We're on a Boat

Over Spring Break, we took a trip to England.  This wasn't an ordinary trip to England, however.  Is there such a thing as an ordinary trip to England?  I don't know.  I'll revisit that when I'm feeling more like thinking deep thoughts.

This was a trip to England with the express purpose of taking a boat trip with my family (or a chunk of them).  This wasn't an ordinary boat trip with my family, however.  I think I've only been on a handful of boat trips with my family before and they were either on a rich friend's yacht or on a whale watching trip.  Here's the big difference.  Well, one of them. There are multiple differences, which I will discuss in this blog.  But here's the first big difference: WE were the boat pilots!  Captains?  Crew.

Yes, and here is our mighty craft herself, the Fox Hunter!

Before I go any further, I must point out that we had the most awesome tshirts which I designed myself.  I"m designing tshirts for every family trip from now on, so get ready, Nags Head Posse - it's on!

 Here, Dad and Claire model the shirts.  The front logo had our group name, The Captain John.  On the backs, we had names of our choosing (except Mom and Dad didn't get to choose theirs).  My name is Watery Tart Kate.

So ANYWAY, back to the boat.  The Fox Hunter was a sturdy little boat measuring approximately six feet in width and 70 feet in length.  These boats were used back in the day on the canals to transport goods around the English countryside.  Then, they fell out of use and someone came up with the genius idea of using them as house boats!  

Did I mention the boat was narrow.  VERY narrow.  Narrow with nine people, three of whom were over excited 4-6 year olds.  

That's my bed Dad and Andy are sitting on.  It smelled like mildew. 

 In addition to driving the boat, we had to also learn to work the locks in the canal and operate swing bridges (which weren't really much work at all).  It was fun and took team work. Go Team Captain John!  

 On the way back up the canal, we made friends with a couple who have a time share boat and shared the locks with them.  It was challenging but fun!  I highly recommend making friends with someone on the canal and just sticking with them as much as you can on your travels.  It's good to help each other out!

 In one of these instances, we got stuck.  Both boats in the lock. It wasn't our fault though!  The gate to the lock wouldn't open far enough.  We got unstuck by some method that I can't remember, and all was well!

Each night, we moored near a pub/town and did some exploring. The first night, we stayed at the Barge Inn, which has the best food on the canal.  

The second and third nights were spend in Bradford on Avon.  It was pretty and they have really good playgrounds, so the girls were happy.  Except for when they sat on the sad bench.  Then they were sad.  

 Happy at breakfast.

 Happy blowing their emergency whistles when PeePaw's hat flew overboard.

 Happy at the Barge Inn for the second time!

There is a lot more I could say about this trip.  I think I'm going to dedicate a second post specifically to the artsy pictures I took of boats and really old barns.