GOING FULL MONTY

ENGLAND

I have to admit that I had never considered England a “sexy” destination for travel. For me England, outside of London, never had the cache of Paris or Rome or was an exotic destination like the Dalmatian coast or Greece. Even Australia, as American a country in all my experiences, continues to hold such a place in my heart because it is so exotic, but perhaps this is because it so very far away, and in a sense quite inaccessible.

This has all changed. Previously I had been loath to return to a destination. The world is so very vast and inviting that it would be impractical on a timely or monetary basis to revisit a destination.  Previously I could never see the allure of returning to, say, the same New Jersey beach house year after year. What’s the fun in that to limit one’s lifetime experiences? I would hazard to state that endeavor was a complete waste of time. Even my number one destination in the world, Hawaii, which I’ve been to for work and play 7 times now, has probably seen the last of me.

But my thinking has changed with the growing VFH brood and I’ve enjoyed a fairly steady diet of Full Monty breakfasts and bitters while visiting the kids and their family in England. I’ve been to Northern England 3 times over the past five years, splitting time between the kids in either Liverpool or Newton-le-Willows, or at the in-laws in Nantwich, and although there’s only so much one can take sitting around on the couch being family-like and yammering about the weather this recent trip has changed things up a bit and we’ve begun to explore the area. Like the expansive breakfasts, we’ve gone Full Monty in the English experiences and the family and Janet have planned an assortment of small and large trips while here and what little down time there has been has been filled with chasing after young Patrick!