Summer Blog 2014 - Part 9 - Moving to Oxford

Trying to get this blog caught up to Oxford. There will probably be a "lost London photos" post at some point. I really don't know where the last five weeks have gone. But here I am getting ready to say goodbye to my classmates as they leave over the next couple days. I'm lucky that I'll be staying in Oxford for a little while longer. I'm certainly in no hurry to get back to the scorching heat of the Arizona desert. I still need to post about all the excursions we've taking, including Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Stratford-upon-Avon, London, and more, but for now, here are some photos of the beginning of Oxford. I'll put the commentary in the captions.

Enjoy!

Slough, Reading, and Didcot Parkway would become well known stops over the next several weeks.

Flower vendor at Paddington Station.

Heading out into the countryside.

Home sweet home! Well, for six and a half weeks anyway.

View from Folly Bridge.

Radcliffe Camera, part of the Bodleian Library. I've sat and read in here. I nearly died of happiness. :)

Tower of St. Mary's.

Bridge of Sighs.

Two icons. The red phone box and the Sheldonian Theatre in the background.

Seriously, the best dessert. 

So good!

University Park. This park has become one of my favorite places in all of Oxford.

Martyr's Monument.

Our first week there was a circus in the park.

There were also ping pong tables set up for visitors to use.

River Charwell running through the park.

Street performers from the window of our Common Room.

Ashmolean Museum.

Pitt Rivers Museum.

"Back yard" of one of the colleges.

Moon rise.

My students could use a trip down this lane more often. ;)

Lots of geese in the park.

And squirrels. 

So, after I took a trip on my own to my favorite place for delicious treats, my classmates insisted on an after class field trip the next day.

They were pretty happy.

We enjoyed our picnic.

Fun times in the park after our dessert picnic. 

That led to many of us getting flowers put in our hair by our classmate Daisy.

Here's Daisy, lying among the daisies. 

Walking along the canal. In addition to Merlin here, I also saw a boat named 221B.

What you can't see in this pic is the beautiful main house, but I also fell in love with this little guest house/studio office by the canal.

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis fans flock to this pub. 

Coffee time in the Caffe Nero at Blackwell's across from the Bodleian and Sheldonian Theatre.

Keble College when we went for formal dinner.

My girls Daisy and Jenna.

All dressed up for dinner and a night out.

Couldn't resist the cheesy tourist pic.

Picnic time in the park again. Courtesy of Pret a Manger.