English Inn Cheat Sheet

For many of our celebration worth events over the past 7 years, we've stayed at the English Inn.  I think we've now stayed 4 times, each time in a different building! lol.  It's hard to remember where each cottage is located, and what it's called, so on our last trip, I made myself a little cheat sheet for future* reference. 

First, a map labeled to the best of my ability, using paint, in a 2-minute rush.

It was cold, as it always seems to be when we visit, so the southernmost rooms I didn't walk down to.  But, any that I could snap on our way from the parking lot (or room!) I did.

Royal and Chisolm are in the closest cottage to the inn, on the southside.

Next to them are Raven and Buttercup.

On the north side, even north of the event center is the Honeysuckle Cottage, where we stayed most recently.  I think there are 2 or 3 rooms in the cottage.  The south facing door is Bristol

And the northernmost cottage, of which I am aware, is the Ivy Cottage.  I somehow managed to cut it off on the map, but it is there!  This picture faces northeast from the Honeysuckle cottage.

Now, next time we need to know which room will suit us best, we'll have this handy guide to help us out.  Maybe it will even be warm and I can update the map!!!  But I'm not holding my breath.

later days

*the murder mystery crew did not announce the next (October) mystery event as they've done in the past, and so we are concerned with the possibility that they may no longer be hosting it at the English Inn.  This would be such a shame for us, as it is close by and the food is fantastic!

17th Anniversary - English Inn: Holmes and Watson: The Game of the Evening's Mourning

This iteration of the murder mysteries held at the English Inn just happened to coincide with our 17th anniversary!  Sarah sweetly offered to watch the kids overnight so that we could stay the night after the event, then passed the commitment off to Avia when she returned. It was an extra challenging weekend, since it also coincided with the time change!

The weather had returned to it's usual miserable March cold, and we were staying in a totally different room than our previous visits!

Once we got settled in, we went to the pub to wait until the venue opened.

We were joined by the Olmsteds at the Sherlock and Watson table.  It was awesome to have people that we actually knew at our table!  I hope they had fun too!

The namesakes were not present often, and neither Billy nor I guessed the actor that would play Sherlock!

I spent months on my costume.  Sadly, not nearly as many people dressed up for this theme.

The props were awesome, as were our tablemates!  Thanks to the observation of one of our table mates were able to crack the case before the end of the lines!

As soon as our prime suspect revealed that he had a pet snake, and we confirmed that it was indeed a venomous rattlesnake, I felt extremely confident in our answer, and kept our paper in the air for the duration of the "speed round" since the first time we missed out on accolades because we were too slow!

We got every question correct!  It was really fun, and I totally felt like a celebrity with all of the people who came to congratulate our table! = )

As far as anniversaries go, this has to be in the top 5!  Sadly, they did not announce the next theme as they usually do, leading me to believe that they may be moving venues, or worse, disbanding! = ( Hopefully they are just renegotiating with the English Inn!  It is ideal for us, being just down the road, but we would probably follow them to a new outlet!

For gifts, Billy got me the Murder, She Wrote boxed set!  His gift was an evening out at Nico's = )

I kept having to check my math, because 17 seemed much too high of a number, but the math doesn't lie! Here's to many, many more!

later days

Previous Anniversary celebrations:

16th Anniversary - Nico's
15th Anniversary- Etran Adventure
14th Anniversary- Ann Arbor

13th Anniversary- The trip that wasn't

12th Anniversary - Toledo
11th Anniversary - St. Louis
10th Anniversary - Fish Grille, Waxahachie

9th Anniversary - Ft. Worth

8th Anniversary - Arby's

7th Anniversary - Hookah bar

6th Anniversary - Thai Chili

5th Anniversary - Carino's - Waxahachie

4th Anniversary - Flemming's Steakhouse @ City Centre

3rd Anniversary - Dinner Movie Theater

2nd Anniversary - Le Mistral

1st Anniversary - Paris

Recap of 1st-5th

edited 3-28-24: backdated for continuity. 

English Inn: Macabre Masquerade

For Christmas last year, Billy bought tickets for a live action murder mystery.  At that event, they were already promoting their next mystery in October!  So, we came home and bought tickets for the next round, which was six months away!

Life got pretty busy between summer camps, school starting, a Halloween themed party, and a trip to Germany, so it wasn't until the morning before the event that I remembered that we had plans the next day!!!  Luckily, I'd planned ahead, and we had all of our costume pieces ready to go.

I was able to reuse my costume from Jessica's birthday masquerade earlier in the year, and Billy had his way cool mask that we scored at the thrift shop the first day we were looking for masks!

It was a Sunday night again, but this time we didn't stay overnight.

As the previous one, this one was well done!  The tables were themed, and the actors are quite talented!

The props in this one were stepped up a notch!  They had a newspaper, and a scroll, and a journal that wasn't on the table when I went to take my pictures, which apparently had major clues in it. = (

Our table did not successfully solve the mystery this time. ::sniff::  One of the couples at our table were gifted the tickets by their neighbors, because the neighbors weren't able to attend, so they had no idea what to expect!  The rest of us didn't really have an excuse, because we were all at the last one, and in fact, we even got to sit with the queen!

The next round is Sherlock Holmes themed, and on our anniversary!  We bought tickets at the VIP table so that we could sit with Holmes and Watson!  And, Kristy and David are also coming!!  It promises to be a good time.  

I've started collecting pieces of my costume, but as of right now, my skirt will be an altered formal dress that I got at Goodwill for $2, and I haven't really gotten to start the process with all of the other things that have been happening!  Robotics season is almost over though, it ends next Saturday, so maybe I'll have a little more time. lol. I wish.

I love that we have this amazing event so close to home*!!

later days

*let me know if you want to come join the fun and I'll send you the details!!

edit 11-5-23: backdated for continuity.