England Adventures Part 1!

I am back from my trip to England! Even though I'm very jet lagged, I wanted to write down all of my trip highlights while they are still freshly swirling around in my head! While we had many exciting adventures and enjoyed gorgeous landscapes, there really is no place like home!:)

I went to England with my husband and my parents. We went to a mini family reunion (whoever could make it)! My mom's side of the family literally lives across the globe ...from Canada to England to China! As you can imagine, we don't see each other very often. So, when everyone decided to get together this summer, my hubby and I switched out our annual Hawaii summer trip ( just us) for some family time.
We love our Hawaii trips and even got married in Hawaii! I think that we have gone every summer for the last four years. So, it was kind of major to not go to Hawaii this summer.I might have been a bit A LOT more excited than my hubby to go to England this summer instead, but I convinced him to go by telling him that we had to visit the place where our last name ( Preece) originates from! Plus, where else are you going to get authentic fish and chips? So off we went!

When we arrived in London after a 10 hour flight ( plus travel time by bus), we were exhausted! Plus, we arrived the morning of the next day, so it was still another full day before we got any sleep! Our first stop was my aunt and uncle's house in Oxford. I have been here a couple of times throughout my life. They live in a cute green and white English house near the center of Oxford.

We were there for a quick 24 hours before my family that was on this trip ( 12 people) packed into two cars and drove 4 hours to the countryside of Cornwall. We rented a cottage for our family to stay in for the week. Now, I know what you are thinking...cottage implies a small, cozy house and as you can see by the pictures this place was not small! In fact, it was previously a  barn that was converted into a holiday rental house next door to the owner's house. It was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it and the countryside was literally all of our backyard! I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

Loving the wooden beams and windows!

The perfect place to have a morning cup of coffee!

Gorgeously green and peaceful right? It really was the greatest get away! I never imagined that I could live in the countryside, but I really liked the simplicity and slower pace of life there. I think that I could even get used to hanging my clothes up on a clothes line outside to dry!:)

We did many things during our week in the country. One thing that I will never forget are the country roads! Navigating those roads was an adventure all on their own! They are super narrow and what you think is only enough room for one car to drive through somehow allows two cars to pass by each other (barely)! I definitely was glad that I wasn't in the driver's seat there! Whew!

My Canadian uncle (on the left) navigating while my English uncle (on the right) has all eyes on the road!

The next pictures are of some of the really pretty and quaint towns that we explored.

Anchor Cottage! I love nautical and anchors! Now this IS a cottage! 

 We went on an EPIC coastal hike in the breathtakingly beautiful town of Port Issac. It was a KILLER workout but oh so worth it for the views!

My love and the most beautiful place! So blessed!

Fish eye view of the town.

 Who says you can't keep up your fitness on vacation?

The water was gorgeous shades of blue!

Well, I hope that you enjoyed part one recap of my trip! In order to keep this from being a mega-long post,  I will share the second half of my trip in the next post. Cheerio!