Today we needed to be at Heathrow by 8:00am to meet Aunty Jean. Dad knocked on my door thinking it was 6:20am. It was 5:20am! Anyway, suffice to say we were at the airport in plenty of time. And Aunty Jean's flight was delayed by an hour. We settled in for the wait in the Arrivals Hall of Terminal 2. When we figured she should be getting close to coming through, we took up position so that she could easily see us and we could easily see her. So many short ladies with short grey hair walked through those doors!! It took ages, but eventually the one we were looking for came through. There was tears of relief and joy, and then we were ready to head off on our adventure.

We drove south to Woking where we were to find the official record of Richard Steer marrying Sarah Skinner in 1826. After an awful lot of form filling and bag checking, we were handed the book that contained the official record of marriages from the church in Lingfield. It was amazing to hold such an old book that contained the records of marriages from so long ago. We could touch where Richard and Sarah had made their marks on the page on the day of their wedding. It was so moving. We were also shown a printed book that had been typed up showing the list of baptisms from the same era. We found Richard's baptism listed, along with his brothers and sisters.

We drove south to Portsmouth and found our next accommodation, the Duke of Buckingham Hotel. More narrow stairs up to our rooms, but the rooms are lovely. We walked down to the old Dockyards to see some of the history and where the First Fleet left from. Unfortunately we were too late to walk around the Dockyards themselves. We could just make out the top of 'HMS Victory', Lord Nelson's flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar.

We had tea at the Hotel Anson. Mum, Aunty Jean and Merady all enjoyed a pitcher of Pimms, and Dad had a Speckled Hen beer. After the main meal, the lady manager enticed us with sweets. She offered us a Knickerbocker Glory. We didn't know what one was but she explained and we figured that we should try one out. Pears and peaches, strawberry sauce, ice-cream, strawberry ice-cream and cream. Phew! It was quite a treat.