Vacation Part I

Hello my dear readers!

I know, long time, no read. I do that a lot to you, don't I?

This time, however, I have a really good reason; DH and I were on holiday! (Or to translate into American "Vaca!") DH wouldn't let me tell you about it in advance because he's convinced that someone would figure out our address and break in while we were gone. Nevermind that most of the people who read this know us in real life and offered to watch our plants. Which requires us giving them our keys.

And not to mention that breaking and entering is so un-preppy that I know my readers would never be associated with anything like that.

So all you master criminals - HA! We fooled you.

DH and I went back to the UK and Spain for two weeks. Two weeks! We haven't had that long off since our wedding two years ago. I know he especially needed the break so I'm glad we were able to see his family and friends as well as chill out. Well, I say chill out but it has been an absolute whirlwind. I believe we did 12 flights in 16 days. Yikes!

Anywho, I'll take my re-cap nice and slow and at the end I'll be hosting my first GIVEAWAY for some fabulous British goodies. I'm excited. Are you excited? Let's venture forth:

Day 1: San Diego to Baltimore/Washington
Flying back to the East Coast is quite a pain because you lose an entire day. However, we caught the 7am flight so that we could spend a little time with my parents (who graciously agreed to pick us up at BWI) before we headed out for dinner with some of DH's DC crew.

Well, someone decided to put a damper on that. Namely, Hurricane Bill.

We landed on time but because of the massive amount of rain and traffic associated with Redskins and Nationals games, the one hour drive to my parents' place was THREE hours. Lord!

DH and I literally walked in, threw our bags down, and ran back out to make our metro ride in to DC. (Muhmoo and Deedoo, I feel terrible about that. I really, really do!)

We had dinner with DH's old work mates and their wives. See, aren't they cute:

My good mate L met us up for drinks after and we had a rip-roaring time in Fado's. Who loves a good pint of cider? Oh, that would be me.

Day 2: Washington Dulles to Manchester
Before our flight to Manchester, the fam went out for brunch at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg, VA. If you have a flight to catch at Washington Dulles, I heartily recommend Tuscarora. DC is a brunch town and this had one of the best I've had.

The Mill is, shockingly, hosted in an old mill. The interior is absolutely beautiful and I wanted to rip the floorboards out and smuggle them home so I could match them for our hardwood floors.

The food was amazing, as all of the awards on the wall boasted. I think one of the things I like the most was that the buffet was small and not overwhelming. If you go, though, make sure to try the french toast. They make all their own bread and it is OMG, get in my mouth as soon as possible!! good.

Our night flight to Manchester was uneventful and not crowded. I stretched out on a row of five empty seats and slept until we had about an hour to go.

Day 3: Warrington
After our night flight, we were pretty wrecked since England is 8 hours ahead of San Diego. We kept it pretty quiet and had a great dinner at DH's parents' place, along with S and E, DH's brother and sister-in-law. It was quite the family moment! :)

When we're in England we always stay with DH's parents. They've lived in their house for over 30(!) years and I adore the fact that DH grew up in it. It's also great because a lot of his childhood friends still live in the surrounding areas so we have an easy time meeting up with all of them.

That being said, a surprisingly large number of DH's friends have emigrated out of the UK. So it was an amazing coincidence that K and N were home in England from Japan for the first time in like, five years! We headed out to the pub and it was fantastic catching up with them.