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.