Adventure to Ancient Chester

First train ride

To say that I (Caleb) was excited to go to Chester is an understatement. After 3 weeks of study at Keele University I was ready to get out and see some of the beautiful British country side and cities. Not because Keele is a terrible place, in fact I like Keele very much. It's like a college mixed with a university in country setting, but I'll talk more about Keele in a later post.

Entering Chester Old Towne 

Chester is the first city we have visited since we arrived in England. After an early morning bus ride to the train station and a 40 minute train ride we arrived in Chester's town centre. Chester has a lot of history starting from its foundation 2000 years ago by the Romans. In fact they built a wall that still stands. The Chester wall is one of the few remaining walls that completely surrounds the city. It is considered one of the best perserved walled cities in the British Isles. The wall has been added to throughout the years and it served as a strong hold in the British Civil War (1642-48) where King Charles I saw his army (Royalist) fall to the Parliamentarians  from Phoenix Tower located on Chester wall, which still stands today. The issue between the Royalist and the Parliamentarians; the king had to much power and parliament did not and as such the people didn't either. After the war the king's power was greatly reduced and as such it was the start of English royalties decline in power and prestige.

Black and White

We  walked all around the city wall (2 miles). Justus, trekked right along with us. He spent a large portion of the time sleeping, but when he was awake, he is quite the wonderful little baby. Soaking in the sights with wandering curious eyes, a studious look on his face, and smiles interspersed throughout. He is quite the wonderful little traveller, just like we knew he would be.

We got spend the whole day in old town Chester. The main street has some unique black and white buildings that have been converted into shops and some have been around for over 500 years.

Chester Wall w/ Phoenix Tower

Of course, to follow in my long established tradition, I had to get a jumping picture. I chose Chester Castle, which was built in 1070 and with additions in 1788 & 1813.

Chester Castle

Chester Cathedral

After all the walking our appetite was ignited and our quaint-restaurant-radar was raised to full power. We ended up finding a delightful little tea room called the Three Kings, at which I enjoyed a traditional lamb meal and Charity a scrumptious sandwich. A few hours later the 40 degree weather drove us to get some hot chocolate at the most magnificent coffee shop. Chester cathedral which is over 1000 years old and the second largest in England had a large room which used to be the dinning area for the monks, is now a large coffee shop. At this point, Justus, the epitome of a good baby--sleeping, eating, and smiling, decides to test out the incredible acoustics of the cathedrals coffee shop by crying. It was funny, but we left promptly since we didn't want to disrupt the rest of the people who where enjoying the serene setting. 



Our day came to an end with a night stroll through Old Towne and then a train trip back home. Just like most old cities in England, one day is not quite enough to enjoy all they have to offer or scratch the surface of the historical wonders that lie beneath. However, we felt we were able to enjoy ourselves and learned quite bit about England and Chester's history. If you come to visit, this is a great one day option we might take you to ;-]

Settling-In to our New Home

Our ever-blooming mini daffodil
(even Charity has a green thumb in England) 

Our conservatory

The living room, dining room, and office

We have officially been in England for a month now, and we are finally settling into our new home and life. Things in the house are as we want them to be; we know our way around town well enough to get everything we could need: groceries at Morrison's, produce at the market, bread at the bakery, baby stuff at Baby Boo, books at the library, immunizations at the Midway Medical clinic, socializing at the some local Mum's groups, buses to Caleb's school, just to name a few. Besides disliking those nasty immunization shots, Justus is thoroughly enjoying his new life. He is all smiles, at times a giggling machine, and an absolute joy to his Mamma and Daddy.

I suppose being settled is a comfortable place to be because all of the sometimes frightening and exciting unknowns are not so unknown. Which begs the questions, is it good to be comfortable? Or should we always be moving forward to the next unknown?

It's the kitchen!

The Whirlwind to Here

St. Giles Cathedral in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Conservatories. I do not believe we have the lovely little things called conservatoreis in the U.S. This is  unfortunate because they are quite nice (in the American sense, if you said "quite nice" in the British sense you would be saying almost the opposite, as if they were not nice at all!). They are especially lovely on cool sunny days like today. As I sit here in our conservatory, what we might call  a glassed-in-porch or sun-room back home, soaking up the rare rays of sun, gazing out on a medieval cathedral, and musing over the whirlwind of events that have brought me and my two boys, Caleb and Baby Justus, to Newcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom; I feel inclined to jot them down, not only for posterity's sake and the sake of my loved one's back home, but also for my own sometimes failing memory.

