Trip 19: Snowdonia National Park

Yesterday, I drove two hours to Snowdonia National Park since the girls are in Tennessee.  It was a beautiful day for a hike, but I cheated and took the train to the top instead of the 3,000 ft vertical path.

It was a super interesting train ride, and I had the opportunity to talk to a few local Brits and snap a few picts.

This seagull photobombed me and messed up the autofocus:)

Trip 18: The Open

Sunday at The Open was a lifetime experience.  What a fortunate opportunity and a great day of golf.  It was only a short drive from our house (35 minutes), and it wasn't difficult to get tickets at all.

On our way out, Dustin Johnson put one into the far rough on 16.  We had a front row look before we had to put our phone away.

Outing's selfie with Rory photobombing on the 9th hole:) 

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the "longest day" of the year, with a whopping 16hr and 58minutes from sunrise to sunset.  Which means it is basically dark only from midnight to 4am.  In fact, there are parts of Alaska that are further south than we are.  We're also further north than: Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton.  It's great during the summer, not so great during the winter.

We spent a good few hours outside in the back garden enjoying the day.

Trip 17: Palma de Mallorca

We were really lucky to take a cheap Easyjet flight to a Spanish beach this week to celebrate Christina's 35th Birthday!  It was a very culturally interesting experience, and relaxing at the same time.

Some interesting cultural highlights from a couple days in Spain:

1. "Speedos" outnumber attractive people by about 4 to 1.

2. Swimsuits are optional if you are under age 10 or so.

3. However, swimsuit tops can be removed at any age.

4. The hotel had welcome books written in 5 languages, and we met some Swedes, Germans, Brits, and locals.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes for Christina.  It was a nice break to enjoy some of the benefits from an international assignment:

Trip 16: "Bank Holiday" Weekend!

The UK has something cool called a Bank Holiday.  For Americans, it is a random day off.  The May Day Bank Holiday is the first Monday in May.  We took advantage and took the girls to a beach in Wales on Sunday.

They had a blast, but it was 53 degrees (oF) and windy.  Jeryn picked a bunch of dead crabs, none of them fortunately ended up in our luggage (Uncle Jim and Kirk).

Hope all is well.  See everyone in July when we are back.  Until then, enjoy the random picts:

The road signs in Wales are impossible to read.  Hearing Welsh spoken is absolutely incredible.

The road signs start in English.

Then they transition to English first; Welsh second.

The further you go, they transition to Welsh first, English second.

Finally, it is Welsh only.  Which means if you are American, you will be completely lost without a GPS (or SatNav as it is known here).

Trip 15: A few more picture highlights

Here are a few more highlights.  All of these pictures from the the last two posts are from the iPhone. Our 'good camera' pictures will have to wait until we get home.

Happy Easter everyone!

Trip 15: Madrid Highlights

Here are a few quick photo highlights from Spain.  Once we get home, we will get a few more updates on the blog.

Overall, Spain is fantastic and has been a wonderful experience.  We hope to come back someday!

Happy "Mum's" Day :)

Outing decided that she gets to celebrate Mother's Day twice...once for the UK, once for the US.   Thank goodness we have a "Mum" that is completely worthy of celebrating Mother's Day twice!  We are lucky:)

Of course Father's Day is the same in the UK and the US.  Read into that as you wish.

We celebrated last weekend and went to the zoo to see all our "favourite" animals:)  This picture caption says it all...

3 Years = Cute; 6 Years = Awkward

Newcastle and Durham Weekend

We took a short weekend trip to Newcastle and Durham.  It was fantastic because we met up with some Murfreesboro peeps that live by Newcastle!  Thanks Amanda, David, Shelby and Thomas!  What a nice Saturday evening.

Other than being unable to understand the "Geordie" accent, we had a nice windy weekend away, and got to explore some new castles, bridges, and one of the top rated parks in the UK.

Laura Visits

How much fun to have Laura visit us from MN a couple weeks ago! She is over here studying for a semester in Lincoln. It was 3+ hours and 3 trains for her to get here, but we sure were happy to have her. We decided since she is a pretty big Beatles fan that Liverpool was a MUST, so we checked that out on Saturday and then spent Sunday here in Chester walking the city walls, visiting the cathedral and having milkshakes! It was a fabulous weekend! Come back any time Laura, we loved having you!