Girls Weekend - Chester, England

Kirsten, Katrina, and I have been friends for many years. We met each other in LA. We had a huge amount of fun together in our "formative" years. I can't begin to list all the music we saw. Katrina will never let me live down the Muffs show at Raji's when a lone stage diver flattened me to the ground (Lesson: Never take your eyes off stage divers), and Kirsten and I were permanent fixtures at Geraldine Fibbers shows. Good times indeed. Of course there were other adventures that didn't revolve around music, but for the most part, suffice to say, that we have been there for each other through many life changes over the years. Though our paths have put oceans between us, there is still a closeness and comfort that I feel when I am with these strong, smart, independent, wonderful women. I need them now, more than ever, as I heal in the happenings of the past few years. They remind me of who I was, who I am, and challenge me in my thinking of who I will become. I am forever grateful for their friendship.


As seen in previous blogs, both Katrina and Kirsten are mothers, wives, and very successful career women. It was not a small feat to take them away from their busy lives. I have really enjoyed my time spent with both families, and want to thank Breon, Javier and all the kids for letting me have some alone time with these ladies!


Chester was chosen as a good mid-point between Dublin and London. It's a town steeped in history (ok, so everything over here is steeped in history) and is surrounded by a Roman wall that you can walk around the perimeter of the city on.

the wall

Kat and I took the ferry, then a train from Dublin, checked into the hotel, and went for a quick walk around town while we waited for Kirsten to get there on the train from London. We met up at a really awful mexican food restaurant. For nachos, they actually used Doritos, can you believe it?! The drinks were good, though! We watched the scene at the bar/restaurant/sleezy disco for a little while, then headed down the street to a place that suited our taste a bit better. More good drinks!

stresses of life.. slowly going away 

After a good nights sleep at the hotel, a wonderful breakfast at the French bistro, we headed into Chester.

 lots of shops in this charming little city

the local Cathedral

rainbow, light post, seagull

canal and bridge along the roman wall

We walked along the Roman wall talking about stuff, as girls do. We had lunch on the patio at the Hickory Smoke House (very, very, English?), had a couple of glasses of wine, some good food, and people watched. The doorman at this place looked an awful lot like George Clooney. He would turn certain folks away, and let others in. I don't know that I ever figured out his criteria, but it was fun to guess who would make the cut as folks approached the patio entrance. We finished our walk around the Roman Wall, went back to the hotel, freshened up, then headed back out on the town for dinner. We had a really, really good time at dinner, closing the restaurant after a four hour, deeeelish meal. Our waiter was a study in mid twenty something, sort of cute in a goth - self destructive, I drank two bottles of rum last night, way. We had learned quite a bit about him by the end of the night, thanks to Kirsten. The next day we said our good byes at the train station, and I headed back to London with Kirsten. It was a great weekend, and I again, am finding myself feeling grateful. 

 conquering chester (the town - not the gladiator)

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