Our Trip to the Cotswolds

We spent last weekend in the Cotswolds, a particularly quaint part of England about 2 1/2 hours away from our house.

Here is Esmé outside our hotel, The Greenway Inn and Spa. It may have been slightly fancier than we were expecting. When we came bustling in with all our bags and carseats, stuffed animals and loud crying kids, I think the buttoned-down concierge was wondering whether we were really in the right place. Our room had a huge four-poster bed, antique furniture, and fragile vases perched around various precarious spots--all of which Esmé immediately started jumping on.

We arrived at dinnertime, so we put the girls in their beds and ventured down to the restaurant. In our jeans and rumpled sweaters, we asked the concierge if we could eat in the restaurant and he obliged, insisting there was no dress code even though everyone else was in suits and fancy dresses. We sat as still as possible so as not to reveal any more of our shoddy-ness than was necessary. When he brought out the caviar and goat cheese appetizers, we took them with a "yeah, we eat like this all the time, no big deal" air about us. Then he brought out soup with Parmesan foam and it got more difficult to keep up appearances. Dinner was good, though. And long (five courses), and we were just glad to get back to our room where no one was judging us for our common dress and manners.

The hotel was beautiful, though! And the staff was very nice despite our loud screaming, yelling, running, crying, jumping kids.

On our first day, we drove through the countryside to see some Cotswold villages, renown for their quaint storybook cottages and quintessential Englishness.

The landscape was lovely with rolling hills and fall colors.

At each village, we would get everyone out, put up the strollers, put on coats and hats, and make a procession through the shops and homes. The places were so cute, but all that in and out was exhausting for all of us. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were tired! While Esmé napped, we tried to find a baby-friendly place in the hotel to lounge with Penny. Then while Penny slept, I took Esmé outside and we explored, knowing there was not one inch of that hotel that was Esmé-friendly unless they wanted a lot of broken stuff.

Exploring the hotel grounds with a stick

Gorgeous trees on the hotel grounds

It was Friday night and we drove to the nearest city for dinner. There was traffic, the meal was chaotic, and I was frustrated that the girls were not behaving. That night Esmé (who was sleeping on the couch) woke up with a nightmare and demanded to sleep in our bed. She quickly took over my section of bed and left me to take her place on the tiny couch. It was a long night. I was just about ready to pack us all up right then and drive home!

The couch, and my bed for one night.

Thankfully, on Saturday the sun came out and we were all refreshed and ready for another day of exploring. We decided to go to the Cotswold Wild Animal Park, basically a zoo on the grounds of a manor house. Despite being colder than I ever remember feeling for a long time, we had so much fun. It was not crowded, we got to see lots of animals, the girls were happy and having fun, and there was food at the end.

Rhinos

We got to pet sheep and goats!

We had some afternoon naps and spent the evening at a jungle-gym bouncy place in the city, which Esmé loved. Then we found some Mexican food, which Roo and I loved. The key to traveling with kids, I think, is rather than making the kids conform to the trip, make the trip conform to the kids. When we made sure to do things Esmé could enjoy rather than just what we thought was interesting, it was much more enjoyable for all of us. So when we came barging back into our fancy hotel with balloons and babies and lots of noise, we were tired but happy, having had a fun, successful day.