konfessions of the Koog

When we were in the UK for a month in 2023, Mrs. Koog did all the driving. I will admit, she hit nothing and no one. She got us safely from London to Bath to North Wales to Liverpool and all over Scotland until we turned in our car in Edinburgh. And when we turned in that car, it was pristine. No dings, dents, scratches or bumps. As I have written in the past few entries my trip was magical and healing and all those things trips should be. With one exception, driving. I was nervous when I booked the trip that I would forget to stay to the left and cause an international incident on the M4. Apparently, staying to the left would not be the problem. No, my problem was staying too far to the left. For some reason, I completely lost my depth perception on the left (passenger side). This issue wasn’t a real problem on the motorway as there was a shoulder and every time I’d cross the line I was able to correct immediately. The drive from Heathrow to Conwy, Wales was uneventful until I go...

Here are the photo galleries from the trip. Please click on "Read More" to access clickable links. If there are issues with the links please post a comment and it will come directly to my email. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed capturing them. Eryri: adobe.ly/41nT3xu Aqueduct: adobe.ly/4hGOzrQ London: adobe.ly/3DSCfXy

Saturday, I woke up in Wrexham in the beautiful Butler’s Flat at Cefn Park under a lovely down comforter. Remember, yesterday I hiked more than 10 miles up and down a mountain. As I went to get out of bed, my body was like “oh, hell no!”. My legs were like jello. After doing the requisite morning things (bathroom and making tea), I practiced some of the stretches my trainer taught me and took some Ibuprofen which did the trick to get my legs moving again. After stretching and a cup of Earl Grey, I FaceTimed my family to give them a virtual tour of my cozy little place. As I showed Mrs. Koog the view of the courtyard and she asked the rather innocuous question, “is that a dent in your car?”. I said no it was probably distortion since the windows of the place were leaded. Mrs. Koog’s question was movie-worthy foreshadowing… Knowing that my body would be sore, I planned today to be a relaxing day; get gas, get food, and wander around Wrexham‘s town center. I was excited to have dinne...

How can we be going home when it feels like we just arrived? These magical 30 day gave us so many core memories and so many more laughs. The UK and the Republic of Ireland is an amazing place filled with just salt of the earth people. It’s cliche, but I’m going home changed. Not just because I have a raging rash from COVID, but because I feel like a piece of my heart will remain here, specifically North Wales, but the UK nonetheless. But, we have no time for long, sentimental goodbyes as we need to vacate the flat of 1000 steps by 10am! Our flight is not until 7pm, but considering the fragile health of the family we are going to Heathrow and relaxing there until it’s time to board. We have no energy to walk around outside with 5 suitcases and 4 backpacks. Our Airbnb host allowed us to leave our bags in the flat until 11 so we could get a bite to eat for breakfast before heading to LHR. We found a super cute al fresco breakfast cafe and bakery. Mrs. Koog and the boys had baked goods...

Here we are, the last full day of our amazing UK holiday. Before leaving the US, we purchased ridiculously expensive (£750.00) tickets to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden, just outside of London. They will not consider a refund and we were advised to just come anyway. B-Koog was on the upswing, I was not feverish and E and Mrs. Koog were healthy. So, we all donned masks, hailed a car and rode to Leavesden. The driver dropped us off in front of Warner Bros. Studio and we walked into the building. I started to feel very lightheaded and dizzy simultaneously, the alarms on both my phone and Apple Watch were blasting. Apparently due to the mask, my O2 levels were below 90%. We found a corner near the door and sat down so I could take some deep breaths. I enquired again about a refund since now I could not wear a mask without oxygen deprivation. Still no refund or even a credit for when we return next summer. So, I did my best…I had my mouth covered and kept my nose out and stayed...

