A Rainy Day in Worcester

Yesterday we had nothing on our agenda, so I wanted to get out and take advantage of our English Heritage passes to see another one of their properties in the region. After I had a meeting for work in the town of Worcester (home and namesake of the famous Worcestershire sauce) a few weeks ago, I thought we should go back there to see what the town has to offer. Unfortunately we did not find the original location of the sauce, but the town was quite picturesque, despite the rainy Saturday on which we visited....

The town of Worcester is home to a rather large cathedral, The Worcester Cathedral, which really is quite a magnificent cathedral. It sits on a bank overlooking the River Severn. This cathedral actually remains free to tour. (although donations are appreciated so we did opt to participate to help keep it free to the public). 

Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic. It is famous for its Norman crypyt and unique chapter house, its unusual Transitional Gothic bays, its fine woodwork and its "exquisite" central tower. For once, we actually did not climb the tower here....thought our legs would appreciate the rest this time around! 

Inside the cathedral are a number of tombs...one of them we found to be most interesting was that of Henry VIII's brother, Arthur Tudor. From our extensive knowledge of English history (or watching the series The Tudors, supplemented with some actual historical reading), we remembered that Arthur Tudor was actually married to Catherine of Aragon before she was married to Henry VIII. Arthur died only a few months into their marriage while they were on their honeymoon, so the marriage was declared null and thus Catherine could marry Arthur's brother, Henry. Talk about keeping it all in the family!

The beautiful East Window of the Cathedral.

Back into the rain....

After touring the cathedral and a late lunch in town, we ventured over to Witley Court just outside the city. Witley Court was once one of the great manor houses of the Midlands, but today it is just a ruin house, as it was destroyed largely in a fire in 1937. Today, there is still a large shell of the manor house but the gardens and fountain have become the focal point for visitors to see. 

From the inside of the remains of the house, looking out onto the back lawn with the great fountain and gardens. 

We walked to the very back of the property, and saw this view of the fountain and the manor house which was beautiful. Every hour this main fountain goes off and puts on a little show for the visitors to watch. 

The lady at the front desk when we arrived kept talking about the flowers at the very back of the garden. They were in full bloom and smelled quite fragrant as well.

One of the side gardens and a smaller fountain. 

A night in Nashville

We are in Nashville for one evening. Our lawyers who are working on our work permits and visas were able to secure our biometric appointments for us at the application support center here in Nashville for tomorrow mid-morning. There are only 129 of these "application support centers" in the US and we could not schedule this appointment with such a center until we returned from our second home finding trip from the UK, because we will have to surrender our passports at this appointment. 

We thought that our lawyers would push to schedule this appointment for us as SOON as we landed back in the states since it takes another 4-5 business days (after this appointment) to process our final visas, but as with every thing else we have experienced with this move, this appointment is not going to happen on time. Apparently the earliest appointment we could secure anywhere on the east coast or in Chicago was not until August 18th, so we asked the lawyers to look anywhere in the south and we would work to get there. Nashville's office is able to take us tomorrow mid-morning (the earliest appointment they could find almost anywhere east of the Mississippi), and so we are here. After this application center takes our finger prints, photos and verifies that we are in fact who we say we are, then they will send our applications to our lawyers. Our lawyers will then hopefully go back and forth with the US Government and British Embassy to process our visas quickly so we can finally move!

On the housing front, we still do NOT have a confirmed lease for this house we saw last week while we were in the UK.... Our UK agent actually emailed us after we returned from the UK to say she could not move forward with the lease on this house over there because she did not have credit applications from us. I almost went through the roof when I read her email. We were in this English town (same town as our agent) for almost THREE entire days with nothing to do but secure this house and she did not think to give us these applications until we RETURNED to the states?!?!

Such is par for the course on the way this entire moving process has been going for us so far....

Let's just hope our visa part actually goes well tomorrow.

The Southest Road Tour

We came back from the UK on Thursday and immediately headed south to visit good friends, starting in Richmond, Virginia. We spent time there with our hosts Sarah & Jonathan and also visited other friends in the area. Not only was it nice to visit with them, but Sarah secured quite a treat for us - we feasted on the ever-famous cinnamon stick pastries straight from their vacation at the beach in Westport, MA....I have tried to replicate these delicious pastries but have never succeeded. Whenever I talk about my favorite bakeries (which you know can be frequent), I talk about this bakery in Westport Point - Perry's. If you find yourself anywhere near this coastal town, take a detour and stop there for their amazing baked goods. Finally after eating a few of them on this visit, Scott understood my obsession with this breakfast delicacy.  

Our gracious canine hosts Petunia & Pete in Richmond. :) 

From Richmond, we headed to South Carolina to see more friends. I had to post this photo of the exit we saw along I-95 near the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Are we in Mexico or the Carolinas? 

The South of the Border Exit....

Our gracious hosts and soon-to-be parents Beth & Bryce in front of their adorable South Carolina home! 

This afternoon we arrived in Atlanta to visit Chad & Lori and to meet their precious son, Owen. Scott & I have both already been christened by the child's reflux system, so we think he must be comfortable with us! Scott fed Owen a dinner of green beans and cereal tonight. He sang the entire way through his dinner which was really cute.

Scott feeding Owen his green beans for dinner. 

Owen's messy (and precious!) face after a full meal!  (A mini version of his dad Chad)

From Louisville to Lexington

We have started our road trip....We left Scott's parents in Indiana and drove to Louisville, KY, to visit Scott's friend Andy and the lovely Tara yesterday. We had a nice time visiting with them and also enjoyed a drink at the Maker's Mark Lounge there in Kentucky. After a delicious brunch this morning at the North End Cafe where I had the MOST scrumptious banana cream pancakes with some kind of yummy graham cracker crumbs on them (they rivaled the Bongo Room in Chicago), we headed east on Highway 64 through the mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia.

The view for a large part of our drive today - haze and clouds among the mountains.

We have landed tonight in Lexington, VA, mostly because it was a good stopping point after driving for about 430 miles today. After the dinner we ate, I think Scott & I are both glad we took a chance on this Virginia college town (home to W&L and VMI). We are staying at a hotel just off the interstate but decided to venture into the historic district of Lexington and found this charming little restaurant called the Southern Inn Restaurant. The food was fresh, local and absolutely delicious! If you are passing through this town sometime, I would highly recommend you stop for a meal here. It has been a family owned restaurant by a few different families, since 1936 and was originally owned by a greek family (funny since most of their menu items are a little southern in fare). It has evolved over the years but everything is still made from scratch - the breads, desserts, dressings, etc. I had the buttermilk fried chicken and Scott had a trout dinner with an interesting and complimentary berry sauce on it. We indulged on their homemade peach cornmeal upside-down cake and southern pecan pie with a side of homemade marshmallows for dessert....excellent! 

Tomorrow we will drive to DC to catch our flight to go back to England for our second home finding trip. Our agent has been furiously emailing and calling us trying to convince us not to come back for a second trip because she thinks she is close to securing a contract on a house for us, that we had seen online and emailed to her as a suggested property. We are still both skeptical about not having a signed contract from both ends with this new property, since our last one fell through at the last minute. So, we will go back to the UK to hopefully just to see this property in person first, and sign a document agreeing to our terms, and then we will come back to the states earlier than expected. If for some reason the contract does not matriculate, then we will be house hunting again next week. Keep your fingers crossed that we are able to secure this house we have seen online soon (and that we like it still when we see it in person!).