The Beginning and the End

The girls are gone. It's quiet. Not that they were loud. You know what I mean.

I was going through my pictures to put together a post about their visit, and I realized that I didn't have many except from the beginning and the end of their visit. I think I was subconsciously depending on them to post their best pictures on Facebook so I could hijack them later. I only forgot my camera one day, when we went to Holy Island. I yelled "TAG ME!" every time they took a picture of anything, which may or may not have gotten old after the first 29 times. 

Anyway, here's what I have as of now. The rest will have to wait until the girls get home from Paris and upload their pictures to see evidence of the middle of their trip here. 

Driving home from the airport we saw some incredible rainbows!

This double rainbow was right outside of our friend Darius's house. He made the most amazing meal of barbecued meats. I made potato salad. It was delish.

After that, we went to the Dun Cow pub, where there were some folks playing folk music. It was loud and awesome!

Amy, Rob, Nathan, and Darius

Sam, Sam, and me

We took the girls to The Court Inn, our favorite pub for food and a great view of the jail cathedral. Fish and chips!

We decided to go on an official tour of the city, but at the appointed time, there were no guides available in the tourist office. Not to be deterred, Nathan stepped in and played guide for us, weaving together made up stories like "The Beheading of 1986" with real history. It was entertaining, to say the least.

Here's a cool house behind the cathedral.

Nathan invited us to come play croquet on the St. John's back lawn, but it was kind of too hot (notice shadows, flip flops, sunglasses, tank top, rolled up jeans) and Nathan was pressed for more study time. Then there was the thing about me kicking a croquet ball into his shin. I don't think that had anything to do with him not wanting to play with me anymore. 

We just decided to pose with the croquet equipment instead.

I took the girls to Crook Hall, where I baited them into the maze and then sat on a bench outside of it had fun watching them get frustrated. 

Sam won! Victory!

This was taken at the Metrocentre, the dreadful day we didn't get to Ireland. This is me posing with my ancestor, some random Native American in fluorescent lights, and doing a war whoop. The fact that the word Dublin was just above my head was not a coincidence.

Amy and Sam shared with Nathan the planking phenomenon, which he took to straight away. "Before you told me about this," he told the girls, "my life was about 60% fulfilling. Now it's at least 99% fulfilling. Thank you!" This is him planking on a rubbish bin (translation: trash can) at the mall. After a little research, I realized that it started in North East England. Huh?

The three of us girls went to York one day, and I got some Rose Lemonade with my lunch. It was exactly what you might think it would taste like. Very tasty!

This is one of those pictures that did not turn out as I thought it would. You know, the kind you look at after it's taken and you think, "Do I really look like that?"

Anyway, the girls should be climbing the Eiffel Tower about now. I hope they're having fun!