Well it's been an amazing month. Our diets (lifestyle changes) are going great and we were in Italy for a week over our 10 year wedding anniversary!
We had an amazing holiday and even lived through the 93+ degree heat everyday!! I took many many photos and I have put links to them all below. You do not have to have a Facebook account to look through them... Enjoy!
Just thought I would do a quick check in... Nothing much going on to be honest. It was rough going back to work on Monday after having two relaxing weeks off. Andy and I didn't have anything planned but to just workout, relax and watch football. Which is exactly what we did for two whole weeks... it was bliss.
Then Monday hit and it was back to work. Oh well... it was great while it lasted!
Our next time off is scheduled in August. We will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary on August 11th and we will be celebrating it in.... (drum roll please).... Rome! Can not wait for this trip, it is going to be a blast! We were in Paris in May and that was a great 4 days but we have a whole week in Rome and it is going to be awesome! I think we may take the train for a day trip to Florence and Pisa also.
Since I was MIA from my blog in May when we went to Paris I'll post a link to the photos from our trip.
We started out our day by going to Goodison Park to watch Everton beat Blackburn 3-0! YAY!
Then we went back home to pack to get ready to drive about 40 minutes away to Blackpool. This was to be the start of my Intensive Driving course...
We checked into the B&B that is provided as part of the course and when we looked out the window we found that we could see the tip top of Blackpool Tower. Nothing like a room with a view! (Yes I am being funny)
High: 59°
Low: 45°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 6:52 AM
Sunset: 7:13 PM
Today Andy and I drove up to the Lake District to spend the day.
We started out by going to the South Lakes Wild Animal Park, which I must stay was a blast! The above photo is of Andy feeding one of the giraffes. As much as I was looking forward to feeding the giraffes I have to say that was not my favorite part of the day. Andy and I fell in love with a little Wallaby and would have taken him home with us if we thought we could get away with it... just SO cute!
The Tiger feeding was also amazing. To keep them wild and fit they put pieces of meat up six meter high poles and then have them climb up to get it. I was able to get a video of one of them going up the first pole and then photos of them going up another. I have posted the extra photos from the day and the video below.
We were on the road to Liverpool at around 4:40am. Although I must say that it does help with the sun coming up so early as it did not actually feel like it was that early since it was already light outside.
We made it to Goodison Park with plenty of time and got on the coach with no problems. It was the first time I have taken the coach to a match and I must say it was a blast! The people on there were great, we sang, chanted, laughed and had a ball.
After about 20 minutes of being on the road we were told that the coach was overheating so we had to make a pit stop so that another coach could come and pick us up. Was a short blip and no big deal. Fortunately on the way back while listening to the Kings of Leon song 'Sex On Fire' there was a rewrite and I think every car we passed could hear everybody singing 'Wwoooooooaaaaahhhhh, the coach was on fire'.
So we got to Wembley and made our way inside to get something to eat. Honestly I was way too nervous to eat so Andy got something and then we went out in search of somebody to switch tickets with. See we had Club Wembley tickets which is the central ring around the stadium that is supposed to be neutral. Our seats were on the Chelsea end so I figured it would be easy to find two Chelsea supporters in the Everton end that would rather be over with their own supporters. Well I asked about 10-12 people and it turns out it was not as easy as I thought because it turned out those walking around in Chelsea kits were not real supporters but just there for a day out at Wembley and did not really care they were in the Everton end. Then Andy passed a man and his son and we ended up asking him and after taking him over to show him our seats he was more than happy to swap as his kid really wanted to be on the Chelsea side. They got great seats, we got great seats in return... score!
The atmosphere was crazy before kick off and it got even crazier because after only 25 seconds into the match Louis Saha scored the fastest ever FA Cup Final goal and it got even crazier! Unfortunately that goal just meant that Chelsea had to really push forward and we went into half time at 1-1. The sun started to move across the sky and as much as it was a comfortable and cool first half in the shade it was direct sun on us for the second half, it literately felt like I was melting. Chelsea managed to score again and we lost 1-2.
Then something happened that I could not have expected. We had just lost the FA Cup Final but did we empty out of our seats and head back to our coach with our heads hanging low? No way! We stood and sang our hearts out for the boys in blue down on the pitch. No the FA Cup Final is not a singing competition but the feeling of pride to be there even in loss was more than I could say for the winning side of Chelsea. Yes I am sure they had some excited 'supporters' but it was nothing like the sea of blues who were showing their appreciation for the runners up.
