Culture and then not so much :^)

So yesterday was a day of culture! Brandon and I decided that since Friday is a day when he goes to class at night, that he would take the morning slower and we would go on family dates. Brandon's father Bing, a marriage therapist, of course thought this was a great idea, so with that encouragement we now hope to make it a regular occasion. Last week we went to a local coffee shop for, what else, coffee and a pastry. Yesterday we visited "The Orchard". Jill watched Alyas for us this time so we could spend some time alone.

The view on the way to The Orchard....and I thought I would miss fall in the mid-west?
The Orchard is in Grantchester and is known to be the one place on earth where more famous people have "taken tea" than any other place. It stared when two Cambridge students asked to be served tea under the blossoms of the apple trees instead of on the front porch of what has called "Orchard House". It began in 1868 and since has become a legend of sorts.
Out of the long list of famous people that have had tea at The Orchard the few we recognized included Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Stephen Hawking, Crick and Watson (the DNA guys), Rutherford (who split the atom), and Prince Charles. We only recently have become familiar with Rupert Brooke...a famous English poet, who died at at 27, but loved Grantchester and helped to make The Orchard Famous. His poetry is very well known and loved here.

About Grantchester Brooke wrote...

...In Grantchester, in Grantchester! -
Some, it may be, can get in touch
With Nature there, Or Earth, or such.
And clever modern men have seen
A Faun a-peeping through the green,
And felt the Classics were not dead,
To glimpse a Naiad's reedy head,
Or hear the Goat-foot piping low:...
But these are things I do not know.
I only know that you may lie
Day-long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester...

Here is my stunning English looking lad. Isn't he brilliant?!
Can you believe I have drank more tea than coffee here and actually prefer plain black tea to anything fancy (I do add sugar and milk though)! We haven't found a reasonably priced coffee for home yet.

Keep this in mind all you folks coming to visit. The Orchard is open all year round...but the apples will not always be so ripe.
So....now on to the "not so much" portion of this post. While yesterday was full of British culture, today we felt very much American!

The day started with this omelet Brandon and I made from leftovers from our awesome pizza....eggs, tomato, artichoke, spinach, sausage, and chedder cheese. Not off to a bad start...
Well then I needed to go shopping for diapers b/c Alyas is growing out of the 4's and keeps overflowing at night. I heard there was another shopping place called Asda so we biked there, only to discover it was just like Walmart. Walmart on a Saturday morning...yikes! We were tipped off by some of the signs in the store stating "More Low Prices" with with "o" being a smiley face. It had to be Walmart.....NOOOO in England! Sure enough Wikipedia verified the company became subsidiary to the cooperate giant in 1999. I didn't like the idea of going to a Walmart, but non the less we thankful for some cheaper items!

After Asda, Alyas was getting hungry and we had one more stop...the shopping mall with the "Mothercare" store so I could buy a waterproof mattress cover. The food court had three options...some "Traditional Favorites" place, Burger King, and a sit down restaurant. Traditional sounded right up our ally until we noticed the bread that was being served on other peoples plates looked old, dry, and bland. Oh, and they served baked beans on top of jo-jo type french fries (I hear Bing getting excited :^) ) - not for us. So....it was Burger King...the most expensive Burger Kind we have ever had! We paid 7 pounds for our two cheese burgers, fries, 2 cokes, and chicken nuggets. That's 11 American bucks kids! I just calculated the conversion and Brandon and I are in awe by our stupidity. Why didn't we just hold off our appetite and feed our child? Why didn't we just buy from a street vendor. Who knows? We were in a hurry and our kid was hungry....probably not the last horrible decision we'll make.

Well, to conclude our day we attempted some culture. Tonight we were to meet friends at King's College chapel for "Evensong"...basically a short service and a beautiful choir. We arrived right at 5:30 as they closed the doors and we couldn't go in. The day just suffered in so many ways from lack of British culture. Oh, well. There will be more services and less Burger King in our future!

Here are some pictures I snapped outside King's College tonight. A bit of a discouraging day...but we're still happy (under my breath "stinking burger king...)!