Bank Holiday Weekend

So Plymouth didn't happen. Steve & I woke up in terrible moods Saturday morning because we we're both dreading going to Plymouth, with bad weather and not much to do we decided not to go. We cancelled our reservation & got a refund on our train tickets. Instead we decided we would head down to South Hampton.

If you're a new reader, you might not know but we recently moved to the UK. We brought a few suitcases with us on the flight but the majority of our stuff we shipped. It takes 5-8 weeks for our pallets to arrive. Guess what is now in the same country as us? OUR STUFF! Steve got the email last Friday that our stuff has landed, in South Hampton! Unfortunately we couldn't get it or even see it as it has to go through customs etc but it was nice knowing we were in the same city even just for the day.

The biggest reason we went to SH is this:

Although we do live in a furnished apartment, making it feel like home is hard. We bought a TV and a small desk for Steve but that's about it as far as big items. With our stuff arriving soon once we unpack it we have no where to put anything. No bookshelves, no china cabinet, no banquets, no kitchen island. And that all adds up to one thing, we needed to hit up IKEA. The biggest thing we didn't want to do was buy a bunch of stuff that would only fit this apartment as we don't plan to be here too long (no parking, 1 bathroom etc). Without a car IKEA can be a bit of a daunting task so we just took a bunch of photos of tags and are going to go with the home delivery option. Although it means another day of sitting about waiting on a delivery but once it comes I'll get to build it all. 

After IKEA and breakfast (and a beer at 10am - don't judge, it was actually pretty good) we decided to walk around the city for a bit. Being so near the coast I figured it would be a bit more like Brighton, touristy, lots of historical significance, big things to see. Unfortunately it wasn't quite so grand. 

Rain Rain Rain... So Much Rain

**note: I am not being paid or compensated for this post**

As I'm sure everyone knows that England is a wet place. So far we have been really lucky and haven't had a lot of rain, but even on days that the weather channel says its not going to rain it comes down in buckets in the afternoon. Living here the one thing I knew I had to have was a rain coat, but one of those Columbia outdoorsy rain coats just wasn't going to cut it. Mind you, I own a rain pullover that's the typical rain jacket. I knew I needed something more class, more sophisticated, that I could wear to dinner as well as on a walk in the country.

Que desperately googling a week before we left the US. I checked all the usual sites - North Face, Columbia, Eddie Bauer, Target & Lane Bryant. Of course I couldn't find anything, being it was April and everything out was for summer. In a panic I called my mom & asked her where she used to buy her rain gear back when we lived here before. Of course she suggested Barbour but that's way out of my price range, so she suggested LL Bean.

Presenting the Easy Care Mackintosh:

I have it in blue, though the yellow is super cute, and I can tell you that this is one of the best coats I've ever owned. It's perfect for spring & early fall. It is lined, so its not all sticky and yucky on the inside. It looks nice, like I could wear is to Ascot or a show in London in the evening & it wouldn't look out of place. 

Now the big coat here in England in the Barbour jacket - super stylish and waterproof & warm but they're out of my budget & they're only made up to a ladies XL.

So instead I am going with this lovely coat from LL Bean. Its not exactly the same but it has the same sort of "British" look and for a much more reasonable price. 

What's your go to coat for different seasons? Have I missed anything? 

Travel Tuesday

So since I already covered our travel into London and its Tuesday (I started this post on Tuesday, so I sticking with it) I figured I would reveal where we are headed for our first big out of the country trip - Ireland. We are headed to Dublin at the end of May for a 3 day weekend! We are both excited, this will be Steve's first time outside of England & I will get to see my childhood nanny who lives in Ireland. We are going to Dublin so we don't have to rent a car, but in the future I want to rent a car and drive all over the country and explore castles and sites. But that will be the next trip.

My family & I went to Ireland right before we moved back to the US, so somewhere around 2000. I don't remember a whole lot, we saw the Book of Kells and mom & dad drank some Guinness, but that's about all I can remember.

We're going to try something different as far as where to stay, since its a bank holiday weekend there as well hotels are very expensive. So we keep seeing adds for Air B&B on the TV here, its like normal people who rent either a bed, a room or their entire home out for a fraction of the cost of a hotel in the same area. So Ive found a few places that will work, for about $75/night. If it goes well we can keep doing the Air B&B thing, if not its back to earning lots of Hilton points.

We took this tour company around London and loved it, so we will do the hop on hop off buss tour on Saturday to get our a good overview of the city. 

Howth is a bay just outside of Dublin, a its a part of the city that I have never seen. I'm hoping for some great sea food, beautiful views & some shopping!

What would a trip to Dublin be without going to the Guinness brewery? We got a tip from a friend to go strait to the tasting for the free beer and do the self tour backwards. Beer first? Yes please!

This is my only real memory of my previous trip to Dublin so I'm excited to take Steve to see this beautiful piece of history. Plus we get to see all the cute Irish college boys ;)

Steve is a huge scotch fan, but in Ireland we drink whisky so visiting the Jameson distillery is on our list of must sees. 

One of my favorite kinds of tours are these land & water ones so if we have time we will take one of these around Dublin. 

Big News out of London Today

Unless you live under a rock, which some of you might, twitter, Facebook, snapchat & every other social media I am too uncool to know about was a buzz today with the news from London, GB. Tweets, posts and "snaps" were coming in from all over the globe over the big news.

Yes, today was the day Steve & I went on our first day trip to London!

We visited the Science Museum 

Then we headed over to Covent Garden for some shopping and a quick bite:

Steve finally took to Shake Shack! It was amazing! They even have their own beer brewed for them! How cool is that? Mind you we spent $53 on 2 burgers, 2 fries and 2 beers but we were so hungry & they were so good! I highly recommend it - but maybe as just a one off treat :)

Here are a few more photos from Covent Garden - one of my favorite places in London. 

Street Performer

More performers

Next we took a short walk over to one of my favorite stores... ladies I'm sure you can guess where this is!

That's right - Kate Spade! I didn't buy anything but it was wonderful to look at see it all in person, not online :)

From there we took a quick walk to Oxford street, went into Primark, like crazy people & dropped by the food court at Selfridges. 

And in other news, Kate & William had their second baby! There is a new Princess in town:

Welcome to the new baby! Wishing the Royal family well :)