July started off a little less exciting than it was supposed to - we missed out on our friend’s Fourth of July party because Joel was sick. It took him a few days to recover and we’ll have to schedule another visit to Vince and Joan soon.
Thankfully, by the next weekend, Joel was all better, so Steve came around for a “Frolic Friday.” This time he had a mystery destination in mind for us! So Joel and I got in the car and started driving with no idea where we were going or how long it would take to get there. We took a pit stop in the town of Shitterton, England, just to giggle at the sign and then after about 3.5 hours of driving we ended up in Swanage on the Jurassic Coast. We parked the car and walked into town to play two rounds of mini golf right across the road from the beach. One was pirate themed and the other was dinosaur themed and both were fully decorated in their themes! After that we got fish and chips for dinner and ate it on the beach (I get sausage, not fish) and then Joel guarded our stuff while Steve and I took a dip in the sea. The weather was stunningly perfect and it was an overall amazing day!
Two big trips on back-to-back weekends (even though one was a bit of a failed trip) left us wanting to chill out and explore a bit closer to home the rest of the month. So we finally went to Caerwent - the Roman town about a five-minute drive from our house - for a proper exploration. This time we downloaded a map with the actual walk and it turns out it’s even more interesting than the tiny bits by the car park we have shown a few people. You can actually walk around the old fort walls! We will now be much better tour guides for this place for future visitors, and we plan to return frequently as it is a nice easy walk.
Also closer to home we finally went to the Black Rock picnic site which is right along the coast! You can hop onto the coastal path going both directions, and there are amazing views of both bridges over to England. This is also only a five-minute drive from our house! There is a really neat statue of a salmon fisher using an old technique that almost got banned when new regulations came in, but then people lobbied the government to still allow this type of fishing.
Both of these close places to visit are short drives and nice bike rides - so I was really wanting to get out and explore more on my bicycle. Unfortunately, when we went to go do that one morning, we realized that my bike was dead! We had purchased a new battery and even that didn’t fix it. We checked with a couple of bike shops and everyone said since it was a cheap model from overseas it would be impossible to get the parts to fix it. So…we bought a new e-bike! It is fancier and nicer than any bike I have ever owned, but it should last a very, very long time. It has a 100-mile range with the battery and is a dream to ride. And look how pretty!
On a very rainy Saturday afternoon, we entertained ourselves by going to see the local musical theater group perform Sister Act. The stage was in the local secondary school (kind of like a high school) and it was a fun show! I’m hoping to maybe join this group for a show in the future. I did go along to one rehearsal this month to try it out and they were very welcoming and fun. They were practicing for an event I can’t do in September (work stuff) and announced that their musical next spring will be Guys and Dolls. I can live without being in that one and can’t really justify the time commitment unless it’s one I am just dying to be in (Chicago or The Music Man being the main ones!) Until then, I’ll just support them by going to their shows.
In the manse this month we saw some improvements we have been waiting on since we moved in last November. It took several visits from the electrician but we finally have a car charger! It is smart and has fast mode as well as eco mode and it should save us money and time. Plus it’s a lot nicer looking than the extension lead we had running out the front window for 8 months. We also had decorators come and repaint the bathroom with appropriate paint and fix my study (which had a ceiling leak in April.) This finishes everything on the list so now it’s finally time to finish organizing and really settling into this place!
The last weekend in July was pretty fun-filled. On the Friday Steve came to hang out and in between continuing to work our way through The Last of Us we checked out a festival that was happening in town. It was “Wild West” themed and featured characters from Toy Story, line dancing, some small rides and bouncy castles for the kids, a bucking bronco ride, and food and other vendors. We bought the most amazing sugared pecans - we literally bought the lady's whole inventory they were so good.
Then on the Saturday we finally got to do something we have been wanting to do since we became friends with them last summer - we go to see Ben joust! We picked up Amy and the girls early in the morning and then drove about an hour and a half to Kenilworth Castle. The whole event was amazing - there was a puppet show, a jester, falconry and more - but of course the main event for us was the two jousting tournaments. Ben, jousting as the “Wild Man,” won both - it was so exciting! I hope to write a full post on this at some point because it was just a jam-packed day of amazingness. So in the meantime, here is a selfie Amy took of all of us while we were waiting for Ben to joust.
And, of course, we couldn’t get through the month of July 2023 without seeing Barbenheimer! We didn’t do it in one day though because we heavily debated waiting to see Oppenheimer when it came to streaming - it is 3 hours long! We went to Barbie opening day and it was amazing (and then we went to Amy & Ben’s for games that night.) The next weekend we gave in and went to Oppenheimer because everyone kept talking about it - I enjoyed it, but still wish I could have watched at home in my recliner and with bathroom breaks.
And that’s all of July folks!
XOXO, Bethany