More of England- Huntingdon and the Queens Bday

After our short trip to London we look a side trip to see a friend of Amanda's from NAU in Huntingdon. Its about 40 mins outside of London. Our friend Becky's husband is stationed on an air force base. The first day that we were there they picked us up from the train station and went out to eat at a local resturant. They treated us to our first English meal at a cute little Pub. After the meal they took us to their home that was a 5 minute walk to a lake nearby. After settling in we went to walk around the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! lots of green like Oregon. With the pretty senery, we soon found a tonnnnnnn of nats and other bugs that swarmed us. In our picture we all have hoods on because the bugs were so thick in some spots. :) We took along some bread to feed the ducks but the ducks and swans were always on the islands in the middle of the lake so we never got the chance.

The following day Becky had no work so she took us around her area. We walked around the Garden of Surprises in Burghley. Its about 30 minutes away from Becky's house. It was really gorgeous, it had the garden of surprises which was a bunch of different little nature activities like a mirror maze (Kyle and I played tag in it and it was more difficult than expected), lots of water and fountains, a cool sundial that predicted the time, date, etc. The whole garden is hidden from the road and is on countless acres. After the garden we walked through the Sculpture Garden which displayed local artists pieces of nature and other original pieces. It probably took us about an hour or longer to walk through. It looked like it was out of a movie! (check out of the pictures). At the end of the walk there was a pond with plenty of ducks to feed but of course we had no bread this time.

Later we met up with Becky's husband Jerome and went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. This was our first experience with Europeans that were not very fond of Americans regardless of how much we tried to be polite. They weren't too bad just you could feel the vibe they didnt want us there. Its different adjusting to European restaurants with the expensive bottled water and then no refills and stuff like that. So we can understand when we ask for things we arent use to they take it as us being snobby. Regardless the food was really good.

The last day in England turned out to be quite fun. It started with all four of us taking a train to London and some of the underground subway being closed again.ha All Kyle and I could do was laugh and say whats new?!?! It was the Queens birthday so their was a parade (which we missed) but we did walk around the park right next to Buckingham palace and then at 1pm we watched from the street planes and jets fly over the palace and give the queen a show. We could see her in front of the palace standing with family watching so that was a once in a lifetime experience. There were tons of people there. A lot were dressed to the T, wearing suits and formal dresses. It was nice to see how much the country respects her.

After we left the queens celebration we went to Convent Garden which is also in London. Its a neat area that is full of very talented street performers and small mom and pop shops to browse. We saw a bunch of musical performers and magic trick exhibits. We probably walked around there for a few hours and then Kyle and I needed to get back so we didn't miss our flight to Dublin.

Our saviors from the chaos were Becky and Jerome. They were extremely generous to us the whole time making us feel at home and treating us to almost everything. It was so relaxing being out of big city life and having faster transportation then walking :). We even enjoyed their small cats...minus Kyle's allergies to them, he sounded cute when he laughed though. The cats were funny to watch run around so it kept us entertained. We meant to take a picture of their view from the back yard but it was quite impressive. It was wide open green fields with tall trees in the distance. Something you imagine in postcards or pictures.

We are currently in Ireland and loving it! We will write and add pictures soon. Stay tuned

Goodnight world and love you all!