Tajimas visit, rendez-vous in London, hometown blast

Here is a quick recap of the past month for all our avid blog readers (I think we have 3).

Just after our excellent weekend with our friend Laura, my parents and sister arrived. During the week Steph showed them around some of the local attractions, Culzean castle, Arran island (my favorite place in Scotland) and Glasgow. Here are mom's pictures from the Rodger wedding and the trip to Scotland:

Mary's Pictures

Tajima Visit to Ayr - Moms Camera

The next weekend we all went down to the Lake District in England, which is a beautiful area of hills, small villages and... wait for it... LAKES. We also met up with some cousins from my mom's side Anne, Pete, Hilary, Dave, Jackie & Cliff. It was a fantastic weekend fall weekend and we all went for a hike around Lake Buttermere. Picturesque would be an understatement.

Steph, Laura, Mom and I went for a nice walk the next day on some less than well marked trails through a variety of sheep fields, over several fences and past some rather loud and angry sounding dogs. Adventures are fun! It was a great weekend getting to know some relatives and there was plenty of eating, drinking and good times.


The weekend after my family left, we flew down to London to meet our friend Cay. She is in med school and had a conference in London on that Monday. London is an awesome city. I expected NYC, it was more like a vibrant, crowded Paris. Beautiful city, tons to do, it seems like there are awesome restaurants and bars everywhere. We toured the city saw the British Museum with artifacts from around the world. That night we saw Avenue Q which was hilarious. Plus, we learned that when English people try to put on an American accent it often comes out sort of Australian... who knew?
Cay, Steph and Ben
Like Sesame Street.... kind of... not really at all... well, there are puppets.
Had to take this one!I got really excited about seeing the Rosetta stone. Way cool.

On Sunday we even stumbled upon an apple festival at a somewhat outdoor market. It had loads of stalls selling sweets, wine, raw meat, produce, soups, paella, curry, fish & chips.... My favorite was when saw two teenage girls thoroughly confused by a carved jack-o-lantern at the produce stand. They kept opening the top and looking inside. We enjoyed some mulled wine, food stands, an awesome atmosphere and a weird Native American/Olde English/Tree People caroling group.

The next week we returned home for a whirlwind tour! Amy's birthday at Oceanaire, Andrea's birthday at the Dow's and pumpkin carving contest (Steph had a contested win), Tajima family 5k/10k race day at the Lexington Battlegreen Race (Grant is getting HUGE), visits with friends, a Team 7 reunion, and finished with a massive fever (I think I had swine flu, Steph just thinks I am a wuss). Oh and there was some recruiting in there too.

Next up... Colin and Ashley arrive!