The Birds

After the outrageously bad service we got in the hotel restaurant for dinner, the next morning we went out for breakfast in a cold rain, walked up hill most of the way, and had McDonald's for breakfast. This meal was our first foray into an American chain restaurant and just goes to show how little we liked our experience.

On our last day at hotel #3, we ran a bunch of stuff to the new residence, a quaint little cottage in the countryside for which a blog will be posted shortly. We couldn't quite fit all our possessions in the car, so we had to go back to the hotel to get the last few bags. We walked up into town afterwards to get a snack and a little toy treat for the kids who are starting to show signs of the stress of moving again and again and again and again ad infinitum.

As we were walking through the shopping district, we saw a bakery called Greggs and decided to get a mid-morning snack. We bought some yum yums, i.e. hand-twisted donuts with a sugar glaze. Well, one had a sugar glaze, the other had toffee glaze. Choosing some juices, we made our purchase. We found a bench outside that didn't have bird poop on it. We started to enjoy our snack.

A pigeon came up and started walking around in front of us in an expectant way. Then another pigeon came up. Then one walked our from under our bench. Soon they were coming in twos and threes. This behavior started to bug everyone, so I took a piece of the yum yum and threw it about fifteen feet away. Suddenly, two dozen birds pounced on the spot where it landed. We had peace for about two minutes. Then they started walking back toward us.

Jacob decided to take matters into his own hands. He got up and started chasing individual birds. He was having fun stomping near them to make them jump. He was very brave until he ran into a batch of them. He backed away. I threw another piece of donut and he laughed at how they zoomed over to it. One bird flew in from almost a block away to try for the treat. We had peace for about two minutes. Then they started walking back toward us.

By this point, we were finished with the pastries and had only juice. The birds were not amused at such a paltry offering. Deciding the best defense was a hasty retreat, we headed into the little mall where the toy store is located. Those birds were pretty bold but not bold enough to follow us inside. For which we are very grateful.

Later, when we told the story to Mommy, the number of birds grew to 500 million. We just barely escaped with brave Jacob leading the way through the birds. His reward was Scratch, the small digger on Bob the Builder's crew. He took Scratch to bed with him for nap time at our new cottage. More later!