St Paddy's/B-day Celebrations

Another birthday (St Paddy's day themed) celebration is in the books!  This year was in London.  We had a pretty great weekend packed full of exploring, food, beer, shopping, and theater.  What more can somebody ask for on a long weekend!  We saw Mathilda....one of my favorite books growing up turned play, which was great.  The play captured the book very well for having to pack it all into one show.  We, of course, had a blast celebrating Nicole's birthday during the St. Paddy's day festivities. We saw parts of the parade, had our first Guinness of the day watching a live Irish Jig, and pub crawled the day and night away.  A little less raging and a little more observing than previous years but awesome nonetheless!  Drunk people watching quickly became the activity of choice by about noon. Those kids know how to party for sure.  Although there were no shots or Irish Car bombs had, I'm still proud of us....we stayed in it for the long haul starting around 11 AM and getting home around 1 AM.  Not bad I say, not bad at all.  This is the second time I have been to London and if you haven't been...go.  To me, everything is just plain cool in London Town.  The people, the culture, the nightlife.....hell even riding the tube feels cool. Love that place, can't wait to go back and find another new area to check out!  Next stop the Nordics....Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm here we come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is at about noon in a huge three level Irish pub called Waxy O'Connor's in Soho. 

 

Some classic British meat pie

 

 

First Guinness of the day!

 

 

One of my favorite breakfast places in Europe so far.....Foxtrot and Ginger

 

 

For you Mason and Mel! Dorky, I know...but that's what happens when you have beer too early in the day.

 

 

Nicole sporting some Celtic pride on her B-day.

 

 

 

 

I have been trying to end our trips with a pic of Nicole sleeping on our way back to the hotel....she woke up for this one.

 

Munich

Alright readers, time to get back on the blog track for 2013! Our trips will be almost as frequent as last year but this year they are mostly with friends. This was our first trip to Munich (not during Oktoberfest)....I have to say it didn't feel much different.  Once you step into a large hall with a Bavarian band playing and you have three, or four, or five liters of beer..... it is really hard not to have a good time. We met up with our friends, Blaine and Jen, who were beginning a eurotrip of their own and had the chance to hang out with us for a couple days.  Blaine and Jen both did their due diligence by "practicing" drinking beer, so they were ready for what was about to ensue.  There is actually not a bunch to talk about....mostly just beer drinking shananigans.  One noteworthy accomplishment was our ability to arrive at the world famous Hofbrauhaus around 6 PM and utlimately shutting the place down! It was a great weekend and we pretty much did everything we set out to do in Munich:  A) Drink copius amounts of beer...check;  B) Visit the Newuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for the Disney/Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty castle....casused much debate with no definitive answer)....check.  C) Drink copius amounts of beer...check.   Can't wait till next time Blaine and Jen!  Initiate planning phase of the Ayers/Hamilton/Stevens Ireland reunion.  Next stop....London for St. Paddy's/Nicole's B-day.....stay tuned it should be a good one!

 

Blaine and Jen were trying to get there pic into the Wildcat weekly email....I haven't heard if the got in or not.

Josh Sad!!

Josh Happy!!!

I don't think this is a chugging contest, but if it was, I am almost positive Nicole would win....me and Blaine don't really stand a chance.

Blaine mastered the coaster flip game.....for some reason he is drinking in the picture even though he won!

Ummm....I really have no idea what's going on here.