Bret's visit: Part two. Really funny stories, a must read!

Come Monday morning Brandon had to return to "real life" and head back to work. Fortunately for Bret and I, however, the fun continued. The first day of the week was devoted to Harrogate. We spent a good amount of the day shopping and exploring the town. I took Bret to my top 3 favorite stores. "Welcome to the world of modern, top notch (and top dollar) interior decorating." I soon discovered that Bret is just about as good of a shopper as his son. Which is saying a lot because Brandon sometimes out shops me! We had a great time and it was very fun to show Bret things that he's "never seen anything like before."

Tuesday through Thursday consisted of traveling to 3 different local cities. We first hit up the town of Knaresborough. We walked along a public path that we thought would lead us to the castle, but instead, it took us through the neatest little residential area. Bret was very fond of Knaresborough and said he could easily live there. Eventually, we made it to the castle as well as the center of town with it's various stores. There was one store in particular that caught Bret's eye. He insisted on making a stop there and we spent the next 30 minutes going through pages of different tattoo designs! With a picture selected, Bret was ready to go for it on the spot! Talk about spontaneous. Unfortunately, the man behind the counter informed us there were no more openings available that day and Bret walked out unbranded and disappointed. Although that wasn't necessarily the end of the Bret's aspiration, he told the owner that we just might be back in a couple days...

Wednesday was devoted to Leeds, one of the biggest shopping areas around! It's known for many amazing restaurants, the shopping, obviously, and a major night life scene. Bret and I walked around absorping the overwhelming atmosphere for a few hours and then headed home. I think we only made it into 3-4 shops that day. There are literally so many stores that you don't even know where to begin and it's so vast that feel like you can hardly get any shopping accomplished at all! However, one especially fun thing came of this day. Bret experienced Pret a Manger for the first time. It is a very fresh sandwich shop that all should go to if they have the chance. (Side comment: The Riggs have similar feelings towards Jimmy John's.)

Our last stop of the week was in Fountains Abbey, a ruined Cistercian monastey, founded in 1132. See below for further pictures of the beauty. 2 hours after we explored the place, we were on our way back to the car. By the way, I drove us to the abbey in our manual Ford Focus! Props to me, for continuing to keep my father-in-law alive. :) Anyhow, we chose to go a different route back to the car and ended up going through one of the abbey's trails in the deer park. The 360 acre park is currently grazed by 500 Red, Sika, and Fallow deer. We ran into tons of them! We probably saw a total of 20 deer during our short half mile walk. I have never been so close to a deer in my life and was a little apprehensive seeing how there were no fences. Not to mention the fact that the lady that we bought our tickets from warned us, "Don't go between the male and female deers! It could be dangerous." Thankfully, we safely made it back to the car.

But our Thursday adventures didn't stop here! See, what I haven't told you yet, is that after we came home from the tattoo parlor on Tuesday afternoon, Bret started getting online and doing some research. He found the image he was ready to have as an addition to his body and was preparing to return to the quaint town of Knaresborough to get the task accomplished. Early Thursday morning, he called the place and made a 4:00 appointment. At about 3:40, we entered the store once more. This time with the knowledge that there was no turning back now and that Bret wouldn't be walking out in disappointment, but rather, in joy and in a little pain.

This, my friends, is the image that is now permanently affixed onto my father-in-law's upper right butt cheek! Although Bret offered to take a real life picture and send it to me in order to post it on this blog that you are currently reading, I decided to spare you and posted the image only. Sorry Bret and you're welcome all the other people of the world. :) Maybe my next blog will be rated PG-13. But if you ever happen to run into him, I'm sure he'll gladly show it to you. Me taking my father-in-law to get a tattoo is something neither of us will ever forget. And as supportive as I was trying to be, and as much as I do love to take pictures, I had to pass on the job of being the photographer. :)

Well, I know it's almost impossible to top that story, but I have one last thing to share before this entry comes to a close. Thursday night is Curry Club night at a pub called Wetherspoons in Harrogate. It's good Indian food for very cheap. Brandon and I partake in Curry night quite often, and wanted to take Bret there as well. The only problem: Bret doesn't like Indian food. Hmm... How are we going to get around this? My solution was simply that we don't need to take him to eat food he doesn't like. Choose a different restaurant in consideration of our guest. Brandon's solution: Trick his dad into eating food that he doesn't like and force Lisa to play along with the plan! So that's what happened. We went to Wetherspoons and Brandon went straight to the counter and ordered all 3 of our meals (without Bret knowing it) while Bret and I took a seat. We got our drinks, and were chatting away, when Bret asked, "Well, are we ready to order our dinner?" Brandon smoothly responded, "Oh, I've taken care of it already." Bret inquired, "All three of ours?" Brandon answered, "Yep, the meals should be here any time." Bret seemed satisfied with the answer and even thanked Brandon for "taking care of it." Meanwhile, I'm just sitting at the table dying. I'm so worried that Bret will be upset for being tricked, hate his food, etc. I can't handle any tension or confrontation and was so worried about what was going to happen. Minutes later, our food was brought out, and three orders of Chicken Tikka Massala were placed before us. I don't remember Bret's exact words, but it was something like "Huh... What's this?" Brandon had a huge smile on his face that he couldn't wipe off and I was just sitting there lowering my eyes, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. Brandon answered his dad saying, "It's curry. Indian food." To my surprise, Bret took ahold of his fork and started to give it a try. In the meantime, I'm shoveling food into my mouth wishing the meal was already over. Bret commented, "Hmmm! This is delicious." And to my relief, there was no tension or sending back of food at all! The man LIKED Indian food and my anxiety withdrew. The rest of the meal was heartily enjoyed by all and I was relieved that Brandon's plan was a success. Apparently, Bret had never tried it before and didn't expect that's what Indian food would be like. Not being a Chinese or Thai food fan you can understand why one would think he wouldn't like Indian. But that was not the case. Phew! :)

The final 4 days of Bret's journey are soon to come. Thanks for reading. Cheers.