Invasion highlights and wrap ups.. potentially with pictures!

So the girls have come and gone leaving behind a room that begs to be vacuumed and now feels far too big to be lived in by a single person. If either of you three are reading, thanks for coming and I'm going to miss the company. Now stop reading, because you guys were here for everything that I'm going to type and you should instead use this time to keep my horse from killing herself in the remaining month.

I dragged The Girls(tm) to various London landmarks, many on their first day while they were still trying to process that they were in another country. We did a fast tour of Trafalgar down to Westminster and Big Ben and ended up at the Red Lion pub for a delicious dinner where The Girls (or at least 2 of them) learned that lasagna (or any Italian dish for that matter) is not going to be decent in an old English pub.

Other London sights- the B.M. (patented "that's a fake, that's a fake, that's stolen tour) where we got to hang out in the Parthenon Gallery after it was closed because we asked nicely, the Royal Mews (missed it), Picadilly (also not there for it), and Hyde Park (rode a punk horse and had a blast). We also saw the Tower of London (rained, Shira got her coffee late, giant effing ravens) and Camden Market (punks, hugging saltshakers, Stacey found her holy grail- a toy smart car).

Every night we ate delicious food, and while I'd like to take credit for it, my town boasts a ridiculous amount of good restaurants. The big hit seemed to be the Thai place because of its yummy fried rice and pretty Thai Ladyboys.

Shira's quest for a good cup of coffee in town was finally ended when we stumbled into the healthy food/free interwebs cafe. This also ended Stacey's quest for free Wi-Fi for her everpresent PalmPilot (it had solitaire.. I bet it could have minesweeper installed which means I want 4). Jaime's quest for beer ended the night before they left when she was introduced to the joy that is the Jerusalem Tavern. We all became better people that night for learning about the delicious drink that is a half pint of Guinness and a shot of Tia Maria. I know you have those ingredients handy, Mom..

We went on two daytrips- one to the incredibly beautiful Leeds Castle where the guides were friendly (chatted up a retiree that volunteers.. me talk to an old man???!!! noooo). They took every chance to tell us that we could rent it out for weddings and parties. We got lost in the hedgemaze, talked to a parrot in the aviary, and got to watch a birds of prey demonstration that involved the castle peacocks chasing around the performing owl. If it doesn't make sense I'll put the video up on youtube.

And for the highlight- Cheeserolling in Gloucester. For those who haven't been privy to the joy that is double Gloucester cheese, let me tell you, it is the finest of cheeses for use in the grilled cheese sandwich.

The festival involves a steep hill and people racing to the bottom after a cheesewheel. One would think that the contestants in the race were the heroes of the day, but I beg to differ. The heroes of the day were the spectators, specifically the one that was kind enough to step in a ditch of water and throw the 4 of us over the barbed wire/hedgerow keeping us from the cow pasture full of cows. That man has so much good karma coming to him..

After the efforts put into getting to the base of the hill, I think we were all at the stage where if the cheeserolling was anything short of spectacular we would have rioted and stolen the beloved cheesewheel. Thankfully it was nothing short of amazing and this did not happen (and I say thankfully because from our original viewpoint we couldn't see the "catchers" at the base of the hill that were rugby tackling the runners to stop them from hitting the crowd- they would have messed us up had we got anywhere near the cheese).

Some pictures from the carnage:



For some reason I can't add more photos but I'll post them on facebook and maybe in another post later. I'll also try and add the videos to youtube with varying levels of success. They're worth it, way better than the photos.