lovely.

Well, it seems apparent that my blogging life will end when we move back to the West.

I’m not sure if it is the time, the pressure, or what not, but it just doesn’t happen while we’re in the midst of all. It always becomes a post-trip recap, which is always more for me than for you.

Here it is all the same, starting with the understatement of the year: We had a really lovely time in England.

It was really nice to read, to rest, to watch movies. We had nice meals and even better conversations. We took walks and went for hikes. We found cute little bookshops and had delicious coffee.

Sometimes we had weird meals, too. Jenn and I were so sure this would taste great, and the photo in the cookbook looked so wonderful.  A vegetable terrine with roasted red pepper sauce. How could that go wrong?

Ours turned out to be more of a vegetarian version of meatloaf, which tasted as good as that sounds.

While Chris & Jenn were working, Stephen and I took a couple days away in Nottingham, a town an hour or so away from Sheffield. Why Nottingham? We had one significant deciding factor: we could afford the train ride and the hotel. But once we had made the decision, we learned it was an odd one. Apparently it doesn’t have the greatest reputation.

But we loved it.

It was a cute little town and had some fun little restaurants and shops. We went to Nottingham Castle–including the caves!–and enjoyed the Robin Hood themes throughout the town.

We went to three plays in the last two weeks: Oliver! & Blink in Sheffield, and The Lion King in London. They were all so much fun in different ways. Oliver! was off Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist; a good story and great performance. Blink was an odd and hilarious one-act play in a small little theatre, while The Lion King was incredibly elaborate. The costumes were just stellar, in addition to the music, incredible sets, and beautiful lighting. It was really stunning.

We also enjoyed the rest of London, including a visit to the gorgeous St. Paul’s Cathedral. We couldn’t take photos inside, but it was absolutely stunning.

This photo doesn’t do justice to the view down this little window. After climbing some 500 steps inside the cathedral, you could see down through this window into the dome of the cathedral. 

So as not to dwell on goodbyes, I’ll leave it at that. It was filled with lovely places, people, and memories–and we are thankful!