Once we made our way back to the coach it was a little quite at first but after we got on the motorway the CD went back on and as soon as we heard Z Cars we continued to sing, chant, laugh and have a ball. You would not have believed that we just lost. It just goes to show how great our supporters are.
Are we gutted that Everton did not come back home victorious and with the FA Cup? Of course.
Do we know that this is just the start of something more and that Everton are going to be hungry for more next season? Of course.
I felt so proud to be an Everton Supporter today. Even in loss we are there to show the World our love and support to the boys in the royal blue jerseys.
So now the summer officially begins and football does not start back again until August... what in the World am I going to do for two months?
I call this picture... The great Red and Blue divide! You can hardly tell that all of the seats are red, our Everton Blue has taken over.
What can I say about today? We left the hotel at around noon, made it to the grounds quite early to soak up the wonderful atmosphere. Made our way inside to find that we may have been in the rafters but when they say there is not a bad seat at the new Wembley Stadium they are not lying!
The match was tied 0-0 after full time so there were an extra two halves of 15 minutes each that also ended scoreless. So it was on to penalty kicks.
*ugh*
We were all a nervous wreck. I have only seen Everton take penalty kicks one other time and that was with a friendly against Club America (from Mexico) at a match we went to in Dallas Texas... and we lost those!
Tim Cahill walked up to take the first one... He missed. I was gutted. It looked as though he was crying. The Everton fans started singing Timmy Cahill... Timmy Cahill... to let him know it was okay.
Dimitar (I need a haircut) Berbatov walked up to take his penalty kick... TIM HOWARD SAVES IT! *yes*
Leighton Baines goes up for Everton... 0 - 1 to Everton!
Rio Ferdinand walked up to take his chance... TIM HOWARD SAVES ANOTHER ONE! *double yes*
... It was at this point that I started to cry. I just love Tim Howard to bits and the fact that he saved two, I was just so happy!
I wont make you sit thru my kick by kick analysis but we won 2 - 4 and I swear the place must be well built because every single Everton fan and player was going crazy. We sang, cheered, jumped up and down and pretty much went wild for about 30+ minutes.
We finally made our way back to the trains. The atmosphere was just buzzing and everywhere we went on our way back to the hotel people would give us a thumbs up or start chanting and singing. It was a great day!
This was taken while on top of The London Eye. That is Nelson's Column right in the middle and that is Trafalgar Square.
Today was a full day of sightseeing. We had a Thames River cruise, The London Eye, walking all over the place and we did a London Bridge Experience. Well I did 1/2 of it anyway...
You go down under the Bridge and they have live actors taking thru the history of The London Bridge and then you are supposed to go into this scary people jumping out at you part and I changed my mind a the last minute. I think it was just a minute after they said you had to wear a hard hat... I put mine on and then told Andy he can go ahead and I told the girl she needed to take me back up to the waiting area. She said it was a good job I changed my mind cause she said it is really scary and if I had any doubts it was best that I didn't do it. Andy said it was pretty bad and that the other two girls on the tour was freaking out. I am SO glad I did not go, I would have died.
The only bad part of the day was that we decided to go into The Tower of London. When we were coming up from the tube station I saw a spot to take a good picture and there was a dip down and I fell. *ugh* I twisteed my ankle just a little and there is a pretty nasty bruise on my left leg but the worst part... is that I had my camera out... around my wrist... It now has a nice little reminder scratch/dent on it. *double ugh* It still works perfectly fine and the scratch/dent is not very big but I am the kind of person that obsesses over things likes this. Evertime I take the camera out I will first see this flaw. Oh well, I guess it will just remind me of our trip to London, maybe one day I will laugh about it.
What a beautiful and wonderful place! This was my first trip to Wales but I can guarantee it will not be my last.
We left our house at around 7:30am and got home at 7:00pm. It was a whirlwind tour of North Wales but we managed to make it to a beautiful church, three castles, have a wonderful lunch and even took a cruise out to Puffin Island.
