Escape from the City

One of my goals this year was to see as much of England as possible, and I think I've done pretty well. Much of that is owed to many of my fabulous Fulbright colleagues who've invited me to come visit them in their hometowns. Last weekend, I took advantage of another invitation to escape the city for a couple days and visited Rebecca in Woburn Sands, a small village north of London. Jessica, Christy and JJ also made the journey, and the five of us had a great time exploring the area near Rebecca's house. After a quick celebratory post-Ofsted drink Friday, I caught the train to Woburn Sands. I was so incredibly tired that I actually tripped twice just trying to get to the train station, but I somehow managed to make in on a train, took a quick power nap, and woke up ready to rally! Christy and I stayed at a pub down the street from Rebecca's flat, and so once everyone arrived Friday, we headed to the pub to check in and have a drink. We didn't last very long, though, as we were all so wiped out! 

Our little hotel room (bottom floor) in the parking lot of the pub. 

Saturday morning, we had a delicious breakfast at Rebecca's. True to her Alabama roots, Rebecca knows how to make some good comfort food. For breakfast, she makes these amazing little sausage balls and real, souther cheesy-garlic grits! We were in heaven! After breakfast, we headed out to a place called Woburn Abbey, which isn't an abbey but rather a really fancy estate house where a Duke lives. We toured the house, dominated the children's trivia game during our tour, and then walked around the gorgeous grounds. Woburn Abbey is also a deer conservation, so there are amazing herds of all kinds of deer running around the grounds. Very unique and totally cool! After our walk, we had a traditional tea because the whole afternoon-tea thing was actually started at Woburn Abbey! How cool is that? We also managed to do some shopping--thank goodness! It was a great day!

JJ and Rebecca

Jessica, Christy and I

Hello new friend!

I just can't get enough of these funny British warning signs! 

The pottery that broke my heart...I really wanted to buy this jug and
wine glass set, but alas, how would I ever get it home? So I settled for a
garlic pot and small vase instead!  :)

There's the big house we toured.

Deer herd going right in front of the house!!! We ran up the hill to chase them, but they didn't wait for us. 

That night, we had a great dinner in a gastropub, then went back down to the pub where Christy and I were staying. The girls even sang some karaoke. All four of them are great singers, while I happen to be just a bit tone deaf, so I passed on the karaoke this time. And actually, I was still so tired from the Ofsted ordeal that I had to take myself to bed before too long.

The next day, we woke up refreshed and ready to go! After a tasty pub breakfast (the pub was rumored to have a great breakfast, and it didn't disappoint), we set out for the Woburn Safari park, crammed into Rebecca's adorably tiny car. This is where you actually drive around and the animals are free to roam as well. If you're lucky, they'll even come up to the car!

We started off seeing some rhinos in cages and thought, "oh, ok." But things got exciting really quick after that!

We passed some animals roaming around a bit and had fun watching them do their thing:

Then we found some crazy ostriches. At first, we were laughing as the ostrich pecked at the park ranger's car. But all of a sudden, the huge bird turned and started running right towards our car! He ducked behind us, but we weren't sure what was going to happen at first. That gave us all a good laugh.

Next we drove through the bear area. Here we saw two bears, one was having a bath, walking around and scratching his back. The other was taking a nice little nap. 

We drove on to the giraffes, monkeys, lions and many more animals! It was so neat! But driving into the lion part was kind of scary because there were these huge cages/gates you had to pass through, just like in Jurassic Park! 

They have a new male lion who still needs to be introduced to the ladies in the pride.

All the single ladies were having a nice, little cat nap!

One of my favorite parts was the giraffes. They were super curious about all the cars, walked right through and around us, and we just so darn cute!

Right behind the car!!! Photo shot out the back window.

Another really fun part of the park was the monkey area. We definitely saw some cheeky monkeys! They were running around, hoping on cars, picking at each other, snacking on some grass and grubs and "entertaining" one another in other ways as well! 

That's a park ranger, not a tourist!

Look at that cheeky monkey on the roof of the car!

Here's another one catching a ride on the side mirror!

Hello, little guy! This one was sitting off by himself, watching the people come by.

After we finished the driving safari, it was time to park the car and check out the zoo area. We walked around the grounds and visited many more animals. Here's my favorites:

Cutest sea lion ever! 

We got to walk around with these guys!!!

Fattest pig with the shortest legs!

We got to pet the goats! I was a little nervous at first, but Rebecca is practically
a goat whisperer, so she sorted us out!  

Another thing we all got a real kick out of were the crazy signs we kept seeing around both parks. 

And can't forget this lovely one:

Needless to say, we heeded all warning signs.  :)

We all had late afternoon trains, so it was time to head back to the train station after our visit. But I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in Woburn, especially all the time we got to spend outside, just wandering around, chatting with each other and enjoying these neat places. Whether walking around pretty grounds or visiting with some friendly animals, our adventures in the countryside were fun and easy this weekend. It was the perfect way to recover from the stressful week I'd just finished!