On our last Monday we took an assortment of trains and undergrounds to get to the Tower of London. Us being dumb yanks, we thought it was just a tower. (Well at least Doug and I did, haha) Apparently, it is an entire castle! They have these dudes called "Beefeaters" that were originally body guards/caretakers for the prisoners/guards of the crown jewels but are now essentially tour guides. Although we did notice they did their bit to keep people in check and discipline naughty children. When people in our tour group were chatting too loud "our" beefeater yelled at them to shut up. Very loudly! Reminded me of U.S. drill sergeants. A little kid got yelled at for climbing a pole; "Young man - get down!" And me and Erika got yelled at for hiding when ... read more

Thursday Doug and I slept in and then relaxed on Castle Beach until the tide came in. I collected lots of shells you wouldn't find on California beaches, and we did a little shopping for gifts to bring home. For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant that turned out to be pretty good. I wasn't sure if I would like Thai but it seemed a lot like Chinese food but spicier. Around 10pm we went out with my cousin Martin and his girlfriend Leah to check out the local pubs in Falmouth. We went to the Chain Locker next door to our flat and another that I don't remember the name of. On Friday it was Erika's 21st birthday, so we had a small dinner party in the flat with "take away" (what we call ... read more

On Tuesday we visited Trebah Gardens. It's a tropical garden that starts at the top of a hill and winds all the way down to a little beach at the bottom. We poked around all the little meandering paths through all kinds of plants - palms, bamboo, huge elephant ears, foxgloves, and ferns. Everything is so green compared to home where it is all brown and dead at the moment. So many wildflowers grow naturally here, like foxgloves. I had to plant them in my garden, I wish they grew naturally like that! In the evening we went out to dinner with Hilary's friend Lis who lives in Falmouth and her boyfriend John and son Luke.... read more

I am so behind on these entries! It is hard to get unscheduled time to sit on the computer here. Plus with the lousy connection, it doesn't work at night, it doesn't work in the bedroom, and it doesn't work if Erika's on her computer, so that means I can only work on here in the morning, by the window, if Erika is still asleep. I miss my internet connection at home! I also miss the water pressure at home, here you get a trickle barely enough to wash the soap out of your hair. Anyhow... Sunday we walked from the flat up to Pendennis Castle. It was absolutely beautiful, set on the headlands surrounded by water and beaches. It was like a maze with lots of little spiral staircases going up and down everywhere, I'm ... read more

Today was my 28th birthday! (And Finn's 5th - happy b-day Finn!) Doug surprised me with a gorgeous diamond necklace and I had a lot of cards sent to Gweek as well which was very nice. In the morning we had a beautiful walk up to Dollar Cove and Church Cove, where we had a look in a very old church in the sand, where the sailors used to pray before going out to sea. They still have services there on Sundays, and it looked like someone had recently had a wedding judging by the decor. The was a little graveyard outside that had this spooky angel headstone with snails in it's eyeballs! And then my Dad knelt in some stinging nettles by accident so we got to try out the old remedy of spitting on ... read more