Other posts on this trip: Legoland Windsor, Liberty of London!

We were in the UK for two weeks, and we divided the trip into thirds: a third in Southern England with one set of family, a third just the three of us at a Center Parcs resort, and a third in Northern England with our other set of family. And we packed in the activities as soon as we landed. Legoland, London. This is everything else we did during our first third. Fancy dinner! Fabric shopping! A model village!

This kid is a champion flyer.

And a champion jet lag-haver. She still hasn’t recovered from the flight home. And her first morning in the UK was just as sleepy.

After our Legoland trip, we stopped at Lady Sew & Sew on the way home. This was a great fabric shop. There are two locations–a small shop, and a factory space. We went to the factory space.

They had a wonderful (and huge!) clearance section, I picked up these Makower and Downton Abbey prints. I already have some Downton fabric, but I felt like I really should get some actually in England.

International quilt magazines! For cheap! I stocked up, this is a title I don’t see much in the US. And when I do see UK and Australian mags, they’re a small fortune. 

The whole family (minus H, who stayed home with a babysitter) went to dinner at the Waterside Inn in Bray. I’ve been there once before, years ago, but this was a wonderful treat. Amazing food (3 Michelin stars), perfect service, a window table looking out at the Thames. I dressed up fancy!

And the maître d’ had a book written about him! He’s delightful, and I really wanted a copy. My in-laws bought me one (very sneakily) and got him to sign it for me. Treasure!

We also went to Bekonscot Model Village, and it was amazing. I’ve never been to a model village, I’ve only ever seen them in movies like Hot Fuzz. It was amazing, one of our favorite stops on this leg of the trip.

That same day we left the model village and went over to Odds Farm Park to play with bunnies and sheep. This was another great thing to do with a preschooler! It was kind of chilly that afternoon, but feeding the animals was great fun. And they had a sand playground that H loved.

She introduced herself to the this big sheep. “Hi, sheep. I’m H!”

Before we left to head off to our next leg of the trip, we had a luncheon at Adam’s aunt’s house with several cousins and extended family. I didn’t actually take many pictures, but I did get this one of the little traveler in one of her birthday Boden dresses.