Day 25 (7/22/16)

Not a good start to the day. We had another sick kiddo. This time it was Annette's turn for the flu. Crossing my fingers that the grown-ups avoid it.  So we are in for a relaxed day in the hotel room.
Ron told me he had a dream that the landlady called and said she got the wire, so we could have the keys. It is odd because of the 2 of us, I am the one who remembers my dreams, he almost never remembers his dreams. It is supposed to be 4 more days until the wire goes through according to the bank. Around 11:30 am he gets an email from the landlady, she got the money and wants to know when we want the keys.  So Bizarre! But we are grateful for making progress.

Ron headed out to see if he could get some Pepto Bismol for Annette.  The pharmacys here are nothing like those in the states.  Items we get over the counter in America you can not get here. So he had to talk to the chemist (aka pharmacist). They then inquire why you are requesting the specific item and then determine if you need it or another product.  Unfortunately, they determined she couldn't have Pepto Bismol and gave him re-hydration powder.  Of course, that isn't what we needed, we needed something to settle her stomach. (We will be picking up Pepto Bismol when we visit the commissary to have on hand for times like this.)  He picked up Subway for lunch and brought it back to the room.  Then he and Lil Ron headed to the house to pick-up the keys from the landlady.  Now we have to wait to hear from the shipping company for a delivery date of our stuff.

For dinner we had KFC. Not an exciting day or a new experience, but sometimes you need some comforts from home and right now that comes in the form of familiar fast food places.  The good news is that Annette started feeling better and ate some popcorn chicken.

Day 24 (7/21/16)

We started off the day at the bank. We are going to see if they will start the account process with electronic copies and finalize it when we get the originals in the post (aka mail).  They agreed!! Woo Hoo! One step in the right directions. So after an hour and 15 minutes at the bank we completed as much as possible until the original documents arrive. So happy to finally make some progress.

Wish my nails were always this long. One of the benefits
of hotel living, no housework to break them. :)

Then Annette and I headed to a friend's house for girls day which included lunch and doing our nails with Jamberry wraps.  If you haven't heard of them or tried them I recommend them.  They are a heat activated nail vinyl that lasts much better than traditional polish and is much less damaging than acrylics. It was fun and relaxing.

For dinner we ate at The Jack Rabbit. I had the slow-cooked ham hock with spring onion mash and peas. It was delicious. I will definitely order it again. Although once we get into our house it will be awhile before we eat out again. We are ready for some home cooked meals.

Day 22 & 23 (7/19 & 7/20/16)

Day 22
We spent a lazy day at the hotel.  We did laundry and finally were able to initiate the wire transfer to the landlady, although it won't be complete until 7/26. Nothing has been easy to get done, but we are slowly making progress.
We had a late lunch at Wildwood.  The baked spaghetti carbonara was delicious!

Day 23
After breakfast we headed to the Dartmoor Zoological Park (DZP) made famous by the book and movie "We Bought a Zoo." It is located on the edge of a little village and backs up to the Dartmoor National Park.  I had not seen the movie nor read the book before going, so I didn't have any expectations.

View from the front of the restaurant within the zoo

From the entrance you walk up a hill along several enclosures.  There are informational signs along the way that give animal facts in relation to the distance you have walked.  The first sign tells you that from the entrance to the sign is the length of a blue whale.  It is great because it translates an obscure number into something visually tangible.

Most of the enclosures had informational signs about the animals. The first animal we saw up close was the greater rhea, we thought it was an emu at first. There was a young rhea that came right up to the fence. It was really cool and we all loved it.

We continued through the park and saw wallabys, zebras & bears. One of the bears, a Siberian brown bear named Fudge is one of the original animals at the zoo having been there over 30 years.

As you walk around you can see that they are continually working to improve and upgrade the animal enclosures.  Recently, they successfully integrated the lion with the lioness after a year of getting them acquainted and comfortable with each other.  They even have a program currently running where kids between the ages of 6 and 12 can submit a enclosure design for a new animal. 5 kids will be selected to serve as Young Ambassadors for the next year to help with the new enclosure and other areas in the zoo.  Annette is entering. I am excited to see if she is selected.

The tigers were not visible during our visit as they were laying on the backside of a wooden structure in their enclosure. We also weren't able to see the lynx as it escaped about a week and a half earlier and they hadn't caught it at the time of our visit. With the size of the Dartmoor National Park they haven't been successful in their search.  (Note as of 7/31/16 the lynx had been found and returned to the park.) We did see some Iberian wolves. They were riled up as there was a free roaming peacock near their enclosure.

At the otter enclosure we saw the otters calling for food and also witnessed their feeding. They are very chatty animals which isn't typical, but being hand-reared they don't adhere to the typical animal behavior.

There was an area where Mr. Pickles, a deer, roams free and you can enter and pet him. Within the area is also another enclosure you can enter and pet some goats.

The kids with Mr. Pickles

It is a very rustic zoo, nothing like the San Diego or Philadelphia Zoos, but it is evident that the staff and volunteers genuinely care for and love the animals.

We couldn't believe how large this leaf was.

Note: Since visiting, we have read the book and watched the movie.  I will say that while the movie is entertaining, it does not follow the book at all. The book gives you much more information about the hardship they endured in buying the zoo and all the work it took to get it up and running.

For dinner we ordered Chinese takeaway (aka take-out). It was delicious!

Day 21 (7/18/16)

We decided to visit our 1st castle or what is left of it.  We are taking advantage of the English Heritage Pass that Ron purchased prior to our visit to Stonehenge.  It gives us free admission to over 400 heritage sites in the country.  I highly recommend it to anyone who plans an extended visit or who plans to see a lot of historical sites during their visit.

