Innocence Abroad: Blenheim Palace

In the middle of "mid-term break" we took a day trip to Blenheim Palace. The "we" I refer to includes myself, EC and A and my friend Stephanie and her two cute girls. It was a great adventure. We had no idea what we were doing, yet it all turned out fine! We walked out to the bus stop and asked the first bus driver that stopped which bus we needed to take to Blenheim Palace. He told us, and we waited for that bus. When our bus arrived, we bought return tickets (that's how they say, round-trip here.) We loaded our two huge jogging strollers (or 3 wheeled prams) on to the bus and enjoyed the scenery as we headed North out of Oxford to the little village of Woodstock. We got off the bus and walked in the grand gates of the Palace.
Walking in the gates, we felt a little strange because we were walking down a road that was used by all the visitors who arrived in their cars. There was no side-path, so we felt in the way, and in danger of getting run over the whole time. The funny thing was, you pay admission from your car, so we didn't pay anything. We walked right into the Palace and had to actually look for someone to take our money.
The Palace is so grand. Everything is gilded and beautiful! The rolling hills surrounding the palace, the sheep grazing on a sloped meadow, the lake with geese and swans, the colors changing in the trees, the formal gardens, the gorgeous architecture all made for wonderful pictures.
The kids had a great time just running around the palace grounds. We meandered into the palace to find a bathroom and a cafe. The kids ate their lunch outside in front of a beautiful fountain, overlooking the formal gardens. We then set off to find the "pleasure gardens" where all the kids activities are located.
It was a long walk to the pleasure gardens, but along the way, we noticed some beautiful trees. These trees were gnarled and caved out, with little rooms inside the trunks. The kids loved going inside and climbing up on these special hideouts. I couldn't stop taking pictures! If I was a professional photographer, I would head to those trees for engagement photos, family photos, etc. They were so beautiful!
After we pulled the kids away from the trees, we headed to the pleasure gardens. Everyone was excited to do the giant hedge-row maze. It is the largest one in the world! It seemed like such a fun idea. We pushed our giant strollers in, and the kids started running through cut-backs and through the maze. At some point, we started encountering huge, stroller-swallowing mud puddles. EC had her wellies on, but none of the rest of us were so smart. After a while, the view of bushes got a little old, and we started thinking about getting out of the maze. Unfortunately, that was not an easy mission. Every time we thought we were headed in the right direction, it would be a dead end. They had these elevated towers that you could climb up and view the maze from above. They were positioned so that they wouldn't quite give away the solution, but they would help. They also allowed you to climb the steps up the tower and go down steps on the other side to skip over to another section of the maze. We couldn't climb the tower with our strollers, so we would send one person up to scout. We never could remember how to get out this way. We had been in the maze for about an hour, and we were getting the horrible feeling that we might live there forever. Luckily we ran into a nice family who helped us out. A man helped us carry our heavy strollers up all the steps and down the other side. His father-in-law yelled out directions to us from above, until we were safely out of the maze. After screaming our thanks to the kind family, we exited the maze and fell into hysterical laughter/crying. We made some jokes that seemed hilarious at the time. For example, "Is it still Saturday? I feel like we've been in there for days!"
It was after we made it out alive that we saw the sign saying, "No pushchairs or wheelchairs allowed in the maze." Ooops! Good thing we didn't have to call in a helicopter!
As a treat for surviving an hour in the hedge-rows, we offered to pay for the girls getting their faces painted. We had seen kids running around with painted faces, so we knew it could be done. Of course, when we found the face-painting lady, she had a queue of about 10 kids with a wait time of 6 minutes per kid. We couldn't backdown on our promise, so we stood in line. Luckily for me (and everyone around us, for that matter) Archer fell asleep in the stroller during our wait in line.
With faces painted, we decided we better head back home. We walked back by the trees, and had to stop again to play some more! This time, EC decided to run way of to some beautiful orange trees in the distance. She wanted me to take her picture with the trees. She was so far away, so I yelled for her to come back. She sat down. I told her we were leaving now. She didn't budge. I started pushing the stroller down the road, and she finally came running and screaming and yelling after us. I told her to stop screaming before she woke up Archer. She screamed louder. I told her she couldn't walk with me until she stopped screaming. So, she walked 10 feet behind me, screaming and hollering hysterically for about 20 minutes. I could tell it was really stressing Stephanie out. I apologized, but I knew that nothing I could say or do could stop EC's tantrum. She has a big one like that about every day. She finally woke up Archer with her loud blubbering and I held her hand while we walked to the bus stop.
At the bus stop, I asked EC why she had such a huge fit. She said it was because she wanted me to take her picture at the far-away trees. I told her that when mommy says it's time to go, we must go. I reminded her that Mommy is in charge, not EC. She seemed to understand, but I know there will be a next time.
We finally made it home in one piece, exhausted, but with a camera full of beautiful pictures. I was glad to have a good friend along for the adventure. Thanks, Stephanie for putting up with our brand of crazy for a whole day.