I have seen the North Atlantic...

...And stared across The English Channel, past the Isle of White, towards France in the distance. I spent the past weekend in the Portsmouth and Bournemouth area in the south of England visiting. On Saturday evening after a half-assed attempt at a working during the day, I trained it down to my friends Lexi and Mark's post-wedding reception. I took a bit longer than I had expected to get down to Portsmouth! I was assured that it was only a quick two hour journey but by the time I arrived it had easily stretched to three. Lexi and Mark had been married some time earlier at a "family only" affair in New York City, and were having a very casual get together for all their friends who are currently in England. It was a fun time, but unfortunately due to the less than optimal train services on a Saturday night in the south of England I could not stay long at the reception because I was due for a rendevouz with old Victoria friends Christina and Jason in Bournemouth. I arrived at the not so unreasonable time of midnight having spent a few more hours total train time getting there. Jason picked me up at the train stop and we had a brief chat before just crashing. Sunday morning we were up early with the arousal of Lucas and Christian, Christina and Jason's sons, who were both full of energy albeit of different sorts given their ages; two and half years for the former, and two and half months for the latter! We spent a lovely day together walking down to a seaside cafe for lunch and back. The weather co-operated, and although it was quite breezy, it was pleasant enough. A funny thing was that on the walk down I instantly realized where some of the neighbourhoods I frequented growing up in Victoria were modeled after. Amazing how similar the layout and feel of Bournemouth is to Oak Bay in Victoria. The day also featured not one, but two rides! On a kiddy train. I haven't had that kind of treatment in quite a while! It was fun! Anyway, it was lovely to get out of the city and into some very fresh salt air for a change. A great thing to see Christina and Jason's family growing rapidly as well!