dear ireland,

I maybe, might have, almost forgot to post about you.

I apologize.

Here is what I do remember about our time together:

You were very green.

I couldn't understand half the people I met while I was with you.

Especially your ice cream salesmen

You probably have the world's only leprechaun museum complete with a giant's room to get us on the little folk's level.

You might have the one Mexican restaurant in all of Europe that serves Chipotle sized portions.

Heaven bless them and their guacamole

You are home to the musical Irish stylings of the Merry Ploughboys.

And I found a three leaf clover.  

We had some good times.
Sincerly,
Carly

dutch highlights

favorites from Amsterdam:

 

Haarlem

On our last day in Holland Jessica played tour guide and showed us around her town

 
we saw a Dutch farm with Dutch cows that made Dutch cheese
which I bought
it was lekker (delicious)

we saw windmills
very Dutch and very appropriate

and we saw downtown, complete with street market, flowers and almost completely deserted because the Holland football (aka soccer) game was on

stroopwaffles.

sugary, sweet, syrupy goodness.

life is not complete until you eat one.

nederland

canals + windmills + wooden shoes + orange + bikes =
Amsterdam
welcome to Dutchland

Day one consisted of: 
a.) Exploring the city and figuring out this whole riding a bike everywhere thing

 b.) checking out the canals
 

c.) eating egg sandwiches in Vondel Park

d.) and getting appropriately lost 

Day two continued with:
a.) A lovely early morning canal boat ride

b.) being freezing

c.) and the biggest bike garage you've ever seen

 Amsterdam you were ridiculously fun and you've inspired me to make sure a bike makes it up to Provo with me this summer.
I fear Utah drivers won't dodge me as well as Dutch ones did.
Here's hoping. 

P.S. Disclaimer: I thought I broke the blow dryer while we were in Amsterdam and we didn't want to risk the straightener too, plus we were riding around all day on our bikes so, needless to say, hair care kind of took a backseat to site seeing and enjoying.  Judge accordingly. 

as promised

our last day in London was the best
our last night in London was even better

here's how it went down:

Original Plan: Dinner plans at a Thai restaurant
Reality: That place is closed, wandering leads us to another Thai place closer to the theatre that ends up serving great pad thai and delicious banana goodness for dessert.
Great success.

Original Plan: We thought the show started at 8:00
Reality: The show started at 7:30, but since we ate dinner closer than we thought we made it on time

Original Plan: We thought Lissie was headlining.  She wasn't.
Reality: Since we eat dinner closer than we had planned we saw her play her 5 opening songs.
We were the happiest.

Original Plan: We weren't very excited for the Local Natives who were actually headlining the show
Reality:  They turned out to be amazing, so amazing in fact that we went to buy t-shirts afterwards

The Results of Reality:
Because we bought shirts two sweet, wonderful girls gave us post-concert party tickets so we got to go back and meet the band who turned out to be from Orange County and went to Tesoro High School.

The best of nights.

for the dads

wishing the happiest of father's days to the best of dads.

thanks for all the times you picked me up and dropped me off
sat me down and gave me good advice
made me tell you how my day was
told me how much you loved me
showed me how you much you cared
kissed me goodnight even when I thought I was too old for it
told me I was amazing
and made me feel like the luckiest daughter in the world.

Dad you are the best and I love you!
Love,
Carly 

the last

dear London,
i haven't blogged about everything, but i've posted about our best times.  you were so much fun.  this was our last day together, lets remember it for a while and how great it all was:

tube ride to Oxford for some early morning shopping

lunch at Books For Cooks down off Portobello (arguably one of my favorite places in the city)

finally found Princess D's fountain (after 2 months of searching)

attempted rowing on the Serpentine

walk through the daisies in Hyde Park

the best of concerts that will eventually get a post all its own, stay tuned.

and that's a wrap.

watch out

 

these signs are all over London

apparently English elders don't look both ways before crossing

the theatre the theatre

how to see shows in  
{London}

1. be a student
2. go to the box office an hour before the show
3. get a huge discount on great seats
4. enjoy productions like these:

Les Miserables

A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe

Phantom of the Opera

Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe

Peter Pan

Wicked

Sister Act

War Horse

Oliver

Legally Blonde