JoeyCol es diferente

In Mazatlan, the boys got to like the local cola TonyCol. It is a Mexican version of Vanilla Coke. We brought some Mexican vanilla home and planned to try to copy TonyCol. My version didn't quite work out. It was a little too sweet and I never really got it fizzy enough. But I am really proud of my JoeyCol label!! I will have to try again...

On the wine side, currently I have 5 gallons of nectarine wine fermenting. In bulk aging carboys, besides the zin, cab, syrah and merlot from last fall, I have 5 gallons of peach, 6 gallons of apricot, 2 gallons of strawberry, 4 gallons of bing cherry, 1 gallon of red plum, 1 gallon of mint wine, 1 gallon of blueberry. I also have 5 gallons of skeeter pee- a cross between hard lemonade and lemon wine. I just bottled 4 bottles of yellow rose petal wine and 5 bottles of carrot wine.

In the wine cellar we have blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, bartlett pear, crimson pear, sauvegnion blanc, pinot noir, blueberry, rhubarb, and a few other misc bottles. Meg is upset with all the fruit wine everywhere because she is worried we won't have room for her "real" wine. We have some drinking to do and will need some help...

Pictures from England

I finally got the best pics uploaded to flicker. Here they are http://www.flickr.com/photos/nylands4/collections/72157624701171699/

Tonight Jess is having a end of the summer party/ first week of high school party. I said 12 kids but I am worried the word has spread on facebook and Myspace and we might have 40....

Trip winds down

Last day in England. We spent a relaxing morning with my friend (from
high school) Char, and her lovely family. After waffles for breakfast
(yay.... welcome change from full British breakfast), we went to a
nearby village that was incredible cute and charming, with tumbling
old buildings, and a farmers market. Then we relaxed with a cold
beverage in a garden pub.

Then it was time to say goodbye, and Bill and I hit the road towards
the airport. We've stopped off in Windsor to have dinner before we
stay near the airport, before our early flight home tomorrow. We are
too late to go into castle, but we're eating at a Nepalese restaurant.

Visit with Char

Bildeston with char and family

Saturday started with a trip to the York castle museum. We then drove 4 hours south to spend a night with meg's old friend char and her family. Charlotte and Jonathan live in a cute little English village with their young kids lux and Hugo. Great to hang out with them and enjoy their hospitality.

York

We started the day in york with another full English breakfast at our
b&b with all the horse betters in town for the races. We have a hard
time understanding because of their thick accents.
We then left for a free 2 hour history walking tour of York. We are
getting to be quite the experts on English history.

The picture is a small lane called the Shambles, an old mideval street.

After a pub lunch, we decided to split up. Meg spent the afternoon
souvenir shopping, while I went to the horse races. The races were
strange because most people has suits or fancy dresses. The track was
huge (almost 2 miles) and the horses ran on grass. But the betting was
pretty similiar and I was able to pick 2 winners and come out ahead.
Meg and I met for dinner in town. We hopped around and had drinks and
appetizers at a couple of places before we ended up a mixed drinks
bar. We started talking to a local and before we knew it the table was
full of people who all wanted to talk to Americans. We had a great
time, and made new friends. I seem to remember inviting many people to
come visit us in Seattle :-)

This morning we are visiting the Castle Museum in York before heading
out, driving south to visit a friend.

Ironbridge Gorge, Chester, York

We spent the morning in the many museums of ironbridge gorge, learning
about the "beginning of the industrial revolution" .... This is where
they discovered a new way to refine iron to make cast iron, strong
enough for building uses (prior they only made iron for wrought iron
which is not as strong). They also made the first steam engine
locomotive here.

We headed north to the town of Chester (photo) - totally charming
town, old historic buildings, town wall, old church, castle. But we
didn't have too much time, because we had to make it to York.

York is an old walled city. We will explore more tomorrow, but we
walked around a bit tonight. It happens to be a big (horse) race
weekend, and the town is packed with drunk folks dressed up for the
races. Lots of ladies in heels and posh hats (and "fascinators"), guys
in suits. Tomorrow is the last day of races, we may go, or we may not.

Cotswolds and points north

We left Bath after breakfast, and headed north. We stopped at several
towns in the Cotswolds, walked around just to see them. Very quaint,
quiet, and lovely. Then drove farther north, got stuck in traffic near
Birmingham, and made our way to Ironbridge Gorge. Iron was invented
here on the 1770s, and the first real iron structure, a massive
bridge, is here. And, it's a very cute town. We had Thai food for
dinner (good green curry, worst pad thai ever!), and have settled into
a very nice (spacious, with bathroom) room above a local pub. Tomorrow
we'll visit some of the 11(!) museums inthis area, dedicated to iron,
pipes, and Victorian life. Then we'll head to York.

We walked ALL of Bath

A belated post for yesterday. We started the day with a mediocre
breakfast at our B&B, and then headed a few blocks into town. We had
about an hour and a half before our tour started, so we wandered
around. The Bath Abby is stunning, an example of "perpendicular gothic
architecture", pictured). Then we joined a fantastic free walking
tour. The host was knowledgable and funny, and the two hour tour sped
by, we learned tons of little tidbits about the city. After the tour,
we walked around some more and found some lunch. Then we cruised the
charming streets, browsing the shops.

