The continuation of my vacation journal from our big thanksgiving trip to Europe ….
York was wonderful, we could have stayed for ages, however it was time to go to Leeds. If York was a nice time catching up with family, Leeds was to be a great time, if a little busy catching up with even more folks. Somehow with trying to do so much on this trip we ended up with only 4 days in the city of my birth.
Friday morning we rose in York and packed our suitcases, yet again, then took a nice stroll into the city for coffee, I could get used to this location! After a last bit of visiting we said our goodbyes to my Aunt, Uncle, cousin & his fiancee.
We then made the relatively short drive to my home town, Leeds. Finally at my Dad’s house, we got caught up, although we had been together the day before. It was nice to be in familiar surroundings, even if I haven’t lived in the house for the best part of 20 years. The old city looks much the same, maybe a little damper looking, it has been raining a lot. The most noticeable change that I saw, other than even more buildings in the city center were all the cars. Leeds has always been a busy city, but it felt like there were probably 50% more cars on the roads than when I lived here. It may just be the smaller roads tricking my Texan brain though.
In the afternoon we joined my Dad & step Mum for a visit to Costco, always interesting to see how the same stores compare in different countries. I was quite surprised how similar it was. The Leeds warehouse was huge, easily big enough to be a US store, many of the goods for sale were also the same as in the US, there were obviously lots of them not.
In the evening we join an old friend and his wife for dinner at a restaurant called the Moody Cow. The food was great & the company even better. I had a jerk chicken & sweet potato fries and a couple of local beers. It was raining like crazy when we got there & freezing cold on the way out.
Saturday was a fun day, after going for coffee (recurring theme on this trip), we had a family reunion of sorts in the afternoon at my dad’s house. I got to catch up with all my step sisters, their spouses & children. My Aunt & Uncle cam over from York. A few family friends stopped by too. I ate far too much and generally just had a great time being in the company of loved ones.
When everyone was heading out to call it a day, maybe sit on the couch & snooze the evening away, we were headed out to a party. Another old friend’s wife’s birthday party. This one was a blast, there were a ton of my friends from when I used to live here & the whole evening was just one of catching up & reminiscing about the crazy adventures of our youth. The most noticeable difference from when we used to hang out in our teens & early twenties were all the kids from babies to my 9 year old running around the place, it was really rather hear warming.
On Sunday we went to church with my Dad. The church of my youth, it is always nice to go and remember the place. It is a very traditional church of England, beautiful stone building with towering ceilings and a pipe organ. It also has the traditional, cold sterile type of service that i remember, lots of incantations or invocation type things, heres what you say after I say this etc, old hymns that do their best to hide their joy & sense of worship in exchange for I suppose a revered respect. It’s no wonder that I went away from the church as a kid if this is what it was like, it just doesn’t speak to me personally. At the same time I felt a sense of gladness and amazement that God has so many ways to reach different people through different churches and worship styles, it’s quite amazing really & just speaks to how much the Father loves us.
We spent the rest of the rainy Sunday doing laundry, an unfortunate necessity of a long trip, I also had a good chance to read, I am trying an actual fiction book, Mistborne & quite enjoying it so far,
Monday would be our last full day in Leeds, we made the most of it though. In the morning, after packing (again), we went and had coffee with some very old friends, the parents of my primary school best friend, it was wonderful to chat & catch up & be in the house I had such good time sin as a kid. Unfortunately my friend was working away in France.
In the afternoon we went into the city center, or “town” as folks in Leeds refer to it, and did some shopping. Once we returned to my Dad’s house we did one of the most important things of any trips back to Leeds – we got fish and chips from the original Nash’s in Chapel Allerton, they were amazing of course!
In the evening we went to go visit my uncle for a little while, that would be the last visit in Leeds, we got almost all our family & most of my old friends in, pretty successful. It was great to be in my home town, even if it was for only a few days. The sights and sounds, the smells, the people, the roads, just everything about it, it may not be where I live or call home now, but it will always be home & as such, it feels good to visit there at least occasionally. I look forward to returning again, hopefully much sooner than this last time. Hopefully I will remember to take more photos then too, we were so busy this time I hardly snapped any.
unhiddenlight 
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