starting to get flying lessons.
Our journey was not without it's issues. First off the train started the trip running late and only got later and later as each day went by.  Typically they are able to make up time, but there was an issue with one of the engines and we were actually being pulled by a freight train engine.  I assumed all train engines could travel at the same speed, but apparently freight engines are slower than Amtrak engines. Who knew?!  The next part of our delay was because some guy was tired of riding the train and pulled the emergency brake in the middle of the desert.  He proceeded to get off the train and drag his luggage through the desert to the highway that was over a mile away.  We learned that it is a federal offense to pull the emergency brake when it isn't a true emergency.  We had a second emergency brake incident, this time the engineer pulled the brake because someone decided to play chicken with the train in their vehicle.  Luckily the vehicle moved in time otherwise it would have been a much bigger delay.
One of the cool things that happened on our way to Chicago was that we met a lady and her grandson who were also moving to England. They had come from Bellingham, WA where we had previously been stationed and will be living in Cornwall, which is the county next to where we are living. It is such a small world sometimes.
Our delayed schedule landed us in Chicago 10 hours late causing us to miss our connecting train to New York.  The Amtrak paid for our hotel in Chicago. We had to take 2 taxis to the hotel because we couldn't fit all of our luggage into one.

I fully expected a Motel 6 type of accommodation, but we stayed at the Swissotel and it was beautiful with great views. After returning to the train station and checking our bags, we had time to explore Chicago for a couple of hours.  We had authentic deep dish pizza at Giordano's, which one of our conductors had recommended.  Then we walked to Millennial Park and the kids played on one of the biggest playgrounds I have ever seen.
We headed back to the station and boarded our train to Washington DC.  There were so many of us that missed our connections the night before they added a whole train car to the train to accommodate us.  So, we knew most everyone who was in our sleeper car which was cool.  We got 2 rooms this time rather than the family sleeper, but it worked out fine.  In DC we switched to a commuter train to New York.  While that doesn't sound so bad, we had a considerable amount of luggage that we now had to load on and off the last train rather than check our larger bags.  I am sure we were quite the spectacle in Penn Station New York, but we made it.
We opted to take an Uber to our hotel instead of taxi that way we could make sure to have a vehicle large enough for all of our luggage.  We got to bed around 11:00 that night.  We were all so tired that we slept until 10 am. For those that don't know my kids, they are typically early risers no matter what time they go to bed, so it was quite the shock that they slept so long.
With only a few hours in New York we decided to head to the airport early.  After checking in our luggage we headed to the USO to hang out for a bit. Then dinner and boarded the plane to Dublin, Ireland.  The 5 hour flight wasn't bad, the kids slept a good part of it. The good thing we learned about international flights is that the alcohol is free. WooHoo! It was mid morning when we arrived in Dublin. With only 2 hours, we proceeded through customs and to our connecting terminal.
We boarded our purple plane, complete with purple lighting to head to Exeter, UK.
After our difficulty with the taxi in Chicago, we had pre-booked a taxi to make sure we had enough room for all the luggage pictured above.  Needless to say we probably should have gone up a size, but it all fit and we made it to our final destination Plymouth, UK.  We checked in to the hotel and headed to our room.  After we set all of your stuff down, we discovered we couldn't turn any lights on.  What we didn't realize is there is a cardholder near the door and in order for any electrical outlets, lights, and heaters to work, you have to put your room key into the holder.

Key holder, thermostat, and light switch

While it is a great way to save electricity when people leave the room, it means we can't leave any electronics plugged in to charge while we are out and about.
After a long day and a half of traveling, with little or no sleep we called it an early night.

Background

As most of you know, Ron was selected by the US Coast Guard to serve with the Royal Navy for the next 3 years and that is how it came to be that we are here now.  When we started this journey I hadn't planned on doing a blog, but once we arrived in England I thought it would be a better way to share our experiences than using Facebook.  While Facebook is nice, I wanted to be able to elaborate on our adventures and I didn't want a bunch of lengthy FB posts.  So, after some talking, Ron and I came up with '4 Yanks Abroad' as our blog name.  I will post about our travels getting here, but since I didn't have the blog plan when we were traveling, some of the information might be vague as there a number of sleep deprived days in there.  Also, writing has never been my strong suit, so bear with me as I work through this......hopefully the posts will improve as I write more.  I hope you enjoy following us as we experience living across the pond. Cheers!