April in Paris:

Nicole and I just got back from an AMAZING weekend in Paris. Nicole and I share a love for this town - so it is great to go there with each other. We see past the rude people and soak up the romance, history, music, and most of all - the food!! As you may know my mom's best friend who I call Aunt Daphie has been living in Paris for the last 8 months. She invited us to come over this past weekend and enjoy her little part of town. We had the best time. Her flat is in the oldest portion of Paris called La Marais. She is 5 blocks from Notre Dame and near the Louvre. It was so easy to get anywhere you wanted. We went on Friday afternoon on the Eurostar and came back last night. On Friday night we walked over to Notre Dame and the St. Michelle area of town. We enjoyed all of te lights while eating crepes! I had a Nutella and Banana crepe and Nicole ate a Banana and Honey crepe. It was so nice being with someone who is fluent in French. Everything seemed to easy!! On Saturday we headed up to Mont Matre to see the Artist painting and a great view of the city, we then headed back down to La Marais to go shopping! This area of town is like Soho in NYC. Every kind of boutique that you could ever want!! We then went for a 3 course French dinner on Saturday evening! Nicole had snails and I had Goat Cheese Salad and Chicken. On Sunday we went to a wonderful place for Brunch by the Louvre called Angelinas and has the best hot choclatte that I had ever had!! Becasue it was such a beautiful day, we walked up the Champs and had a great stroll to the Arc De Triophe. We hated leaving Aunt Daphie and Paris - but we will be there many more times between now and the time that we leave!!

More Bath Pictures:

Here are some more Bath pictures from last weekend!!
Oh - we took Bleeker as well, and he had a great time!!

Second Anniversary in Bath:

Nicole and I spent our 2nd Anniversary in Bath, England (March 24-March 26). Bath is a beautiful town about an hour and 30 minute train ride outside of London. The reason that it is called Bath is becasue of the Roman Bath's that have been there for 2,000 years. Bath also enjoyed a renaissance in the late 1700 and early 1800's as an elite place to come to dip oneself in the healing Bath waters. Today the entire town of Bath has been covered under the UNESCO historic society. All this to say - Bath is beatiful and a great place to visit. Nicole and I were lucky enough to stay at Michael and Judith Rawlins flat in the center of town. Michael and Judith our friends of the family that we all met on our many trips to the UK over the last 11 years. The weather was not so great - but we did not let it spoil our time. We went to the Royal Crescent, ate a lovely dinner at a place called Hole In The Wall, shopped, toured the Roman Bath's, and went to the Jane Austen museum. We had a great time and loved every bit of it!! If you haven't been to Bath, you must go!! You can imagine yourself during Georgian times walking around during the summer and enjoying the royal parties and activities. Such a great place!!

Sniff...Sniff... (Last day with Mom and Dad):

Today was our last day out with mom and dad. They actually got up early and headed out while Nicole and I were getting ready. Yep that's right - Nicole had off today and we were so excited!! We met them in Borders Books up the road from our flat and headed throught the Angel Antique District. The four of us love Antiques and it is amazing seeing things that are 300 - 400 years old. After lunch we headed to the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden. This is the less touristy portion of Covent Garden, and the BEST!! For those of you in NYC - it is like being on West Broadway compared to Broadway in Soho. (2 different worlds only blocks apart) We had a great time looking around and ended up at Marks and Spencers to pick up things for dinner this evening. We are now chilling at home about to watch the updated version of Pride and Prejudice. It has been a great visit with mom and dad and we have threatened that we are going to lock them down so that they can't return to the states!!

As for Nicole and I, we have a few great weekends to come. We are headed to Bath for our 2 year anniversary, Paris the first weekend of April to see Aunt Daffy, Prague for Easter, and Devon to visit our friends Judith and Michael the last of April. Let the good times role!!

Brad

A Trip to See Brian and Christine:

On Thursday mom, dad, and I went to see Brian and Christine in Pidley, which is about 1 hour and 15 minutes north of London. We took the train from Kings Cross to Huntington (home of John Majors and Oliver Cromwell) where Brian and Christine picked us up. A trip to their house is always AMAZING. They always have a roaring fire, tons or tea and biscuits and amazing food, plus the company is hard to beat. Nicole and I cherish that we are so close to them as their place has been a weekend retreat for us in the past!! We went for a little English walk in a small town called Potter's Field where mom got to see some wild snowdrops that were growing in a field. We came back to their place as the rain starting to pour and had more tea and a wonderful dinner of steak pie, cauliflower cheese, steam veggies, and 2 deserts!! We came back home and collapsed from a wonderful day!!

Brad

Wednesday with the Parentals in the UK:

So - we have been busy to say the least and have not been able to update the blog as often as I had hoped. But I will do an entry for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for everyone to get a good glimpse of what we did while mom and dad were here. On Wednesday we went and met Nicole for Lunch at E.A.T. and then went to her work to meet her work mates. Wednesday the downpours continued and we were soaked as we walked the streets on London - but no matter - we had a great time. We went to Liberty, which is one of the oldest department stores in London and then hit Marlybone High Street to go to Emma Bridgewater (One of mom and dad's favorite potter) and then for a Latte and cake at Le Pan (One of our NYC staples that has come to London - Thanks God!!) Wednesday night we went to dinner with Carmody and Tasha! We were so glad that mom and dad got to meet our little family in London. A good time was had by all!

Brad

Cambridge:

Today mom, dad, and I went to Cambridge. Nicole had to stay back in London and go to work since she was off yesterday due to sickness. We wished that she had been with us, but she was with us in our hearts.

