Chet & Chris come to England! Part 2

We had quite the adventure on one our our daytrips with Thomas' parents. We were planning on going to Warwick Castle, so I typed Warwick Castle into our GPS and we set out on our way. We ended up driving through central London, which is nowhere near where the castle was supposed to be. At this point I realized that I had set the GPS to a different Warwick Castle (apparently), and we were still 2 hours away from the actual castle. We weren't really in the mood to drive another 2 hours to find it, plus we wouldn't have made it before they closed anyways. We discovered that there was a Windsor Castle right outside of London, so we decided to find that one instead. We found it, and I'm glad we did! It was a beautiful castle, and it is an official residence of the Queen - she uses it for weekends and summers. We toured the castle and the grounds - it was very impressive and beautiful. 

Windsor Castle

Castle grounds

More castle grounds

Cute little restaurant outside the castle

Lent started last week, so we had fish and chips at the Minster Tavern in Ely on Friday. Everything was delicious, except the peas ;)

Saturday was the market day in Ely, so we headed to High Street and walked around the market. Thomas stumbled across a fabric/craft section in the back of a toy store in town - random, but exciting! We did some geocaching with Thomas' parents, it was really fun and helped us to explore parts of the town we hadn't seen before! After church on Sunday we headed to Bury St. Edmunds to see what all it had to offer. SHOPPING, that's what it had to offer :) We didn't stay too long, it was raining pretty hard and they guys weren't too into shopping, but it was nice to discover the mall and movie theatre there - now we know where to go for date nights!

We found a nice horse :)

Ely!

Beautiful! Perfect for picnicking when the weather gets nicer :)

Shopping in Bury 

We found a geocache outside the pet store!

Thomas headed back to work the second week his parents were here, and they took the train into London for three days. They walked all over the city and came back exhausted on Wednesday night :) We spent Thursday and Friday recovering and relaxing - we had some awesome movie marathons and enjoyed watching the Arizona Wildcats win their first March Madness game! :) We are sad to see Thomas' parents go, but we're so glad they came to visit and hang out with us! 

Chet & Chris come to England! Part 1

We have been so fortunate to have people visit us in England already! Thomas' parents came to see us for two weeks this month. We had lots of fun exploring England with them, going to the pub, and just relaxing! I was sick the first week they were here, so they explored with Thomas some while I recovered at home. They got a tour of RAF Lakenheath, and walked around our little town of Ely. 

Thomas, Chet, and Zoe

Chet & Chris in the Ely Cathedral

They were so lucky - they got to see the best loo in England!

Monday we took a road trip to northern England. We stopped in Nottingham first, which is known for its Robin Hood history. We drove down Maid Marian Way, saw the Nottingham Castle (it was closed so we weren't able to go in), and walked around the cute little city.

Nottingham

Me, Thomas, and Chet with a Robin Hood statue in Nottingham

Next we continued north to Lyme Park. This is where they filmed some scenes with Pemberley House for the Pride and Prejudice TV series. Thomas and I hadn't seen the TV series (although I want to now!), but it was still amazing to see this beautiful house, and the even more beautiful surrounding gardens. The gardens weren't even in bloom, yet they were still so pretty and well maintained.

Lyme Park gardens

Beautiful house at Lyme Park

Finally, we continued on to Liverpool which is on the northwest coast of England. We were originally searching for a house that had been converted to a coffee shop that was the first place the Beatles ever performed. We found the house (maybe), but it wasn't a coffee shop, so we're not positive we were in the right spot. So we decided to find the Cavern Club, which is a club the Beatles played at over 300 times in their career. We immediately knew we were in the right area - there were Beatles statues, posters, and shops everywhere around us! It was pretty cool to be around all that music history, and even cooler to go into the Cavern Club. We sat down, had a pint, and listened to a guy play Beatles songs on stage. AWESOME. 

Me and Thomas in the Cavern Club - the Beatles used to play on that very stage behind us!

Chet and Chris in front of the Cavern Club

Zoe helping Thomas play dominoes ;)

Game night!

Thomas took his parents to Dover one day (I wasn't feeling well enough to do all the walking around there, so I stayed at home). They walked along the tops of the White Cliffs of Dover, explored the old war tunnels in the cliffs, went to Dover Castle, and the Battle of Britain Museum. A very productive day!

Chris and Chet at the White Cliffs of Dover

They climbed to the bottom of the cliffs on this ladder! Scary!

Beautiful view

Thomas and Chet

To be continued! :)

Fashion Weekend

A couple weekends ago I went with some girls to Fashion Week in London. Now I'm not huge into fashion, but I thought it would be fun to have some girl time and see what the experience is all about. Turns out it was pretty awesome! I figured all of the designer stuff they were selling would be way too expensive, but it was decently priced! I was good and only bought a couple of things, but this room of shoes almost sent me over my spending budget!

Shoes galore!!

After walking around and shopping we went to the catwalk show, which was interesting - I liked looking at the outfits and laughing at the ones that were so outrageous! 

Catwalk

Too skinny!

After the Fashion Week events we walked around London a little, had some lunch, did some more shopping, and headed home - a very successful Saturday!

Somerset House where the fashion events were

Skate park right by the River Thames in London - people are allowed to graffiti in there, which is cool because then it is more contained to that area instead of being all over the city!