Good Evening All:

It was a long night last night. All went well - we departed on time, we had the option of dinner on the plane so most ate twice, we were able to choose from tons of movies(except for Coach Drill who had issues..) and we all tried to sleep on the way to England. We arrived in England at 9:30am (4:30am Downingtown time).

By the time we got out of the airport it was pushing 11am. The coach was waiting - we boarded and were on our way. The boys played farm animal games by counting animals on each side of the bus that initially died at cemeteries but as the games and the rules progressed - enter strange signs, pubs, and a variety of other fabricated rules that added new twists to keep them busy. It was a comfortable, but still 3.5 hour trip including a ½ hour break for food to Bath.

The boys got yellow and blue rugby jerseys from the tour company, distributed during the ride, that looked fantastic and they wore them to the REC (Bath Recreation Center, in Bath) where we were late, due to road construction, for the Harlequins vs Bath rugby match. The boys critiqued the pros and enjoyed the entire second half of the game. Downingtown boys were announced, among others, at half time but we hardly understood the announcer and we were listening! We cheered at the close verbal recognition of "Downingtown" that came across the mic and the boys still enjoyed the glory of the event.

So say Bath several times in a row. Weird word is what our guys have determined. If you are saying the regular word bath like taking a "tub", you are saying it wrong and you have to do it again. So start over... all 19 of you Rugby guys on the bus - say "Bath". A bit annoying but we are talking about our boys here so how annoying could it really be?

We are checked into the Holiday Inn in Bristol-Filton and everyone is ready for a good meal. (Only a couple of fines at lunch for American food). The lounge is full of young men in anticipation of food. What a great sight, one of the best today. Breakfast is at 8 so 7:45 is the wake up call.

Dinner was very good but there is something brewing...my Conor was even writing things down on a napkin so I am sure there is something going on.

Check back in tomorrow,

Alison (and many others providing input)