eptivity

We’ve talked about the utter and inalienable coolness that pervades everything that Stephan and I do, right, Internets?

Then it will come as no surprise to you when I tell you about how we went to Cardiff for Stephan’s birthday.

That’s right, CARDIFF.

It’s the capital of Wales, people.

We had a fabulous time, but we didn’t do much, really, aside from lots of walking and eating. Like the walk down this section of the Taff Trail (that’s the River Taff on the left there) to where the eating was (this picture and the weather forecasts for heavy rain notwithstanding, we didn’t get rained on once and it was instead warmish and blue-skied all weekend):

The bit of the river path directly in front of the Millennium Stadium features little mosaics representing assorted countries:

I love how Scotland’s features what appears to be haggis, how the US’s greatest cultural contributions include the limousine and not one but two fast foods, and how they just phoned it in for Ireland—the fewest number of items, three of which are heraldic shields.

Moving swiftly on, this is my new favorite building ever, the Wales Millennium Centre:

The dome-y part is stainless steel treated with copper oxide and the rest of the facade is covered in layers of Welsh slate:

Across Roald Dahl Plass:

And from the boat tour we took around Cardiff Bay the next day (carousel and original Bute Docks building in foreground):

Pop Quiz: Can you spot the differences between these two photos?:

The correct answer is, of course, that the man in Photo A is 29 years old, and the man in Photo B is 30.

THIRTY.

You may have also noticed the giant cheeseburger that he is about to eat in Photo B, his first ever, of all time. Yes, my 93-percent vegan, 5-percent vegetarian, 2-percent pescetarian husband decided that what he wanted to eat most on his birthday was a nice juicy cheeseburger.

And he loved it. He is currently making plans for similar celebrations of future milestone birthdays: bacon when he’s 40, black pudding when he’s 50, and eventually working up to his 90th birthday and “food” that is served exclusively on the set of Fear Factor.

In related news, this is what Cardiff’s rubbish bins look like (the red dragon is the national emblem of Wales, and Cardiff is on the Severn Estuary):

Here we see yet another glaring example of Cardiff’s foolish decision to combat litter by providing adequate rubbish bins at frequent intervals, in direct contrast to London’s brilliant scheme to do the exact opposite.

It really was one of our best trips ever, aside from our disappointingly overrated (and incredibly difficult to find) hotel, a difficulty that was only aggravated by the fact that essentially every road in the country, including the motorway, was closed for construction.

But entirely made up for by:

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