You Betcha It's Monday

 Linking with Holly and Sarah for this week's weekend recap -Hello Monday 

We had a fun weekend attending the wedding of the daughter of some of our oldest friends. The bride and groom live in Minnesota, a state I'd never been to before last weekend and it's always fun to go somewhere new. 

We left SC on Thursday morning, then had a ridiculous layover in Charlotte before making our connection on to Minneapolis. So what does one do when they have a three hour layover in the Charlotte airport?

Well they might just buy themself a brand new Brighton watch band. I've been wanting a band for my iWatch that looks less sporty and more like jewelry and I love this one. 

We got to our hotel in Minneapolis around 6 PM. The bride and groom, along with her parents and several friends, were relaxing in the lobby when we arrived so we dumped our bags and joined them. In case you're wondering, I brought my ginormous suitcase because even though it was just a weekend we needed fancy clothes, walking around clothes, shoes, jackets, hubs had a suit plus a sport coat, and all that to say- giant bag for the win! 

We headed to bed before midnight and let me just say right now it does not feel like I gained an hour this weekend. We stayed in the Hilton Canopy situated in the Mill district and it's a very pretty hotel. The design is essentially two towers originally built in 1900 and 1904. It was at one time home to a company that sold farm implements around the midwest, but it's been converted into a hotel that still has a lot of wood, bricks, beams, and detail.  

Friday we had the day free until dinner so hubs and I went on a self-guided walking tour of Minneapolis. Question-do you do the touristy type things in your own city or is it just the tourists who do that? 

There wasn't a live guide. Instead you paid for the tour download on line, then you downloaded an interactive map using a code you're sent via email, then you head to the starting point, which was very near our hotel. We used this company-Viator and the tour was very well done. You could walk as fast or as slow as you wanted, and besides directions the narrator gave lots of fun facts and interesting bits of trivia as you navigated the city. 

Friday was an absolutely beautiful day. Chilly, but bright sunshine and it felt good to walk. We started near the Vikings stadium which coincidentally is built roughly in the shape of a Viking ship. 

We carried on into Gold Medal park, then along beside the river before crossing the bridge over the Mississippi on foot.  

It took us about 2 hours to do the whole thing. When the tour ended we met up with another couple who'd arrived just that morning, to have lunch in a local brewery. We each had a salad and shared some wings which were so good. These had a dill pickle rub and we might try that one at home. 

Fifteen of us went to dinner at Murry's Steakhouse, a Minneapolis institution. The food was fabulous. Hubs and I shared one of their signature dishes called the Silver Butter Knife Steak for two, so named I think because you could literally cut it with a butter knife. 

Also I could have fed a family of six with this steak made for two. 

After dinner we all went back to the hotel for a welcome party hosted  by the bride and groom. The party wrapped up around 10:30 and everyone crashed. We were pooped. 

Saturday the father of the bride along with the bride's brother hosted a breakfast at the hotel and then I talked hubs into taking an uber to see some of the scenes from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show. I know I'm dating myself, but the show was really popular when I was growing up, and I loved it. In the show Mary lived in Minneapolis and there's a statue in her honor downtown.  

"Who can turn the world on with her smile....?" Raise your hand if you're singing the theme song right now. We also went into the mall where you see Mary having lunch in the opening credits. We didn't drive by the house where her super cute apartment was, mostly because we didn't have a car and it was too far to walk. 

Around lunchtime a whole big group of us walked a few blocks over to a local sports bar to watch some college football. 

Our team wasn't playing until later, but we watched some lesser games-ha!, then had lunch before I left to get my hair done. When I attend an out of town wedding I always try to book a hair appointment somewhere nearby so that's done and I can just relax and enjoy getting ready. 

There was a shuttle to get us all to the beautiful wedding venue-Nicollet Island Pavilion, which is situated right beside the river. I'm not posting any wedding pics because I want to let the bride have her moment, but just know she looked lovely and happy and the groom was adorable too. Cheers to the newlyweds! 

We dined and danced and wore silly props while smiling in a photo booth with people we've known since we were 20 years old. We had to be in the hotel lobby at 6 am Sunday morning in order to make our flight, so it was a short night in terms of sleep. 

Really big on fun though! 

So what kind of fun did you have this weekend? 

Cheers to Monday

Linking today with Holly and Sarah for their 'what I did this weekend' party. Ours was full so grab a cuppa and strap in. 

We left the UK fifteen years ago after living here for six. Our home was in a little village about fifteen miles outside of central London, and my hubs worked in Oxford. My girls were young teenagers then and attended an International school not too many miles from our home. 

