Yesterday was our only FULL day in Cardiff, Wales and what a wonderful one it was! We not only spent the entire day with Marilyn but Nia too who is absolutely beautiful, intelligent and the sweetest young adult I have ever met. We are going to miss both of them. Oh yes, we spent a lot of that time eating great food too!

The weather in Cardiff was amazing – sunny in the high 60°s. Marilyn and I started the day with 1:1 time at Coffi Lab which is this modern but cute cafe with amazing coffee and pastries. After bringing treats back home and resting for a little, we headed back out for a proper lunch.

Marilyn treated us to this fantastic tasting at Heaney’s and Nia joined us. They seated us in this wonderful, private space where we chatted for a couple hours as each course was presented. The dishes were Welsh but with a fusion twist. Everything was exceptional including the extra treats: miso fudge and chocolate truffles, gifted at the end.

OK, now to walk … We headed off to Roath Park to enjoy the afternoon sun, the lake, a variety of birds and meander amongst all the people milling about on this unexpectedly warm day.

Spring! Flowers everywhere and the leaves on the trees vibrant. Creeping flowers even growing out of the brick.

After a nice long walk we took an Uber back to Marilyn’s. Nia sat in the hump in the middle of the car which made elevated and made her look like a Queen.👸🏽 Us girls were giggling in the back all the way home.

While Marilyn chilled, Nia took Jesse and me on another walk of the neighborhood with great views of the green, rolling hills. Note that Nia forgot to mention that the Adder snake live in the fields we were walking and that they are poisonous until we were halfway on our walk.. halfway across the field. Both forward and backward were equal at this point. She did swear she has yet to see one so, onward we went!

I love the non-posed photo of Nia with the hillside in the background – so beautiful. After so much excitement, off we went to meet up with Marilyn again – it was dinner time!

Nia selected this great local restaurant called The Travellers Rest in Caerphilly. The outside was similar to a hobbit home with a thatched roof and very low ceilings in the entryway. Once again, too small for Jesse. The atmosphere was that of a nice restaurant but the food was elevated pub. Good food and great, friendly service. Even though we were stuffed we had to get the Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was our last opportunity – don’t judge! 😜

Back to the cottage, some more chatting and snooze …