England I

Our first few days in England were tons of fun and filled with celebrations. My Grandma (Dad's mom) turned 90! And so there was a big party to celebrate. Family from everywhere including England, Texas, Luxembourg, New Jersey and Connecticut gathered together to celebrate. My Grandma always jokes that she has a 'jet setting' family and my cousin Amanda came up with the great idea to make a map showing where all of Granny's family were now living.The second celebration was for my Granddad and Grandma Ings. It was their 50th wedding anniversary! My Auntie Sue and Uncle Jerry hosted an amazing party at their home. They are pro's at hosting the best get togethers. One fun aspect was that G+G didn't know that Peter, Quinn and I were coming. Nor that they were having a party. My dad dropped us off at A. Sue's and as he was leaving my grandparents were driving up. The roads are really narrow out in the country so they couldn't help but see each other. So they were pretty suspicious but still a bit of a surprise all the same. After a while we decided we should probably inform them that they would be having a party so they were given an invitation. My granddad was hurriedly looking for his "goggles" so he could see while my Grandma read the invitation. She suddenly looked up and said" but that's today!" And was pretty speechless. Her facial expression was priceless. I regret not taking a picture. At this point my Granddad still didn't know what was going on! Well he was finally informed and soon friends and family were arriving to celebrate 50 years of marriage. Quite an accomplishment!
Tuesday we decided to go down to Portsmouth Harbour to see some of the ships. We toured the HMS Victory which was the ship on which Lord Nelson died. We also got to see the HMS warrior which was the first Iron clad ship built in England and the Mary Rose. They are still in the process of trying to preserve the Mary Rose and so we were able to view it through a viewing gallery as they sprayed it with a wax solution. Half of the ship which was exposed had rotted away but the other half was burried in the ocean floor so it was preserved. because of this you can see a cross section of the ship.