A Young Invasion

You know how some people come into your life and you can’t remember the time before they were there because their experiences are so similar to your experiences?  We’re so blessed to have some great friends that fit that mold.

When Beth & Garrett decided to come over, they told us they wanted a relaxing week where they could take in the English countryside and feel a bit of the British lifestyle.  We took those instructions and promptly ignored them.  Their week here ended up being one of the most intense sightseeing weeks ever.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to fly 12 hours after it & go to work the following day!

Our first day together started as any other day in England – with a bit of rain and a snail on the driveway.

Once the showers passed, we headed out to Bath.  It was an absolutely beautiful day for a walking tour of the city and a cream tea in the afternoon. 

Garrett also toured the Roman Baths while Beth, Adam & I toured the fudge shoppe next door.  Both came with free samples at the end.  Garrett’s was of the mineral water that tastes a bit of sulfur and old Roman’s bathing.  Ours was chocolate orange handmade fudge.  We totally won.

In the evening we went up to our local pub for the weekly quiz night.  The pub quiz is a very big thing over here.  Nearly every pub will have one on a specified evening each week.  Quizzes will vary wildly in difficulty and level of humor.  Typically, there are 5-10 rounds with 10 or so questions in each round.  The Quizmaster runs the whole show and will announce the questions to the various teams.  Teams are typically friends or colleagues who have to come up with a creative team name each week.  We selected ‘The loud American’s’.  Maybe not creative, but factually correct.  Each round will have a specified topic (ie. Sports, Geography, In the news) and there are also picture and music rounds where you try to work out an distorted image or garbled song.  All very entertaining & very, very English-centric.  Our lack of knowledge of British history hampered us a bit (or, perhaps, it was the bottle of wine combined with the lack of food – who knew they closed the kitchen at the pub for quiz night!) and we came in last place.  By a significant margin.

Day two started with a tour of Cheddar and Wells.  Cheddar is beautiful.  Has gorgeous walks along the top of the gorge with views of the surrounding countryside.  Or, you can just go eat cheese & ice cream.  Good Somerset cows in Cheddar.

In the evening, we did a Cider Tasting.  Cider is extremely popular in this part of the UK but I can’t seem to get the hang of drinking it.  It is a carbonated, fermented alcoholic apple juice.  At office happy hours and such, colleagues give me ciders to try.  I’ve hated nearly all of them.  Adam & I had found a coupon for this cider tasting and had wanted to see if it could help us find something we like.  Luckily, Beth & Garrett are up to exploring as well.  And even better, Garrett has now discovered a new hobby…scrumpy cider.  Scrumpy cider is the unfiltered, cloudier cider often made from apples at the end of the season that are on the verge of going bad already.  According to our tasting guide (who also makes his own cider) you can make scrumpy cider in your garage with just some apples, sugar, yeast & a couple of 5 gallon buckets.  Not that I don’t trust you, Garrett, but I don’t think I’ll be drinking anything you ferment in a Home Depot bucket anytime soon.

Wednesday was a walk through Bristol and lunch in the park.  Our streak of amazing weather continued and we also stumbled upon a new great viewing location for the suspension bridge.  Warning to all future visitors, the Bristol walking tour just expanded by one stop!

Beth may have also been a bit excited to see Cary Grant.

That evening, I was going to make some soup for dinner.  Garrett offered to help.  I have an awful time with onions – I cannot dice them without welling up, so I asked if he minded chopping the onions for the soup.  He agreed and then quickly disappeared – only to reemerge about 5 minutes later with a pair of goggles which he’d brought from home.  He proceeded to wear said goggles while chopping up the onions.  Why he’d brought goggles from Texas I still question, but it sure made for an entertaining evening.

What trip to the UK would be complete without a visit to Stonehenge?  People at work think I’m going for the world record of number of times photographed infront of Stonehenge in two years.  Well, in that case.  Add one more to my tally!

Friday, our final day together, we headed across the bridge to Wales. 

Beth found Aberdulais Falls in a guide book we had at the house, so we thought we’d check it out.  Power has been drawn from the waterfall at the site since 1584, when it first provided energy used in the manufacture of copper, using ore imported from Cornwall. The copper-works ceased to operate early in the 17th century, and the site was later used for corn-milling and later as a tinplate works.  The area is undergoing extensive renovation but even through the construction, the waterfalls are beautiful now.

Then the day got strange.  Garrett smooched with a cow…

and Beth had baked beans on her baked potato.

Luckily, Adam & I were the source of all reason.

Well, kinda.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning came and we had to drive them to the coach station to send them on their way back to Texas (via Heathrow airport).  Miss you both!  Can’t wait for our next trip.  What are you guys up for?  New Zealand? Argentina? Morocco?