My daughter's current home is in the Cambridge area, about an hour and a half from where we once lived.  We knew we wanted to spend a day there....to wander through the old neighborhood (or estate as they're called here), visit the pub, walk down the High Street, see once more some of our very favorite green spaces, and most especially catch up with some old friends. 

We started the day Friday by parking outside our old house, our favorite house of all the houses we've ever lived in, and that's saying something, as we've had more than a few. A delivery van was parked on the road out front, and the driver tried to get us to sign for packages because he thought we were the owners. 

Sadly we are not.  

Is it creepy to lurk outside a former residence and snap some pics? Perhaps, but we did it anyway. We didn't sign for their packages so there's that. 

The house looks mostly the same from the outside, but we know it's very different on the inside. I don't think I'd want to see the inside now. The garage has been closed in on one end and another added on the opposite side. They've also put up a gate which is common here, and added shrubs behind the stone wall out front, so you can't really see the house very well from the street. So glad the gate was open and I could be a little nosy. 

We decided to be 'those Americans' and knock unannounced on the next door neighbor's front door. They were the loveliest couple whose children were already grown when we were living there, so several years older than us. We exchanged Christmas cards for a number of years, and we even met them for dinner in NYC one year when they were visiting the states and we were living outside the city, but it's been quite a long while.  

We knocked and there was no answer at first so I started speaking to their doorbell camera because that's what you do in 2024. I figured they'd see the video and at least know we tried. But soon we heard the locks turning and the door opened a crack. It was the Mrs. and I could tell at first she didn't recognize us. Then I started speaking and it clicked and she threw the door open wide for us to come in. 

So we did. Her hubs was at a doctor's appointment so we didn't get to see him, but we had the nicest catch up with her and talked about all manner of things including the political scene in the USA. She brought it up and it was so interesting to hear her take on everything. It might surprise you. 

She asked about our girls and their children and we were so sorry we didn't get to see her Mr. who we adored. The sweetest man who grew a wide variety of the most beautiful heirloom peonies in his back garden which he would show us from time to time. I love an English garden. 

We had plans for lunch at the local pub with friends so we headed there next. Definitely one of my favorite parts of our entire trip. 

The lovely lady on the left used to attend a women's Bible Study in my home and the one on the right, well we raised our teenage girls together. She has three daughters, but the two oldest were the same age and grade as my two and they were all great friends. The women I met and grew to love in this country are still some of my favorite people on the planet. 

Honestly I could have stayed at that table all day, but we're visitors in this place now and time marches on.

We eventually peeled ourselves away and hubs and I walked down the High Street, which we thought had changed a lot since we were last in town. So many more people. So many more cars. 

Most of the shops had changed names, hands, and product but there were a handful that remained the same. 

My younger daughter had a job in this little cafe once upon a time and we snapped a photo to show her it's still standing. 

Next we walked into The Camp, which thankfully had not changed a bit. Actually I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed in the last thousand years or so. The camp is a piece of land classified as a plateau hillfort because it's not on a hill, but is a slightly elevated spot sitting between two rivers. 

There are theories as to it's original use but some thoughts are that it was of Roman construction, that the Saxons built it to fight the Danes, or that the Danes built it to fight the Saxons. The age of the camp is uncertain but it's old, really old, most likely from the Early Iron Age, around 600-500 B.C. 

It may have been constructed by the Romans a long long time ago, but when we lived here we walked our dog in this camp several times a week. Sometimes there'd be people on horseback there too, and that was always fun to see. We had our sweet Gordon Setter when we lived in England and walking the camp was one of her favorite things to do. Ours too.We used to say she walked five miles for every one we walked. 

Walking. Another thing I miss. We walked nearly everywhere when we lived here. To town. To church. To the pub, the shops, the library, the bank, the cinema, the pharmacy. I miss that. 

After the camp we got back in the car and made a couple of small drive-by trips to nearby favorite villages before heading back to Cambridge. The grands were happy to see us and we all walked to a nearby pub for dinner. 

Saturday morning was spent at the pitch. 

Both boys are playing soccer futbol and we were able to watch their practice, which is a rare treat. I will add that the program is so well run, so organized, and the coaches were wonderful with the kids. 

They had a plan for the entire hour and moved seamlessly from one drill to another, with a short match at the end. The program is mostly focused on skill building and they had the kids attention every minute.  The grandboys are in two different age groups but conveniently their practices are back to back. 

