Saturday in Wales

To bridge the last and current updates, here is a brief overview of our last couple of days:

Thursday: We enjoyed the park during the day (see picture) and then rooted for Belvedere in our second pre-season friendly match. The football (soccer) team is coming together nicely, and they are a great group of guys.

Friday: I had several meetings at work and there are some exciting research projects in the works. The kids played together, made chocolate chip cookies, and watched a Harry Potter video. That evening I went to a 15-person work dinner (we couldn't find a babysitter, so Rachelle stayed home with the dynamic duo), which was great fun. I decided to ride my bike out for the evening, as following dinner, I joined my football team at the Belvedere. We had a great time sharing pints, stories, and visions of a glorious season ahead of us. It turned into a late night and a few of us had some take-out Chinese food. I had my Chinese at one of the player's flats and had a fun talk about how he had just moved in with his girlfriend (she was out of town for the weekend). Then, I had an extremely long bike ride home oweing to my getting extremely lost by riding up the wrong long hill. After many miles and minutes, I found my way home and snuck in a few hours of sleep before the dawn and seagulls squaking woke me up.

Saturday in Wales: The four of us piled into the Clio and headed to Wales. Emily guided us flawlessly on our 90-minute trek to Brecons National Park. In Merthyr Tydfil, we jumped on the Brecon Mountain Railway train (http://www.breconmountainrailway.co.uk/). The hour ride through the hills and along the water was beautiful, and we met some lovely tourists and locals (see video). We then headed to a little village called Tallybont-on-usk. The drive was exciting as we had to cross some streams and drive some steep and narrow roads. The town is situated along a cannal, and we had a nice long walk after a late lunch at a pub (see pictures).

We are now at home, and two of the four of us are exhausted from the day. The other two are planning an evening 4-square game after they finish washing the dishes.