Alabama + Graffiti

I have to first start with how impressed with myself I am – getting these two posts up in a timely manner.  Not weeks after the trip ended, and not weeks in-between the two parts.  I’d say something cool, like, watch out world, Laura’s on a roll, but we all know that would be insane.

Anyway – onto Liverpool we go!

It was dead ass early when we got off the boat.  B flirted with the idea of lugging our ENORMOUS suitcases onto a public bus, but luckily, the brainier spouse won here, and we took a cab (kidding honey, love you).  By some miracle, our hotel actually had a room ready for us at 730 in the morning. Which was amazing, because the first thing I wanted to do was catch the sleep I didn’t get on the boat.  So we took a few hour nap before getting up to explore.  We found a little cafe for breakfast that had a really great and simple menu.  After, we went exploring at Royal Albert Dock.  They had a ton of shops and restaurants and also housed The Beatles Story, which was about an hour long audio tour showcasing their history.  It was definitely interesting, and learned lots of things I didn’t already know about the group.  After that, we sort of walked around city centre to see what we could find, and we stumbled upon Mathew Street where the Beatles played at Cavern Club.  There was tons of Beatles stuff all up and down this street – it was definitely cool to see.

After walking through city centre, we stumbled upon Liverpool’s Koreatown and upon the Liverpool Cathedral.  And just wow to this cathedral.  It was insanely beautiful.  The stained glass itself was something to write home about, and then add in its size.  After coming back down from the cathedral (it was on a huge hill), we headed back to Mathew Street.  We got a couple drinks at The Grapes, which is also a lounge the Beatles were at.  There were always people sitting in the exact booth, so we didn’t get a good picture of it, but it was so neat.  Since we had skipped lunch, we went back to Royal Albert Dock to cute little tapas place – had a few drinks and appetizers before we headed to our dinner spot.  B and I shared a huge plate of a ton of really great things – AND I got to finally try a Scotch Egg!  We ended the night back on Mathew Street watching live music.  Again, we had to get to bed fairly early since we had another train to catch in the morning to London!

I was going to try to condense this trip into only two parts, but this part would have been…a lot.  Since London was… a lot.  I know you’re all on the edge of your seats, so I’ll be back with the third (and FINAL) portion of this trip soon!

Wow – I certainly did not intend to go almost two months without updating this space.  Not sure if I’d use the word “busy”. Maybe purposely ignoring it in favor of actual writing and scrapbooking would be more appropriate.  However, coming back with a bang with a post from our trip to Ireland and the UK.  Very picture heavy as I believe trips should be, so brace yourself.  This trip was possible thanks to some very awesome grandparents who took care of Sheff for a week while B and I escaped.

We went into this trip with a very aggressive itinerary -as in, we just didn’t stay in one place for very long until we hit London.  But we saw a TON of cities and a lot of cool things, so let’s begin shall we?

We left out of ATL heading to Dublin on a Monday night, and we landed around 10am in Dublin.  I’m not a great sleeper on airplanes, but I got about four or so hours, and was feeling pretty ok when we stepped off the plane.  We caught a cab to our hotel, and luckily they had a room available when we got there.  We were actually really lucky with that throughout our trip.  After that it was off to explore!  Our first stop was the Guinness brewery, of course.  They have an observation deck on the very top, and that is where you get your Guinness purchased with the price of admission.  And that Guinness tastes completely different than the stuff we get in the States – it’s a lot smoother and a lot less bitter.  We definitely had our share of it on this trip!  After the brewery, we headed to Brazen Head Pub for fish n chips, of course.  I believe this supposed to be one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, but I can’t remember.  And the portion was big enough for B and I to share.  After lunch, we walked around mainly in search of caffeine, but stumbled upon the street that housed the Temple Bar.  I also believe this is the most famed bar there, but it was super crowded, and we had reservations at our next destination that we couldn’t miss.  The street that housed the Temple Bar was super cute, though, and looked so good, even in the rain.

Our next destination was to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room.  The Book of Kells contains the four gospels on the New Testament, written on calf-skin and believed to be one of the oldest books in the world.  It was absolutely beautiful, and I have no idea how they have kept it intact.  No pictures allowed of the actual book, but after you see it, you walk into the most beautiful library I have ever seen known as the Long Room.  It contains so many medieval texts, some of them in some very fragile states.  The library is still used by students of the university.