We woke up tied to the pier in Dover. Disembarkation day. I don’t have the best luck on debarkation day… The last time the boys and I had a disembarkation day was in NYC in April as the end of our spring break Caribbean Cruise. That fateful morning in April, E-Koog had been sick all night and Mrs. Koog was getting ready to head to the front desk to see if we could get off early so as to not spread norovirus among our co-travelers. The 5am conversation went like this: Mrs. Koog: “Koog, where are my pants?” Me (still in a sleep coma): “I don’t understand” Mrs. Koog: “I don’t have my pants. Where are my pants?” Me: “I don’t understand” Mrs. Koog (frantically searching drawers, closet, under beds and in backpacks): “I. DO. NOT. HAVE. PANTS. WHERE. ARE. MY. PANTS?” Me: “You don’t have pants?” Mrs. Koog (annoyed and amused) “Correct, I do not have pants.” So, as to not duplicate this conversation as we prepared to disembark this cruise, I have emergency pants for all of us hidden...

Ah, again with the middle of the night shenanigans from B-Koog. Starting at 2 am and continuing hourly until approximately 6 am, he woke me up to tell me he was not sleeping. I am not friendly when awakened from a dead sleep. I was less friendly the 3rd time. Homicidal the 4th time. He and E-Koog are swapping beds tonight. I also gave him a dire warning about waking me up. Just don’t! I have not really slept in about 10 days and I’m very ornery and I control many things that make your life amazing. I can make it not amazing, also. E-Koog suggested we try to sell him, I’m not there yet. But I will reevaluate tomorrow. We were all up and ready by 9 and headed off the ship and into Liverpool. All 3 of us clad in Everton Blue! We received fist bumps and high fives from the port staff who also support the Blues! Apparently there is another team here in Liverpool besides the Blues, but we don’t speak their name. Our itinerary was touristy and trite, but I’ve waited a half century to do i...

At 5:15 I heard the sweetest little voice saying, “Momma, it’s time to get up. We get on the ship and have unlimited soda for the next 10 days!” E-Koog has been counting the days for the cruise ever since I told him about the ultimate bottomless soda package I got for him and B-Koog. He was so excited about this drink package, he went through our flat to make sure everything was packed up. Emptied all the garbage and took the garbage to the curb per the check-out instructions. At this point, B-Koog was up and equally excited  about soda day. He put the remaining dishes in the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen counter and set the bags up in the hall all ready for us to head out. By 6:30, everyone was dressed and packed and the flat was ready for check-out. We headed across the street to the Costa Coffee for some tea and porridge for me and 2 cokes and freeze dried strawberries for the boys. I know this is not a breakfast that Mrs. Koog would sanction, but our Adult was on her own adve...

Wow, day 18 already? Doesn't seem real. We are more than half way through our big UK vacation-palooza. Every moment has been amazing. Let me not exaggerate, most moments have been amazing. The others are a mix of abject terror (driving) and annoyance (twin 12 year olds bickering). So many more amazing than not, though. It really has been magical. Today the reality of being 2/3 of the way through was in focus. Very early this morning, Mrs. Koog kissed us goodbye and headed to her train that took her to Gatwick Airport for a plane that took her to Croatia to meet her sisters and friend for the 50th birthday yacht/bike extravaganza. The boys and I were relieved when she called as soon as she landed safely. As for us, we spent the day in London shopping and chatting and riding the tube. The kids are very familiar with the Tube now and pretty much navigate me through the underground stations. Today, we headed from Farringdon to Knightsbridge to Harrod's! As I was talking to the ...

So, my day started at 3am when I had to leave the bed and head to the tiny loveseat sofa again. The topper the property manager got for our bed was just the mattress from the sofa bed. So at 3am, me and Mrs. Koog moved said mattress back to the sofa bed so I could sleep on the loveseat. Total hours of sleep was 4. As much as I really like London, I cannot wait to leave and get proper sleep! Our main priority today was to ship our box of souvenirs and stuff we don't need for the remainder of the trip home. We looked up the DHL service point and it was .3 miles from our flat. Awesome! So we grabbed the 12lb box and walked the .3 miles to the DHL place. And the least knowledgeable shipping lady worked there and literally had no idea how to ship this box. We were literally at DHL. They ship things as a business, yet this lady had no idea. Frustrating. So, we grabbed our 12lb box and walked the .3 miles back to the flat to regroup. We found a different service, DPD, and made it nearly...

