Cambridge & Ely

Mom and I took a drive to Cambridge on Friday for a little window shopping and picture taking. I'd worked in Cambridge for my last job, but never been anywhere besides my office and the Tesco next door, so it was nice to explore the beautiful city a little.

This was our kind of store!

Drew's future school ;)

King's College

Courtyard at King's College

Sunday we went into Ely to show mom the cathedral and High Street. The shops tend to close pretty early on Sundays (or not open at all), but we found some shopping and good deals - a successful day!

Ely Cathedral

Huuuuge doors at the Ely Cathedral

The door you actually walk through, cute :)

High Street

Mom, me, and Thomas hanging out with the dogs at home

I am so sad that my mom's visit has come to an end, but we had such a great time this week, and hopefully she will be back this summer with Dad and Drew in tow :) Love you mom!

Bath

We took a little road trip to Bath on Saturday. I was a little worried the city might not be worth the 4-hour drive each way, but it definitely was. Aside from the terrible traffic and lack of parking (I may have had some choice words for some bold pedestrians - sorry mom!), Bath was amazing and so picturesque, we could definitely see why it is a World Heritage Site.

Mom was a little cold all the time ;)

We visited the Roman Baths, and did the audio tour for it - we were glad we did that, we got to learn a lot. The hot springs here are the only ones in the UK, and some of the stuff they had on display was amazing considering how old it was. My favorite were the curses that they fished from the bottom of the Sacred Spring here - they had some of them on display and translated them. They were mostly cursing the people who stole people's clothes from the baths, and wanting the Goddess Sulis Minerva to punish them. Seems a little drastic for stealing clothes, but still interesting!

The Bath Abbey from inside the Roman Baths

Mom and Thomas 

The baths are amazing - 2,000 years later and they still operate the same as always

Trying the Bath water - ew. Thomas drank a little too much and got a stomachache :/

After the Roman Baths we got lost in explored the city some more and got to see some of the amazing architecture and culture that exists here.

The Bath Abbey

Beautiful city

There was a rugby match going on in the background

Pulteney Bridge

Flower shop on the Pulteney Bridge

The Circus - these buildings were all around this center circle

The Royal Crescent

If you are thinking about buying a townhouse in the Royal Crescent...better start saving your pennies. That's 4,500,000 POUNDS if you can't see the price :)

There is a lot more to do in Bath, but since we were just there for the day we wanted to hit the major sites. There is a Jane Austen centre for those interested in her life in Bath, and they offer some free downloadable tours so you can do a self-guided walking tour for free! They have that for a general city tour, and a Jane Austen tour also (I thought you might like that Chet and Chris!). If you're ever in the area, I think Bath is a must-see :)

Mama Mason comes to London

My wonderful dad got my mom a plane ticket to visit us for Christmas, so she finally arrived on February 14th. Despite a couple of parking snafus I made it to the airport on time and we met up with no problems, phew! We took the tube to our hotel, which was in the old "County Hall", a great location right next to the London Eye. Here's what mom got to see as soon as we stepped off the tube:

Mom in front of Parliament

We relaxed and had dinner at the hotel that night, walked around by the London Eye which was all lit up in red for Valentine's Day.

Tuesday we started with Afternoon Tea at the Ritz Hotel, which was lovely. We wanted to try and do some things that Thomas, dad, and Drew might not want to do, and tea was definitely at the top of the list. So was shopping at Harrods, which we accomplished after tea. I had pictured Harrods in my head, had heard how huge it was, but it was so much bigger than I ever imagined, it was crazy! There are over 300 departments there and 4,000 employees! 

Mom with our desserts and tea sandwiches

Palm Court where tea is served

That is alllll Harrods!

Mom loved this at Harrods, we didn't get it though :)

Tuesday night we went to see Leslie Jordan's comedy show at the Apollo Theatre - he is the little man who guest star's in Will & Grace (that's where we know him from at least) - and he was hilarious.

Wednesday we set out for some serious walking adventures. We started out with the London Eye, which some people here say is overrated but we thought it was awesome. We saw Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, had lunch at a pub, and got lost in a questionable part of town looking for a movie theatre (which we didn't find). It was a very productive day - we saw everything we wanted to, but still left some things for when dad and Drew come to town.

Me and mom on the London Eye

View of Parliament and Big Ben from London Eye

Our hotel was in that building - County Hall

Mom in front of Westminster Abbey

Taxis getting ready to race at Buckingham Palace. Not really, but that's what it looked like to me ;)

Mom in Trafalgar Square 

We had fish and chips!

Buckingham Palace

Tower of London

Mom on the tube going back to our house

We've had so much fun, the trip is definitely off to a great start :)

Countdowns!!

Well we haven't done anything out of the ordinary lately, between work and more work, we have just been relaxing when the weekend finally rolls around. We've been wanting to take a weekend trip, but we finally decided we would rather save our money for a weekend trip we really want to go on, rather than going on a trip just to go. We finally found some good prices for plane tickets and booked some to Dublin, Ireland for the end of March! We haven't decided on everything we want to do there, but we know touring the Guinness Factory will be at the top of the list :) So that is on our countdown list along with...

My mom comes in TWO WEEKS!

Thomas' mom and dad come in FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS!

Dublin in EIGHT WEEKS!

And this one is a ways off, but I get to meet some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Italy in June (Thomas too if he is here!) so that is less than FIVE MONTHS away!

SO much to look forward to this year, makes me reconsider getting a permanent job...oh darn :)