Thank goodness Ron was driving.  The road we took to get there was super narrow and would have made me extremely anxious had I been driving.  I was pretty anxious just as the passenger.

One lane road with hedgerows on both sides. Notice there is no
where to pull over if another vehicle is coming from the other direction.

We went to the Berry Pomeroy Castle. It was built in the 15th century and is believed to be one of the most haunted castles in Britain. By the late 17th century the castle was abandoned. The audio tour provides great descriptions and history of the remaining ruins allowing you to imagine the grandeur that once existed. The fact that a painting on the wall in the chapel is still visible was very impressive.

The view as you come up to the castle

Inside one of the watch towers guarding the entrance

The loo inside another watch tower.
Glad I wasn't alive then.

The outer wall of the house

The painting that is still visible inside the chapel (I wish had a
better picture, my cell phone doesn't do it justice.)

In the garden with the south range kitchen behind them.

Day 20 (7/17/16)

Today we had lunch at a place called Frankie & Benny's. It is an Italian restaurant.  Ron and I shared a mac & cheese calzone and an ABC salad.  The calzone was filled with macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, and BBQ sauce. The filling was delicious, we just wished the calzone had been baked a little longer so that the crust was more crispy.  The salad was an Avocado, Bacon, and Chicken salad.  I didn't take a picture, but it was assembled like a traditional salad. The bacon was streaky bacon (similar to American bacon), but wasn't crispy.  Overall, it was good and I would order it again.

Afterward we headed to a shopping area near our new home called The Broadway. Unfortunately many of the shops were closed since it was Sunday.  We looked around the British Red Cross thrift shop.  I found some wine glasses and champagne flutes that were pretty and unique, so we purchased them along with a wooden mallet Ron found to use for wood working.

Then we headed to a park where we kicked around a football (aka soccer ball) and the kids played on the playground equipment. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed being outside.  I did all the driving for the day and without incident! I am comfortable on the 2 lane roads, I just get panicked on the narrow roads where it isn't wide enough for 2 cars, or where people are parked on the street not leaving room for 2 cars.

Day 19 (7/16/16)

Woke with a bad headache again. Hung out in the room for awhile.  It got a little better, so we headed out to go by the bank to open an account since we have a signed lease.  At the bank they tell us since the lease is from an individual and not a letting agent it won't work.  We have to get a letter from Ron's employer to verify our address and how long we will be in the UK. It is so frustrating that no one mentioned that before, but there is nothing we can do to change it. Ron said , "it doesn't happen like this in the movies. Wire transfers are done within 30 minutes to save the kidnapped kid's life and foreign accounts are acquired without any effort."

For lunch Annette and I had pasties. She had a cheese and bacon (aka ham) and I had pork (aka sausage) and apples.  Annette's was like a ham and cheese melt with potatoes.  I liked hers better than mine as mine didn't have any apple flavour so it was just sausage and potatoes.  Ron had 2 sausage rolls, which are just sausages wrapped in pastry dough similar to a pretzel dog.  Lil Ron had an egg salad sandwich as he isn't a fan of the pasty.  We sat outside in a green area and listened to a street artist sing.

View from friend's house at 9:30 pm

Mid afternoon we headed to a fellow Coast Guard wives house and had a potluck/party with some of the local CG families as well as some of her British friends.  It
was a a great time of mingling and visiting.  When we left at 9:30 pm the sun was just setting, so it was still fairly light outside.  I am surprised at how late the sun stays up here during the summer.  I am told to enjoy it now because it sets before 5:00 pm during the winter.

Day 18 (7/15/16)

We started the day with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Most mornings we have breakfast in our room because we have a mini fridge.  Then we took the kids to a place called Jump.  It is an indoor play area with some inflatables, slides, mazes, etc.  They love it!

Afterwards we went to the house to meet with the landlady and sign the lease. WooHoo! We have a place to live, now to pay the deposit and 1st months rent so we can get the keys.

Off to base to fill-out paperwork to get reimbursed for all the travel, hotels, food, etc.

Once we get back to the hotel we try to initiate the wire transfer for the deposit and rent, but it turned into a nightmare process. The online banking says we have to call the bank, a call to the bank phone tree informs us we have to process the request online.  Don't you love the run-around. Finally we get a person after several attempts through the phone tree and have wire transfers added to our online profile. I start the process, add data for the landlady and get an error that the account number is in an invalid format.  We call the landlady and confirm we have the correct account number. At this point we have been working on this wire transfer for at least 40 minutes.  Still getting the error, so I try the online chat since trying to get a real person on the phone tree is awful.  After 15 minutes chatting with the guy, he tells me that I have to call because he can't help me. Ugh! Back on the phone, through the tree to a person, but wrong department, so they transfer me.  They have me clear the cookies and I re-enter all the information again, but I still get the error.  The representative asks to verify account data and informs me we can't use the standard UK account number for an international wire we need an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) in order to continue. Remember we still have American accounts because we can't get a UK account without a lease.  Meanwhile it is now 6:40pm here, so all of the banks are now closed. We will have to try again tomorrow or Monday.  Seriously that was 2 hours of our lives we will never get back and we accomplished nothing.

The kids are starving, so we head downstairs for dinner.  3 bites into his Mac and Cheese and Lil Ron is off to the loo because he is getting sick.  Poor kid, not sure what keeps upsetting his stomach.  So him and I go back to the room while Annette and Ron finish dinner.

It wasn't a very exciting day, but we did get some things accomplished despite the wire transfer fiasco.