The Cronenbergers visiting baby Justus on his birthday

 I shall start with the most joyous and life changing event of them all, the birth of Baby Justus Finley Pendleton. This special occasion took place on December the first, the very day he was due to arrive. So many wonderful details surround the birth of our first child: a marathon at three months, miles of walking, birthing classes, maternity leave, coaches and assistants, an early arrival at the hospital, an irritating heart monitor, some painful pushes, an umbilical cord around his neck, a room full of supporters (Caleb, Casy, Emily, and Mom, not to mention the medical staff), and a beautiful boy, to name a few. But Justus' story is a special one, needing its own entry/post. So for now, know that Justus was born naturally (vaginal delivery with no drugs); he was and still is extremely healthy and beautiful; and he has brought with him a sweet and happy spirit and indescribable joy to our already happy lives. Note: Justus actually has a blog of his own, so if you would like to know more about his story, special milestones, and the like, leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I will invite you.

The birth of Justus was not the beginning of the whirlwind nor the end, but it was a major event and a good place to start this story. Prior to his birth, we were busy taking classes at the University of Texas at San Antonio, training for and running a full marathon (Caleb), working at BIF Technologies, attending prenatal yoga several times per week (Charity), trying to match-make for a few friends,  attending child birth classes weekly and sometimes twice a week, writing essays in hopes of winning study abroad scholarships (which were successful, thank God), and closing out our lives in San Antonio as best as we could. As one can imagine, once Justus came into our lives things became even crazier than before. The only difference? We had an extra little person who required two full-time adult's care, received a steady stream of visitors, necessitated constant laundry duty, and brought with him bundles of joy, which, to our delight, he freely shared.

Within three weeks of Justus' birthday, we had applied for his passport, visited the pediatrician twice (clean bill of health at both appointments), hosted a slew of visitors (Nellie and Shelly get the award for traveling the farthest), shopped in preparation for England, packed our entire two-bedroom apartment, moved the the contents to storage. The last two items were accomplished only with the help of many dear friends, most notably Ryan, Casy, Juline, Nellie, and Shelly.

Christmas at the Sanford's

For the next several weeks we were nomads, living out of our suitcases. The hospitable Sanfords hosted us at my old and dear home. Christmas with the Sanfords was so much fun, especially the caroling hayride in Reagan Wells canyon. The only sad part was that I had to walk around like a hunch-back. To my surprise, the staff at the hospital knew what they were talking about when they said not to lift anything heavier than the baby. I tried and ended up with a back out of whack and pain comparable to early labor pains. Merry Christmas.

Pendleton's at the Guadalupe River

The whirlwind continued...New Years with the Pendleton clan out at the Haven River Inn in Comfort, TX. We had a wonderful time in praise and worship the first day and a lot of fun the other two days.  Next, a four day Christian Listening training, and frantic packing before take-off. The Christian Listening course was wonderful, but as the end drew closer and our departure to to England nearer, we began to worry that we could not get read in time. Gratefully, He works all things together for good--our flight on Monday January 10ths was canceled due to icy conditions and rescheduled for the 13th. God sure knew what He was doing, we needed every hour of t hose three extra days.

When the 13th arrived, we braced ourselves for the unknowns--security, boarding, and oversees flight with a 6 week old baby in tow. We were quite a site, entering and leaving the airport: I carried a mid-sized pack and pushed Justus in the stroller (somehow we snuck the car carrier onto the stroller as well); Caleb had the rest: 2 mid-sized packs, 2 back-packers packs, 2 duffels, and 1 big rolling suitcase. We looked like a traveling carnival ;) Between the two of us, a great baby, and gracious airport personnel, we arrived in England in one piece. Justus was a champ from the time we stepped into the airport to the time we stepped into our rental car at Manchester, UK. What he did during the traveling: ate, slept, and smiled (and of course one other thing that we won't mention here). His ears never seemed to bother him either on take-off or landing.  Halelujah!

View from our room at Old School B&B

After renting, or letting as they say over here, we headed for Keele and the Old School Bed and Breakfast. OUr hosts, Val and BIll, were the epitome of hospitality, going out of their way to help us find a place to live, feeding us an extra meal (fyi grocery stores close early on Sundays in England), and befriending us.

Six days after arriving in England, Caleb miraculously found us a lovely, furnished place to live. Our landlord, David, is a wonderful and kind older man who has seen to it that we are comfortable and informed about the area. Our place is about a seven minute walk to the grocery store and town centre, which is a lifesaver since we don't have a car here.

So there it is, the short (or long depending on the reader) story of the whirlwind of events and activities that have dropped us off in England.