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!!

#PARENTS ON TOUR - MUSEUM EDITION

Recently my parents came out to California for their second visit. We were planning to mix sightseeing with lots of relaxing as they (like us) had been rather busy in the lead up to their trip. Whilst Andrew was working we did two day trips to see some of our favourite museums; the Huntington Library and Gardens and the Getty Center. 

The Huntington Library and Gardens gave Dad an opportunity to really try out his new camera, particularly in the Chinese garden. It was a lovely warm day and we enjoyed meandering round. Sadly as it was winter there were fewer plants and flowers out, but you can imagine how beautiful it will be come the summer. Here's a few photos from the Chinese garden, which is my favourite part. 

The only photo I took from the exhibits indoors was this one and I'm afraid its because something about it made me laugh. This was in the European art area. They had allowed a modern artist to come and place art instillations around the existing exhibits. Most of them rather annoyed my mum and some of them I really didn't get, but this one made me chuckle. Its almost like an ancient superhero in my mind. I love it!

As for the Getty Center, we arrived on another really warm day and made the most of the views of Los Angeles, sprawling out below us. Dad took an architectural tour which he really enjoyed. I wish I could tell you some important facts about the buildings and the concepts but all I remember from Dad's recap was that the architect fell out with someone over the garden area and refused to come back onto site. So there we go, fun fact! 

My favourite painting from the Getty on this trip is the picture below. Something about the little girl just captures me. She's so sweet looking and I love the way it looks so tonal with the painted wall in the background. As I was snapping the picture on my phone the security guard said, "That's a good choice, its one of my favourites too." That made me chuckle. 

I love swanning around museums and those two are definitely my favourites in the Los Angeles area. Up next, our epic road trip pit stop; the Hoover Dam.

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#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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DUNSTABLE PART II

We hung out with my family at Wrest Park whilst back in the UK. Wrest park is a National Trust property in near Luton. This provided another opportunity to top up on our historic buildings as we visited friends and family. 

Once through the opulent gate houses, and down the long stretch of drive we pulled up to the carpark. Through the gift shop we strolled through the walled gardens towards the house just as the sun broke through the clouds. It looked incredible. The french style architecture looked beautiful in the autumn sun, glowing with the leaves around just turning.

Entering the house via the exotic conservatory (containing many plants from the Americas!), we were given a brief history of the house and then left to ourselves to explore the newly restored rooms.

As is often the case with national trust properties, Hannah and I wandered around the house collecting inspiration to use on our imaginary house. They had a copy of the architect's original letters describing the house and the work he did which provided a fascinating insight into the design and embellishments. I was amazed by the lightness of the rooms, definitely some ideas for our future ‘Manor House’.

We then strolled round the gardens passing the many statues, pergolas and verandas, just enjoying the autumnal hues at a peaceful pace.

Obviously this all wasn't without food or drink, making sure everyone was well fed and watered we enjoyed time to take on tea, scone and other provisions.

Here is a lovely photo of the family (minus Matt who was working unfortunately) outside the old cricket pavilion. 

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HOME TO LINCOLN

After the first week of our trip in Dunstable we hit the road and went to our old city of Lincoln. We left super early and managed to get there in time for church which was great. We got to see so many people there and it was lovely to spend the time back with our home church. The rest of our time in Lincoln was split between visiting old haunts, eating and drinking way too much, catching up with our friends, doing a spot of shopping and just being tourists in our amazing city. We spent almost four years in that city so we truly love it. 

Here's a selection of photos from the few days we spent there. 

First things first I had to have my belated birthday cookie from Tim. That's a small tradition that started out of nowhere but he's kept up every year, despite the distance!

Just a small sample of the amazing food we ate. This is from Cafe Portico, our favourite place to eat ever! It was really nice to be back there and have a chat with the owner again. We frequented it that much when we were living there that he knows who we are!! 

One of the coolest things we did when we were there was to visit Lincoln Castle. It had been under renovations for a while and opened since we moved away. We went to the Magna Carta exhibit which was really impressive, sadly you couldn't take photos. I really wanted too because that little scrap of paper was impressively older than the entire United States and I thought it'd impress some of our American friends. 

We also got to take a walk through their Victorian prison which they actually used in the TV drama, Downton Abbey. 

There were some costumes to dress up in, I assume aimed at children. Obviously we had a go! It made a few people laugh who wandered by and poked their head in. 

They had loads of kids activities around the place. We even had a go putting some pottery back together. Not sure I can quite remember the purpose of pottery in a prison but it was fun attempting it. We didn't get very far!

The visit to the castle was finished off with a walk round the walls. It was lovely to look out and see the amazing city of Lincoln. Just a shame I had to go with these two!

Thankfully the views more than made up for it. Our amazing cathedral. 

And that's about all the good photos we got. We unfortunately never thought to get photos taken with the people we caught up with, too busy eating or talking! But we did get one of our breakfast on the day we left. Can't beat a good English breakfast. 

Next stop back to Dunstable! 
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