As we crossed over into Wales there was a hint of rain as the dark clouds were overhead but it never really started. It cleared up quite a bit at times and the sun made a number of appearances... so much that Andy and I both got a little too much sun and had a bit of red showing up on our nose and cheeks.
It only started to lightly rain as we were getting ready to leave the third castle to head home. Andy wanted to walk up one of the high towers so I stayed at the bottom to get a picture of him. It started to sprinkle but not too heavy. Then after about 10 minutes of being on the road it had already stopped.
I have already been doing some research online and am planning our next trip. Since it is only about an hour drive into Wales I can see many more trips being planned to see more and more of this lovely place!
I took a LOT of photos and of course can not post all of them here. If you would like to have a look thru them, here are the links:
Tonight Andy and I went to see a production of A Christmas Carol in Darwen which is about a 25 minute train ride north from Bolton.
The night started with us walking down to the train station in Westhoughton to find quite a few people waiting for the train. After about 10 minutes we hear this man yelling at the top of the walkway "Bolton... Anybody going to Bolton?" Turns out the trains were not running due to failed signal lights so a bus was going around to the stops taking people into Bolton. So we loaded onto the bus and off to Bolton we went.
I had made a reservation at The Olive Press earlier that morning so we mad our way to the restaurant. The food was quite yummy and I'm sure we will make our way there again.
We then caught the train to Darwen and made our way to the theatre. The show was fun and I am glad we went. It was quite funny because I had mentioned to Andy that this will be the first production of A Christmas Carol that I have been to see where everybody will have a real English accent instead of them having to try to put one on. Then it turned out that the man playing Scrooge was Scottish. What are the chances in that...
The play got over at exactly 9:10 which was terrible because there is one train an hour back to Bolton and it just so happens to come at :10 past. So we hurried over hoping that the train was late but nope... no luck. We had to wait for an hour for the next train then once we got into Bolton it was about another 20 minute wait for the train into Westhoughton. We finally got home at around 11:30.
This morning at around 11:00am we walked down to the shore and found that unlike yesterday when we arrived into Blackpool at around 10:30am the tide was most definitely in now. The water was crashing against the sea wall. Andy made a comment that the Irish Sea always looks like dirty dish water... I have to agree from looking at it today.
We caught the train at the Blackpool Station and unfortunately it was the train that was going all the way into Manchester Airport so it was full of people with huge suitcases and of course after we were in line for 45 minutes waiting for the train to arrive there were people that just walked up and tried to form their own queue instead of getting to the back of the line. The nerve of some people.
We did end up actually getting seats which is good as I did not want to stand for the full hour.. However some were not so lucky. But again it drove me crazy because right in front of where we were sitting were four seats with a table in between them. There was a lady at one of them who was all by herself but she sat on the seat nearest the aisle leaving the seat at the window free. Then she took her suitcase and put it on the table instead of above her in the hold. There were people standing up around the doors and they never asked her to move over or if the other two empty seats on the other side of the table were free. She also had a look on her face as if she was daring somebody to ask. She better be glad that we had seats because I would have had no problem making her move her bag and sitting on the other side of the table.
I do love public transportation and I would much rather be using that option instead of having to drive myself but I think I am just understanding the worst part of using it... the 'public' part! : )
2" of glass stand between me and a 380 Foot drop!
This picture was taken with me standing on the 'Walk of Faith' which is on the lower observation deck of Blackpool Tower. It took me a long time to get this picture taken... not because I was scared to go across the glass but because it is half term and there were tons of kids there that would not stop jumping and dancing on the glass. I just waited around for them to finally leave so that I could take this photo which only had my feet in it and not a bunch of others also. But it was worth the wait. I also got Andy to stand on it also which was a great accomplishment since it was very hard for me to get him to go up to the top in the first place. Once he was past the scary 64 second elevator ride I think he enjoyed it. There are windows in the elevator and I think that without those it would not have been such a hard ride up and down.
We did so much walking in one night! It had to be around 7 Miles once we were done... I was SO tired that I actually fell asleep at around 11:45pm which I do believe is the earliest since we moved here. I'm writing this at 5:00pm and I'm already tired so maybe this trip was exactly what I needed to get my internal clock back in working order.
We have made no plans for this weekend and we hope to keep it that way. I need a break from my two day holiday! : )
I have posted more photos from our trip on Facebook and here is the link if you would like to go view the rest of them.
