wanderlust wednesday

Lacock Abbey. The village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England. March 2013. 


One of my first Wanderlust Wednesday posts featured photos from this magical place.

The village of Lacock, other than having a name that makes me giggle no matter how many years I mature to, is a charming 13th century village in England. We had the pleasure of visiting it in the middle of a multiple-stop tour from London. We were only stopping in the village for a quick lunch break, but Dustin and I broke from our tour group and guide (with her permission) to go tour Lacock Abbey instead. It had special importance to us, being one of the main filming locations for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

The abbey is country chic. While we were visiting, there was an art show of some kind going on, featuring various statues and sculptures around the property. It was quite providential that the one in the middle of the intricate courtyard happened to be a unicorn. We weren't mad about it.

The abbey was fairly quiet and had very few other visitors while we were there, which made it particularly easy to imagine we were touring a section of Hogwarts. The abbey was used to film several classrooms in the first movie, including Snape's, Quirrell's, and the room that held the Mirror of Erised. It was also used for a few hallway scenes, including the moment when Harry first hears the basilisk outside of Lockhart's office in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 

It was an exhilarating visit. It was very difficult to tear ourselves away from our imaginations when we knew it was time to meet the group again. I am personally thankful that my husband is an extrovert and was able to request this time alone for us, and that our tour guide was so kind and susceptible to adventurous spirits.

(You can read the original travel post over on my first blog here).

Read all Harry Potter posts.

wanderlust wednesday

Snapshots from Grand Cayman, The Cayman Islands. July, 2012. 

The summer of 2012 was one of immense victory. We went on our first cruise together, which led us to a stop in the Cayman Islands. As you can see from the photos above, traveling to Cayman is an experience entirely made of shades of vivid blue. One of our dear friends happens to live there, so we were able to meet up with him and get a personal tour of his home and the best local food and activities. And then the victory: I willfully and knowingly accepted a proposition to get into the water with real, giant, horrible monsters of the deep. And I lived.

I'm terrified of the ocean. I was born and raised in Arizona so perhaps my fear of giant masses of water came from a lack of experience with it, but I'm inclined to say my fear just comes from wisdom because the ocean is expansively, undeniably horrible and scary. Even with this knowledge and practiced avoidance of water (my chances of dying via shark jaws decrease enormously if I stay the heck away from all bodies of water forever), we had this opportunity three summers ago to test our limits, face our fears and shake hands with sweet, slimy, docile sting rays. Who also happen to be the murderers of the great Steve Irwin. Yes, I might have respectfully brought that up a few times in between my bobbing shrieks while visiting Sting Ray City.

Of course, the reason why the rays were so incredibly friendly (read: tried to swallow us whole) was because our dear friend kept throwing little squids in the water around us and tucking them into my husband's swim shorts. We didn't find this out until later. Explains a lot. We'll get our revenge.

All of that psycho babble aside, the Cayman Islands were breathtaking. The food was delicious. Seaside smoothies are nothing to scoff at. The water was turquoise. And truly, I always swell with pride when I think of the feat we accomplished by swimming with the rays. That swell quickly deflates when I remember all of the aforementioned shrieking, but I like to focus on my initial bravery and not how I handled the fear later on.

wanderlust wednesday

The Hill of Slane. Slane, Ireland. March 2011.

Traveling to Ireland was the first trip my husband and I ever took together just the two of us. We were 22 years old and had been married a grand total of 2 months and 2 weeks. I've posted before about Ireland, but this entry is perhaps the most exhilarating to remember. 

Part of the excitement of our Ireland adventures was renting a car and making day trips. Driving on the other side of the road was endlessly terrifying and fun, and we felt incredibly accomplished as we followed our (sometimes faulty) GPS named Julie across the windy countryside. One of these day trips was to see the Hill of Tara, which was fairly high on Dusty's to-see list. Unfortunately, we weren't that travel savvy, and ended up getting there too late. All of the tours were booked! We had completely botched our chance. Feeling a bit lost and bummed, we walked around the Hill of Tara gift shop a bit, grabbed a snack from the cafe, and then just decided to just explore. Off-roading with the sheep is the best way to see Ireland anyway.

