Thursday, October 23, 2014

Still loving life in London!

It has been a while since I have done a London themed post... so here are some of the good times in between our travel adventures! These span the past few months...
             
Jeff always a good job at taking pictures at his work events.. so I tried to pick up the good habit and took some at my last event. My team went bowling and then did Karaoke afterwards! For many it was the first time going American style bowling.... the place had like 8 lanes, so it wasn't huge but it was still good fun! 
Jeff's work had their summer ball. Everyone dresses up in formal wear and celebrates! As I am sure you can tell from the pic, everyone has a good time
In September there is the annual iTunes Festival in London with loads of free concerts... flip side is they are really hard to get tickets to. Jeff was lucky to get tickets to 3 concerts but we were only able to make it to see Robert Plant. We found out we won the tickets at 5 and the concert started at 7... and it was a Tuesday! Nothing like living in the moment!
And football season is upon us! This year there are 3 games coming to London. The first game was between the Raiders and the Dolphins. While we don't pull for either team it was still fun to go and watch.  The game experience is much different as anybody who loves the NFL will come and wear the jersey of the team they support.. not just the teams playing. I counted a total of 14 Carolina Panthers fans!
A little pre-tailgating before hand!
They sang both the US and UK National anthem 
and had both flags displayed on the field. 
The Deaf Leopard was the opening act...... 
and of course they had a grand opening with fireworks and such. 
Estabian and Naz joined us to watch the game. 
We have tickets to the other games 
and are really looking forward to all of them!
As you can see I have been trying to take picture more of the everyday moments...
here is a picture at the beginning of one great evening with our friends Laura and Will. 
We ended up having staying up late and playing cards into the wee hours of the night this evening. Good times and great memories!
SO excited that these 2 came to London and we got to hang out with them. 
We met up during week for some awesome pizza at Homeslice!
Later that week on Friday, we were able to meet up again. 
We went to a neighborhood pub for a few pints and then grabbed a kabob before topping off the night with a lovely cocktail. 

October snuck up on us some..... so we decided that we would just hang out in London town. We have been taking advantage of being at home and just enjoying being here. But we do have some fun and exciting trips coming up in November!


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Land of the Lucky - Dublin!

We did our first day trip outside of England.. we got the first flight out and the last flight home. It was a long day, but a good way to see other places for cheap!

Here are the highlights from our day in Dublin!
I didn't realize the harp on the Guinness brand was an Irish thing... 
This bridge is in the shape of the harp
We did the hop on hop off bus to get everything. The first stop on the bus was the U2 Graffiti Wall. It had some pretty cool stuff... 
This was a pretty recently done according to our bus driver
Overall very impressive!
We went to St. Stephens park and had a wonder. It was pretty cool that day, but there was greenery everywhere so it was worth the detour :)
Outside the Christ Church Cathedral
This is Dublin's oldest cathedral. The crypt pretty cool.. the exhibit that stands out in my mind is the cat and the rat! They presumably chasing each other and got trapped in an organ pipe in the 1860s and became mummified. 
We stopped in the Temple Bar for a pint before we left. There was some live music going on, so it was a good place to prop up the feet for a little bit. 
But no rest for us... we still had the grand Guinness tour to go!
This was definitely the highlight of our trip!
Being silly!

We had a proper tasting course...
There were a few famous visitors to the factor... I guess everyone loves their Guinness!
We received a free pint of Guinness at the top of the factory. 
The views were 360 of Dublin.. so it we had got to see where 
everything was that we visited during the day. 
All the tours were booked up at the Jameson factory... 
so we had to settle for just the obligatory photo out front :) 

Fun times.... I think there may be more day trips in the future!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Nothing like a free trip to NYC!

Shortly after our weekend in Paris, I got to head to NYC for work.... and luckily for me one of my besties lives there! It was sooo good to see and hang out with Cassie and Dinesh. I have been to NYC a few times but never really had the opportunity to do some tourist stuff. I even got 2 weekends with them!

Weekend 1
I got in on a Sunday afternoon and was not feeling too hot. Denish's mother made me some great homecooked Indian. I think it really opened up my sinus and I was able to power through in morning for some great sight seeing!  
First stop was Carlos' Bake Shop!
and then off to the city... Rockefeller center

It was off to Central Park next! 
We did a bicycle ride around the park...so much fun!

Saw the famous lake house in the middle of the park
Classic picture in the middle of the park
Trying to re-create the opening Friends scene :) 
John Lennon!


Weekend 2!
We went out to Chelsea for dinner on Friday night. We were able to snag a great seat outside and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.. it had a nice breezy and the company was fantastic :)

   
The next morning we got up and went out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
Great views from NJ while waiting on the boat
Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty!
Afterwards was wondered around and walked down to Wall St. 
Federal Reserve Bank of NY
911 Memorial
One Trade Center
We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
We got there just in time for sunset too! 

After the bridge we headed out to get some dinner and to celebrate the birthday boy - Dinesh! 

Thanks again for hanging out with me and showing me the city!