Look kids, Big Ben…Parliament
That’s right, if you’ve seen European Vacation, you know what our title to this blog is all about…..we drove on the “wrong” side of the road today for the first time!! We are so grateful to our friend, Todd, for allowing us to not only use his vehicle to learn on, but also for his patience while we figured out street signs and round-a-bouts….those were fun! Mike and I both took turns driving and were quite surprised by how natural it felt to be shifting with our left hand instead of our right. We will need much more practice, but will get that practice this coming week when Mike’s parents visit us! We cannot wait for their Friday arrival! They’ll be here until the 10th and we’ve got lots of great things planned. They are renting a car for the week and so we’ll have lots of fun chauffeur-ing them around…..those blogs are yet to come….stay tuned!
We’ll miss Mike a latte!!
That’s right, your favorite husband and mine =-) has completed his work at the Stockbridge/Baker’s Place Starbucks. Yesterday, Wednesday, was his final shift, and thankfully, we were able to work together! We really will miss working together on a more regular basis, but this switch is best if we want to holiday together, which we do! The main reason for Mike leaving this location is that if he and I both take holiday at the same time, then it becomes really difficult for our store to not only pay us for our vacation time, but then to also cover both of our shifts with remaining partners, particularly since we’re from the states and when we travel home we’ll be traveling for greater lengths of time. Therefore, he will now be found in the Starbucks on the Royal Mile as a shift supervisor…that’s right, he’s taking a step up in the world and joining the ranks for shift supervisor! Starbucks is always swapping partners to cover shifts, so there’s always the possibility that we’ll get to work a few shifts together, but for the most part we’ll now be at different stores. S Below is a picture of us on our final shift together…..for old times sake……..
York Dorks—-but only for a weekend!
Hello gang! I know it’s been too long since we’ve posted here on the ol’ blog. There hasn’t been a lot going on except for stresses at work and Mike’s writing. While Mike’s writing is going well (he’s passed his 10,000 word mark!) the job situation at Starbucks is not the best, so we’ve been venting to each other about that a lot and praying that we’d have the right attitude about things and that God would give us both patience and guidance as we walk that path.
But now, we do have something that is blog worthy to write about! We took our first ever trip to England! We typically wouldn’t have just picked up and gone somewhere for the weekend without a reason….our reason this time happened to be a person! Many of you will remember Gabi Lagemann that was a German exchange student who is very close to Steve and Carol Henry. She came to the states when I was in early high school, I suppose, and we’ve been in infrequent contact since then….just the odd email every once in a while and such. Anyway, her Easter holiday had her traveling from Germany to Peterborough, England and she wanted to know if we could come down and meet her. So, we each traveled 2.5 hours and met midway in York, England and we had a blast!! Mike and I decided to make a weekend of it. We left early on Friday and made it to our bed and breakfast by 10.We walked the city and were able to get into the York Minster for free since it was Good Friday. They were having a service full of short dramas, sermonettes and singing so we joined in for a bit to make sure we focused on the reason that we celebrate this weekend! (HE IS RISEN!) Anyway, then we found a Starbucks and sat for a while in the warmth because the day had so many different weather patterns in it…..sunny and beautiful, wet and rainy, snowy and freezing……the list goes on. Then we went to the National Railway Museum because they had a Chinese exhibit, weirdly enough, because of the Olympics…and we got our names written in Chinese. It was very fun! They had the dancing dragons and loud drums and everything! We had dinner at a restaurant called Tuscany and went back to the b & b for some r & r. The views of York are stunning and it’s such a quaint little town!
On Saturday we met Gabi at the train station at quarter to eleven and went to walk the wall of York straight away! We walked at the perfect time because again, later in the day, it began to snow. Walking the wall of York is to just walk the high wall around the city and look down on all the homes and such……it’s really quite magnificent! We went to “el piano” for lunch and had a vegetarian meal…though if you know us, you know we aren’t vegetarian’s by any stretch. Gabi knew someone who had told her how nice el piano was and so we tried it. We shared several little bamboo boats filled with different kinds of snacks all equaling a meal. It was great! Then we went to the Jorvik (pronounced Yorvic) museum and saw a little bit about the life of the Vikings. Afterwards we went on a walk through the Shambles and on to a little cafe to share coffee, treats and of course, pictures! Gabi had surprised us by bringing pictures of our engagement party from nearly 4 years ago! She and I had tried on wedding dresses together and so we shared many fun memories of that time. I had taken family pictures so she could get re-acquainted with my family through hearing their stories and seeing what they’re up to (thanks, Gwen, for sending those pics at Christmas….that’s all I had to share!!). Then it was time for Gabi to get back to the train, so we said our goodbyes and vowed that it wouldn’t be another 4 years until we see each other again…hopefully we’ll get to see her in Germany sometime…wouldn’t that be cool???!!!
After saying goodbye to her, Mike and I went to dinner at The Harker and headed on back to the b & b. It had been getting gloomier throughout the day, so we were ready to be in and settled for the evening….old fogies, I know. Then yesterday morning, we had our breakfast and made for the train so we could be on the 10am train and back to Edinburgh by 12:30…..not our typical Easter morning, but very fun!
Now we’re back at our flat trying to warm up….it’s so chilly! And today begins another work week……I’ll leave pictures of the weekend for you to peruse below. Hope you enjoy seeing York!
So that’s York, England in a nutshell! If you visit us and want to take a little trip there it’s only 2.5 hours away! Happy Easter, everyone!
