US meets UK

Day 2 mini travel extravaganza – NYC :

My parents, Nick and I all headed up to NYC the very next morning after our philly excursion. VERY early the next morning.

When we first made plans to go to meet Nick’s mother and Sarah I didn’t fell nervous at all, just excited. As the time grew closer though, I realized that actually I was getting very nervous! This may sound odd, but I hadn’t really ever met anyone’s parents that I had really cared about before. On the other hand, I suppose I’ve never felt the way I do about Nick with anyone else before, so it was only logical that I’d feel that way about meeting his family.

The other tough part, you see, is that until Monday I had never met a single family member of his. That’s right, we were engaged and not one person from the UK had really met me in person. Which I think added to some of the stress, because I really wanted his family to like me since we didn’t get a chance to know each other over a long period of time.

However, there was very little to worry about, because everyone got along fabulously! I’m so happy that our respective sides get to meet prior to the wedding, I had horrible visions about people not getting along.

How was the “meeting of the parents” for you? Were you super nervous? Had you at least met the family before you became engaged?

Lies.

Day 1 of travel extravaganza:

Nick and I headed up on Sunday to Philly to visit my friend Megan and her fiance Aaron. Megan and I were both campus organizers in AZ and she is one of my dearest friends that i met while I was out there.

Philly is fantastic city, with great architecture, museums, nightlife and delicious food. Unfortunately though, we didn’t see any of that because rain was pouring down constantly. However, we did see 2 bars/restaurants, wet pavement, a bit of a steeler’s game and lovely catching up and conversation.

We first hit up Monks Cafe which I found on tripadvisor, which is pretty much my bible of where to go. We had nice food and yummy (but expensive!!!!) beer. I’ve always wanted to check out the mutter museum, and so we tried to head there next. However, we got all sorts of turned around in the rain (by we I mean me) and headed a few blocks in the wrong direction. Meg asked a few cops where the museum was, but they had NO IDEA what she was talking about. Finally, we figured out the proper direction to head in, to find the museum closed. boo that.

The we trudged/sloped our way through the wet streets in the direction of the car and became so cold we just stopped in the first bar we saw (The Bards). We then devoured seriously yummy Guiness bread pudding and fries with curry sauce. We all caught up on each others lives and reminisced about the “old days” and the crazy summers we had as canvass directors. I felt bad for Nick though, because Nick’s experience with the canvass was waiting for me to get home from work, or coming out to pizza night.

We headed home about 8 pm, but because of PTDT (post turkey day traffic) we didn’t get back till after 11pm!!!!!! (Baltimore to Philly should be about 1.5 – 2 hours).  Nick still had some work to finish up for NM shop (which he runs with his brother).  You can check out all the cute holiday additions to that site here.

The following morning we awoke bright and early to catch the bus to NYC to meet Nick’s mum and sister, stay tuned for days 2 and 3 of our mini travel extravaganza!

Nick and I are hoping to travel a fair amount during our time back in the UK. We originally had a huge list, but that has since been scaled down due to the falling exchange rate and general crappy economy.

The short list of countries are: France, Poland, Italy, Switzerland and maybe the Netherlands or Spain/Portugal. Trust me, its really hard to shave this list down!!!!

In terms of cities, Paris definitely made the cut, but we don’t know where to begin in Italy! As for the other cities/countries we chose Krackow in Poland and Switzerland because I’d really like to see a glacier before they’re all gone.

Any ideas on Italy? If you’ve ever been or have any advice for where we should go it would be greatly appreciated. We’re looking into Rome, Tuscany, Venice or Florence, so if you’d like to suggest a city over another, or offer a fresh choice I’d be grateful!

ps. Just remember we’re going in the winter!!!!