Punting anyone?

I can't believe how fast this week flew by! We had a wonderful last day with our Lakenheath campers. The base is planning on starting five DI teams in the fall so I am sure hoping I see these awesome kiddos next May at Global Finals! I told them I'd be watching for them.

After camp Kate and I decided to head to Cambridge for the afternoon. We called our good friends at Phoenix Taxi to take us to Brandon where we would take the train to Cambridge.

I was beginning to question the relationship the base has with Phoenix Taxi when the cab driver pulled up here to drop us off in what looked like the capital of Sketchville.

He knew what he was doing though and we safely boarded the train to Cambridge.

So apparently in England you purchase your train ticket once you are on board and well on your way. I had fun pretending I was on the Hogwarts Express and that the lady coming through collecting money was actually selling snacks off the trolly. It was great fun! That is until we got off the train at Cambridge and couldn't get out of the train station because the lady on the train accidently sold us tickets for tomorrow instead of today. Luckily the man at the gate was sympathetic to our situation and let us out.

We headed straight toward the water because we heard that Punting is "the thing" to do in Cambridge. Neither of us knew what the heck Punting was but it sounded fun enough so we headed on our way.

As soon as we reached the water we were attacked by a bunch of "Punters" (is that what you call them?) working for a business wanting to take us on tours. When we found out is was 27 pounds to go we decided to take a walk and think about it.

The walk along the river is absolutely beautiful! Please forgive my hair... I have no control. It has a mind of it's own this week.

We enjoyed double scoops of ice cream. They even have special double scoop cones here!

We planted ourselves in the grass and decided to watch some people without punting experience attempt to get themselves down the river without a guide. Feeling adventurous, I was considering putting on my brave pants and giving it a go.

That was until we saw what a strain such a simple concept was putting on this poor couples' relationship. They ran into the wall and then proceeded to argue right in front of us for about ten minutes. It was medium awkward....

Just when we had made up our minds not to go punting, we were approached by a different man who wasn't wearing the same Punting outfit that the other people were wearing. He acted oh so mortified that the other people were going to charge us 27 pounds and offered instead to have one of his "attractive young men" (and I quote him directly) take us on a tour for 9 pounds each. This sounded promising so we agreed to do it. After we handed our money to a strange women talking on her phone and eating ice cream she instructed us to walk straight down the path until we got to a large tree. She said Luke was waiting for us. At this point we began to question who the heck was taking us out on a boat since this is clearly some sort of "private" business.

As soon as we met Luke however, we hopped right in that boat with six other people and went on our merry way. We were of course right smack in the front of the boat only inches away from where Luke stood.

This is Luke. He's pretty stinkin' good at punting!

Kate and I in our front row seats!

Luke took us all the way down the river and past almost all of the universities including Cambridge University where Prince William and Kate Middleton went to school. Luke rattled off history like some sort of talking Almanac. Since Luke was cracking jokes the whole time and I was the only one in the boat who seemed to have a sense of humor I decided to shoot jokes right back. I asked Luke if he had to pass some sort of history test in order to be hired to take people down the river. He replied, "not really, no." I said, "Great, so you could actually just be making all this up?" He looked at me with a very serious face and said, "I would never take advantage of innocent tourists." He then proceeded to explain some nonsense about one of the buildings defying gravity. I busted up laughing and gave him a "you've got to be joking" face and he said, "hey, you asked for that one."

Everyone else in the boat still remained completely silent so Luke and I had a jolly old time making up ridiculous false facts to go along with the universities' history. He of course shared the truth with us as well (for the sake of all the "way too serious" people in the boat). The tour lasted about an hour but I'm mildly obsessed with British accents so I happily listened to every word. And then of course added in my own two sense in my ever so boring American way of talking.

A view of one of the Universities along the river.

And another one...

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our friend Luke. We stopped for dinner before heading back to the train station.

When we got back to Brandon we called our Phoenix Taxi friends again. When we got in the car we heard a familiar Scottish accent say, "Oh, not you two again!!" I enthusiastically chanted, "Hey Kate, it's Mr. Disney World!" Sure enough, we ended up getting our same taxi driver from Wednesday night who happened to be the world's second biggest Disney fan (I'm of course the world's biggest Disney fan). We had a nice chat while John drove light speed down the middle of the road again all the way back to base. When we arrived at the Lodging office and opened the car doors John said, "Well, it's been emotional..." I replied, "John, are you going to be okay?" He fake sniffed and I said, "Let's take a moment... (silent pause) ... okay, moment over." John suddenly recovered from his fake sadness and said, "Yep, moment over." We hopped out of the car and waved goodbye and that was that. I can honestly say John is my most favorite Scottish Taxi driver I've ever met! (He may or may not also be the only Scottish Taxi driver I've ever met).

It's sad to leave Lakenheath but tomorrow I head to London to meet back up with Ryan until we fly home on Monday. Whew, where did the time go?