Speaking of futbol...my son-in-law had tickets to the Tottenham-Brentford match in London on Saturday, so the plan was he would take the Mancub to the match (which he absolutely loved) while hubs, Little Miss, Daughter1, Max, and I would all go into London a different direction and see what we could see. 

Let's talk public transportation. We live in the country now, and we're a little bit out of practice when it comes to all all the various modes of transport city living requires. We do have a car here, but parking is always a concern. Quite often taking public transport is much easier than getting a car into a congested city center with a lot of one way streets and bus lanes and very limited parking in teeny tiny itty bitt spaces. 

Public transport it is. 

First we walked to the nearby bus stop and rode a bus to the train station. Then we took a train to the city, but not before grabbing a Cornish pastie from the West Cornwall Pasty stand on the platform for lunch. 

Once we got to London we took the tube to the part of the city we needed to get to. It's a lot and you kind of forget that. 

We took the tube to the Tower Hill stop and were going to walk across Tower Bridge, but did I mention the city was absolutely mobbed? 

We snapped a couple of pics thinking we'd come back by there later, but changed course midday given the crowds. 

Hubs and I have plans to come back into the city another day so we just rolled with the crowds and the walking and the people and having little ones in tow. 

Also, my daughter is an absolute rock star. Just sayin'. 

We ended up walking across London Bridge (which is not the same as Tower Bridge), and were able to see some of the Great River Race happening on the Thames just below. 

I read there were 300 boats competing which I'm sure was exciting, but only added to the downtown masses. 

So what did we see on Saturday?

People. That's what we saw. Have mercy there were so.many people. One of my favorite places in London used to be Borough Market. It was a collection of mostly food stalls beneath London Bridge and you could buy the most delicious Chorizo sandwich from a little cart there.  

All kinds of goodies were for sale, both sweet and savory. There was always a ginormous skillet of paella cooking, lots of fresh produce, cheeses, sausages, pastries, and more. 'Back in the day' the market was only open Thursday-Friday-Saturday and the internet hadn't completely exploded so a lot of tourists didn't even know the market was there. 

Not so anymore. Hoo boy it was jam packed. Of course it was a sunny September Saturday afternoon but the stalls were four and five people deep and you really couldn't even see what was for sale. The market has doubled or maybe tripled in size and it's now open six days a week. 

Daughter1 carried Little Miss and we had Max by the hand. It was ka-razy! I always used to tell people not to miss the market, but not sure I'd recommend it now. At least not on a sunny Saturday. 

We finally made our way out, no easy feat given the crowd, and treated Max to a gelato because he was a real trooper. 

We came out near the riverwalk and were greeted with a rainbow.

We walked some more before crossing the 'WobblyBridge' aka the Millennium Bridge, and landing in front of St. Paul's. 

Still such a beauty. 

We didn't go inside this trip, and instead found a pub so hubs could finally have a pint of London Pride. So many of the pubs are now run by Greene King and London Pride is a Fullers pour so it took some searching. We finally caught the tube back to Kings Cross, the train back to Cambridge, and the bus back home. By then we were all pooped and ordered carry out from a Thai place for dinner, which was delivered to the front door by a guy on a bike. City livin' y'all. 

Sunday we slept in. Everyone was tired and we needed a slow morning. After breakfast hubs and I made a run to the local grocery store. I love to visit grocery stores when we travel outside the US and we walked up and down every single aisle, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. 

It was fun to see so many of the foods and treats we'd forgotten about on the shelves. The choice of creams and dairy products in general, prepared meals, cuts of meat, baked goods, a whole section of cream cakes, and all those flowers. 

Hubs reminded me we have fresh flowers in our stores in the states, but not like this. You don't buy a bouquet of roses for $4. The flowers are so reasonably priced here, and so fresh. I used to buy a bunch every week just because. 

Add that to my list of things I miss. There are of course things I don't miss, but that list isn't nearly as long. 

We bought jammy dodgers, but there's no picture because we ate the whole bag when we got home lol. It was only eight cookies and there are 7 of us. We also grabbed a bag of our favorite flavored crisps-Thai Sweet chili, which is similar to a barbecue chip only not exactly. 

You can say that about many things in the market here. Some things you just have to try. 

After lunch the two dads went off to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford to check out the British planes on display. The little boys worked their legos, Little Miss slept, and Daughter1 and I sipped tea, chatted, and worked on our blogs. 

We all met up for dinner at yet another local pub (this never gets old) before calling it a night. Today hubs and I are off to York for a couple of days, a place I've never been and look forward to seeing. 

So how was your weekend? I hope it was full of the people and places you love too.