I Went Some Places and Did Some Stuff

 I know, the title of this post intrigued all of you into reading. I just have a way with words, you know? I didn't mean to avoid writing and reading blogs for the past two weeks, but it kind of felt awesome. No offense. I really enjoyed my vacation, and the second half of it had no internet access. Yes, I scrambled to find a Starbucks wifi connection to check work emails, but I had zero desire to do anything blog-related. So I guess I don't really have an excuse for not blogging....I just didn't want to. Good thing I don't get paid for this gig, huh? Phew.

Anyway....onto the places and the stuff. I think the last post I wrote was when I was in Germany and dealing with all the nudists who didn't mind the cold....good times, good times. From Germany Tim and I headed back to the UK and stayed with some family in London overnight. I got to meet a ton of Tim's extended family that I had never met before, which was great. Since some of them are freakishly adorable babies and some hold positions above "anonymous web content writer", I've decided not to put their faces online. I never know what to do about that, honestly. Do you make people sign a waiver for a family photo? Can they sue you for unflattering angles or the fact that the camera may add 10 pounds?

Me and Tim's Mom

Me and grandparents along the Trent River

Anonymous cute relative. No face = legal.

From London we went up to Shrewsbury, the birthplace of Charles Darwin and the home of some truly delicious potatoes. We stayed with Tim's great-aunt who, at the ripe age of 92, still has a sharp wit and a funny sense of humor. It was definitely English countryside where we were, which was nice because there were fresh herbs in the garden, fresh new potatoes to dig up everyday for dinner and plenty of great country roads to run on.

Tim and the Darwin Statue

Cows from the kitchen window

Potatoes dug up from the garden

We saw stately homes, gardens and ruined castles, but the trip was really about seeing family. We made a few little trips to see my grandparents and then later just over the border to Wales. I was really excited to go because somehow I'd never been to Wales before. For the record, I wouldn't go out of your way to go there in the future. In summation: It rained. There were sheep. The end.

Conquering a Welsh Castle. No biggie.

Weston Park

The last night of the trip was back to London - and we managed to hit up the Tate Modern to see the current Edward Munch and Damien Hirst exhibits. Man, Hirst is seriously weird. Raw meat covered in live maggots and flies were a little much for a museum, methinks.

I'm really proud of everyone who made it this far in the post. Really, well done. Since one of the highpoints of my trip was eating as much chocolate as I possibly could, I figured I would send a little your way too. I'll send this bag of British chocolates to a random person who leaves a comment with the word "sweet" in it. Got it? Cool. I'll pick someone on Wednesday (25th of July) at midnight. Word.

I'm not kidding about how much chocolate I ate, either. I bought 12 massive bars (like, family-sized slabs) on the last day in Germany to take home. Even with the surplus of English candy I had, there was ONE sad little bar that managed to make it home to Georgia. I've heard of this thing called self control, but I'm just not sure I actually have any of it.

So- how's your holiday food/drinks self control? Or is having no self-control the point of vacation?
Normally at home I make an effort to at least include nutritious foods in my diet, but on holiday that concept is lost to me. One night my dinner was a massive plate of boiled new potatoes covered in butter, washed done by wine and followed by chocolate. 

Do you bring back souvenirs from new places?
Not really - unless you count the edible kinds that are gone in 24 hours. I do collect coins, so if I go somewhere where there is a currency I don't have I'll keep them and bring them home.