The scenery is gorgeous around there. In preparation for our trip, Dusty had read about several hills in the area, one of them being Tara and another was in Slane. Our GPS was hopeless at this point, so once we found Slane we just explored. We even happened upon a castle. The village was tiny and charming, and eventually we discovered the criss-crossed wooden signs, one of which pointed up the road and read "The Hill of Slane". We finally found ourselves driving up a steep little roadway that was completely deserted. As we reached the top, the hill was splayed out before us like a bright green game board, the only pieces being intricate grey ruins at its crest. It was cold and overcast, and we were the only ones there. We just gaped for a good ten minutes, and once we realized there were no "KEEP OUT OR ST. PATRICK WILL CURSE YOU" signs anywhere, we ran helter skelter up the hill. We already knew this was the greatest off-roading of our entire lives. 

The legend goes that the daring St. Patrick lit a fire on the Hill of Slane in 433 CE in honor of Easter. It was a strong Christian symbol in direct defiance of the High King Laoire, who forbade any other fires to burn while a festival fire was burning on the Hill of Tara. Although Laoire could see the fire from his palace, he was impressed by St. Patrick's devotion. The king remained a pagan, but allowed St. Patrick to convert many of his subjects to Christianity. 

The Slane ruins are that of a friary church and college, which was abandoned in 1723. The traditional Christian hymn Be Thou My Vision is set to an early medieval Irish folk song named Slane, inspired by this location. 

Wikipedia served us well in learning more about the Hill of Slane once we returned to the states, but at the time, we were simply in awe of St. Patrick's statue and the insanely gorgeous day. It began to sprinkle a bit, and as the sun set the sky was a myriad of golden colors and the horizon was crowned with the most fortuitous Irish rainbow. It was stunning, all of it. We climbed the ruins for hours, just the two of us, losing track of time and reality as our cheeks grew rosy and our souls were filled to the brim. 

wanderlust wednesday

Château de Hautefort, France. Photo by tom-sabin on Flickr. The castle featured in Ever After. 

It has been a few weeks since I featured a Wanderlust Wednesday post. I have, however, been wanderlusting quite mightily as of late and thought it would be appropriate to share some of that with you this morning. I had to borrow someone else's trip photos for this collection. Normally I pull from my own travels, but I have not been to this place yet, which is why I am sharing it. This place is very dear to my heart because it is, quite simply, the trip of my dreams.

I feel like this is a bit of a redundant comment on this blog at this point, but I love Ever After. One of the sweetest, loveliest, purest wishes of my heart is to travel to the French countryside and visit every single chateau and orchard and river that was featured in that film. Just typing this out has given me goosebumps, although my office is also freezing, so it could be that. 

As Prince Henry might say, "What is it that touches you so?" 

I honestly couldn't say. I'd like to keep it simple and just say, Ever After is the reason I cry when love is true. At age 10, it unlocked the little romantic in me and led me to a future of sentiment, glitter, pretty dresses, and my boy band phase. There's an innocence about it, both nostalgic and refreshing. The opening music alone takes me back to that version of myself, and it's something I can neither fully describe nor share with anyone else. It's just perfect.

I'm embarrassed to say that I once messaged Drew Barrymore's makeup artist from the movie about their time there, and she actually replied, which has only solidified my desire to walk in their footsteps! 

Wow! What a wonderful idea for a trip. You will have a great time. I do want to suggest you go to some places Drew, Barbara & I went on weekends though. We went to a town called Rocamadour. It's a medieval village built into a mountain side. Beautiful and great food and shopping. We drove there so it must not have been too far. 
We also canoed down the Dordogne river. We would stop occasionally and Drew would read to us poetry by Lord Byron from a small book she brought. Such a magical day. 
Perhaps you can call Flower Films. They may be able to find out where we shot the lake scene. Or the film commission in France. Wish I could be more help on that. Regardless, you will have an amazing adventure! :)

So I will definitely be buying poetry by Lord Byron (why is Drew such a ridiculously lovable hippy?) and trying to invent boat shoes to recreate the "Looks like rain!" river scene. Sigh.

All of that to say, I am in a constant daze at the very thought of making this trip happen. I hope that it will someday. I would love to fly to Dordogne and lose myself in one of my favorite fairytales of all time, while enjoying gorgeous countryside and lush chateaus and French history, both real and make believe. It would be a beautiful thing. 

Wait! It's tradition. He always waves at the gate.
(source)

For anyone who can quote Thomas More is well worth the effort. 
(source)

I had a horse like you once...
(source)

Now hand me that key, or I swear on his grave I will slit you from navel to nose.
(source)

And we, princess, are supposed to live happily ever after. 
(source)

And, while Cinderella and her prince did live happily ever after...
the point, gentlemen, is that they lived.
(source)

(source)