I realize I am very behind on posting about JoAnna's visit.

The night she got here, we sat outside drinking coffee and eating flapjacks (here flapjacks are a bar cookie made from oats and honey). That was nice and relaxing.

The very next day, we went to Flamingo Land. http://www.flamingoland.co.uk/ Flamingo Land is part zoo, part amusement park. It was also the location of our monthly babysitting co-op meeting.

(I don't know why all of the sudden this blog building utility insists on double spacing when all I really want is to start a new paragraph.)

One of the things I really liked about the park is that you can bring in your own food, which JoAnna and I did. Even though it's not far from Harrogate, it took a long time to get there due to bad traffic. Once we were there though, we had a good time. The weather was warm and sunny, perfect for a day out.

JoAnna and Ryan and I hung out with Susan and her baby daughter Hannah. We walked around looking at the animals. We walked over to the meerkat enclosure, and Hannah dropped her pacifier in! One of the meerkats took it and ran around with it as a prized possession. It was funny to watch, but we were concered. We wanted to be sure the meerkat wouldn't somehow hurt itself with the pacifier. We don't think that it did. It sure became the center of everyone's attention!

There were a various play areas for all ages of kiddos. We let Ryan play in two of them and that was by far his favorite part of the day!

Towards the end of the afternoon, JoAnna very kindly watched Ryan and Hannah so Susan and I could go on one of the rides. The one we rode was like nothing I'd seen in the States. It was a rollercoaster, but it was like a motorcycle. Susan and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

After our visit to Flamingo Land, Susan and JoAnna and I went out to dinner at a place in Harrogate called the Cattleman's Association. It was an American style steakhouse, and was actually very good. (I am usually very wary of going to American style places when not in America.) Susan very kindly treated us.

The next day, JoAnna and Ryan and I went to the RHS Garden Harlow Carr. I'd been there in the winter, and was looking forward to going in the summer. It was a very warm, sunny day. I think JoAnna brought the California weather with her!

We all enjoyed wandering around the gardens. We let Ryan out to wander and play, which I think is always his favorite part of any outing.

The rest of JoAnna's first week consisted of tea and crumpets for breakfast, walks around the Victoria shopping area and the Stray, errand running at MHS, and staying up late at night catching up on blogs and just chatting. (We also had a rather unfortunate trip to York trying to find an AmEx office.)

JoAnna's got a MySpace site and blog. If you would like to get her take on her visit here, go to: http://www.myspace.com/joannasark and click on her blog in the upper right hand corner of the screen. She's got photos up, which is more than I can say so far!  (I do plan on posting new photo albums soon.)