Day 3 - Shakespeare's town and pub night!

We headed out to Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare's hometown, for a third and final day in the English countryside with our friends Sharon and Kevin. What a cute little village this is and we are so glad that we headed here for the day!

the day started off fabulously with Kevin toiling away in the kitchen making a full English breakfast which was FANTASTIC! 

Lord knows we wouldn't want our alcohol titers to drop so Sharon breaks out the Buck's fizz! (mimosas here in the US)

Poached eggs, ham, sausage, black pudding (YUM) toast, stewed tomatoes, baked beans...

so we spotted a pretty interesting vehicle on our way...

CRAZY!

the cute town of Stratford

Hmmm - we may have visited this pub later in the day...

Shakespeare's house! How cool!

It was a nice day so we took an open top bus tour around the village which was great

Gotta have the photo in the red telephone booth right?!

So this pub was established in the 1400's if you can imagine! Great pub with great history! More photos later during our visit there (you didn't think we wouldn't go in did you?!!)

Forgot what house this was but it's OLD!

inside the Garrick

well I had to make sure the ale was drinkable didn't I?

After a fun day in Stratford we headed to Birmingham to visit a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) pub where there were 16 different ales on tap. Tommy and Kevin were determined to get through the entire menu which they did! Thankfully we took the train in from Longbridge so we were responsible drinkers!

By the looks on his face I'd say he's about halfway through the menu!

One of the cool things about this pub is you can bring in your own food. Poor Sharon shlepped a giant bag with bread, a cheeseboard and some egg and sausage leftover from breakfast (just to annoy Kevin who doesn't do leftovers!)

well guess what... I do leftovers and was pretty happy to have that egg on bread to soak up the wine/beer/lager/ale/you name it!

We then headed next door to a pub that looked like it had been either a library or museum. I can't recall but think it may have been an old courthouse. (yes that was after way too many pubs that day...)

beautiful inside

this lovely bar towel now resides in our bar at our home in Michigan (No he didn't nick it, it was a gift from the bartender for the visiting Yanks!)

What a fun 3 days in the country with friends!

Off to London tomorrow as the adventure continues!

England Day 2 - Warwick castle

So we stayed with our friends Sharon and Kevin at their place in Longbridge near Birmingham. We tried to shake off our jet lag but sadly NO COFFEE in the morning for most Brits. I had to make due with tea and believe me, it didn't cut it for this coffee addict. Suffice it to say, as soon as we headed out for the day to visit Warwick castle and we entered the place, I smelled coffee brewing and I was like a starving dog running to a giant piece of meat! Coffee...nirvana...ahhhhh. What fun visiting Warwick castle, even the "Disney-esque" theatrics in the dungeon were pretty entertaining.

Beautiful town of Warwick with the cathedral in the background

Taken from inside the castle up above

Amazing history that we just don't have here in the US

the river alongside the castle

Original armor inside the castle

hand carved wood buffet

of course you have to have the touristy theatrics!

Tommy captioned this photo "Bring out your dead!" ala Monty Python!

here are more of the theatrics I mentioned!

Kevin playing cards with a gent in the game room

yeah right! haha!

We finished off a great day or sightseeing with a fantastic Sunday dinner at Toby Carvery in Lickey End, UK. Yes that's actually the name of the town! I wish I had taken a pic of our giant heaped plates full of YUM but it seems to be an English tradition for a big Sunday dinner with 3 different kinds of carved meats, yorkshire pudding and all of the fixings all topped with loads and loads of gravy! Heart attack on a platter! haha! But really delicious and what we needed to top off a fun filled day.

We had plans to go back home and head out to a pub but we all just crashed back at the house over wine, lager and fun catching up with friends! 

Anniversary trip to London and Paris!! DAY ONE

So I've gone from not posting anything on this blog for months to finally catching up on things. The blog is great if for no other reason than to document our travels as a travel journal of sorts so that we can remember the great places we went, things that we did and our favorite restaurants and cafes! I planned this trip as a surprise anniversary gift for hubby and boy was he ever surprised!!! He's never been across the pond so this was a great first trip to the UK and a quick jaunt over to Paris as well. Amazing how close everything is once you get over there.

Day 1:

I splurged and used up all of my FF miles with Delta (along with robbing some miles out of Tommy's and the kids accounts as well unbeknownst to them!) for first class seats to London. Boy were they ever worth the 200,000 miles! I'd like to fly internationally like that every time!

champagne anniversary toast before departure!

somebody enjoyed himself with the cocktails and upscale headphones for the personal entertainment system chock full of current theater movies etc.! I didn't want to go to sleep!

a few glasses of wine and warm nuts before dinner

and a 6 page menu with first, second and third courses, dessert and a fabulous wine list! Yay for me and the fabulous wine list! Haha!

