Absolutely No Nasties!

Our European Vacation: Part I

Conor had to travel to England & France for work, so we planned a little vacation around it all!  The first week of our trip was in Cambridge, England where Conor was very busy with work all week. For me, however, it was just the beginning of my 3 week vacation!   We arrived on Saturday and walked around  for awhile to get our bearings and feel for Cambridge.  It's actually quite a small town with almost everything within walking distance.  Very small curvy streets and people everywhere!  We stopped at our first pub which was long, narrow, and absolutely packed.  When I ordered a hard cider, the bartender asked if I wanted a pint?  I must have given him a strange look because he proceeded to ask if I wanted a half pint or a pint!  Who wants a half pint?!  "Oh sure, just give me a little splash of beer please!" Silly English.

Although everyone speaks "English", half the time I felt like they were speaking a completely different language.  Some of the accents are very thick, and I frequently found myself asking people to repeat themselves. Some of their sayings just crack me up!  I noticed the label on a soda I was drinking that read: "Absolutely no nasties!" Nasties?  Is this something I should be worried about? Have other things I've drank had nasties?!  After trying to forget about "nasties", we went to an Indian place, aptly named The Gandhi, for dinner with a few of Conor's coworkers.  It was some of the best Indian food I have ever had!  We quickly learned that Indian cuisine is quite popular in England, so we ended up having it more than once!

Another thing I enjoyed about England: They drink lots of tea here!  Tea in the morning, tea at lunch, afternoon tea, tea after dinner.  If you're bored....make some tea!  To say the least, I drank a lot of tea and cider!  On Sunday, Conor had some work stuff, but luckily I got invited to join them!  We went to the Imperial War Museum where we had a private tour and got to see many different air craft from World War 1 and on.  Some early commercial airliners were there as well, like the Comet 4 and a Concord jet.  It was pretty interesting, but... we were there for 5 hours, so I got a little bored.  One can only look at parked airplanes for so long. :-)

Day three rolled around, and I still felt jet lagged.  Woke up early with Conor. Couldn't go back to sleep.  Tried to take a nap at noon, didn't work.  Took a nap at 4pm, finally slept til Conor got back from work.  Pretty exciting day!...  I hoped that the next few days would be better.  The food in Cambridge proved to be more and more interesting as the days went on.  The hotel had a great hot breakfast so I hit that up every morning.  However, I'm pretty sure they put tons of cream in the scrambled eggs because they are waaaay too good!  I found a fun place for lunch that wasn't too far from our hotel, but still proved difficult to find.  Its hard to find street signs here and the roads are so curvy.  I ate at a place called The Cow which is known for their pizza.  Thin crust, pretty similar to something you would see in the States except that the ingredients are just a little different.  Mine had prosciutto, marscapone, and red onions and it was delicious.  It wasn't cut into slices though, they just gave me a fork and steak knife....kinda interesting.  This was my first meal alone, and I think I did okay.  That glass of wine at noon helped! :-)

I got invited to one of Conor's work dinners at the Cambridge Chop House.  It was a very nice restaurant in quite an old building.  The main room was tiny with a bar and a few tables, then you took a wooden spiral staircase downstairs to a much larger room, and then down another half floor to the room where we ate.  So our room was more than an entire story below ground...little bit creepy.  The menu was fixed since we had such a large group and was definitely interesting.  I believe the choices for the main course were: a rump roast steak, sausage and mushroom pudding, fisherman's pie, some type of vegetable and cheese pasty, and "coil" which is pretty much a coiled up little sausage on a plate... Where's the chicken?!  I am starting to get more adventurous with my eating habits, but this was a little much.  I took the safe route and ordered the steak.

Conor and his coworkers

After dinner we went to the oldest pub in Cambridge called The Eagle.  This is supposedly where DNA was discovered as the men who discovered it frequently visited and talked over pints.  Exciting stuff!  Also, World War I soldiers took lighters and burned things into the ceiling which was very interesting to see.  Once again, I had my fill of cider while Conor got to work tasting every kind of warm beer he could find.  There are plenty of cask ales over here, some of which Conor thought were very different but good.

While Conor was working, I spent most of the days walking around, figuring out where I was going, and taking in everything around me.  Such a fun and fascinating place to be.  The weather had been sunny and clear skies most days, which is so rare for the London area.  I enjoyed being out in the Fall weather and seeing all the old buildings at many colleges and universities.  My days pretty much centered around my meals, and I spent time in-between out exploring. :-)  The streets are packed here everyday since it is a college town.  Everybody rides a bike and has these massive wicker baskets on the front.  Even the manliest guy out there has this cute little basket on his bike.  But there is nothing cute about these cyclists!  They are crazier than the cars on the road and stop for no one.  One day I even saw a bike wreck!

One evening when Conor had to work particularly late, I had dinner by myself at a sit down Thai restaurant (I had to get away from all the English food for a night).  I have to say this is the very first time I have gone out to dinner alone.  I sat at a table in the corner by myself.  I had a glass of wine while waiting for my food, and I have to say it was pretty awkward.  Finally, I pulled my kindle out of my bag and just started reading.  I had become the person that I always feel bad for at restaurants.  The old maid reading alone in the corner with her wine... :-)  I survived though and my meal was delicious.


 

Eventually Friday afternoon arrived and after our driver dropped us off at our airport hotel, Conor & I took a train into London for one crazy night of sightseeing!