For that night, B had made a tasting reservation at the Jameson distillery.  It honestly was a great experience, and our tour guide was amazing. She knew so much about the whiskey/alcohol industry, and she made it a lot of fun.  However, I’m not that big of a whiskey lover, so I tried them, and then passed the remainder over to B.  It was right about then that I hit a wall and was ready for bed.  I honestly can’t even remember if we ate dinner that night or not.  I was OUT the second my head hit that pillow.  It was a good thing we went to bed early since we had a train to Belfast to catch in the morning!

Our train to Belfast left at 930 in the morning on Wednesday, and we got there pretty early to make sure we knew what was going on.  Luckily they had a cute little cafe in the station so we got some coffee and split a sausage roll.  It was a couple hours trip up to Northern Ireland, but it was a really pretty trip.  I got halfway through a book before we got there.  Once there, we took another cab to our hotel.  This hotel we only had for six hours during the afternoon and into the night – more on that later, but they did let us store our luggage.  After that it was off to explore.  The best part of this whole trip was that with the exception of a few things, we really had no plans, no itinerary.  So we just walked around to see what we could see, and would pop in whatever place looked fun.  The first place we stopped was called The Crown Bar.  Little did we know that it was actually the oldest bar in Belfast, or the oldest building.  Either way we stopped in for a quick beer just because we could.  After that, B found a really cute little place for lunch that had the prettiest drinks – and the most delicious!  Then we walked around to a beautiful cathedral, but unfortunately it was locked, but did stumble upon a WWII museum that was free and really interesting to walk through.  After another beer at the Duke of York Bar (it was on the street with the colorful umbrellas in the pic below), we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner.

For dinner, we lucked out and found a really cute place.  B got a boxty (which I think Ireland is known for), and I got the fish n chips, because when in Rome….  After dinner, we walked around the city.  It was so beautiful at night.  And it was so peaceful – very much a different change of pace from Dublin that we really loved.

 So, the reason we only had the hotel for a few hours in the afternoon was because that night we were taking a ferry over to Liverpool.  An overnight eight hour ferry.  I don’t get motion sickness very often, but when I woke up at about 2 am in the morning, that boat was rocking!  I eventually fell back asleep, and at 630 in the morning we were in Liverpool!

If you stuck around this long, you’re probably related to me so thanks family! And if there’s a straggler or two, thanks to you too!  I’ll have part 2 up soon!

Well, we did it.  Officially two weeks ago, we sent our kid off to second grade.  Congratulations to us for making it through summer break with zero deaths or major injuries.  We went to Meet the Teacher, where we found out that the three amigo best friends had all been split up into the three different classrooms, which upset Sheff just a bit, but he did have some other friends from first grade in his class with him.

All smiles for the first day, though!  I will mourn the day when he doesn’t let me pick out his first day of school outfit anymore.  I love that he still lets me, but know it won’t last forever.

We’ve also started carpooling with the other school kids in the neighborhood – if the weather is great, the kids will walk down to school.  I love being so close that we are able to do it, and the kids love it.  I know it’s a highlight of Sheff’s day to get to walk to school with his friends.

We haven’t been doing too much lately – just been taking it easy around the house on the weekends and playing board or card games when work is done.  I was craving ice cream last week, so we went to Bluff Park Ice Cream one day after school: the boys got a peanut butter flavor (which was so good), and I got the lemon merengue, which was also amazing.  The weather was pretty terrible all weekend, so there was some definite lounging around the house.  Sunday morning we met up with some friends down at the new City Walk Birmingham playground (which was really nice!), and then went to Mexican for lunch.

 

It’s been a relatively quiet two weeks as we get acclimated back to the school schedule, trying to figure second grade out, and generally just surviving.  Going to be another quiet week and weekend – which is what we need with Labor Day plans and fall ball starting soon.  We’ll be back at our 100mph pace in no time!

I had one day of vacation left before it resets in September, so B and I decided to head to NOLA for a late birthday celebration.  B’s parents had said they would like Sheff for a weekend, so it all worked out perfectly!  We drove down to Montgomery on Thursday night and spent the night there, and got up bright and early to head down to our favorite city.

