Alas, I have not continued . . . Part 2.

I had to be out of my hotel room by 11am on Sunday or I would be charged for another night. The difficult was my friend couldn't pick me up until after 3pm. I woke up with a terrible headache, which means I also felt sick. I have been able to feel better sometimes by eating something and drinking caffeine, so I ate some mini-powdered donuts and drinking a Diet Pepsi while staying in bed and watching something. It didn't work. I ended up throwing up in the shower. Not fun. I rushed to get ready and pack at the same time and made it out by 11am. I needed batteries so I managed to find a store and wandered around. I texted a former student to see if she wanted to meet for tea but she'd been in Urgent Care for illness.

It was around noon so I decided to find a place to eat and waste some time. There is so much to do in that city but I didn't want to go anywhere full of people and where parking would be a stress. I ended up seeing a pub with a lovely name so I decided to drive up there and have a look, possibly eat. I stopped on the way up to get out and walk along some water. It was gorgeous. Found the pub. Parked nearby. Walked around a gazebo and down by a dock. Took some pictures and sat looking at the water for a few minutes. Walked up to the pub but didn't feel like eating pub food. What I really wanted was specific pizza. So I went back to the car, put the pizza chain into the GPS, and finally found one. It was perfect timing. I went in. Ordered. Wrote in my little journal (I started writing in one again for this trip). Ate my food & drank my soda. Perfect. The waitress was lovely and made sure I got my food before the hordes of people who came in just after did, since I was alone. I gave her a nice tip.

I had to return my car to the airport and then wait there for my friend to pick me up, since she & her husband had to drive past in order to go to the other city (which is where they are from). I planned to sit at Starbucks and read, write, drink coffee until they were ready. It ended up being a little later than I expected but still perfect timing.

I don't know this friend particularly well and had never met her husband but they were such a blessing to me. They saved me from having to spend a ton of money to return my car in a different city than the one I got it in. The trip down went quite well and rather quickly. Her husband dozed in the backseat while she and I got on superbly (no surprise). We dropped him off at their house and then went to dinner at a really amazingly cool place before she dropped me off at the airport to pick up my new car.

I got my car and managed to get to my aunt's across the river, despite the once-again-malfunctioning GPS. It was such a relief to be there. All I wanted to do was go to bed but ended up staying up to watch a film with her. Sleep was a blessing.

I slept in a bit the next morning and got up to find my aunt had left me a note with some tea and breakfast-y things prettily arrange on the table. She had a meeting but wanted to take me to lunch later. I got ready and when she got back we went to a fabulous French bistro/bakery. It was delicious and lovely. Then she drove me over to the venue so I could see where it was and scope out the parking. And then, she took me to the best bookstore in the world. I love it there. We browsed for about an hour and I got some books, though not the one I wanted. We recrossed the river back to her house. She gave me a little driving tour of a local fort area before we got home, which was really cool. I'd love to go back someday.

I'm going to write the next part in another post . . .