BACK IN THE MOTHERLAND

Recently I had the pleasure of a flying visit back to the UK so made best use of the opportunity to do a little tourism and visiting friends. Starting with a trip to Greenwich and Blackheath. Then visited London again with the parents though this time slightly wetter. Then finally finished up with a visit to lovely Lincoln to see my friend Tim.
Here's a few snaps from the flying visit.
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Greenwich and Old Naval College

This is the BBC.

A very wet london on the way to The Design Museum.

I mentioned I was going to the design museum which Hannah was fine about missing until I mentioned they had a temporary cycling exhibition with some awesome bikes!

Got no photos of Lincoln itself but enjoyed a classic Charlie Bingham pie (and a very tasty Japanese beer) from Waitrose, oh I miss that place!!

#PETER ON TOUR - THE SNOW EDITION

So this is the last little update about Peter's visit with us. Twice whilst he was here we went in search of snow. The temperatures had been dropping enough that in the hills nearby there was snow. So obviously we had to go and see it, there's not much snow that drops where we live. 

Our first trip was to Big Bear. We'd been there before, but not when there was any snow. There wasn't a lot there this time, but enough in the hills that it was cold and that we enjoyed ourselves. We went for a walk in the hills, mooched around the shops in the town centre, ate some good food and took a stroll from some of the lake. Here's a few pictures. 

This next picture is my favourite from the mini trip. It shows Macintosh in his true walking state. This is what he looks like when he's on a scent trail. He literally flies through the air with no regard for where he's walking or how muddy he's getting. Amazing. 

The second snow trip you'll have to wait to hear about until Macintosh Monthly as it features mostly him. No great surprise there! 
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#PETER ON TOUR - THE LA EDITION

Andrew's eldest brother, Peter, recently came to stay with us for the middle part of his epic trip around America. When he last came in March of this year we didn't manage to get to see too much of LA and our local area, so this time we crammed in everything we possibly could. 

There are two major things in LA we did that I want to show you about. The first is the Huntington Library and gardens. We had never been to Huntington so it was a new experience for us too. Pasadena is a beautiful place (with some lovely shops!) but the library and gardens was amazing. There were lots of buildings spread out across the grounds with different exhibits in them such as European art and books. Then scattered around were different themed gardens such as Chinese or Australian. 

Our personal favourites were the Japanese and Chinese gardens. They were beautiful and so detailed. I think I could have spent all day in there just sitting and admiring it all. 

The second place I want to show you is the Getty Villa in Malibu. We have been to the Getty Center (see this post) before but never to the villa so that was fun. The villa houses the Getty's early collections and was really fascinating. Its a lot smaller than the the Center but we enjoyed our look round. 

So that's the LA edition of what we did. Get ready for the sport's edition next!

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EXTENDED FAMILY GATHERING

My family like to get together whenever they can to hang out, but with such a big family it can be hard to co-ordinate that. If you factor in us living on the other side of the world then its even more tricky to get everyone together. I think it's been at least two years since we were all in the same place, perhaps even more! So it was nice that for one afternoon we managed to get everyone in the same place for a bit.

We did a walk through Ashridge, which is an amazing National Trust property near us. Then we descended on my Mum's new house for a tea and cake, followed by dinner and then the dismal rugby! We didn't manage to take too many photos as we were too busy catching up, but we did take a few of us on the walk.

I love the photo of Elisha and his stick! He kept hitting my poor brother-in-law on the head. Guess that's my first bad influence as an Auntie, yup thats right I gave him the stick! 
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THE DAY WE PLAYED TOURISTS...

London. It's an iconic place that tourists flood into on a daily basis. Andrew and I hadn't been to London in over two years which is a real shame because we love it. So we decided that if we had the chance we would love to go back and visit, if we could. the family was game with our plan so off we trotted for the day ready to be tourists.

We did all the touristy things from Buckingham Palace to the Horse Guards to Big Ben to eating lunch by the London Eye. It was a great day and the train journeys went really smoothly considering how insane the underground can be in London. Prepare yourself for a deluge of photos that sum up our day!

 As you can see Andrew and I were having far too much fun being tourists and clearly needed to stop being so cheesy but it was so nice to be back in the capital. Throughout the whole day Elisha was amazing too despite all the crowds of people and travelling. It was so lovely to share it with him and the family too. 
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