Back into the Olden days.

So Stephen did something wonderful yesterday. I know: strange, that Stephen could do something other than pin me to the floor with a one minded fierce determination to tickle my feet no matter how loud I could scream, how hard I could hit, or how much I tried to wiggle my way free, right? No, this Saturday was different, this Saturday Stephen took me on an adventure. Poor Mom was busy studying away (and apparently getting kicked out) of the library, working on whatever it is the she needs to work on for University. Meanwhile, at nine-in-the-drizzling-morning, I was making my way to the train station with my backpack filled with card games, bottles of water, gummies for snacking on, a camera, and tons of batteries.

Have you figured out where I'm going with this? Stephen took me to be tourist-y. He took me to Leeds Castle. If you have never been or heard of Leeds Castle, then I feel very, very sorry for you! It was wonderful!! The grounds were huge with tons of trees and green grass, lots of lakes and streams: this castle had everything! It had a Maze, an Aviary, a kid's park, and a kid's maze. It had land trains to get you from place to place, and most importantly, It Had Ducks! I'm not talking like a dozen ducks. Oh no, I'm talking TONS of ducks! Ducks with black swans, white swans, geese, moorhens, and coots; and it was just Ashley Heaven!

Here's the hitch, it was raining.

Not nice drizzling rain like it was doing in Canterbury, no-sir-ee-bob! It was POURING! Throughout the whole day I had to suffer and fight because my camera lens kept getting wet; so I have lots of blurry wet spots in my photos. It was amazing how wet it truly was. It just drenched us from head to toe. Especially toe. My shoes happen to be coming apart (they need to be re-glued) so any time I happened to walk into a puddle my feet got the full blast of the cold wet-ness. But it was such a lovely day! The castle was brilliant; we had to enter from the cellar and work our way up. We got to see bedrooms and dining rooms and the library. For anybody who doesn't know, Leeds Castle is built on two little islands in the middle of a lake, so to get from one part of the castle to the other you have to cross a bridge. Of course this bridge is covered so it wasn't draughty or anything, but the people who built it had a hard time dealing with straight lines. The windows were all perfectly straight, but the floor kept getting lower and lower. It was very curious, first you'd have the window come up to your elbow, then your shoulder, then your nose, then the window was too high up for you to even see out of (even on tip-toes!), it was highly amusing.

The maze was terrific fun as well. Since it was raining the pathways were basically gigantic puddles. In certain areas you pretty much had to wade through (that's an exaggeration, but you get my point.) So for me there was a lot of frozen toes and sloshing around. Stephen and I ended up splitting up early on, trying to find the middle. Well, it seems I found every single dead end possible. Stephen and another guy kept running into each other in this maze, so they would tell each other which ways weren't the way to the middle and by elimination, they ended up finding the middle and directing the rest of us through the maze.

In order to get out of the maze (without having to go back through it) you had to go under it, where there was a nifty little grotto. The grotto was made to be spooky and ominous with flashing lights and menacing laughter. The walls and floors were made with seashells and rocks in very interesting and pretty designs. Add flashing color onto them and you've got pretty interesting works of art! It was very nice. And dry....