Back to Dagenham with the Prodigal Tourist

No photo today, thought I'd share a different type of travel with you: my trips back to England to visit my hubbie's real-life Cockney parents and show him that his old home is pretty great. Here he is reading from his upcoming book about our experiences, A Yank Back to England: A Prodigal Tourist. If you've been on the Prodigal site this week, you've probably seen it already, but I'm so excited about it I thought I wanted to post here as well.
Enjoy!

Lovely Lavenham

Wasn't able to post this week (switched over all our equipment AND servers) but, to celebrate, here are a few photos from Lavenham, which I think is my favorite little town in England--so far, at least. We discovered it quite by accident, and enjoyed every minute. Dozens of Tudor houses line the street and, as you see in the last photo, they're not all the traditional black on white.

Another day at the beach

Thought you might enjoy a few shots from another less-than-idyllic beach I visited in the Former Soviet Union, this one near Tbilisi, Georgia. The beach was covered in rather painful pebbles--who am I kidding, these were full-fledge stones, as you can see in that last picture--so I was happy I had my camera and was able to indulge in some excellent people watching. The old Prodigal likes to complain about pebble beaches in England, but he couldn't believe these photos! Made him quite nostalgic for the waterfront by our rental house in Deal--and indeed, there were certainly no cockles and shrimp to be had at the Tbilisi beach!
The water was quite pretty, though I can't remember anyone in my group actually swimming.

At rest in Lavenham

Don't have a relative buried here so this probably doesn't qualify as a Tombstone Tuesday, but the cemetery in Lavenham (Suffolk, England) made me feel truly at peace so I'm posting these photos today.

Happy Birthday, America!

These photos are from a memorable trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. It was extremely hot, but the reenactors were as valiant as their real-life ancestors. As you can see from the Union Jack in the top photo, the year was 1775 and we hadn't quite told the Brits who was in charge yet. Soon would, though!