We got down there way earlier than anticipated, so we messed with our schedule a bit.  Instead of Val’s for dinner, we went for lunch.  We had the most amazing queso and tacos – and their margs were so strong!  Then we headed over to the Chloe (a hotel that has a beautiful bar) for a few drinks – and got stuck there since it started raining.  We weren’t too upset being stuck in there – the cocktails were delicious and the bartender super friendly.  We then stopped by a distillery that B had really wanted to try, and then went to check into the hotel.  We then decided to walk down to our next location, Effervescence.  They had a wine tasting that evening – we got to taste four different kinds of wine and shared an order of their amazing truffle fries.  We then Uber’d over to Frenchman street for a show at DBA.  B had been wanting to see The Tin Men for a long time, and lucky for him, they were in town that night.  It was a pretty early show, so afterwards, we walked through the little market – where I got a really pretty shotgun house print, and then ducked into The Spotted Cat since it had started raining again.  After the rain, we walked into the quarter and got frozen Irish Coffees and a slice of pizza and headed back to the hotel – we’re old folks and were in bed by 1030.

Saturday, we woke up, took showers and went in search for breakfast and some hair of the dog.  I just can’t hang anymore, yo.  We found a really cute little place called Up&Adam Eatz on Canal Street, and it was perfect.  I got the grease I always so desperately need after drinking – and we were on our way.  I had been wanting to stop in this junk store that I have always seen, but had never made it into, but we made time in the schedule this trip . It’s called Junk Above, and y’all, they had alllll the awesome stuff.  They had old McDonald’s toys, sports memorabilia, books (!!), games, and a crap ton of old t-shirts.  After some shopping, we headed over to Second Line Brewing.  They had the most amazing seltzer  – and had Harry Potter playing.  I don’t know what more I could ask for in a brewery.  It was brutally hot down there, so after that, we just of drove around for a bit.  We ended up in some super dive bar – both nursed a vodka soda and decided if we were going to make it through the night that we were going to need naps.  We took naps, got cleaned up and headed to the Chandelier bar at the Four Seasons.  And y’all – when I saw that this is the most beautiful bar!  The chandelier hanging over the bar is just amazing.  We had a cocktail there and headed to B’s fancy birthday dinner at Clancy’s.  The food was amazing, but heads up, they pride themselves on their slow southern meals, so expect to be here at least 2-3 hours.

It was such a fun and well-needed trip.  Even though I picked up a lovely souvenir (Covid) from there and am mad at New Orleans at the moment, I’m glad we had that weekend just for us.

Lucky – Marissa Stapley // This was a fun, quick read.  A con artist, who learned everything from her dad, wins a 13 million dollar lottery, but can’t come forward because if she does, she’ll be arrested.  This one was super short and only took me about a day to read, but I definitely liked it.

The Weather Girl – Rachel Lynn Solomon // I had dubbed this summer the summer of no-murder (spoiler:  I didn’t follow it), but Nadine recommended this one to me, and it was such a sweet little romance.  I loved the TV station atmosphere, and I loved how Russell was a normal-sized dude – normally in rom-coms, they’re all rippled muscle, so it was nice to see size-inclusivity on the male side, too.  It was so sweet, and I couldn’t put it down.

Real Easy – Marie Rutoski // I have mixed feelings on this one.  Strippers are murdered with a weird calling card of a crown marked into their feet by the killer.  The book goes through the perspectives of the  stripper characters (which I actually really loved) and the law enforcement as well.  I thought the book hinted at who the killer was pretty early on in the book, and I thought it pretty obvious.  I don’t think it took away from the book, but the strippers and their differing personalities is what really carried this book.

Don’t Look Now – Mary Burton //  I got this book off Prime Reading while I was waiting for a book to come off hold at the library (I was #1 on the wait list, but didn’t want to just wait around with no book!).  It definitely kept my attention – a serial killer of young girls is on the loose, and when the detective almost catches him, he hits her head causing damage to an ocular nerve and essentially blinding her, but she doesn’t want to stop searching for him.  It kept my attention, and it was a quick and easy read.

The Book of Cold Cases – Simone St. James // I saw some bad reviews on this one, but I wanted to tackle it anyway, and for the most part, I really liked it.  There was some supernatural stuff, which isn’t normally my jam, but it sort of fit the narrative, so I just went with it.  I really liked the ending and how all of the characters were completely flawed.  Good quick read.

Hearbroke – Chelsea Bieker // I’m honestly not sure what to say about this one – and I mean that in a good way.  It’s a book of short stories that deals with the lives of so many flawed individuals.  Storygraph describes it as “united by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire,” and that’s about 1000% better than anything I could say about it.