Adventures with SJ: trip to England part 2

9 min read

I shared already about our flight to England, our first day there and our exhausting drive up North in a recent post.

So, here’s what we got up to the rest of the week!

On Tuesday Edd took the day off. We had a relaxed morning, saying hello to the friends we were staying with and then headed into Lancaster.

It felt really special to me to walk along those roads that I have walked so many times before. I remembered that version of myself that first arrived there, full of excitement and ready to take on the world.

And I remembered the happy days of Edd and I living there together, the freedom we enjoyed, the many runs by the canal, drinks at the pub, going to Yoga, hanging out with friends, who live just around the corner. Ha, memory lane!

And now we were walking there with our little daughter – so surreal! After going to a few shops we went to my favourite ever coffee shop, the Herbarium. SJ and I both had smoothies and Edd a coffee.

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Then, we drove up to Williamson‘s park. We put SJ in her pram so she could nap. Edd was so kind to walk many laps with her while I got some lunch, enjoyed the sunshine and wrote a blog post.

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In the afternoon we visited a dear friend in her brand new home, went to a park, played with her cats and had dinner. It was a lovely day!

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Wednesday

Wednesday morning Edd left super early to drive to Sheffield for work, where he stayed the following two nights.

SJ and I spent the day with my friend Hannah, who we were staying with and her little boy. SJ and him are basically the same age and it was so fun to see them interact with each other.

We went to a playground, got some coffee and cake and had a nice walk and lots of good conversations.

In the afternoon we played in the garden and later had dinner all together.

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Thursday

The next day SJ and I spent the morning on our own. We played in the house for a bit (visiting people with kids the same age means lots of exciting new toys!) and went for a little walk.

During SJs nap I wrote my last blog post for my 100 Day Project and then felt all weird and proud and sad. What a ride it has been!

In the afternoon we visited some friends from our old church in Lancaster. They have a five year old daughter who SJ absolutely adored. We had a nice time playing, hanging out in the garden, talking and eating dinner together.

Friday

On Friday SJ and I got picked up by our dear friend Jo amd we drove to Preston together where we visited some more friends with very sweet babies we were meeting for the first time. It was a very special day of getting to know these tiny humans a little bit and catching up with some very precious friends.

Unfortunately, SJ did not like the idea of napping in a bed that wasn’t her own, so we took her for a very long walk. She fell asleep toward the end and awoke quite soon after. Despite that, she was really great and seemed to enjoy herself a lot.

Later in the afternoon Edd joined us and we had dinner before heading back to Lancaster.

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Saturday

On Saturday we drove to Scorton to have breakfast at the Apple Store Café. It‘s the most whimsical, English country-side, loveliest of places and completely unrelated to Apple technology.

We met with some dear friends and their two kids for a very delicious breakfast. I was very torn about what to order, in the end I went for a classic English breakfast. It was delicious, but I am still thinking that maybe I should have gone for the waffles… if you are ever near Scorton, I would highly recommend checking the place out. It’s so beautiful as well.

After we had eaten we ventured to the on-site woodland playground for some playtime.

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In the afternoon, Edd took SJ to meet with the same friends again and I attended a baby shower for a woman in our old church! It was such a nice afternoon and a great opportunity to see so many of the lovely women in the church.

The sun was shining, there was plenty of good food and scones! Which made me very happy.

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In the evening, we spent the evening with Hannah and Matt who we were staying with, eating leftovers and watching a show by James Acaster.

What a lovely day!

Sunday

By Sunday I felt pretty tired. We had such a lovely time but I was getting to the point where I felt ready to be home and on my own for a bit. SJ also kept asking to go home and had caught a massive cold, which was a bit sad.

However, I was still very excited to visit our old church in Lancaster in the morning. It was weird and lovely to be back there at the same time.

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SJ went to their kids church and was happy to stay there in her own which was kind of amazing.

After church we had lunch at our good friends‘ Scott and Kary‘s house. It was so nice to spend time with them, see how much their children had grown and SJ was very happy about another cat!

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In the evening we drove back to Sussex. The drive still was super long but a lot better than the one on Monday. SJ was awake for quite a while, but happy for the most part. She eventually fell asleep and stayed that way until we arrived!

Monday

We spent the last day of our trip at our friends‘ Tom and Gemma and their kids‘ house. It was lovely but I think I wasn’t great company – I was tired, my hayfever was pretty bad and I had a tummy ache.

But it was lovely to hang out, be outside, talk about books and just spend time together. In the evening we had our book club, which normally happens online but this time we met in person, which was pretty special.

Tuesday

Time to go home! We had an early morning flight, so left for the airport before most of the house was up.

Unfortunately there was a lot of delays but SJ was an absolute trooper and it was just the nicest thing to walk through our front door when we had finally made it.

What a privilege to be able to travel and then to come back and be so happy!

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