Grilling in the Dark

Although our traveling has significantly decreased with our settling into London, we got the opportunity to travel to see some fellow Americans who live outside of Manchester - the Austins! You may remember them from our honeymoon - how kind they were to take us in, as well as allow us to ship our belongings to their house. So, yeah, they are pretty much awesome.

On our way to see the Austins, we traveled through Manchester. We had been through it before, but never had the chance to explore. Although we only had about an hour and a half, I managed to get a few pics:


The city is pretty industrious as far as we could tell, but added a nice blend of architecture old and new to still make it pleasing to the eye. The Wheel of Manchester is sort of like the Eye in London:



Me being artsy with the eye...I don't think it worked.

Something about Seth standing there with a bookbag and a little plastic grocery bag makes me think of our honeymoon...strange thing to remind me of it..


Strange random water pipes which this lady used to very THOROUGHLY clean her son's scooter. I was going to wait until she finished, and then realized it was way more interesting to take a picture of her doing this:

Yes I realize I look ridiculous with all the layers:

Cool old pub:

Manchester Cathdral:

Seth creeping by the elderly citizens van at the church:

Cool architecture:

And the niblet of the cool architecture:

Printworks?

Creeper bird lady statue:

The mall:

They also had their own tram system through the city, which was pretty cool:
The "garden" was really just a mud pit:


City at night, walking through Piccadilly Gardens:

Of course we absorbed some art...for about 30 mins...



Okay, so that culminates about two hours of an entire weekend. Whew. After that, there are less pictures, but more human interaction which I feel is a little more important. The Austins, which consisted of Jack, Sunday, lil'Jack (to make his little cooler), and Tom, now has a fifth member. His name is Taco, and he's a dwarf hamster. Needless to say, he was very cute!


We had a great weekend with the Austins, just being Americans. We watched some American television, made fun of the British thing we saw on TV, and of course enjoyed the delicacies of American food! Sunday had made a delicious pot of chili to greet us as we came in the door. She even had hot sauce to accompany it! Amazing! I should have taken a picture of it, but I guess I got a little too excited...

The Friday and Saturday we spent with them were filled with rough weather - high winds, rain, and then a little more rain. But it was lovely just cozying up on their couch and doing a bit of reading while being surrounded by Southern accents! Their hospitality once again amazed us - we felt so welcome and loved in their home. They even treated us to our first Indian cuisine (thanks again Jack and Sunday!) Going to be with them just reminded me all over again of our love for Georgia and our friends back home. Ofcourse, it's excellent being here, but some things are just too good not to miss!

On Saturday night, they did have some friends over from church. Maggie, who is from Ireland, remarked on how I sounded British! Oh no! I'm not sure which way I should take this. On one hand, I'm apparently blending in. On the other, I don't want to lose my southern-ness! Although, in my defense, when I'm speaking with Brits, I try to use their terminology (crisps instead of chips, film instead of movie...the list goes on) as a way of being polite. I wonder if this is the best approach?

Anyway, here's a depiction of how ridiculous the weather was:


That's right. Grilling in the dark, with a raincoat on to fight off the wind, under the awning of the house to fight off the rain. In about 30 degree weather. That's how it's done, son! UK style!

So this post wasn't exactly philosophical like Seth's...oh well, you know you still love my picture galleries! :)