International Traveler

By this time, Matilda had an international stamp on her passport and of course I needed to make sure that we were fair to Eloise. So, Eloise and I took a a trip to West Sussex in the UK with her aunties Pae, Julie, and Emily.

She slept the whole flight out in her little bassinet. I wish I had gotten a photo, but I was too worried about losing battery power on my phone.

The first place we hit was the Park Tower Hotel in the Knightsbridge area of London. She seemed to really enjoy freshening up at the fancy schmancy hotel.

After a morning of buying tea and securing a SIM card, off to West Sussex we went. We stayed in a converted barn in the town of Birdham just outside of Chichester. It was quite nice and Eloise enjoyed playing there.

She was a huge fan of the host Jo and her ginormous golden retriever George. Our first outing of the week was to the town of Arundel. Eloise enjoyed our stroll through the castle gardens, where there were a ton of neat nooks and crannies.

The next day was a beach day to West Wittering beach. It was only 3.5 miles away, but took us over 30 minutes to get there and park, even though it was still quite chilly and windy out (maybe in the 70's). When we got there, there was little room to set up camp. So many of those weird dividers everywhere. Didn't seem to deter Eloise from enjoying herself though.

Aunties Julie and Emily arrived later that afternoon and the wine festivities began. Miss Grabby went straight for the Nyetimber at dinner.

Sunday, we took a break from her wine education and took her to learn about ancient history instead at Stonehenge and Avebury.

Monday she impressed the winemaker at Exton Park with how well behaved she was.

Eloise was equally impressed by how good the sparkling wine was and wanted to go taste some more. Next on the list was Tattinger, where she didn't find the wine as good or the story as compelling. She still smiled through the whole tasting.

While the aunties went to Wiston, Eloise practiced her driving skills. She didn't realize how lucky she was to have a beamer for her practice car.

Last outing of the trip was to the Goodwood horse races. Took her a while to recognize the horses zooming by, but soon enough she was engrossed. Auntie Pae even won 60 pence on one of the races!