We Love Bank Holidays

Hello to all of our followers out there.  If it weren’t for Kevin, this blog would have minimal entries and they would be boring.  Kevin, thank you for the dedication to this blog (and to our family!!!).   I always look forward to reading his posts to see how he “twists” the stories to either become more entertaining or to exploit meJ.  Either way, I plan to continue to leave the blogging to him because they are highly amusing and he is such a talented story teller.  However, every once and awhile I do need to document this wonderful adventure we are on. 

We are at the end of an incredible 4 day weekend – thank you to two UK bank holidays.  Since we were in London for the Royal Wedding, we had to take advantage of the celebrations.  We decided to join about 200,000 Royal Fans in Hyde Park to honor the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  I knew I couldn’t attend my first Royal Wedding without wearing a fabulous headpiece and I made Kevin wear his best dress as well.  We got to the park with a few friends and popped our first bottle of champagne by 8AM.  This event was well executed with three giant screens, fantastic sound, a live band, vendors and a MC.  During this 7 hour event, we stood in a sea of union jack flags, flower and feather hats, fake jeweled crowns, masks of the royal family members, tuxedos and other wedding mementos.  This event proved that Londoners are very patriotic and proud.  Every time a Royal member appeared on the screen, everyone jumped to their feet, waving their flags and cheering on the royal wonder.  We decided no wedding would be complete without a pub hop, so we continued the celebration with several other American Expats into the night.   We feel so lucky to be living here for this historical moment.  The wedding was well done, Kate looked beautiful and I loved her dress…however, most people seem to be talking about her sister Pippa!!!

In April, I went to Cape Town, South Africa for work.  I never imagined in my life that I would go to Africa.   Even though I was there for work, I had about 1.5 days to explore.  The city is Africa’s most popular tourist destination and is famous for its harbor, as well as its natural setting including Table Mountain and Cape Point.   Cape Town was also the location of one of the most famous moments marking the end of apartheid, as it was where Nelson Mandela made his first public speak hours after being released from prison.   It’s incredible to think that there was such racial segregation in that country up until the mid 1990s.  During my exploration, I was able to enjoy the city landscape from one of those tourist double-decker buses, I took the cable car up to Table Mountain and had lunch on the beach.  The views, weather, food and wine were unbelievable and I would go back in a heartbeat.  Enjoy some of the pics below.

May is going to be a big month for us – our first visitors and our first trip back to the US!!!   Before that fun, Kevin and I are headed to Zurich next weekend.  We are both super excited to explore another city and to add a new stamp to our passport.   In the middle of May, our first visitors are Kevin’s parents followed by Alan and Marianna Magee (Kevin’s college friends).  We are excited for familiar faces to join us and make memories in this adventure.   Then at the end of May, I will be coming back to the US for two weeks and Kevin will be joining for the second week.  We are both so amazed at how quickly time is flying.  I can’t believe we just finished our 4^th month.   I am starting to make my list of things I want to do and things I want to buy while I am back!!!!