On our final day in Cornwall, we went to St. Ives, where we had superior Cornish Pasties. We also all have discovered a new love for scones and clotted cream.
On the way, we stopped off to get a good look at some ancient tin mills.
Some of the stone walls on our way out to St. Ives were more than 4000 years old!
On the St. Ives High Street. It was cold and windy and rainy:
The guys were loving their Cornish Pasties:
Hopefully the beach in Spain will be a little warm. We were impressed by the hard core surfers who were braving the cold in their wet suits.
Recently I caught Finchley STALKING a large fox in our yard. The other day a large fox was SLEEPING in our yard. This is very un-fox like and hopefully the fox was just having a rest and not sick. He left when he heard the garbage men. Here are the pictures:
THis year for Easter, we went to Cornwall again--with Meg and Dan! We headed out with the masses on the oversold train to Penzance, where we had no seats for the first few hours! Yeehoo! Here is the happy crew standing, then sitting on the floor and then...ummm...sleeping in between the seats and blocking the aisles with their legs.
Finally we got to sit down...IN FIRST CLASS (we chose to sit on the floor there and, thus, when things opened up we had a prime position!)
When we got to Penzance,we jumped into our trusty rental car and our trusty driver, Meg, drove us around England on the other side of the road with the stick shift on the other side of what we are used to. At one point, the guys criticized Meg's parking and took it upon themselves to park the car...and ran into our temporary landlord's car. So, Meg drove the whole weekend and there were maps in excess.
We also were introduced to fabulous Kinder Eggs, which have little prizes inside of them! We came up with a whole story for our Kinder Egg prizes, but it ws a lot funnier the night we did it than it is now...so I'll spare the readers.
A good get together is never complete without Cranium!
Our friend Vlad stopped by and did a great impersonation of Angelina Jolie:
And Jim hummed some Bon Jovi:
Team Avant won by a hair...but there will be a rematch soon.
Following our exciting night in, we hit the outdoors, where we almost got blown off of some cliffs by the wind and made it through hail and sleet...while maintaining our good moods!
The start of our walk:
Meg and Dan try not to get blown off the cliffs:
The first and last postbox in England! How exciting!
Some very cute pigs. Some very cute chickens taking shelter from the sleet and hail next to a rock.
And Jim and some weirdo saying "Go On Git" to the pigs:
I was there, too!
Snacktime and shelter from the wind:
I'm not sure what was going on in this picture. Maybe Dan got blown over by the wind.
This video pretty much sums up the wind factor (watch closely as Meg gets blown to the side):
Probably not the safest place to perch in the wind...
It was a great relief to finally get to the pub where we saw this GIGANTIC dog (Newfoundland who, at 175 pounds was still growing and expected to get up to over 200 pounds!)
On day 3, we headed into Mousehole and climbed around on the rocks a little. It was still windy.
Traffic jam in Mousehole (caused by American drivers):
More wind: And water: And hills: And more wind outside of our apartment: I think I will leave this blog, as is, and carry on with pictures from St. Ives some other time. Cornwall is a beautiful place!
Upon googling "Urban Scrabble" (at my Mom's insistence)I discovered that the Urban dictionary defines scrabble as a codeword for sex and also that Strip scrabble was something that people do with the urban dictionary.
SO, just to make sure everyone is clear...we were playing Scrabble THE GAME with a board and the letters. AND everyone's clothes stayed on at all times.
About a month ago, we stumbled upon something that brought us great joy. It was The Orange Saab's REALLY orange Grandpa! (see pictures above)
For those who are not familiar with the details of our past, here is the story of the Orange Saab.
The first time I saw The Orange Saab, it was pulling up behind St. Aloysius High School in Vicksburg, MS. Mom was dropping us off (I wasn't old enough to drive yet) and we were listening to Erasure on the Radio. Kate was still sporting the horned ponytail look and braces. I had ditched the braces and become familiar with the powers of aqua net but I still wore lumberjack shirts. We had yet to go bobbed. We had yet to become cool in any way, shape or form.
When we saw The Orange Saab and it's floppy haired driver, Mom, being far more superior than we when it came to recognizing what was cool and what was not (although WE were incapable of acknowledging that at that point) said, "What a cool car." And then, "That boy is cute, too!" Burnt Orange Saabs were NOT what teenagers in Vicksburg, MS in 1991 were driving. So, amongst the Nissan Altimas and Jeep Cherokees, the Saab stood out. The driver also stood out. He WAS cute and slim with his jeans rolled up in a style that wouldn't reach Vicksburg for a couple of more years. Because we intrinsically knew that he was infinitely cooler than we were, the only thing Kate and I could do was insult him. We called him, "Highwaters." He eventually turned out to be the love of my life.
Jim and I spent a lot of time in The Orange Saab, cruising around Vicksburg, listening to mixed tapes, speeding home to meet my curfew, driving to Jackson in our Doc Martins to go to music festivals, hanging out in parking lots, and going to parts of Waterways Experiment Station that we probably shouldn't have. We used to sit in the Orange Saab on a little peninsula across the lake from Jim's house. The dashboard of the Saab was cracked and faded after spending years in the Arizona heat. At one point we discovered that gummy bears were very sticky when we licked them, so we stuck some inside the Saab, where they proceeded to melt and then crystallize. Jim took me on our first date in the Orange Saab. And I think that I smoked my first cigarette in The Orange Saab. But the first time he kissed me was when I was getting into my own car, Pidge (Honda Accord Hatchback, 1981). And, embarrassingly, I was talking about The Muppets.
Some time ago, Jim's Orange Saab gave it's last putter on the side of the road in Arizona and was left for dead. Possibly it is scrap metal now, but we'll never forget how much a part of our teenage years it was. Long live the Orange Saab!
Kudos to the American Embassy in London, which processed both of our passport renewals with no problems. I feel like I have to post this because of the previous rant posted back in early spring of last year. Anyway, fellow Americans, as long as you follow their directions, your passport will make it back to you in an efficient and organized manner. I just wish I had chosen a day when it wasn't sideways raining and blowing to have my passport picture taken.
After Urban Scrabble, Jim and I needed to cleanse our minds, so we took to the trains and headed to the country. We walked in the Marlowe area again.
Jim in a tree:
There were rowers on the river behind us. At one point we were observing a couple of Canada geese about to be in the throes of passion, when some rowers basically plowed right into them, disrupting their romantic encounter(probably for the good of all...Canada geese are in abundance around here). It was pretty funny, but unfortunately we didn't think to video the whole thing. (the geese weren't hurt and the rowers called "Sorry!" as they kept on going).
Cute Jim:
And walking across at wooden plank that serves as a bridge:
And being eaten by a bush in the woods:
After Jim escaped the bush, we jumped over a log:
This farmer was providing the seagulls with much excitement in the form of something that they wanted to eat.
Springtime is coming:
And in this little English village there was a boat called The New Orleans. ROLL GREEN WAVE!!
Jim was feeling a little tired and grumpy at the end of our walk, but then he got ice cream and all was good. I had a few licks of it and all was good for me, too.
Swans and geese like chocolate digestive biscuits:
Next weekend we're going walking with a group of people. This will limit the number of goofy pictures we can take (because although it's not embarassing to post these pictures all over the web, for some reason it might be embarassing to take the pictures in front of other people)but should be a lot of fun!
