Cambridge, England

Kevin’s golden friend, John (aka JAU), and his wife Carolyn moved to Cambridge a few years ago for his postdoc and we hadn’t seen them for ages. On our arrival in Cambridge, we were immediately impressed by the beauty of the small college town, the enormous flat grass parks, and the second oldest English speaking college in the world.

First up on the city tour included a proper British pint (warm & flat of course) at the most famous pub, The Eagle, where Watson and Crick discovered DNA. Next up on the drink menu was British Pims and Lemonade (very similar to peach schnapps and sprite) and some roadies for a day on the river. The section of the river closest to town was packed with students punting at ramming speed. We fit right in with our meager punting skills and weaved back and forth trying to punt the boat in a straight line.

Once we were bored of trying to go straight, we decided it was time to challenge ourselves to the ultimate punting skill: while approaching a low bridge, the punter pushes his last punt and then hops off the boat, pulls him/herself onto the bridge, over the bridge, and jumps down to the boat on the other side. This took a few attempts but was well worth the challenge.

We loved hanging out with Jau and Carolyn because of their competitive nature; playing frisbee isn’t as fun unless there are punishable rules (think ‘redass’) Since Jau was a collegiate runner, watching the Olympic Athletics with him was like having our own personal history buff commentator, and because Carolyn is a swim coach, we didn’t just go to the pool for a regular old ‘swim.’