{"id":419,"date":"2015-09-23T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T10:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/23\/happy-things\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:55:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:55:01","slug":"happy-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/23\/happy-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Things"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"London\"<\/a><\/div>\n

In November my husband and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. \u00a0I know, that is a long time. \u00a0I’ll wait while some of you figure out how old I must be. \u00a0Just so you know, I was very young when I got married…<\/p>\n

Anyway, this past weekend my husband gave me my anniversary gift early. \u00a0We are going to London for a week in April. \u00a0Without the kids, they are going to spend the week with my parents. \u00a0Before anyone starts feeling too sorry for them, they have done this before and they are convinced they are getting the better part of the deal. \u00a0They are spoiled rotten by my parents, eat all their favorite foods, visit relatives they don’t get to see too often, and basically get to call the shots for the whole week. I don’t think they miss us at all<\/p>\n

My husband told me about the trip right away because he says he knows half the fun of a trip is the anticipation and the planning. \u00a0He is so right. \u00a0Whenever I am grumpy, tired, stressed, bored, or basically anything else, I grab my laptop and do a little London research. \u00a0It is guaranteed to lift my mood.<\/p>\n

We have been to London before multiple times but we just love it. \u00a0It is our happy place. \u00a0Do other people have places that just feel right? \u00a0We can go on vacation to other places and we have a great time and the location is beautiful but we never forget we are on vacation and we can’t picture ourselves living there. \u00a0The U.K. is different. \u00a0I just have a bit of a love affair going on with it. \u00a0Maybe it comes from all the British authors I have spent my life reading. \u00a0I am sure I have an idealized view of it, but that is okay. Thankfully, my husband loves it as much as I do.<\/p>\n

I think one of the nice things about a vacation like this is that you can be a different person for a week. Life in London is so different from my everyday life. \u00a0I live in a small town in Connecticut. \u00a0It is a little isolated, people frequently find me too reserved, and they can’t understand my love of books. \u00a0Don’t misunderstand, it is a good place to raise kids and it has a lot of very nice people but I am a bit of a fish out of water. When we go to London I can be another me. \u00a0Someone who walks down city streets, sits in coffee shops, and has conversations with people about books. \u00a0 (I almost deleted this paragraph because I am afraid I sound arrogant but I am trusting you all to understand that is not what I mean.)<\/p>\n

So is there anyone from the London area who reads my blog? \u00a0Do you have any recommendations for me? \u00a0We have done a lot of the basic tourist stuff and done some day trips outside the city, but if anyone has ideas for slightly out of the way things I would really appreciate it. \u00a0Bookstore recommendations would be great. \u00a0Oh, a few years ago we visited Osterley Park and really enjoyed it. \u00a0Are there any other National Trust properties that can be easily accessed by the underground or train?<\/p>\n

So basically, I have the best husband. \u00a0I think I’ll keep him around for another 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November my husband and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. \u00a0I know, that is a long time. \u00a0I’ll wait while some of you figure out how old I must be. \u00a0Just so you know, I was very young when I got married… Anyway, this past weekend my husband gave me my anniversary gift early. \u00a0We are going to London for a week in April. \u00a0Without the kids, they are going to spend the week with my parents. \u00a0Before anyone starts feeling too sorry for them, they have done this before and they are convinced they are getting the better part of the deal. \u00a0They are spoiled rotten by my parents, eat all their favorite foods, visit relatives they don’t get to see too often, and basically get to call the shots for the whole week. I don’t think they miss us at all My husband told me about the trip right away because he says he knows half the fun of a trip is the anticipation and the planning. \u00a0He is so right. \u00a0Whenever I am grumpy, tired, stressed, bored, or basically anything else, I grab my laptop and do a little London research. \u00a0It is guaranteed to lift my mood. We have been to London before multiple times but we just love it. \u00a0It is our happy place. \u00a0Do other people have places that just feel right? \u00a0We can go on vacation to other places and we have a great time and the location is beautiful but we never forget we are on vacation and we can’t picture ourselves living there. \u00a0The U.K. is different. \u00a0I just have a bit of a love affair going on with it. \u00a0Maybe it comes from all the British authors I have spent my life reading. \u00a0I am sure I have an idealized view of it, but that is okay. Thankfully, my husband loves it as much as I do. I think one of the nice things about a vacation like this is that you can be a different person for a week. Life in London is so different from my everyday life. \u00a0I live in a small town in Connecticut. \u00a0It is a little isolated, people frequently find me too reserved, and they can’t understand my love of books. \u00a0Don’t misunderstand, it is a good place to raise kids and it has a lot of very nice people but I am a bit of a fish out of water. When we go to London I can be another me. \u00a0Someone who walks down city streets, sits in coffee shops, and has conversations with people about books. \u00a0 (I almost deleted this paragraph because I am afraid I sound arrogant but I am trusting you all to understand that is not what I mean.) So is there anyone from the London area who reads my blog? \u00a0Do you have any recommendations for me? \u00a0We have done a lot of the basic tourist stuff and done some day trips outside the city, but if anyone has ideas for slightly out of the way things I would really appreciate it. \u00a0Bookstore recommendations would be great. \u00a0Oh, a few years ago we visited Osterley Park and really enjoyed it. \u00a0Are there any other National Trust properties that can be easily accessed by the underground or train? So basically, I have the best husband. \u00a0I think I’ll keep him around for another 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happy-things","category-london","category-vacation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2939,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/2939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}