Favorite Things

We're all set for London - or at least we have our rail tickets purchased & last night Kevin booked us a dinner cruise for my birthday!!! We'll be on board crusin away in London eating good food and drinking delicious drinks in 2 days. But of course I have nothing to wear :) Which means I already booked a rail ticket to travel into Manchester solo to do some dress shopping for our dinner date.

2 days straight going to the gym - yay for me! Amazes me how long it takes to get in shape but how quickly it all goes away. Starting from scratch, good a place as any to start I suppose. 9 short months till the Marathon......yikes

I've added a link to the left - Beans, Wine & Chocolate. I figured since Andrea is a stay at home mom now and well I'm a stay at home wife?! that we could exchange recipes and food ideas. Maybe after Kevin & I make a meal I'll even take a picture of it so I can post it with the recipe?!!!

Ticket to Ride

Came back to England to the following good things:

1. An email from Andrea, Tim & Olivia with their flight itinerary into London in May to visit us!!!!
2. 2 pieces of mail: a birthday card from Joanne with pictures of Dylan enclosed & a card with ewes on the front from Erin McGinnis - YAY, loved them both.
3. Email notification that the new game I purchased, Ticket to Ride Europe, has been shipped!!
4. 4 days till Friday, February 13th - which means 4 days till my love & I begin the celebration of my 27th birthday in London!! WhoopWhoop :)

Gonna be a good week - I just know it.

Great Scotts!

We made it back from Scotland! We had an awesome time sans a couple navigational problems (it helps if you bring a good map) We left Saturday morning and arrived in Edinburgh around noonish. We found a parking garage and set out on foot to find some grub. Most all the local pubs were slammed with men in jerseys watching the soccer match that was on making it impossible to get in to order food. We settled for a pretty Americanized pub - but it did the job. Next up, Edinburgh Castle. Getting to the Castle from the side of the city that we were on required hoofing it up the side of a giant hill - but we made it. The views of Edinburgh once up in the Castle were incredible...we tried taking pictures but, as always, the pictures barely do it justice. We toured the entire Castle over the next 2 hours and then did a pretty big loop of the rest of the city on foot while getting back to our car. Once in the car it took us an hour of driving to get to our hotel that turned out to be less than a mile away from where we parked (this is where a good map would have been handy). Throughout the afternoon we had peaked in different restaurants trying to figure a place for dinner. We changed and walked to Hadrins and proceeded to have the best dinner!! On the way home we stopped at a pub for a drink and then sat at our hotels' bar for a while afterwards. The next morning we were up and at 'em and headed for Arthurs Seat which is situated ontop a mountain. Neither of us had our hiking boots on but we were determined to get to the top. And we did! We thought the views from the castle were good - the views from Arthurs Seat were even more amazing. We made it down, stopping at a few other ruins - and then got in the car to head back to England. Getting out of Edinburgh we saw signs for Rosalyn Chapel another destination we had wanted to see. The cost to get in was pretty steep so we just walked around the outside - Scotlands most gothic Chapel and one of the sites for Dan Browns Da Vinci Code. Once back in the car and a couple wrong turns later with no map in hand we were on a tiny road that went between, up and down mountains. But! because my love is amazing we ended up right where we needed to be - home :) All in all Edinburgh was awesome. The architecture, views and men in kilts being the highlights. Take a look at our photo album for more pics. The one picture above is of a hair salon that offered a shot of vodka while getting your hair trimmed...NICE!!! The other picture is of us ontop of Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh done. Next up London this weekend. We've already booked our hotel...just need to our transportation.

Olivia Marie Genius Hertel

Our new little niece is a genius!!! Which might I add I predicted based on the intelligence level of both Andrea & Tim. She has rolled over on her own 3 times! Which for those of you not familiar with the progression of wee ones doesn't normally happen till at the earliest 8 weeks. This little lady is only 7 weeks old...actually she might have only been 6 weeks old when she first shocked the world with a roll over. Ohh and I forgot to mention that she is smiling as well...another milestone hit early :) Imagine if I was able to visit with her everyday - she would probably be walking by now...

Winter Weather

Today & yesterday dumped the most snow England has seen in 18 years. London has seen the worst of it - Heathrow airport canceled over 800 flights and all the train routes were severely impacted...causing chaos, as you might imagine. Fortunately/Unfortunately little ole' Walney Island barely even received a dusting - although the temps are hovering right around freezing.

We plan to go to Scotland this weekend for an overnighter :) There are quite a few castles in Edinburgh that we hope to make it to & we read about quite a few other notable sites as well. Its my task today to book us a place to stay. Ideally we're looking for a Bed & Breakfast but after looking online the availability might be an issue - most of them need a 2 night guarantee for weekends.

Yesterday I successfully joined the gym!!! We encountered a few issues when we originally tried to join (their systems weren't equipped to handle payment from a US bank account). But alas I'm a member. Kevin and I call it Globo Gym (in reference to the movie Dodge Ball) - and it's a very close comparison.

Check it out!! haha

click here!

a commercial that airs frequently here.

And they say everything is bigger in Texas...

We conquered Manchester! It was a shoppers paradise...I can only imagine the damage I could have done with my sister or Mary - or both?!! Kevin turned out to be quite the little shopper though and ended our day-o-shopping with a few more items than myself. I told Kevin at dinner that I don't think I have ever shopped from noon to six straight - no lunch stop, no water break, no nothin. Watch out Andrea & Mary your positions as my shopping mates might be in jeopardy.

Different fashions we observed in the hoards of people that were out:
skinny jeans....on guys?!
tights and/or leggings...every girl was in them
boots & uggs
it was similar to New York in that there were a fair share of people stretching the "fashion bar". Needless to say none of our purchases involved any of the above.

Not sure if you would go to Manchester for much more than good shopping. There were a ton of old buildings but not very many tourist attractions. We stayed for dinner and few drinks at a bar/restaurant KRO and then hopped on the 8pm train headed back to Barrow. We both agreed that we would want to go back & possibly next time stay over - there appeared to be a good night life & if we could find a reasonable hotel then why not.

Kevin is still sick :/ And the grocery stores hardly have any medicine - probably a quarter of the selection we have back home. But we did find and purchase the Mansize Tissues - which if you go to our photo album (one of the sidelinks) you can see just how much bigger they are then a regular tissue. If you're lucky some of you might find these bad boys under the Christmas Tree next year....

Good things about today:
Superbowl Sunday with loves wings!!
The start to my birthday month :)