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My last few days in the United Kingdom were very peaceful. It was the perfect way to end the trip… just soaking up every moment and every beautiful thing around me. If you haven’t figured it out, or if I haven’t mentioned it enough times… I LOVE England. I love love love it. I had SO much fun on this trip and I’m not lying when I say I left kicking and screaming. I did not want to leave. I think I could have stayed there forever. I am already planning my return for ASAP. Spending time in England was a dream come true. Europe in general is amazing… but I don’t think anything will top my love for England. To my American readers: If you have never been to Europe, or out of the United States for that matter… make it happen. There is a whole beautiful world out there and it will open your eyes to so much.

Took another trip to the coast.

Saw another rainbow!!

…and another beautiful sunset!

Teresa took me to Bury… another cute town that I loved!

Back in Debenham where I had been staying… I took some photographs of this beautiful church that actually has quite a lot of personal significance to it. It’s a very special church.

I absolutely love the details of this church but mostly the history behind it.

I will end this post with a photo of me, in England. (Yes, I actually rode the bike around the village like that! It’s normal in England since so many people use bicycles for transportation… which I LOVE.) I never want to forget this amazing adventure I went on at this time in my life. I know I will cherish ALL of the photos from my trip including this one of me, at age 27, living my dream, falling in love with this amazing country, and cherishing every moment of it. I will never forget you England. You stole a piece of my heart.

Many thanks go out to Joslyn and Ali… for being the most inspiring and wonderful 2 women a girl could ever go on an adventure with. I will always remember our trip.. and memories we made. I love you both!! And to Teresa and Stuart… for being the most amazing and caring hosts ever! Your kindness will never be forgotten and I look forward to seeing you both again soon… maybe in England… or maybe in Peru Teresa?? ; ) I love you guys and I’m so proud to be a part of your family! Michael, Louise, Charlotte, Mary, Joann and Marie… it was so wonderful to see you. Parisa and Tim, you are both beautiful and I am so glad I was able to photograph your hot selves!! And to all of the lovely, lovely people I met while I was in England… I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Next post: Parisa and Tim’s London Notting Hill shoot! And after that a surprise!

One of the best things about my trip was that I really was able to relax and forget about emails, bookings, business decisions, photoshoots, albums, wedding, boudoir, the list goes on and on. I was so afraid that I would be checking up on things and still falling asleep at night thinking about my business like I usually do. I worried that I wouldn’t really get to enjoy this trip as much as I wanted to because of my responsibilities back home. But somehow, when I stepped on that plane to Europe, I left all of that here. I never once worried about any of it and I had completely reassurance that my amazing assistant had everything under control. (which she did!!) I was able to have SO much fun and really just completely let it go for the 3 weeks I was gone. It was AMAZING. Since I started my business, I have definitely become a workaholic. I love my job so much though so it doesn’t bother me to work hard to make my dreams come true… but it was definitely time for some Courtney Time. It was SO REFRESHING and inspiring and I decided that having more personal time is a MUST. No matter how much you love your job, having some “you” time is crucial or eventually we’ll all get burnt out. Before I left for my trip, I didn’t even have a day off… EVER. I had to work from 5am to 7 or 8 at night just to stay on top of it. But I am SO grateful that Deirdre has been able to take over a lot of my responsibilities – hiring her was truly one of the best decisions of my life. I honestly don’t know how I did it for so long without her. She is a GODSEND!

Back to the trip!!

So after Joslyn and Alison left me (sniff)… I headed to London where my friends (who are like family to me), Teresa and Stuart, picked me from the airport and took me to stay with them at their house for the rest of my trip. They live in a village in the country about 2 hours outside of London and I was so excited to hang out with them and have some down time since I had been going non stop every day and sleeping on a different bed every night.

Teresa took me to see the coast the next day. It was a very windy and cold day but it was nice to be able to see the edge of England.

We then headed to check out a castle in Framlingham.

The next day Teresa took me to college town… aka Cambridge. I LOVED this town. So many students, colleges and bicycles. The feel of this town was definitely fabulous and magical.

The day after my visit to Cambridge I took a train to London to have a few of days alone in the city again.

I did a LOT of walking around. A LOT.

I did a lot of shopping, went to a broadway, and I saw this amazing rainbow! This photo was taken with a point and shoot because I didn’t have my nice camera with me at the time.

