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| Crazy people on the bridge in Oxford that our boat can't get under |
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| Tom mucks with the plumbing... |
Thankfully, Tom has both the skills, the will, and the internal fortitude in the face of sewage, to solve the problem.
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| ...while girls and grandparents play cards on land |
We spent just two days in Oxford and then turned the boat around to head down river. However, just as we started down, Tom got the news that his brother, John, was very sick which turned into the news that he had pancreatic cancer and a very bad prognosis. Tom needed to fly home and for this we needed to be docked somewhere with power and toilets. He got the boat to a marina just outside Reading and jumped on a plane. Sadly, Tom's brother passed away before Tom made it home. He was able to be there for the funeral and to support John's wife and daughter, though, and he also made it to the island service for Leann's mother who had also succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Oh those pancreases!!!
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| Walking the Thames Path |
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| A coffee break at Nero Café in Reading |
Unfortunately, I have been remiss in my duty to learn to drive the boat. I can manage it fine on the open river, but I have not learned the finer points of manoeuvering on and off docks and in and out of locks. As a result, during the remainder of my parents' visit we were stationary at the Thames and Kennett marina, a lovely marina but not so well located. We explored Reading, but even according to the tourist websites, Reading's big draw is good shopping. Georgia and Grandma played lots of card games and read together and the girls found an excellent blackberry source with their grandfather.
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| The girls picking blackberries on the lane out of the marina |
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| Seven miles of beautiful sand beach at Bournemouth |
In search of excitement, we found the beach town of Bournemouth where we had a couple of great days and splashed in the sea with the Brits.
My parents flew back to Canada on August 8 and Tom made it back to the boat on the 10th.
After a big grocery load up at the most convenient grocery store ever, we started back down the river.
The highlight of this part of the journey was the River and Rowing Museum at Henley where Georgia rowed a bit and enjoyed the Wind in the Willows exhibit.
Finally, on August 19th our pass for the Thames expired, meaning that we needed to be below the last lock, in the tidal part of the river. We headed down river with a pretty vague plan and ultimately wound up motoring for 11 hours, out the last lock of the non tidal Thames, through London, and into the mouth of the river. 
During this adventure, Emily, who had been sick with a runny nose and face ache that seemed to be sinusitis, wound up sleeping for four or five hours. Needless to say, this is unheard of for her. On August the 20th we made it to the town of Chatham, where we were familiar with the marina, and got Emily to the doctor. Sadly, we followed the doctor visit with a hospital admission as a urine test showed that Emily's blood sugar was sky high and her blood was full of ketones. She was suffering from Diabetic Ketoacidosis, brought on by undiagnosed Type I diabetes and a deficit in insulin production. The pancreas strikes again!!
Emily had just one night in the hospital, receiving fluid and insulin by IV before being discharged with a load of information and diabetic paraphernalia. She's taken it all in stride and instantly determined that she did not want either of her parents on the other side of her daily needles. In addition to doing all her own blood tests and insulin injections, she's monitoring her own diet very well and monitoring ours at the same time!
We need to stay here under excellent British follow-up care until Emily's blood sugar is stable in the healthy range. This will mean regular visits to the nearby Historic Dockyard where an admission ticket is good for a whole year. We went yesterday for a bit and Georgia took her turn at making rope in the ropery.