The food was pretty good! I'm sure better than in the back of the bus like we usually get.

Ooooh la la look at the dessert cart complete with liqueurs, fancy cheeses, cakes and ice cream sundaes! Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and the gorgeous model are sitting in first class and he says "More everything!!" Hahaha!

Kevin and Sharon, our British friends, arrive at Heathrow to pick us up and we headed directly to Leicester for a rugby game! Pub first of course...

A major fan pub - the place was packed! It's interesting how pubs in the UK are primarily for beer, etc. with relatively no food served aside from a bag of peanuts or similar. But people can bring in their own sandwiches!  Nice!

Cheers with Sharon!

Tommy's first proper British pint! (many more to come I can assure you...)

Only in England would a PRISON look like this!! Yes that's right, this is a prison!!!

Here we are at the Leicester Tigers "ground". Apparently it is NOT called a stadium despite the fact that it holds about 35,000 people. It would be a bonafide stadium here. It was chilly so I was glad I had my giant puffy North face jacket!

Here we go!

Fun to watch this game, probably the closest thing they have to American football although after scoring a touchdown (called a Try) when they go to kick the extra points (a try is worth 5 points and the kick is worth 2) the entire stadium hushes to complete silence!! CRAZY! I felt like I was at a PGA tournament NOT a football game. I can't wait until Sharon and Kevin come visit us in September and we take them to Spartan Stadium. If you see a bald British guy standing up trying to Shoosh everyone during the kick for the extra point just say "Hey Kevin - welcome to the States mate!" Haha!

They will also be in for a rude awakening when they find out that no beer is served in our stadium!

We look pretty good for having just gotten off an overnight flight! Now off to head back to S and K's house in a town called Longbridge near Birmingham.

Yup - another lager at home before dinner! They knocked themselves out painting and getting the place looking fabulous for us and it was exactly that - FABULOUS!

and some wine for the girls! 

Sharon decorated the room JUST for me!! The Royal Visit - LOL!

My favorite color (how did she know?!) and of course I have to try to find this pillow for home!

Here they are out front. Hmmmm...why is it called Casa Pylon you ask???? Check out what's in the backyard! HA!

Gee we didn't even have to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower! :-)

We ended the evening with dinner out with great friends of Sharon and Kevin's, Jo and Bern. Loved them! We had a fabulous Indian dinner at a restaurant called The New Dilshad in the cute little town of Alvechurch. This restaurant was SO good that Tommy has now converted to an Indian food fan from a former non-fan. Yay!! Now to find anything nearly as good in the States...

That's day one in a nutshell and it was a very busy one at that.  Day two coming up next. Stay tuned!

Bathroom Remodel project

So we are in the throes of remodeling the kids bathroom and believe me, living through a remodeling project in the house is always a challenge! We had our first MAJOR remodel right before we got married with a huge addition onto the house in the living room, adding a bar area and a large office/sitting area off our bedroom. I remember at one point leaning up against my fiancé (now husband) and just crying that I wanted it to be over! Ha! Living in drywall dust with circular saws, tools etc. day in and day out can be challenging. It was all worth it though as the addition is absolutely beautiful. Fortunately, the biggest challenge with this remodel is sharing a bathroom with a nearly 13 year old daughter who feels the need to come into our room at 5:40 am to do her hair before school. OH how I'm counting the days until this project is complete!!

So the current bathroom layout that 2 teenagers shared included a small, one person vanity with almost no storage

shower/tub combo

the bathroom is divided into two rooms separated by a door. The front room was the toilet, sink and shower/tub combo. The back room was a dedicated laundry room with a utility sink. The paint on the wall is a sample of what we are looking at for the remodel.

washer/dryer utility sink and a crappy wire shelf above. This house has absolutely no linen cabinet at all which will be rectified with the remodel

another view of toilet sink with shower behind me

and the tear out...

because we are moving everything around they had to take out the tile,

  tear up the subfloor and remove a lot of the walls. Plumbing etc. is all getting rearranged, moving laundry to the front room and shower/toilet to the back for privacy.

living in a mess every day is a challenge for this OCD neat freak!!

hookups for the double sink/vanity where the single sink and toilet used to be. I hope this cuts down on teenage arguing... well one can hope anyway! 

the back room. The door is moving to the left as well.

new washer/dryer hookups in front room where the shower/tub used to be

and the new door entrance to the back room, now shifted to the left. Cherry cabinets, toilet and free standing shower (no tub since we have teenagers) will all go back here.

So we are still finishing up framing of the back room for the shower, etc. and the plumber still has a bit left to do. Electricians were here all day yesterday. Inspections tomorrow then drywall and tile next week. I will update as we progress!!