Stonehenge

Yesterday we went to see Stonehenge. I was so excited because it was such a beautiful day outside. We wanted to bring Lizzy with us, but they only allow assistance dogs. I thought I could convince someone that she was an assistance dog, but Steven said no.

 It was a two and a half hour drive to get there so we wanted to spend as much time there as possible. They give you these recorders with all the history on it for you to listen to while you walk around the site. I have ADD, and was unmedicated that day. So if you would like to know any of that information you will need to ask Steven. It did catch my attention when they started talking about the myths. The most popular myth is that Stonehenge was built by aliens. There is another that says that wizard Merlin built it with magic, and another that says it as built by giants. The funniest story is that the devil tricked an old woman in Ireland into giving him the stones and flew them to where they are now in Salisbury, and that he dropped a few in the country side on the way. The ones he dropped are still there to this day. I personally don't believe any of this. I think that because Stonehenge was built so long ago all records of how it was built have been lost. Just because you can't explain something doesn't mean it must have been aliens!

No matter how or why it was constructed, it is a magnificent sight, and an experience I will never forget.

Here is our favorite photo.

For those of you who don't know, Steven enjoys annoying me. His favorite form is to tickle me until I get the hiccups. Apparently I have very funny hiccups, because when he succeeds he laughs uncontrollably until I manage to get rid of them. On this occasion he decided to take pictures of me without telling me he was doing so..

This is when I figured it out.

But I smiled anyway and it turned out to be a pretty good photo. 

After we left Stonehenge we went to see the ruins of Old Sarum Castle, which was nearby. There was barely anything left of the castle, but the view was great.

As I said earlier it was a beautiful sunny day. So I opted for a sleeveless shirt. As you can see I have become very pale since arriving in England, and I wasn't wearing any sun screen. I'm sure you can figure the rest out. 

Dover Castle

On Friday August 24th Steven and I went to Dover Castle and the White Cliffs. When we left at 9am it was cold. But when we got there two hours later it was hot. Isn't that always the way. On the way there we had to go through a toll booth. There isn't a person there to take your money, you just put it in a machine. Steven threw the money at the machine, it bounced off and rolled away. Never to be seen again. He was very frustrated. I thought it was hilarious.

We were a little disappointed that they staged the inside of the castle with remakes to make it look like what it would have looked like a long time ago. It gave it a really fake felling. It would be great for little kids, but we felt it took away from it. 

Here is our favorite photo from the castle.

When we were leaving the castle and heading over to see the cliffs, I spotted a photo op that I just couldn't pass up. We put our camera on top of the car and set the timer. Did you know that Steven is a perfectionist? I think it took twenty or so attempts to get this shot. 

So after spending 20 min to get one picture we made it to the cliffs. Steven parks in the first spot he sees. We get out and walk over to a map. Steven thinks we should move the car so we don't have to walk so far to get to where we want to be, and I think it is a good idea. So back in the car we go. Did I mention before that we were parked right on the edge of the cliff? That is important, because when Steven put his foot on the gas he was in drive, not reverse and we almost went flying off the edge of this cliff. It was a beautiful day so we had the windows down, giving everyone around us the opportunity to hear me scream bloody murder. There may have been some pointing and staring. Steven was mortified. And I was just happy to be alive.

After we successfully moved the car without dying we walked along the path a ways. We had a good view of the castle in the distance. 

It was such a clear day you could see france across the English Channel.

Here is our favorite picture from our walk.

Olympics

On July 7th we had the unbelievable once in a life time opportunity to not only see the Olympic torch, but to hold it and get pictures with it too! That is an experience that I will never forget. This all took place at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.

We were half way to London when we were at the museum, so we decided to go have some dinner and see the rings over the tower bridge.

On July 22nd our tickets to a session of the Men's Beach Volleyball Quarter finals arrived!

On August 5th we went to London to see the women's marathon.

On August 6th we went to the men's beach volleyball quarter finals! Even though both of the USA men's teams were already out we still had a great time. Unforgettable.

We didn't get to see the Americans, but we got to see the German team who went on to win the gold.

Well it wouldn't be my life if something didn't go wrong right! Like I said before there were two teams representing the USA in men's beach volleyball. The defending Olympic champions Rogers and Dalhausser shocked the world by getting defeated before the quarter finals. If they hadn't lost we would have seen them play in the session we went to. But they did lose. We were so upset that we weren't going to see a U.S team. We decided to try and arrive before the first session of the day, which had the other U.S. team in it and see if could trade our tickets. I looked it up and we got there at 8pm. As it turns out 18:00 is 6pm not 8pm. So we missed it. Steven just laughed at me. But we still got to go to our session at 10pm and we had a great time! As it turns out if we had been able to get into the earlier session with the American team, we would have seen them lose, which would not have been very fun. So it all turned out for the best! 

Ireland

For an early anniversary celebration Steven took my to Ireland for a long weekend in June. It was a wonderful trip. Dublin was dripping in Irish flags since the Euro Cup was going on.

