Plymouth Perchance?

I got back late last night from Plymouth. It was an absolutely lovely and incredible trip. I went with several friends from church – and just had the best time. We were a little family and it was so fun to have that again for a few days. LOTS of new inside jokes came from this trip. 

We stayed with Jess who is from Plymouth, and her kind mother offered their home to us. And we kind of took over… Let’s see. So much happened I don’t even know where to begin.

Thursday we met up at Victoria to catch the bus – my friend Molly let me borrow her neck pillow thing – saved me. There was so much traffic but it was a fun journey because of the great people. We got into Plymouth, my friend got to learn how to drive on the left side of the road. I still want to learn myself, but it is more complicated than I anticipated. Anyway. We got groceries – watched Sherlock, lots of laughing – and went to sleep rather late. Theme of the weekend :) OH! And the first day we went grocery shopping, we were in an aisle by a little boy and his father. The boy was excitedly (and shyly) watching us. Then as they turned out of the aisle, he shouted back to us "Welcome to England!" It was so cute! And I loved being welcomed here. Happiness.

Poor Jess – she tried to sleep out in the hall downstairs on an air mattress, and was so cold, she didn’t sleep at all. The next night she came up to the room I was sleeping in, and tried to sleep on the floor – this was better but still not great. About halfway through third night she crawled into the bed with Amanda and me, and then the last night she joined us from the start and finally got a good night’s rest. Sleepovers are fun but sleep doesn’t always happen.

Let’s see – our first stop was really to see the Mayflower Steps, and three of us discovered we really are family. That was so fun. :) I have two direct ancestors who were on the Mayflower – one of whom is the captain! I felt cool. Anyway. Then, we just loved exploring Jess’s home. There was so much to see. And it was just wonderful. I am struggling to put it into words…concisely.

The next day was “Colin Day” as it was affectionately called. Colin could only come up for one day, and we went over to Cornwall, and explored a beautiful area of gardens, beaches, and castles. Don’t worry – we had Cornish Pasties, but it wasn’t till the next day we had some of their famous ice cream.

Peasant.

Sheeps.

Then it was EASTER! First things first, we tried really hard to get Pippa, Jess’s rabbit to be in a picture with these chocolate eggs, but she wasn’t having it. She was terrified with so many people around, poor bunny. And we had hot crossed buns! Apparently it’s an Easter thing. I liked them! We were also blessed to be able to watch two sessions of conference at the local church. Jess’s mum then proceeded to make us our Easter dinner but then she left without eating any of it. She is such a sweetheart, I hope she knew how much we loved and appreciated her.  

The last day we went… to the Moors!  Don’t worry – we watched the Hound of the Baskervilles the night before so we were prepared. And also they had a lot of good puns which I enjoyed “Please drive with Moor Care” – etc. Since there were so many of us we had to take two trips driving everyone to the moors – I was in the first group and we may have been worried we had just been abandoned in the middle of the moor, but decided if we had to be abandoned anywhere, that was a pretty good spot (the other group came back eventually). We went and saw wild ponies, beautiful rivers, and puppies! We decided soon we’re going to have a ‘reunion’ and bring our dogs that we’re all going to have… :) And, we did have delicious ice cream on the moor - after a few deceptions about where this ice cream really was... and it was a "twin cone" and was delicious (earlier we were going to get ice cream but the Orangery in Cornwall was closed for a wedding... so no ice cream that time, and we almost despaired of ever finding ice cream) and I found a lovely rock to sit/lay down on, and the weather was just perfect.

Good morning, Plymouth.

I found the HOUND. It's clearly a paw print, just in case the picture wasn't clear.

What are you doing back there, Scottish Karen?

I only have about 100 other photos from this trip I wanted to add... so maybe check FB one day and they'll be up!

Well, I want to include some of our jokes here so I can remember them. Let’s see.

• Did I hear correctly that you are in a hot band? Are you rich? (or an Instagram aesthetics coach per chance? Where did you go to medical school?)
• *strokes feet* like “two boats passing in the night”
• No bunny loves me. (That’s only partially true. Pippa loved me in the end, but loved me from a distance when she was securely in her cage)
• Sister wives! I’m obviously the pretty one… not the one with a hairy chest or who is bitter… or the one making the rules. ? One day, “Cristina” will be a real synonym with “pretty” not just a joke. You’ll see. “Wow, England is just so Cristina.” It will happen.
• “You do realize we’re not really married to this man…?” - Amanda
• Once, Karyn ("#3") and Josh were sitting next to each other, just chatting. Jess  ("#1") and I (#4) were up the hill and could see them. So naturally, Jess sends Karyn a text that says "Enjoy your time, 3. You're next" or something - and then something about she has a specific set of skills, and will find her and hug her (not kill her like the line from "Taken"). So naturally, Jess and I set off on a covert mission to sneak up and hug Karyn. We even split up at the end so if Jess was caught I could carry on and hug Karyn sneakily. Haha. It was a fun adventure. Along the way I even got up really close to a sheep. That was fun. :)
• One regular dope PLZ, not the low fat stuff. Two cocaines, one weed, and a pound of your finest meth. – tis only a joke guys. Also I have a better British accent than I thought. My friend said she forgot a couple times that I wasn’t actually British. But when I try to do it on purpose, I only sound like a good American actor putting on an accent, which is still better than it could be I guess.
• Stolen fist-bumps.
• I want all the things.
• "Clearly, I don't want to get married. Obviously if I did, I would be married by now"
• Quite really rather dope.
• HOKEY COKEY. Who knew there was such a dark history to the hokey pokey.
• Peasant. (On the way there, I thought I heard Jess say - "Oh look, a peasant lives over there" - she didn't but that doesn't much matter).
• 
  

And just in case you thought I’d forget – I don’t even know her. Nor would I want to…