Arrival in Wales

April 19, 2008Annie & Jesse on the ferry.

We drove into Calais very late in the evening of the 17th and had to get up very early the next morning to catch our ferry to Dover. The kids didn't seem to mind the hours with a "kids room" to keep them occupied.

Waiting to get back into our vehicle after the ferry ride. Pembrokeshire is the county in which James Crane lived.
The Rose Cottage is a small family run home in Tenby Wales. This is where we stayed for our days in Wales. It was perfect for us, plenty of room and a great location -it was right in the middle of town and close to the other villages we were interested in visiting.
Marks great, great Grandfather James Crane was born in Wales and spent the first part of his life here, so we thought we would retrace his steps and see if we could find some of the places he had been.
Our first stop was the Fish & Chips store.
Second was the candy store. They have these little candy shops everywhere, it was hard not to stop at each one.
The kids each got a very big jawbreaker and so we had lots of white tongues.
The main church in Tenby-we believe that James Crane would have attended this church.
In case you can't read the sign it says Tiffany house. I knew this place was meant for me-I loved it here.
We made our way down to the beach and to Saint Catherine's Fort.
St Catherine’s Fort lies on a small island just off the coast of Tenby in West Wales. It was built in the 1860s to protect the Pembrokeshire coast from possible invasion by France.
We read that James Crane spent some time on this little island. You can no longer go onto the island but it was something to look at.
It was rainy and a little chilly, but to the kids a beach is a beach and we still had a great time.
A view of St. Catherine's from on top of the hill.
Mark & I with Tenby behind us.
More treats!
The town of Tenby was a walled city with five arches that led into the town. Penally was the first village we went to to try to find anything from the James Crane story. We went to the cemetery and looked at headstones and tried to find any names from his history.
We were so excited when we found the church, but the gate was closed so we had to step up onto a bench and then into the cemetery, we were a little uneasy wondering if that was OK, then Annie walked up the path to the gate and turned the knob and walked right in-so it was OK for us to be there-Wheew. We never did find any headstones with any names that he had mentioned, but feeling there was very peaceful and the history was amazing. The kids were very interested in the people here and wondered about each one of them. Oh, if these rocks could talk.
Our next stop was Lystep, where he served as the Branch President.