Mid-afternoon came around, and we took a mellow cruise up the river;
of course, being married to "adventure Bill," we opted to walk back to
town on the charming 3-mile towpath along the canal. Which really was
pretty cool once we found it (we took a detour through some cow
fields, confused by all the British walking trails). The canal was
full of live-aboard and rental canal boats - the equivalant of a
caravan of RVs, I guess.

We reached town tired, parched, and starving, and landed at a Moroccan
restaurant for dinner and wine. Afterwards, Bill really wanted to do
Bizarre Bath, a comedy walking tour (of course!!). I complained and
whined about my tired feet, but Bill was persistent, and another glass
of wine persuaded me. The tour was funny and enjoyable. We finally got
back to our B&B 13 hours later, having walked almost that entire time.
Exhausted, but I feel like we made the most of our short time in Bath,
a lovely (and walkable) city!

Glastonbury, Wells, and Bath

We left bustling London this morning and picked up a rental car. Bill
has
mostly mastering the driving and is doing great, although it's tough
to drive on the left, sitting on the right side of the car, and drive
an unfamiar stick shift with the left hand, all on teeny tiny narrow
streets (lanes) with oncoming traffic. But so far, we've made it!

We first went to Glastonbury, where the hippies reign surpreme and
misticism is in full force. The ruins of the abby were pretty cool. We
also went to the nearby town of Wells that has an amazing cathedral.

We then made our way to Bath. On the way we detoured into deep
countryside (smallest lanes with deep hedgerows on either side) to a
cider maker whose family has been making hard cider for many
generations. We arrived in Bath in time for dinner followed by a tour
of the baths, pictured.

Full day today. Bill and I were up early, we jumped on the tube and
went down to the London Eye. The view is stunning, and it's amazing
how smooth the ride is. Then we walked up past parliament, big Ben,
and around Westminster Abby. Then we kept walking to the park around
Buckingham Palace. We just happened to catch the processional march of
soldiers in full regalia up the mall to the changing of the guards (we
didn't see too much of the changing, as there were like a billion
people milling around.

Sightseeing over, we got on our wedding party dude, and took the train
up to Harrow-on-the-hill, to a garden party. Very nicely done, great
and friendly folks.

Tomorrow we are off to Salisbury, Wells, and Bath.

Saturday in London with Davis's

We met Haley and Ross, JP, and Joel and Melissa for breakfast at a
great restaurant in the Burough market (very cool market!!). We had
lots of British treats like bubble & squeak, streaky bacon, grilled
tomatoes, and black pudding. After breakfast, Bill and Joel left to
meet Haley's father-in-law Ralph, who was taking them for pints and a
football match. Haley, Melissa, JP and I set off to walk the city.
Boy, did we walk.....millenium bridge, Covent garden, Leicester, Soho,
Oxford circus, and marylebone, then back to the Paddington for me, to
meet Bill. Very fun to see so many different neighborhoods, and I
definitely worked off my proper British breakfast! Tomorrow is the
wedding garden party. Oh yeah, I've given up the posh hat idea, after
talking to Haley and realizing the party will be quite casual (the
groom may wear jeans).

Long day of sightseeing and touring london. We saw the tower of
London, the tower bridge, the borough public market, and the Tate
modern art museum. There were a few rain storms but we managed to be
inside for most of them. After the Tate we met JP, Joel and Melissa at
their rented flat. It is great to see family on the other side of the
world. We are going to have a lot of fun the next couple of days. We
had Indian food with them tonight and tomorrow we wil meet them for
breakfast. Haley's father in law is taking Joel and I to a soccer game
and the girls are going shopping for their posh hats.

London!

Arrived safe and sound in London mid-day. Took the train into the
city, found our B&B, and then took off to explore. We started with a
double decker bus tour, as a way to get a city overview. Hopped off to
explore Trafalger square (and had a pint, see Bill picture). Walked
along the Thames, by The Globe theater, and then jumped on the Tube to
head back to see Harrods. Weather is grey, cool, and a bit drizzly,
just like home!!

Ocean Shores

Not a good weekend to go to the Ocean but we still had fun. We joined Paul and Kara and Ann and Ocean City State park. The rain came on Saturday but we were able to stay dry under tarp city. Jess and I did some bike rides to town between storms but other than that it was a lot of sitting under tarps. Sunday we stopped at the seafood store on the way home and made a great Sunday dinner of Oysters and Salmon.

Summer Camp

Joe's first Boy Scout Summer Camp this week was at Camp Pigott near Monroe and the old Camp Brinkley. Both boys had a lot of fun. Joe got at lot of advancements done as well as doing a lot of swimming, rifle shooting and just hanging out with the guys. I went Wednesday through Saturday and Meg spent the night on Friday. This picture is from our Troop 366 cheering section for the big relay race where our team came in 2nd- just missing out on first by 1 second. I couldn't convince the last kid to write on his belly so I had to be the last 6.