Leisurely

After a rather energized and late Friday night with a big group of Euro Studs, Emily+Brenna+Elizabeth and I decided to have a relaxed evening last night. Actually, we had a relaxed Saturday all day. 

After an early morning run around the city, I walked to the store with the girls to pick up an afternoon picnic. We sat in University Park overlooking the river and eating brie+baguette+grapes. Needless to say, it was too lovely. Since it was sunny and warm, the park was full of families and runners and dogs. We even spotted a couple of ducks walking in a straight line and jumping into the water. I wrote postcards and stared at people peacefully "punting" (something I will be doing soon). So scenic, huh?

Later that night, we went to the Eagle and Child. Not only can we check this pub off our "pub crawl map," we also enjoyed a cider in a piece of Oxford's proud academic history. In the thirties, the "Inkling" writers, a group of Oxford writers, used to meet weekly to share new material. Most significantly, these writers included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They met in the Rabbit Room in the Eagle and Child for lunchtime on Tuesday afternoons, sharing a beer as well as their latest literary fantasies. After getting a little culture, we moseyed through a very "hip" district of town, full of interesting looking bars and fabulous restaurants. We stopped in at Freud, a former Greek Rival church built in the early nineteenth century. This super swanky cocktail bar had great outdoor seating at cute, blue tables on the portico, which was atop tall, wide stairs adorned with large columns. The inside was filled with tea lights, pink + blue + white, and all kinds of conversational seating. We cannot wait to go back after a high table dinner in our cocktail dresses, oh my!

listening to: "Live and Die" by The Avett Brothers

(in desperate anticipation of the new album)