Please pardon my abrupt absence. I *officially and completely* finished the second draft of my novel a couple weeks ago (!!!), and then promptly ran off with my boys to northern Michigan for a week of fun! (more…)

60 mph, white knuckles, barely enough room for two cars! 90-degree turns in the city, where I swear, people are not heeding the 30 mph speed limits! And if you were ever worried about driving on the left side of the road, or going through a roundabout, I say BAH! Try driving in the English countryside!

But the people are friendly and it’s a lovely place, really!… If you survive the roads and everything.

Picture heavy under the cut. These photos were taken between Wanborough, Marlborough, Swindon, and Bath. (Click here for the full set, 72 photos in total.) Please enjoy the following photos while I attempt to get my brain jump-started again to prepare some more verbal posts! (more…)

167 pictures in total, click through for the full set.

Part 1: driving through the mountains in the snow

Dear Pennsylvania, your bridge is crooked.

And then it started to snow! But it’s okay, we’re from Michigan and we can handle a little snow. We managed not to fall off of any mountains and Dylan was actually really good the whole way down. Can’t say so much for the way back up though, but you know, he’s two.

Look at those snow clouds!

And we made it into Virginia finally, greeted by a very pretty sunset

Part 2: sometimes when you order a hotel “suite,” you don’t really get a suite

Slumming it in our hotel room, with a toddler. This is not recommended. Our hotel “suite” did not come with a separate bedroom (this is what you get for being cheap, I suppose). Blah! But it did offer free internet.

The blue lollipop of doom!

Part 3: Fairfax is pretty, but hubby needs the blue Metro line

So we spent our first day looking in Fairfax, because it’s pretty and family-friendly. But ultimately, hubby needs the blue metro line. Sorry Fairfax. Dylan liked your park.

Dylan

My boys

Part 4: little boxes on the hillside…

So the funny thing is, all the pictures I took, and I didn’t actually take any of the place we chose to live, lol. We were exhausted from looking at apartments, and it was raining. We chose Kingstowne, VA, which is on the south side of Alexandria, near Springfeild.

It looks pretty generic, really. But nice, suburban, generic. I saw on a message board that somebody called it a “strip mall on steroids”. And it kind of is. Think Weeds, only not in California. You get your movie theater, your Panera Bread, and your pretty little overpriced box to live in. Lots of trees and hiking paths. Our apartment has a “sunroom” = oversized livingroom with a lot of windows, that overlooks the woods, which I love! And it’s within walking distance to the Metro, which was top in hubby’s book.

I’m growing on the idea though. We get to belong to this community, and have automatic membership to gyms and playgroups and chess clubs (lol), and our little town center has shopping and banks and restaurants. But I think it will be a nice, quiet, safe, generic place to get our feet in the door out there. I was honestly giving myself a headache with all the different suburbs there are to choose from. The metro DC area is HUGE!!!

So we’ll live in our pretty little box for a year, and then we’ll reevaluate. Maybe we’ll even love it there, but I’ve always favored more unique towns, which personality and character, like Old Town Alexandria

Part 5: Alexandria rocks

Downtown Alexandria is about a five-minute Metro ride from Kingstowne.

Downtown, where hubby will work.

Not sure if I’m allowed to say where hubby works and all… but dude, I was just taking a picture

Maybe nobody else finds this amusing?

Old town is my favorite

Pretty row-house spam

Outside some restaurant.

This theater totally serves beer and wine with the show! How soon can we get a new babysitter?

It was really windy. They don’t look amused!

The Potomac River from the bottom of King Street, and the bridge to Maryland in the background.

So I’m not sure if I would actually want to live in the city, but it sure is cool. And it’s nice to be able to hop on the Metro and get there in five minutes

Part 6: Pennsylvania mountain spam (because Michigan is flat as a board)