"Dear Alexa,
Your FLAT STANLEY came all the way to Chester, England.
The distance between your town, Port Carbon, PA and my location, Chester, is approximately 3399.29 miles.
If FLAT STANLEY should come back to visit, he should wear layers with a lightweight raincoat because the climate here is unpredictable."
Sylvia attached a sheet telling us more about her location and the exciting things Flat Stanley saw and did during his visit. It said:
"Chester is a city in the North-West of England on the border of Wales. Stanley could see the Welsh mountains from the city. It still has walls all around it.
The Romans came in around 75 AD and built a fort which they called Deva, but it is likely that there was a settlement there before they came.
Stanley has a map showing the modern and Roman names of some English towns and cities.
There are still several Roman remains in the city, including the remains of an amphitheatre where they might have had fights between gladiators or even fights with wild animals. Stanley went on a tour of the walls with a Roman soldier and the soldier kindly let him put on some of his uniform. Do you think it suits him?
Of course, such an old city has a lot of history, but one particularly exciting time was the Civil War when King Charles fought against Parliament in the seventeenth century. Chester supported the King and at one point the Parliamentarians besieged the city. Finally the King took refuge in the city and there is a story that he stood in one of the towers and saw his army defeated.
Stanley is going to read up about it when he goes home. He had a look at this website on our computer:
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Civil_War/civilwarmain.htm
Chester is one of those places where there are lots of ghosts.
One is a Roman soldier who marches up and down, possibly because nobody has relieved him from his sentry duty. The poor man has been marching up and down for all those hundreds of years.
There is also a monk who tries to stop people near St. John's church and warn them about something. Stanley was glad not to have met him.
One thing that makes Chester different from anywhere else in Britain is the Rows. You will be able to see them in a postcard that Stanley is bringing with him. They are a set of galleries on two levels with shops on each level. Nobody really knows how they came about, but they mean that it is possible to do your shopping in the dry when it is raining."
Flat Stanley came home dressed like a Roman soldier. He looks really cool! Here is a picture of him:
Flat Stanley brought home a little roman soldier paper doll with paper clothes, a map, a bunch of nice postcards, and a glossy city guide with lots of nice pictures and lots of information about Chester. Alexa and I enjoyed looking through it and very much appreciate receiving these kinds of things!
I also got an email yesterday from my brother, Jordan, who is in the Army National Guard and deployed in Egypt until the end of September. He wrote:
"Hi Nance-
Here are some attached pics of Flat Stanley.
We flew out to Tiran Island the other day on a helicopter. We have a small outpost on it. For obvious reasons I can't attach pictures of the OP, but I did get a couple with Egypt and Saudi backgrounds.
Tiran Island is in the Gulf of Aquaba, it is in the strait of Tiran, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the back ground.
I'll have FS mailed back shortly- give him 2 weeks or so to make it home.
TTYL,
Jordan"
Here are the pictures that Jordan sent:
Alexa and I really enjoyed seeing them. When we went back to yesterday's entry and looked at one of the scenic backgrounds we posted of our area, with all the trees and mountains, and then looked at the pictures her uncle sent us of nothing but sand and dirt, Alexa was amazed by the stark contrast!
We got this email today from Flat Stanley who is visiting his new friend Camilla in Ireland:
"Hello from Ireland,
Just letting you know that I've arrived safe and well to Camilla's family in Co. Wicklow.
I'm here with Riona who's 5, Conor who is 2, and their parents.
They have spent today sorting out my outfit - I'm sure you will be amused when you see me :)
We have lots of things planned - there is a family BBQ tomorrow for Father's Day so I'm sure I will get to meet some of the family.
Hope all is well there and that you are not missing me too much. Please give my love to Alexa and everyone.
Bye for now,
Flat Stanley"
Enjoy the barbecue, Stanley! Have fun with the kids and tell them we said hi! We are very much looking forward to seeing your outfit :)
We also received a post card today from one of my sister's friends, GraceAnne, who is hosting a Flat Stanley New York (in the Bronx). It said:
"Hi Alexa, even though Flat Stanley did not come here, I wanted you to see the original Winnie the Pooh here at the library in NYC."
The post card was a really nice photo of a teddy bear and the blurb on the postcard says: "Winnie-The-Pooh: the original toy bear that inspired the A.A. Milne classics. Given to Christopher Robin Milne on his first birthday in 1921; donated to the Library in 1987. The Central Children's Room, The New York Public Library."
Pretty cool!
Lastly, we took Flat Stanley to a place called Owen's Farm today for a field trip/tour with our homeschool meetup group. It was wet and muddy and raining on and off but we had fun. We traipsed through fields of mud and fields of tall grasses and across little streams and through puddles and up hills and down hills. We got wet and dirty and actually had a thoroughly nice time!
We experimented with playing with wool and even twisted some dyed wool into bracelets we got to keep.
We saw sheep and lambs, pigs and piglets, horses and cows and different kinds of chickens. We picked wildflowers, learned about the electric fences and training the animals to stay within them, and even saw a sheepdog demonstration thanks to their sheepdog, Gail.
It was followed up by a nice picnic lunch.
I brought Stanley along. I brought my camera long. And unfortunately I got there and found that my camera was unusable; it kept giving me some message I didn't understand about the memory card.
Fortunately, a friend of mine, Heather, did take some pictures for me, both of my children and of Flat Stanley. Here are the pics she took with Flat Stanley. One is of Alexa making a bracelet out of twisted wool. One is of Stanley on the table with a bunch of wool the kids were exploring. One is of Flat Stanley in front of the piglet pen. And there are a couple of other ones of just animals that Flat Stanley (and the rest of us) saw while we were there:
(Notice Gail, the sheepdog, doing her job in that last pic)!
Lastly for today, we received tons of great Flat Stanley pictures via email from Judith! She is Flat Stanley's host in Pompano Beach, Florida- but she just took him on vacation with her to NYC! Here are the pictures she sent!
"Hi there!! I just wrote a long letter but lost it when I tried to add pictures, So I am going to send the pictures first, then separartely send a letter.......................Here goes........I hope!!! Judith and Family (includes Flat Stanley)
1. While stopping in Georgia, We sat on a torpedo!!! There was a Naval Base near by.
2. Times Square
3. Smaller version of the Statue Of Liberty, on the street
4. The Empire State Building
5. The real Statue of Liberty"
"Here are more pictures!!
1. The site of the Twin Towers, and the memorial made there............
2. The American Museum of Natural History ( Flat Stanley's Favorite)"
"1. Chinatown
2. A few pics of the Museum of Natural History;
Let me know if they came out OK. If not, I can snail mail them to you! I also have some info and postcards to send you via snail mail!!! You're gonna love it!!!! Will mail them on Monday. Flat Stanley had a grand time with us on our trip!! Thank You for including us, in your learning/traveling Adventure!!!! Also, if I sent to many in one letter, I can send 2 or 3 at a time instead. Let me know! Take care, Judith and family PS: Flat Stanley misses Alexa and wants to be inside the envelope when it is sent................"
Wow we LOVE seeing all those pictures!! It looks like you had such a great time! Thanks for bringing Flat Stanley, and thanks for sending us all the great photos! I don't know why this site tends to cut some of them off sometimes but I think most of them are showing up fine.
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