Wanna Go To London

 Cathy and I were neighbors in another neighborhood when my two older girls were in preschool and before Barrett was born.  Our children played together, we carpooled to preschool, we babysat for each other, we were good friends.  Both of our families moved out of that neighborhood around the same time. Since then we've bumped into each other  here and there, exchanged Christmas cards and occasional emails. We have always made plans to get together, but it just never happened.


I bumped into her at Costco about ten days ago.  We made plans to meet for lunch the next day and this time we actually followed through. We had such a nice time catching up and talking. As we were saying our good-byes and getting ready to leave she asked what I was doing the next week (this week).

After mentally running through my very overbooked schedule (sarcasm), I replied, "Nothing."

She quickly came right back at me with, "Wanna go to London?"

And so we did!

Let me explain:  Cathy has been a flight attendant for thirty years. She works out of Raleigh and only works one flight - the direct flight to London. She has been flying back and forth to London for fifteen  years, several times a month. She usually has a three day trip, leaves Monday afternoon and comes back Wednesday. She thinks of London as her second hometown and knows everything about it. The trip this week was a little unusual because her layover was until Thursday.  So she had all day Tuesday and Wednesday in London.

Since Brooke (my daughter) is a flight attendant with the same airline I get some great perks. Brooke was able to add me to the stand by list and I was able to fly for a very small fee.  And since the flights each way were only half full, flying stand by wasn't a big risk.

So long story short, I went to London this week!

I packed very light, just a carry on and didn't take a "good camera". I only took pictures on my iPhone and really didn't take a lot pictures like I usually do - I was too busy marathon walking!

I got three seats all to myself and notice I had no neighbors across the isle! 

No complaints here!

Cathy brought me the "good food" from the front of the plane along with the tablet and headphones Business Class uses to watch movies.

We landed around 6:30AM.

 After dropping our stuff off at the hotel and freshening up,we headed out to see Kensington.

Harrods

Who knew there was food in Harrods?

I was fascinated by the food displays in Harrods.

So let me get this straight, 

 after you go and purchase a Saint Laurent or Alexander McQueen dress,

the latest Salvatore Ferragamo shoes

and a Chloe bag, 

you can head on downstairs and pick yourself up a meat pie, loaf of bread or whole chicken to roast for dinner!

How convenient! 

The tribute to Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana in Harrods.

After Harrods we walked to the 

Victoria Albert Museum to look at a wedding dress exhibit. 

That night we went to eat at a french restaurant called Cote. It was really good. 

On our way there we had to stop and smell the flowers!

The next morning we dropped by to see if Kate and William were home, aka we walked by and gawked at Kensington Palace.

Will and Kate live in the shorter section on the left.

Their area of the "yard" has a wall around it. You can barely see it through the gate.

This is the gate where all of the flowers were laid when Princess Diana died.

(from the internet)

This is the street in front of Kensington Palace. 

I was surprised at how close other houses mansions were. 

(the palace is on the right)

We then took the Tube (subway) to the Covent Garden area of London. 

We walked through Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.

(my first peek at Big Ben)

We went to see the Les Miserables matinee.

We had better seats then what the picture shows. I took this while standing in line for the loo.    

After the play we headed towards Big Ben

and walked around Westminster Abbey.

We almost made it in time to go in. The last people were just coming out when we got there. 

We then took the Tube back to Kensington.

I wanted to get some English cheese to take back and  Cathy wanted me to see how awesome the Whole Foods was, so we headed there. 

We have a nice Whole Foods here in Raleigh, but ours does not have a CHEESE ROOM!

Does yours?

I loved the display and variety of eggs. 

You can't tell from the picture, but these are green, blue and pink eggs 

(and of course the brown eggs too).  

 We then finished up our two days in London with dinner at Bumpkins. 

We got back home yesterday around 3:00PM.

This week has been.......

Did you get to do anything exciting?


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I have tried to fix the centering issues 100 times.
I am not sure why they don't update! 