Cambridge is a great place for us to go because it brings back memories from years ago. The first time that mom and dad took the Cambridge group was 11 years ago - my how fast time flies!! We took the 9:15 AM train out of Kings Cross and were in the market at Cambridge by 10:30 AM. It was a great day! We walked around and looked in all of the shops, ate, ate, and ate some more, had afternoon tea at Aunties Tea Room, and saw the Cambridge kids from Lee. It did rain a bit, but mom and dad couldn't have a true UK visit without rain and wind!!

Tomorrow we have lunch planned with Nicole and then shopping at Liberty, Carnaby Street, and Regent Street! A good time will be had by all!!

Brad

A day at the Victoria and Albert Museum:

Here are a few images from mom and dad's visit to the Victoria and Albert museum today. You can see the magnitude of the exibits that they visited by how small they are in comparison. Tomorrow we are off to Cambridge to walk down memory lane!!

More of Mom and Dad in London:

So - here are more pictures from the last few days. Today mom and dad are out at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Harrods. I am staying in to take care of Nicole who is not feeling 100%. The good thing is, I am getting to rest as well from the last hectic few weeks. Anyway - enjoy the pictures!

Brad

Mom and Dad in London!!!

So, I know that it has been two weeks from that last entry - but Nicole and I have been running around trying to get things ready for mom and dad's visit!! They are finally here. This trip has been planned since before we moved here and Nicole and I are so excited to have them in the UK. The thing is - I doubt that we will let them come back to the US!! So far we have walked around Southwark to Bourough Market, seen the Globe Theater, walked around St. Pauls, been on the London Eye, walked around Spitifields Market, and gone to church. And that is just in the last 2 days!! We have loads of things planned during the next week. I will keep it updated with our images along the way so that our family and friends can enjoy mom and dad's journey. Love to you all!!

Brad

Bleeker as a Tourist in London:

Today we took Bleeker to a few tourists sites. We had wanted to do this in New York and never got around to it - so we thought that we should take advantage of it today. He road the bus, hopped on the tube, pooped in the Westminster Tube Station (Ha!!), chased pigeons in Trafalgar Square, saw the changing of the guard at the Palace at Whitehall, went by Big Ben and even stopped by to peep in the windows of Westminster Abbey. I think that he was worn out - becasue when we got home he collapsed on the couch!!

Brad

More Venice Pictures:

Here are more pictures for you to enjoy!!

Brad and Nicole

Venice, Italy:

For my 30th Birthday / Valentine's Day, Nicole and I went to Venice, Italy for 4 days! We had the best time!! It was truly magical! I had been to Venice 10 years ago, but Nicole had never been and it was a dream of hers to go. Everything about the trip was AWESOME!!

To start off, everyday was Sunny and Nicole and I got a little burnt on out faces on day. We also had the BEST FOOD!! Nicole and I are big fans of seafood and pasta and the combination of the two is what Venice is known for. We followed Rick's Steve's food suggestions and can I tell you - never doubt Rick Steve's! He is the man!! The places that we went were mom and pop type places with no English on the menu - but we ended up with great food!! Our hotel was also so cool. It was an old mansion on the Grand Canal that was built in the 1400's and owned by a poet. The first night we stayed in a huge red room right on the Grand Canal, and were then bumped to a smaller - but cute, yellow room on the side canal.

Venice's Mardi Gras (Carneval) starts next week and we lucked out on this trip buy getting to see the pre-Carneval activities. This weekend it was Kids Carneval and we saw children dressed up in Disney characters, Zoro and even old venetian aristicrats. They had a great time and we had a great time watching them with their parents!

We also had the best time people watching. The Italians are the best dressed people in the world. We have never seen so many beautiful 80 year old women (dressed in fur coats) in our life!! Yesterday we walked around the "locals" area and loved seeing the Italian families interact with each other.

There are so many things to say about our trip. I always say that when people return from Venice they cannot do it justice buy their words as it is to beautiful of a place to articulate. I hope that our pictures do it some justice. For those of you who have been before you can reminesce from your trip, and for those who have not been before - go to expedia.com and book it now!!

Have a great Velentine's Day everyone!

Brad

Watoto Children's Choir at Hillsong London:

Today at Church we had the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda. This choir and the Watoto Ministry started in 1994 and have helped 1.7 million children in Uganda with AIDS and HIV. Today at church the theme was "Becasue We Can". We at Hillsong believe that the world's poverty should be and can be taken care of by the Christian community around the world. Our pastor encouraged all of us to either help the Watoto Ministry, help in a ministry that caters to homeless children on the streets in Mumbia India , or sponsor a child in Rawanda. Nicole and I decided to sponsor a child in Rawanda and cannot wait to start that relationship!! If you would like more information about the Watoto Ministry go to www.watoto.com or www.hillsonglondon.co.uk.

Last Saturday at Bourough Market:

Last Saturday, Nicole and I decided to soak up the winter sunshine and walk down to the Bourough Market. Now for those who don't know, the sun rarely shine in the UK during the winter - so those days that it is bright and shining - you get out no matter how cold it is!! We decided to take the 20 minute walk down to the Bourough Market underneath the London Bridge. The walk is AMAZING as you go past St. Paul's Cathedral, walk over the Mellinium Bridge, pass the Tate Modern and stroll by Shakespear's Globe Theater. Once you arrive at the market there are many cheeses, sausages, olive oils, jam, jellies, and breads to sample. It is great and Nicole and I love going down to the there. Here are a few images from the day!

Have a great weekend!

Brad