Left, left, past the bikes, Harry Potter

The title of this post will make sense by the end of this post. Promise. :)

Matt and I are celebrating 2 years of marriage today. I honestly cannot believe it's already been two years. Insanity. In two years, we've had a lot of amazing times, but have most certainly learned that a successful marriage requires work and effort. Our best advice? Continue to date each other. Forever.

Matt is taking me out to dinner tonight to a surprise location. Yay! And then we leave for Paris on Friday morning for 3 days. I. cannot. wait. My first trip to Paris with Colette was fun, but Paris wasn't what I expected. This time around, I have very different expectations and a long list of recommendations from a couple folks who've lived in Paris. And not that I didn't love our anniversary trip last year, but I think Paris just might trump Galena. :)

Anyway, enough about that. We had an outstanding time while the Kolmans were in town. We took a day trip to Bath 2 Saturdays ago, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Matt wasn't as big of a fan, but can't win 'em all. We did a 2 hour walking tour of the city, had an amazing Italian lunch (thanks Whit and Kate!), walked/shopped/toured the Roman baths, had dinner at a Bistro where Sarah and I enjoyed some delicious french onion soup and headed back to London on the train.

Last Sunday was another day of sports for us - Arsenal/Chelsea, Ryder Cup, a little football at a pub called Jetlag. A much better choice than our usual trip to Bodeans.

Monday, I met Sarah and Scottie at the Tate Modern. I loved the photography exhibits and enjoyed some of the abstract pieces, but I still have trouble understanding how some things qualify as art. The 3 of us met Matt in Chinatown for dinner and finished the evening with a trip to see Les Miserables. It was fabulous!! Really outstanding voices, great stage production. Loved the rotating stage circle.

I took it easy Tuesday-Thursday while the Kolmans were out exploring England countryside and Paris. I did something to my right foot a couple weeks ago - not sure what, but it might've been the combination of 30 day shredding and not wearing shoes (whoops?). Dr. Colette says it sounds like I pulled a ligament (or something) so I'm supposed to take it easy. It's gotten better (which makes me hopeful that I didn't actually break something), but it's been annoying that I can't walk around for hours without pain. Bah.

Friday, Sarah, Scottie and I met for a lunch of dim sum in Chinatown. It's my new favorite thing to eat! It's basically Chinese steamed appetizers. Our lunch was seriously amazing. After a quick trip for Chinese waffles, we started our Harry Potter tour. We ended up just doing a few things noted in our Rick Steve's book. We started at King's Cross/St. Pancras for a trip to see Platform 9 and 3/4. Rick Steve's directions were...nonexistent, so when we arrived near Platform 9 and saw that we needed to pay to get on to the platform, we were confused and spent a few minutes discussing. I saw a man on the other side of the turnstiles so I went up and said only these words "Excuse me, I have a question..." and without any other words, he immediately said "Left, left, past the bikes, Harry Potter." It was awesome and needless to say, the Kolmans and I were very amused by this. We found our way to Platform 9 and 3/4, which was pretty awesome. It was well-done and not cheesy. We had a lot of fun taking some pictures pretending to run into the wall. Next, we headed to the Borough Market to see a pub where a scene had been filmed and then to Leadenhall Market to see "real life" Diagon Alley. It was a neat little back street, but did not necessarily give the feeling of Diagon Alley. So the highlight of our tour was definitely Platform 9 and 3/4.

We met Matt for dinner at an Indian tapas place in Soho. It was good, but the food wasn't spicy enough for me. If I'm eating Indian food, I expect serious spice. We then headed to see Chicago, which I was super excited for...but expectations were definitely not met. The actor who played Roxie had the same hair as Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie version; Velma was a red head. It was weird. Plus Roxie couldn't dance to save her life, but I suppose somewhat made up for it with her voice. I enjoyed that they tried to make the performance unique, but overall, I was unfortunately disappointed.

Saturday, we met Sarah and Scottie for lunch before their flight back to Chicago at a gastropub called Anchor & Hope. The menu was a little intimidating so I made a safe choice of skatewing with lentils, which was good, but I feel like I could've done better if I would've been more brave. Lucky me - we then met friends for dinner at the Eagle on Saturday night, the gastropub we'd eaten at previously, where I made a very smart choices of pork stew, which was tasty and cozy and autumn-y. Matt ordered a simply amazing steak sandwich. The Eagle is one of our fav places, it's just such a neat atmosphere and has a menu that changes at each meal time. We continued our night with pints at the piano bar in Soho and then ended it at a club-y place called the O Bar (I think?).

Yesterday, we took advantage of our new subscription to NHL Center Ice and watched the Hawks game from Saturday night. I made guacamole and confetti chili and our friend Nick came over and we watched the Bears game from his NFL subscription. What a strange football game, but another Bears win, hooray!

And now you're caught up again! Enjoy your weeks - and congrats to all the marathoners!

Cheers!