The Beginning of a Great Trip!

Doing some hiking in St. Ives

After a hectic travel schedule, Phil and Debbie Henry are officially in England!  They unfortunately ran into some complications on their way here as both of their flights were delayed due to the late March snowstorm in Wisconsin/Minnesota earlier this week.  Due to the delays and time in line for Customs, they missed their train here.  Fortunately they were able to get tickets for a train going from London to Truro a couple of hours later.  So after a long and stressful trip, they made it to Truro Wednesday night around 9pm!

As you can imagine the jet lag was tough the first couple of days.  They were able to take the first couple of days here to adjust to the time difference and get sorted.  As Debbie hasn’t been feeling 100%, John took Phil around Truro Thursday afternoon for an official tour.  They checked out the Cornwall Museum, walked the main path of the city and even had a Cornish pasty while sitting in the sun in Lemon Quay Square! 

As both John and I had off Friday, we decided to spend the day in St. Ives, which is a coastal town on the northern coast that we had never been to but heard great things about.  Once we were there, we realized what everyone was raving about--it was the most beautiful city yet we’ve seen in Cornwall!  We spent the day exploring the white sand beaches, the turquoise water, the adorable shops and even did some hiking.  We ended up having lunch at a seaside restaurant and finished the meal eating ice cream on the coastal path back to the train station.  The weather was amazing as it was around 58 and sunny all afternoon.  A truly amazing day!  Once back from St. Ives (and after a quick nap), we all headed to Wetherspoon’s (the local pub/restaurant) for a bite to eat.  Overall, a great day!

Perranporth Beach

As I had to work this afternoon, John, Phil and Deb headed to Perranporth Beach for part of the day to enjoy their last full day in Cornwall.  They were able to take a walk on the beach as well as do some hiking and exploring along the coastal path to St. Agnes.  Their afternoon in the sun and along the beach ended with lunch at a café where they experienced a Cornish Cream Tea as well as another pasty.  And they lucked out again with another fantastic day of weather as it was sunny and warm (with no rain!). 

As their time in Truro winds down, we will spend tonight packing and getting ready for our week in Italy!  We leave in the morning and will have a week to experience Rome and Venice.  Life sure is good.

Work, Gardening and Babies!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since we returned from Amsterdam.  Sad to say, not in an interesting sort of way.  We have been busy with work, as my part-time position has pretty much turned into a full-time one over the past couple of weeks.  And I have started working on the weekends, as I guess that is the norm in retail.  John’s job has also been busier than normal, so we have spent the past couple of weeks just focused on our day-to-day.

Perfect day for some gardening!

Other than work, we have spent the past week or so focusing on getting everything “visitor friendly” at our place before our first set of guests arrive next Wednesday!  John and I spent this weekend going from store to store trying to find all the miscellaneous things we are in need of (extra towels, bowls, bedding, etc).  We also decided that the guest room needed a little sprucing up, so John spent Saturday morning painting and I helped out when I got home from work.  Now that the room is painted and put back together, I am so glad we took the time to do it.  A fresh coat of paint makes such a difference!  Then yesterday was the first time that John and I did some gardening in our backyard.  It was a clear and sunny day (in the mid 50’s) so we put some music on and got started.  It was so nice to spend some time outside working in the yard and in the sun.  Definitely a perfect Sunday!  Once we finish up a couple more small projects, we should be set for John’s parents coming next week and then it’s off to Rome and Venice!  We just can’t believe how quickly time has flown since we moved here and that it has been almost six months since we’ve seen family.  We can’t wait for Phil and Deb to visit as well as some other guests in the coming months :-)  

Madison protests

We have also been closely following the Walker versus Unions in Wisconsin over these past couple of weeks and are thinking about all of our friends and family who will be impacted by these changes.  I know it is a huge battle and issue in the States and realized that it is also hitting internationally as I picked up a local newspaper over my tea break at work and read an entire article devoted to the political happenings with Walker in Wisconsin!  Will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming weeks.

On a lighter and happier note, the past couple of days have been filled with baby news!  John’s sister Joan and her husband Greg had a baby boy this past week.  His name is Henry Louis Borens and he was a whopping 10 lb baby!  My best friend Emily and her husband Adam also had a baby boy this morning – Turner Chase Bradley.  I was lucky enough to chat with Emily and she is beyond happy with her new addition.  Congrats to everyone!  Looks like we’ll have lots of new babies to meet once we’re back in the States!