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The Rundown v. 43

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Greetings from London! I am spending the week in London’s St. John’s Wood and loving the charming neighborhood and perfect fall weather. It’s been six weeks since I wrote my last “rundown” post, so here is what I have been up to!

My sister, Kelly, and I took a quick trip to Ireland over Labor Day Weekend. Ireland has been on my mind ever since. I absolutely loved it. We spent time in the countryside in Donegal where we stayed in a castle, drove through Northern Ireland stopping at Game of Thrones filming locations, and then spent two nights in Dublin.

Since Kelly lives in New York City, and we booked roundtrip flights from NYC to Dublin, I spend a couple days in New York City before and after Ireland. I like to explore a new part of the city each time I visit NYC, and this time I went to Lower Manhattan and visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

I went to the most fun staycation/adult slumber party at The Kimpton Grey Hotel. My darling friend and uber talented event planner/floral designer Debi Lilly was celebrating the launch of her new wedding invitation suite that she created exclusively for the hotel, in collaboration with calligrapher Emmy Star. You can read all about it here.

The Grey treated us to a cocktail party at their stunning rooftop bar/restaurant, rooms at the freshly opened hotel, and a lavish multi course brunch the next day. It was the ultimate mid-week indulgence!

I attended a dinner hosted by Dietz & Watson at Mama’s Boy in River North where I had the most incredible four course meal. The good news is that you can enter to win the same dining experience! Four winners in 9 different cities will win a private chef’s table dinner for themselves and a guest! To enter head over to the sweepstakes website. The Chicago dinner is taking place on November 14th at Mama’s Boy, and you have until October 31st to enter the sweepstakes.

I have made of goal of getting in better shape before my birthday in November, so I have taken up running. Over the past 3 weeks I have worked my way up to running 3 1/2 miles a day. I love that I can run wherever I am! This week I have been running through Regent’s Park in London. Before I left I was running along the Lake Michigan waterfront, which is where this photo was taken.

Before arriving in London, Charles and I spent a week in Barcelona. And it was one WILD week. We arrived on the day of the Catalonian vote for independence, which was met with protests and police violence. Two days later there was a city-wide strike and massive protest against the police violence that took place the day of the vote. And on our last day in the city there was a huge protest against Catalonian independence. Unfortunately, all of this meant that we faced a few days where much of the city was shut down, and we did a little less sightseeing than we had planned.

Since arriving in London I have been exploring the St. John’s Wood neighborhood. We have had Sunday Roast at the local pub, seen the famous Abbey Road Crossing, and I even took an Afternoon Tea Cooking Class! I will be sharing more details soon!

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