Visiting the castle

I haven't forgotten. I've just been busy. But now it's time to share some more pictures of my parents' visit. Specifically, I wanted to put up more awesome picts of A Castle. We took an overnight trip to see it, down on the South coast, near Brighton. It was gorgeous!

Be prepared; I'm going to show LOTS of picts of this one, just because we got some great shots, and because it is probably the best (i.e. most impressive) castle I've visited...

The inner court yard, below...


Sammie and my dad, in the castle keep...

Also in the keep... (btw, I'm adding lots of picture of "the keep" for my mom, who opted not to climb the 50+ circular stone steps to get up there. I told her I'd show her the picts, and here they are.)

Views from the keep, looking out to sea...
And looking to the surrounding countryside...


This castle has special significance because my ancestors lived in it way back when. No joke! My brother, Trent, was doing some geneology and discovered that on the maturnal side of the Hone family line, the Babcocks lived in A. Castle in England. So, of course we HAD to look it up and go for a visit.



Sammie's cubby in the keep... She got up there by herself, and stuck as much of her face out the "window" as she possibly could, for as long as she could.
Shh! No pictures allowed inside the castle. But one unnamed rule-breaker in our party (it wasn't me, this time) HAD to take a picture of the fabulous library. It really was gorgeous, and was all decked out in the same furnishings that they ordered custom built when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert came for a 3-day visit in the late 1800s. What opulence! (This shot is only about 1/4 of the full library, and is a bit blurry because Brian didn't use the flash, so he wouldn't get caught, naughty boy)...



A. Castle is a "working castle," meaning, some rich family still owns it, maintains it, and lives in it. They have guests stay in many of the rooms on the weekends, and they have a society set up to let people tour the most spectacular parts, thank goodness. It really was a gorgeous building, one of my favorites of all the ones we've visited.

More gorgeous shots outside...





One token shot of Spencer, below, as we headed to the car (castle is hiding behind the trees) -- just to prove he was there with us. Btw, see how dark the sky is? It was so sunny, warm and bright the whole time we were there. Then, less than 5 minutes after we got in the car, it poured, and I do mean POURED down on us. Very fortunate that we were all finished by then!