Father's Day

I knew Brody would make an excellent father because of how wonderful he is as a husband.  He has always been so loving, attentive and patient with me so I knew he would settle into fatherhood quickly.  He has been wonderful and I just love watching him with Henry.  We are both lucky to have him in our lives and love him very much.

On Father’s Day weekend we went to Bumpkin for lunch.  It is one of our favorite spots for nice traditional British food.  I think I need to learn how to make a good meat pie before we move home.  It took me about a year but now I really enjoy a good meat pie.

A visit from Grandma & Grandpa

We knew that having a baby would be the only way we would get Jim and Sue on a plane to visit us in London.  I think they are glad they finally made it and we had a wonderful two weeks with them.  It was a good mix of traveling and hang out time at the flat with Henry.  Highlights from their trip include 4 days in St. Andrews, 3 days in the Cotswolds, a trip to Windsor Castle and several site seeing trips in London. 

Henry's 6 month birthday celebration

Westminster Abby

Big Ben 

On the Thames

Kensington Palace

The Cotswolds, England

The Cotswolds is a region of small towns over 4000 years old, just north and west of London that has all of the old-world English charm anyone might want with picturesque honey-colored villages filled with old mansions, thatched cottages, pubs and restaurants lining the high streets of these small towns.

We have wanted to visit the Cotswolds region of England for a while now, but have had trouble figuring out which towns to go to and where to stay. With Brody’s parents in town, we thought this area would be a perfect place to visit, as it would provide them the opportunity to see the English countryside. We stayed in the town of Moreton in Marsh at the White Heart Inn. The Inn was very charming and the location was central which provided easy access to neighboring towns.

During our 3 days in the Cotswolds, we visited the towns of Broadway, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Chipping Campden. Each had a lot of charm, but we thought Bourton-on-the-Water had the best setting along the river and Stow-on-the-Wold had the best shops and a bakery for Grandpa.  We enjoyed looking at the old villages and driving around to take in the lush rolling hills with old stonewalls dividing properties and lining the highway.  While there we enjoyed lots of pastries, British meat pies and even shared a pitcher of Pims the first night.

Moreton in Marsh

Broadway

A needed break from his stroller, Henry enjoyed some sun in the grass. 

Bourton on the Water

My first biscuit at 61/2 months. 

Chipping Campden

Stow on the Wold

Other pics...

Charming hotel bar/restaurant.

Enjoying our first Pimm's.

Grandma hard a work. :)

We just love his smiling face!

The weather wasn’t bad but we wish it had been a bit warmer and dryer because the Cotswolds are known for great walking trails, which would have been fun to tour and may give us a reason to return. 

Diamond Jubilee

Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee marks 60 years since she took the throne in 1952. The Queen is only the second UK monarch to mark 60 years on the throne, Queen Victoria (63 years) being the other.

The celebration which started on June 2nd consisted of four days of events which the Queen attended. Monday and Tuesday were bank holidays so most of the country was off work to enjoy the celebration.  The events included the Epsom Derby, the Thames River Diamond Jubilee Pageant (flotilla), which consisted of 1,000 boats floating up the Thames river to Tower Bridge, Concert at Buchingham Palace and service at St. Pauls Cathederal. We attended the flotilla near Chelsea Bridge and watched the first sets of boats go by. There were thousands of people lining the river and bridge and a lot of the neiboring parks were showing the procession on big screen TVs.  We stayed for a while but then it got a little too cold and rainy for Henry so we called it a day.  

The entire 4 days were quite a celebration, not only in London, but across the UK. The Union Jack flag was everywhere.  Each town we visited was decorated in bunting showing their patriotism. We really enjoyed seeing how each town was celebrating the event, it was great time to be in the UK. 

Golf - Royal St. George

The host to the 2011 Open Championship and 13 others prior to that, Royal St. George was where I watched my very first major. This time, my dad and I drove from London, and after a nice trip through the countryside, we arrived at the private clubhouse at 7am. We were the first ones there. The grounds keepers told us we could go in and walk through to the snack bar, which was closed, so we stepped into the dinning hall where we had coffee on the patio until the course staff showed up.

Around 8am, 30 minutes before tee time the starter showed up, and when we asked where the driving range was he pointed us to hitting nets outside. He then said the 10th tee where we would be starting was across number 1 tee about 5 minute walk and to have a good time.

The round was fun as we got to play 2 ball with very few other people on the course. This course was similar to The Old Course, filled with fairway bunkers and blind shots, however this time we did not have a course guidebook so each hole was an adventure. Great drives were in the rough or sand trap and bad drives were often perfect.

Although neither my dad nor I birdied 5 of the first 10 holes like Mickelson did on Sunday of the 2011 Open Championship that I watched, the sun was out and the play was fantastic. This was another great day of golf with my dad in the UK.

When we finished we looked to purchase some hats, but were reminded of how private the club is when we went to purchase a hat and were told the hats on that wall are for members only. We were then given directions to the snack bar around the outside of the clubhouse to ensure we did not enter the clubhouse, as we did not have a coat and tie. A couple pints and a grated cheese and tomato sandwich later we were headed back to London.