The Powell B&B

Friends at work are amazed at how many people have come to visit us this summer.  We tell them it’s because we have awesome friends who love to travel and want to see us.  They usually respond with the fact that we also provide free accommodation for people’s vacations.  Though we are continuing to believe the former, who is staying at our bed & breakfast is part of the regular tea break conversation in the office.

Well, some recent visitors included the Ewin’s & the Bailey’s.  Bill & Debra were the small group leaders at our church when we first moved to Bedford and remain close friends and prayer warriors for us.  We’re also so grateful they’ve introduced us to their children some of whom also visited earlier this year.  Bill & Debra’s plan to visit has had us the most worried of any of our visitors.  See, they didn’t buy plane tickets.  They non-reved from Dallas to London.  (And they made it!)

Jenn and I lived down the hall from each other our freshman year at ACU and even though she ditched us for that other school (A&M), we’re still glad that she’s stayed in our lives.  I knew that she & Ben had been planning a European adventure of their own for some time now and we couldn’t have been more excited when they decided they had time to come out to Bristol to visit us as part of their very short & intense trip.

The Ewin’s arrived first after spending a few days in London.  I coincidently had some meetings in London one day while they were there so I got to also meet them for dinner.  Remember the Moroccan restaurant, Leon that I’ve raved about previously.  They have backed me up on this – it’s a keeper.  You need to try this place next time you’re in London. 

Anyway, when they arrived, we got to take them all around Bristol.  They passed the Suspension Bridge Quiz and we even got to watch the bridge swing to let some boats into the lock at the harbor.  After that excitement we picnic lunched in the park and lazily walked down the hill … shopping a bit as we went.

We also made sure they had the full English pub experience and took them down to the local in our neighborhood.

Not to be outdone in tour guide skills, Daisy & Ginger volunteered to take Bill on a walk in their park to show off all the hills and paths through the trees.  (They however did not pick the sunny warm day to do their tour that we had!)

Saturday evening, the Bailey’s joined us so Sunday the six of us caravanned to Stonehenge.  For those keeping score at home, this is trip number four for the Powell’s – don’t bother getting the audio guide, Adam will recite it to you!  In all seriousness, though, we really enjoy going to places with all the people who come visit and it still amuses us a bit when each new person sees the stones pop up over the horizon.

We even had time for a picnic prior to heading to the tour of Bath.  Sorry to tell you, I've run out of fun facts on Bath.  You've also seen all my pictures of the Abbey, the Baths & the fudge shoppe (although we do now have loyalty cards to the fudge shoppe...apparently we've been there a couple of times too).  

I wish we could have had another week with each of you here, but we’re so glad  you chose to spend some of your vacation time with us!