Vissiting Mike’s Grandparents in Wales

We’ve been in the UK a solid 5 months now, and had yet to visit Mike’s grandparents up in Wales, which makes Mike pretty much the worse grandson ever. We decided to rectify that this weekend. Mike had been wanting to try driving in the UK, but we decided that central London wasn’t exactly the best location to attempt this for the first time, so we trained it to Chester and rented a car there. He actually did pretty well – he needed reminding only a few times in the beginning to be a little more James Bond and a little less Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. By which I mean he was driving on the righthand side of the road, and whatever else you’d like to take from that regarding his appearance, intelligence, and behavior..

Anyway, we got to his grandparents’ place around noon, just in time to take them out for lunch. Well, I guess they took us for lunch? We drove, but they paid. We bought dinner though.

After that, we drove around and checked out a few touristy places. Basically, it was a beautiful sunny day, so all of Wales was a postcard.

Mike and I ruining the beautiful scene. It was gorgeous and sunny, but also really windy, which is why I’m wearing Mike’s coat.

Mike is manly and not bothered by the wind’s chill. Or so he says. Which I think is his way of being a gentleman.

We went back to the grandparents’ for a bit, then out for dinner. Then back home where Mike and his Granddad watched a documentary on Hitler (fun fact, Mike is super interested in anything WWII), while Molly (his Nan) and I read. I was reading Somewhere Inside, which I finished on the train ride home. It was pretty good, but I have to wonder if the Ling sisters worry that some of the things they wrote could get people who were kind to Laura in trouble back in North Korea. I hope that’s not the case.

The minute our heads hit the pillow, we conked right out. Mike woke me up twice because I was snoring. I am not usually a snorer, but I am thinking the walking around in the wind, mild allergies, and nice full belly combined to take me RIGHT out.

In the morning, we had breakfast with the Grandparents, then went for a drive ourselves around. We ended up finding an animal sanctuary place that had a restaurant overlooking the farm, where we enjoyed hot bevvies and watched the animals. Geese are kind of mean. One of them was chasing a pony away quite aggressively! Here I am by the fence. None of the animals wanted to pose with me.