Back to Back: Part II

Conor went into work really early that Friday, so that we could get on the road to San Diego a little earlier than usual.  I drove the first half, making excellent time...even though Conor had his eye on my speedometer constantly!  After a brief bathroom stop and the purchase of a couple "travelers," we continued the drive.  The radio stations driving through the dessert are always a little interesting. But lucky for us we heard Party Rock at least 6 times during our drive.  Nonetheless, when we arrived we were ready to party!

As I reached my hand over the fence to open the gate to The Hanson's house, I found an unwanted surprise.  Curt had artfully placed two Smirnoff Ice's on the ledge....very sneaky Curt!  A stomach ache later, I decided the icing needs to stop!  We'll see if that really happens or not.  That night we all went to El Camino for drinks and the hopes of some good music.  Well, the drinks were delicious as always, but the DJ was absolutely awful!  Such a disappointment.  But that didn't stop us from having fun.  Here is just a small sampling of all the crazy pictures we took that night.

The next day we walked to the local street market just a couple blocks from their house and then spent the next 2 hours talking about what we should do.... No big decision makers in the group...!  Finally,we decided on one my now favorite activities of the summer: paddle boarding!  Conor & I had never done it before and were very excited to try it out!  It was a beautiful sunny day in San Diego, just perfect weather to be out on the water.  I've heard from many people that paddle boarding is a really good workout...but not for this group!  We took the more leisurly approach, just casually paddling along and then stopping for mini naps on our boards.  It was incredible....but next time, I'd bring a cooler! ;-)

That night, it was TJ & Erin's turn to take us to their favorite Thai spot!  We ordered a ridiculous amount of food, so as to be able to try as many things as possible.  It was all so delicious, albeit a little spicy!  Erin ordered a glass of reisling with dinner which seemed odd at first, until I realized what a perfect match the sweetness of the wine with the spiciness of the food is!  How did I not know this?!  Since then, no Thai meal is complete without that glass of Riesling.  Thank you Erin!

After dinner, we turned on the Wii for some Family Feud!  I can;t believe I never knew about this game before, it is awesome!  I highly recommed that every household purchase it!  Such a fun time full of many  laughs....Survey says: "Laura & Erin win....again!"

Sunday morning, chef TJ got up early and made everyone some delicious crepes.  Since I have now been to France and had crepes there, I can say with confidence that TJ made the best crepes I've ever had.  Paris crepe stands have nothing on him!  I enjoyed every little bite.  Afterwards, the boys played some whiffle ball  to work off their breakfast.  It was a beautiful morning and felt like fall was in the air!  I was dreading the drive back to Arizona where our temperatures were still in the upper 90s.

Before we left San Diego, Curt wanted to show us his place...and I was really excited to see his cat, Leo, who is a maine coon (one big cat)!  He was just adorable and of course I now really want one.  However, we are not crazy cat people and cannot become a 3 cat household.  Someday I suppose...

Next few blogs: Our Euro Trip!

Back to Back: Part I

Still playing catch up on the blog.... 

Anyways, Conor & I have been trying to get our San Diego friends to come to Arizona all summer, but with 115 degree temps it was a little difficult.  Finally, at the end up of September things  cooled off (temperatures only in the 90s), so they made the trip over.  Our friend Curt recently moved to San Diego, so he joined TJ & Erin for the trip.  Unfortunately, his wife currently lives in San Francisco so she wasn't able to join.  But we skyped her as much as possible!

The first of night of their visit, Erin & I  sat outside enjoying the nice weather and a few cocktails.  The boys were up to no good and spent most of the evening cruising the neighborhood on our new tandem bike!  Conor & I are very excited about it.  She needs a paint job (we're thinking candy red) and few other things done, but she runs just fine!

TJ looks like the happiest boy in the whole wide world!

Saturday started off with breakfast, and what else....gin fizzes, mmm!  Just a normal Saturday morning prefunk before our float down the Salt River.  After breakfast, Curt finally found the Smirnoff Ice I left on the shelf in his bedroom the night before.  Gotta love a nice, warm icing first thing in the morning!

Conor & I had floated the Salt River once before and had a blast, so I was really excited to do it again!  The whole thing is organized so well: a bus drops you off and picks you up, they provide the tubs, and you can bring whatever you want to eat or drink, just no glass!  And you get to listen to some pretty awesome music while on the bus...usually oldies courtesy of Rhonda!  I have no pictures because we didn't want the camera to get wet.  There were some pretty strong rapids, and people were flipping out of there tubes all the time!  But not me of course ;-)

That night we took everyone out to our favorite Thai restaurant.  The place was quite busy, and we didn't get the great service that we normally do...but the food was still delicious! The three of them love Thai food, so we were hoping this place would be up to their standards.  I'm pretty sure our guests were very happy since everyone was making yummy noises while eating, and we licked the plates clean!  Plus the extra round of drinks the owner bought us at the end of our meal helped a little too!

Once back at the house, everyone was pretty wiped out from being in the sun all day, so we just relaxed on the couch playing some Catch Phrase.  Except when you're as competitive as us, it's actually not that relaxing.  Erin & I kicked the boys butts as usual...we're just THAT good!

Sunday morning showed its face way too soon, as it always does.  We have such a fun time together, we never want the weekend to end!  So it was decided...Conor & I had no plans for the following weekend, so we were gonna road trip to San Diego!  At least we had the week to recover for more fun with T, E, & C!

Next up: Part II