Barrett is Eighteen Today

There hasn't been a lot going on around here. I have been trying to catch up on some projects inside our house, but I honestly haven't been that motivated.  We had two icy days last week which resulted in two hour delays for Barrett. I don't know about you, but we love our school delays! Barrett will usually get up at her regular time and come downstairs and get in bed with me after Art leaves for work. We drink coffee/tea and watch the news. Those are the BEST mornings!  

We have a full weekend planned.  Barrett turned 18 today and we are celebrating tomorrow night. Both sisters will be home this weekend (happy dance)! This morning I surprised Barrett with a new dress to wear to school today.  I picked out her entire outfit  (jewelry, scarf, boots) and layer it all together with a little note so when she walked into her closet to get dressed she saw it. I got major mom points for that!  

Just thought I'd share some pictures. 

I just find it so hard to believe that this pretty girl....

.....was this sweet little baby.  Too cute!!

HELLO 2015 and Chef and the Farmer

I am not so sure how I feel about it being 2015. This is going to be a life changing and pivotal year.  Sometime this month, Barrett will hear back from colleges and that will begin that dreadful countdown to my empty nest. My heart stops everytime I think about it.

She is just finishing up her first week back to school after a long three week break.  It was very hard getting up and moving instead of sitting with our coffee and tea in front of the fireplace and TV.

 Art and I aren't big into celebrating or doing anything on New Year's, but we did do something great this year. This was one of the better ones.

We went to eat at Chef and the Farmer in Kinston, North Carolina on New Year's Eve. It is about two hours away from our place at the beach.

The chef at Chef and the Farmer is featured on the PBS show A Chef's Life.  I don't know if people in other parts of the country would find it as interesting as we do, but we love it. Art and I are both from eastern North Carolina and we find something in every episode that brings back memories and usually is about the food we grew up eating.


From the website:

A Chef’s Life plunges audiences into the kitchen of a high-end restaurant located in the low country of eastern North Carolina. It follows the trials and travails of Chef Vivian Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, and their farm-to-table restaurant, Chef & the Farmer, exploring both traditional and modern applications of quintessential Southern ingredients. Vivian’s skill in the kitchen is an equal match for the charismatic personality, radiating behind her crystal grey eyes. Much more dynamic than a typical cooking show, A Chef’s Life is a character-driven documentary and cooking series that premiered nationally on PBS stations in September 2013. A Chef’s Life is currently in its second season, which features 14 half-hour episodes. The first season consisted of 13 half-hour episodes.

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We have been wanting to go so badly and in fact have reservations for the end of January for Barrett's birthday. There usually is about a 3 to 4 week wait to even get a reservation,  but on a whim we called the day before New Year's Eve to see if they had any cancellations. We were shocked when we were told they could fit us in at 9:45 (yep, PM) (yawn). There was no way we were turning down this opportunity. Barrett and her friends were making plans together, but when she found out we were able to get a table, she couldn't wait to go with us.

The place was full when we got there. We didn't mind the thirty minute wait because we needed some time to unwind from our long drive in the bar and just sit to take everything in.

They just happened to be filming the show on New Year's Eve. So we got to watch the film crew following Chef Vivian and her husband around.  The cameras panned around the resaturant several times so maybe we might end up on an episode next season!

(bar area)

Because it was New Year's, the menu was a fixed price with an Italy meets North Carolina (Southern) theme. The food was wonderful and exceeded our expectations and was well worth the drive.

(smoked tomato marinara) 

(sweet potato cornmeal gnocchi)

(Barrett's quail) 

(Art's steak)

(country ham app)

(view from our table)

 We rang in the New Year at our table. The servers passed out glasses of champagne and everyone in the restaurant including everyone working toasted to 2015. 

The chef wandered around taking pictures and talking with everyone.

We got back to the beach house at 3:00AM! I don't think I have ever stayed out that late before - or at least I haven't in a very very long time!  

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Garden & Gun magazine has had this to say about Chef and the Farmer/Vivian. There is also another article here and one here from The Washington Post.