And this photo was taken with my iphone. This may have been the prettiest rainbow I have ever seen. It was so vibrant!

I love this!!! I saw it and said, “Where do I sign up!?”

London is by FAR, my favorite big city that I have ever been to. It is AMAZING — a city of dreams!!

I never wanted this day to end. It was perfect.

The next day I headed to Notting Hill to do a photoshoot of Parisa and Tim. (more on that soon!)… and beforehand Parisa and I went and had some tea and she took me to see the famous Notting Hill bookstore (that is in the movie) since she lived right around the corner from it. (iphone photos)

That night I got back on the train to head back to Teresa’s and spent the entire next day doing absolutely nothing but reading, drinking tea and CHILLING OUT. It was pretty much wonderful. Later that day I decided to take a walk around the village and snap a few photos.

Siiiiigh. I LOVE ENGLAND!!!!

The day ended with a beautiful sunset. Teresa and Stuart’s friends came over that night for an AMAZING dinner (Teresa is the English Martha Stuart… no lie…. and her food was delicious.), lots of wine, and hilarious conversation. The English in general are SUCH nice and friendly people…. but especially Teresa and Stuart. They are two of the kindest people I have ever met in my life. I never once felt out of place,  like “the foreigner” or not welcome. They always made me feel right at home and I absolutely had so much fun staying with them.

Next post: The trip comes to an end. : ( WAH! Then Parisa and Tim’s London photoshoot. And at the end of all these posts, I have a surprise for you! Stay tuned!!

Our story continues with us renting a car in London and taking a road trip to Scotland. This was the part of the trip I was most excited about not only because road trips are always fun… but because it was going to give us the opportunity to see so much of the United Kingdom! I knew it would be an adventure for the 3 of us because it would leave us relying on maps, random last minute decisions and the complete unknown. It was pretty much awesome. We got our adorable little rental, and headed out towards the town of York, England. Driving on the other side of the road, sitting on the other side of the car and driving a stick shift with my left hand was … interesting at first. Not to mention, there are about 5 million roundabouts in England and at first I was like “uhhhh..” but it didn’t take long at all before I realized how COMPLETELY GENIUS ROUNDABOUTS ARE! Seriously, I wish we had them here. They make so much sense. (as does the underground train system… genius!) I actually had so much fun driving in England. Everyone drives really well there… so it was quite refreshing actually. (example: no one, I repeat NO ONE drives in the left lane [well in England, it’s the right lane] if they are going slow on the freeway. It’s amazing.) So we took our time driving to York and when we got there we checked into the cutest bed and breakfast. The owner was so nice and his entire family took really good care of us.

Our B&B:

After we checked in to our place, we decided to walk the incredible quaint town of York. Of all the places I had seen in England at this point, this was the place where I literally felt like I was in a dream. It was the cutest town ever and everyone who lived in it pranced around like they were the happiest people in the planet. If you’ve seen the movie The Truman Show, then you’ll know what I mean when I say I felt like I was in a fake world. It was just that perfect. This town made me fall even more MADLY in love with England than I was already. I actually felt completely overwhelmed and could not stop talking about it. I’m pretty sure Jos and Ali were wanting me to shut up by the end of this day. ; )

The town of York has tons of history as well including the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen in my entire life: The Minster

The next morning we had breakfast at our lovely B&B and hit the road again heading towards Newcastle. I snapped several shots along the way.

Alison drove a bunch on this day and I took advantage of it by taking some shots from the window.

The country of England is SO BEAUTIFUL. The pictures really don’t do it justice.  I truly loved every single moment of the road trip.

After arriving to Newcastle… we quickly realized Newcastle wasn’t as cute as York and was more known for the place everyone goes for their bachelor and bachelorette parties… or as the Brits call it, their Stag and Hen parties. : ) Thus making it the “Vegas” of the UK to us. We decided to take advantage of this and get dressed up for a fun girl’s night out.

The next morning we hit the road again heading straight to Edinburgh, Scotland!

When we arrived at the Scottish border. : )

Edinburgh. : )

Edinburgh Castle.

After spending a day in Scotland … the next day I flew back to London and Jos and Ali flew back home to the states. I was so sad that they had to leave but was super excited I still had time left to see more of my lovely England.

Next post: I head to the amazing village of Debenham, visit Cambridge,  take a short trip back to London and more!