 There are many funny stories from this trip. As anyone who knows me knows sometimes I do stupid things. Well, this ones a doozy. We had a 6 am flight from London to Dublin, which meant we had to leave our house at 4 am. So of course we didn't have time to eat. We flew with a cheap company called Ryan air. They don't have assigned seats so it is first come first serve. Once they announce which gate you will be leaving from it is a mad dash to get in line. Steven and I won this dash and were first. After a minute no one else had arrived so Steven thought he had time to go get food. Leaving his passport, ticket and bag with me. As soon as he is out of sight everyone else from the flight has shown up and the line is a mile long. Five minutes later he is not back and they are ready to board. I am first in line and the stewardess is starring at me asking for my passport and ticket. A normal person would get out of line and wait for their husband. But not me, I stick his passport and ticket on the chair next to me, put his bag on top of it and give the lady my ticket and get on the plane. As soon as I do this I realize what a stupid mistake I have made and of course there is no phone service. I was so relieved to see Steven get on the plane, until I realized how angry he was with me.

While we were there we took a tour of the Guinness factory. I am not a fan of beer, but Steven likes it. The building is one of the coolest I have ever seen. The top level of the seven story factory is called the sky bar. It is a circular room completely made out of glass with the most amazing view in all of Dublin. 

We also got to see St. Patrick's Cathedral which was stunning.

Here is one of Steven's favorite stories from our trip. When we were walking back to our rental car after leaving the cathedral I stepped on something in the street. It was like it happened in slow motion. As soon as my foot touched it I closed my eyes and got a sick feeling in my stomach. I didn't even need to look down to know what it was. A dead rat. I don't think I have ever heard Steven laugh so hard.

On our last day there we drove an hour south of Dublin to a town called Glendalough. There is a very old cemetery there and a nature trail. At first we were disappointed because it was raining. But it turned out to be great! Because it was raining there was a ton of water coming down from the mountains creating beautiful temporary waterfalls. I cant even describe the beauty we saw during out two hour walk. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

On our way back to Dublin from Glendalough Steven decided to take a dirt road detour. In our tiny little Nissan Micra rental car. As soon as he turns down the narrowest up hill dirt road I have ever seen our GPS says "recalculating... continue five miles..." And we bust out laughing. No less than thirty seconds later we come into a clearing where we see one of the most beautiful views we have ever seen, and take our favorite picture of the trip.

As I mentioned earlier we flew with the cheapest company to Ireland. This company crams as many seats onto their planes as possible. And apparently people in Europe don't believe in showering regularly or deodorant.. It was a lovely flight home.

Belgium

The first trip we took outside of England was to Belgium over Memorial day weekend. When Steven said he wanted to go to Belgium first I was like "Belgium!? What? Why not Paris?" Belgium and Paris are basically the same distance from our house. But as soon as we got there I could see why he wanted to go, it was amazing!

We drove two hours to Dover and took a ferry over to France and from there we drove to Brugge, Belgium. When the ferry left dover we had the most amazing view of the white cliffs. It was very windy though, so don't laugh at my hair...

Ah, no make-up and crazy hair...

When we got to Belgium we parked the car and didn't use it again. We either walked or road bicycles the whole time, it was so nice. Somehow I got the forecast for the weekend completely wrong. I thought it was going to be cold and it was HOT. So my wonderful husband bought me some warm weather clothes, since I had only packed cold weather clothes (from now on I will be packing back up clothes). Also, because it was so hot and there is no air conditioning in Europe we slept with the windows open. In the middle of the night Steven woke up covered in mosquito bites, I only had one. I guess he tastes better than I do, I felt really bad for him. 

There was so much history in this small town it was so beautiful. In the two and a half days we were there we managed to consume 3 Belgium waffles, each! We always got ours with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. They were to die for! 

Mmm.. Delicious.

Here was our gorgeous view from our table.

We got to take a boat tour of the city also, which was wonderful.

This is my favorite picture from our trip, in front of the beautiful clock tour in the center of town.

Remember when I said it was hot but we packed clothes for cold weather? Well after we had already got back to England I realized we left our leather jackets in the wardrobe in the hotel. I was definitely freaking out. But after month and a hundred dollars worth of long distance calling later we finally got our jackets back in the mail. 

We had a few hiccups but all in all it was a wonderful and memorable trip. 

Welcome to the UK

We have been living in England for 4 months now. So I am a little behind on starting this blog. But my lovely sister-in-law Emily has inspired me to start this, and I'm sure I will be glad that I did this one day. Growing up I was that kid who wrote in the first page of the diary and then never wrote in it again, so we will see how long I can keep this up. 

We got to England on April 17, 2012. It has definitely been culture shock for me. We had a knock down drag out fight with the housing office on base about living on base, but after a month we lost. It has turned out to be a blessing in disguise and we love living on base now. The weather is usually gloomy and rainy. Except for today when I took a picture of the house for this blog. This is not an accurate representation of the typical english weather.

Here is the front

And here is the back

Yes that is Lizzy running around :)

I would post pictures of the inside, but we haven't finished unpacking yet. Which I'm sure comes as a complete shock for those of you who know us. 

Things we like so far:

• A pub/restaurant called Bird in Hand
• A french restaurant in Bury St. Edmunds called Cafe Rouge
• Hot Chocolate (They have raised the making of hot chocolate to an art form)
• Brother's strawberry mixed pear hard cider
• Traveling

Things we miss:

• Chick-fil-a
• Good sushi
• American food in general
• Being able to watch football and baseball
• Air conditioning
• Target (and believe it or not Walmart)
• Our family and friends (come visit!)

I think that is enough for now, I still have a few more posts to make to get caught up to the present!