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Hi Reader,

Even though I've been popping into your email, I was actually on vacation in the south west of England for two weeks! (That's the joy of scheduling emails 😀)

We've been back a week, but it took me a bit of time to deal with the worst jet lag I've ever had (and we've flown 15 hours to Australia!). In addition to the known sleeping issues, we both dealt with flu-like symptoms -what?? I had to look it up, but yes, jet lag can give you chills, headaches, and digestion issues. Joy, right?

But both Brian and I are back to normal now and enjoying being home (and my garden!!), as well as looking back at our photos and sharing the highlights of our trip with people.

Before I share some photo collages I made for you, here are some Memorial Day menu ideas (so if you're not interested in England photos you can get the recipes and get out, lol - although do be sure to scroll down for the newest from the blog all about green beans!).

Memorial Day Menu Options

We will be grilling for our family game night on Memorial Day and while I haven't firmed up the menu yet, I will be choosing from some of these options:

• ​Smashed Garlic Pub Burgers or Soy Sriracha Marinated Chicken (so simple and not spicy, just flavorful)
• ​Easy Grilled Vegetables In a Basket​
• ​Tuscan White Bean Salad or Quick And Easy Chopped Salad or Shaved Cabbage Salad with Creamy Feta Vinaigrette​
• ​Incredible No-Churn Chocolate Chip Ice Cream served in a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups drizzled with Simple Homemade Chocolate Syrup (this is a for sure option 😀)

A Trip Through South West England

I planned our trip to highlight different areas of England and give us a varied view of life in villages, towns, and big cities.

This map from the Polar Steps app shows the general outline of our trip to give you an overall idea (I used the app to record what we did each day- it was a good way to remember to take pictures of things I thought were cool).

We started our trip in Bath for 4 days taking a bus from Heathrow after arriving (from which we took a day trip into Oxford, which also had amazing buildings we've seen in lots of shows). It was my FAVORITE. Our airbnb was the ground floor of a historic home and everywhere you walked was 17th and 18th century buildings. It was my first time in a grand cathedral (though they call it an Abbey) and I was awed. The people were lovely, the food was good and the even older history of the Roman Baths was amazing.

Then we rented a car (Brian did great driving on the opposite side, with roundabouts AND on narrow roads 👏) and drove southwest through Exeter over to the village of Boscastle in Cornwall for 4 days. During this time we walked some of the 600+ mile (!) South West Coast Trail along the Atlantic ocean (yes, you walked over and through gates to keep animals in the pastures!) and took day trips south along the coast, visiting a manor house, surfing (Brian, lol), and going as far as Penzance, almost to the farthest point of England on the Atlantic. (The photo of the tea is because in Britain, that oat-bar-cookie-thing is called a FLAPJACK! It was yummy.)

We left our Cornwall airbnb and drove south east, making our way back towards London along the coast stopping in Dartmoor National Park to experience the moors and the quaint beach town of Weymouth for a couple days. We returned our rental car and took the train over the countryside to London for the last days of our trip.

London is huge and very international (you hear so many languages, it becomes a game to figure out which ones). We got the city experience with our Airbnb there and took advantage of it's location just 2 blocks from the Thames river to walk to many major attractions - including a walk through Hyde Park's Rose Garden, the Tower Bridge, and even a play at the Globe Theater. I had a lot of tea there, but only one "afternoon tea" (or high tea) because it's not cheap.😬 But it was delicious and I LOVED the green and ivory dishes they used (if you don't know, green is my favorite color!).

From The Blog

​Amazing Garlic Green Beans for Skillet or Grill​ These garlic green beans are my favorite to make in a skillet or on the grill for a quick, flavorful side dish perfect for weeknight dinners or cookouts. RECIPE HERE!

​Why I Love Filet-Style Pole Beans (& Why Pole Green Beans Are Better Than Bush)​ Find three reasons to grow poles beans instead of bush, and six reasons why tender filet-style pole beans like Emerite and Fortex are the best! READ IT HERE!

A Few More Things

These things turned out the be the MVPs of my trip (the first two you can see in the photo of me in front of the manor house above):

• ​Small anti-theft Travelon crossbody. My previous bag was just too big and this turned out to be perfect - it held my cards in the slots and lip balm, readers and sunglasses in the main section with my phone on the outer pocket. (This brand is one of the best with straps that can't be cut and zippers with locks - they have other sizes if you need something bigger.)
• ​Down packable puffer coat with hood. I looked for actual down for warmth and a hood for rain and I needed both during this trip. It came in a round bag to pack it down into, but I found that too bulky to pack (we both were carry on only) and instead shoved it in a pocket of my suitcase which worked perfectly because it flattened it down.
• ​Compression packing cubes. I've been a packing cube fan for awhile, both for being able to cram more in them as well as for organization while traveling, but this set is a bit bigger than my other cubes and has zippers you can use after packing to compress it down further. Two of the mid-size cubes fit side-by-side in my suitcase, right over my two pairs of pants and shoes. One held underwear, socks, leggings, etc. and the other held all my tops. Keeping them in the cubes made it so easy to keep organized as we moved through four airbnb's during our trip! (I only used the two and don't see me ever using the largest one, though I do think I will use the smaller one for shorter trips - for the cost, though, I'm not worried that I didn't use them all.)

Thank you, friend, for being here - I appreciate you!

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