26 September 2007

A Sweet Taste of Home

Whew…well we made it back with all of our fingers and toes from the Land of Fire and Ice, and will definitely have a couple of posts coming on that soon. Iceland is just so darn photogenic, so we have about 800 pictures to sort through as well, which will be online soonish. To maintain a semblance of order on this crazy mess of a blog, we'll try to at least keep the posts in somewhat chronological order and talk about our last trip: back home for the wedding of our good friends Kristian and Rachel.

We left Birmingham on Thursday morning and 10 short hours later were in a Wendy's devouring delicious chicken nuggets and planning our shopping-spree-like attach on the mall across the street. With universal 50% off sales on all products in America (£1 = $2), and two checked bags to fill, it was a rough afternoon for the shelf-restockers in any store we made it into. You can imagine the odd looks we got from shopkeepers as we wandered the aisles, grabbing everything we could see off the shelves, and calling to each other, 'This is so cheap!' Continuing our American rampage, we visited with any family we could fit in, picked up our college friends Dez and Eric and headed up to the beautiful Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania for the wedding Friday afternoon.


As we sat among old friends that night at Kristian and Rae’s “welcome meal” eating piles of crabcakes and drinking great Pennsylvanian beer (bitters are great but we do miss Yuengling!), it was very evident what a great gift our being able to be there was. Friends had come in from all over the US (well, world) and we were able to see friends who we haven’t hung out with in, in some cases, years. It was just an amazingly happy celebration and reunion, and being there made us realize what a tragedy it would have been to miss it. We definitely can’t thank the groomsmen enough for making that possible.

The outdoor wedding was late Saturday afternoon and it was a hot (what is this “summer” season?) but beautiful day and the Bride and Groom had the whole audience in tears with their personal vows. In the 7 years I’ve know Kristian, he has always been with Rae, and to see them joined in such a happy ceremony was fantastic, as the Brits say. The reception was out of control, and it was very clear that Kristian and Rae have managed to attract friends just like them: happy, outgoing and a whole lot of fun. After like 4 hours of dancing in the heat without a slow song in site, human physical limits were reached, and people broke off for more pictures and catching up. As if the last two days of events weren’t enough, we got one last chance to see everyone at a goodbye brunch Sunday morning. We then drove back to Ambler, packed for an hour and headed off to the airport for our 7pm flight.

It was a jet-lagged, sleep-deprived weekend but such an amazing event and chance to be there for our good friend’s big day. It was one of the best gifts we’ve gotten, and reminded us again of all the great friends we have waiting for us when we get back. Till then, we really miss you all!

14 September 2007

Star Trek Encounter in Stratford


We’re falling a good bit (as opposed to a wee bit, which I now comfortably use in conversation!) behind, and the situation is just going to get worse. We were at Kristian and Rachel’s wedding over the weekend, which deserves a post and a half, and we leave tomorrow morning for a week camping adventure in Iceland. During the 4 days of recovery time between international trips, we’ve had a friend from Pittsburgh, Ross, staying with us!

Despite our complete exhaustion when we got back Monday, it was wonderful to see Ross. He’s on his first international trip, and his enthusiasm and wonder helped us to again see England through fresh eyes. We showed him around Birmingham on Monday, and then he explored Stratford and Warwick Castle on his own Tuesday and Wednesday, before heading out Thursday morning.

Ross was especially excited to see Stratford, because he is a trained thespian. Nick and I have been looking for a good excuse for a while to get to a show by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and this was the perfect opportunity. We met him in Stratford to see 12th Night in one of the company’s more intimate theatres. To our surprise and delight John Lithgow was in the performance! He was fantastic as Malvolio, and it felt like such an honor just to be so close to him, let alone witness his equal parts comic and tragic turn as the character.

During intermission we were in the lobby talking about the utter coolness of seeing John Lithgow, when Ross said, ‘Oh my Gosh. OH MY GOSH!’

I replied, ‘What, is John Lithgow standing behind you?’

and he said, ‘No, it’s Sir Patrick Stewart!!!’ And sure enough, it was! He was in the audience to see the show, and was standing less than five feet behind us with a drink in hand. It was amazing for Nick and I, but even better for Ross, because Patrick Stewart is one of his favourite actors and personal heroes of all time. Ross went up and introduced himself, shook his hand, chatted to him about the next show he’ll be doing, while Nick and I stood smiling in the background. Oh, and Patrick totally looked over and smiled at me at the end of the conversation – we shared a moment.

Hopefully our next post will be in about a week saying we made it back from Iceland safe and sound and frostbite-free!