Well, today was a better day considering sleep happened last night. The tiny loveseat was better than the bed. Mrs. Koog's side of the bed seems better than the side I was on, so she opted to stay in the bed and also got a decent night's sleep. The boys, well, they traded beds with Mrs. Koog and it was no bueno for the guys. Hopefully, we will hear from the management company before they hear from me again. We headed to the Tube again this morning and got on the train to Greenwich. On the agenda was the Maritime Museum, National Observatory and Prime Meridian. Also on the agenda, rain. Luckily, we still have all our waterproof clothes, so we were dry and trekked on throughout the day. As we arrived at the Farringdon Tube station around the corner from the flat, we got a note from the management company apologizing for the unsleepable beds and they let us know they would be around to the flat today to deliver mattress toppers. Excellent! The boys enjoyed the ride on the Tube,...

The Family Koog is TIRED! Not just because we are marathon vacationers, but because the beds in our super posh flat are torture devices. I sent a note to the property manager and have not yet gotten a reply. We are not typically complainers, at least not formally, but this is completely untenable. At least we are in London, right! After cracking our backs and having some significant caffeine to make the day livable, we decided to stick to our plan and get tickets for the hop on/hop off (HoHo) bus to get our bearings and decide what our day was going to look like. We had a lovely walk from our flat to just outside St.Peters, stopping quickly for more coffee and tea and breakfast. Mrs. Koog had purchased our HoHo tickets online and as we were boarding the bus, they were unable to activate our tix due to a wifi issue on their end. This is important because the tix are good for 24 hours from their first activation. We only used the bus that one time so we are saving the actual activation...

We leave the Murder Pod today. I highly recommend the Highlands Gateway and Glamping if anyone is looking for a super cool place to stay that is centrally located to Stirling, Edinburgh, and Fife. Packing up there was easy because we didn't take much out due to space! Due to Royal Mail weight limitations, we had to repack the stuff we packed to ship and haul it to London to send it via DHL. Shipping is another theme on this vacation as we left our son's necessary medicine in Maryland and had it FedEx'd to Liverpool for the low, low price of $300! A goddess of a friend answered the frantic text message, found the medicine and shipped it. She rocks! Anyway, we got all packed and headed to the Highland Games in Bridge of Allan. I wore my kilt. Highland Games Knowing we had a very short time to experience the games, we were there when they opened. We got our tickets and a program and made our way into the oval where all the action was happening. The first competition was H...

Everyone was up early this morning to pack our clothes, car and memories from our amazing visit to North Wales and head north to Liverpool. Mrs. Koog and B-Koog again made breakfast for us to use the remainder of our eggs and bacon rashers. We finished breakfast, finished packing and loaded the car for a quick stop in Conwy. I needed Welsh whiskey (don't judge me) and wanted to get freshly baked Welsh Cakes for the road. There was agreement from the boys to stop back inside the castle walls because they needed one more pass through...wait for it...The Knight Shop. I prepared them and Mrs. Koog (not that I needed to tell her how to say no) that under no circumstances was a purchase of a Katana, suit of armour or marble statue of a wolf approved. I headed down the street to the Crafts Cymru store to grab Pendaryn Whiskey samplers. The shopkeeper was such a nice lady. We talked for several minutes and she said she grew up in a small house inside the castle walls and has never left...

While the saga to get to the apartment we rented in Bath was drama filled, I can honestly say it was worth the struggle. Perfect location, perfect size, excellent water pressure and radiant heat in the bathroom floor. We slept with the windows open as it was a perfect 60 degrees outside. The amount of sea gulls in Bath is almost equal to the amount of sheep in Wales. A lot. They made their laughing noise all night long and surprisingly, I didn't feel like hunting them! It was cute and nearly endearing but I had not forgiven nor forgotten that one of their brethren made multiple attempts to steam my Cornish Meat Pie. After my appropriately pressured shower, I got dressed and packed up as much as I could with out waking Mrs Koog and the kids Koog. I blogged and checked work email (don't judge me) and sat in our apartment enjoying the sounds of 3 snoring Koogs, laughing Seagulls and the dragging of barricades across the street we were staying on to re-close it for the day. Appa...