Scotland

On from England we drove up into Scotland. I wasn't sure what to expect really. The only thoughts of Scotland always go back to Braveheart. So... Ben and I joked that if you make a Scot mad that they would just head butt you. The Welsh are known for their hospitality and choral singing, the English for their wonderful manners and high tea, and the Scots? What we found was that the Scottish people are very friendly and appreciate a good joke. They also like to party a bit as well. We stayed in the city of Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-buruh) where we visited the Holyrood Palace, an official residence of the queen in the summer months, and also the
Edinburgh castle. It was an exciting city. Then we took a day trip into the Scottish highlands and to a Loch (lake).


Scottish highlands... the pictures don't even do it justice. It was breathtaking.








Ben and I at Loch Lomond








Both of our moms in front of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh








Beautiful! This was up in the highlands as well up near Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the UK)








Ben's mom and her Scottish boyfriend. Actually, it was just some man at the Edinburgh castle taking up tickets. When she asked if she could have a picture he growled, "it'd had better be quick." What a dreamboat ay? We're just thankful he didn't headbutt us.






Edinburgh castle

England

After the wedding the four of us (Ben's mom Pam, my mom Sue, Ben and I) traveled on into England. On the way we stopped at a ruined abbey called Tintern Abbey. Then we traveled on to a town called Keighly (pronounced Keithly) where we stayed with some Barreth family friends. While we were there we visited the city of York, where Ben went to college. I was very impressed with this town. It has so much history (it dates back to the Romans), and it is also very beautiful. We drove through a part of the country called the Dales to get there. It is full of rolling hills and grazing sheep. There are also plenty of stone walls. These are built without any mortar...the stones are just stacked. There is a certain art to this and not many people know how to do it. Some of the stone walls have been up for hundreds of years. I have to say... this area of the country is beautiful and like looking at a postcard. I loved it!

We also went to London at the end of the trip... and although it is technically in England, I will have to devote a whole other section of the story to it later.


Tintern Abbey









The Shambles. This is a street in York that the buildings almost touch. I'm not sure how they've stayed up for hundreds of years.









York Minster... beautiful! We climbed to the top of it.












One of my favorite pictures from our vacation. This is at a church we stopped at in a town called Linton Falls. Notice the stone walls... no mortar.










The Dales... like a postcard!

Wales

When we arrived in London, we got in our rental car and drove to Cardiff- the capital of Wales. Functioning on no sleep I thought for sure we were in for the ride of our lives, considering Ben had to drive on the other side and the steering wheel is on the other side as well. Ben did great with the driving though, and somehow we stayed awake. Nothing like driving on the opposite side of the road for a wake up call! Cardiff is a city with many sides. It's got peaceful spots where you can't hear any sound at all, and also busy streets. Our first day we experienced three hail storms. Definitely different from Miami. Ben's friend, James, got married at a beautiful castle called Caerphilly Castle near Cardiff. Ben was pretty busy helping and preparing for that during the first bit of our stay. Ben and I stayed in James and Katie's new flat. It was great! Here are some pics from our stay in Wales!
Caerphilly Castle- by the way, the daffodil is the Welsh national flower, and it happens to be my favorite! Also, my name is Welsh and it means "guardian of the sea."





The handsome groom, James, and MY handsome groom Ben.








The lovely couple cutting their wedding cake. Wedding cake is different in the UK. It is a fruit cake with marzipan type icing.







This was on a walk in a section of town called the "Wennalt". I thought it was beautiful and very peaceful.







The UK is filled with all kinds of quaint pubs. This is one of them and it's called Maen Llwyd. I'm not sure what that means in Welsh, but my mom and I tried our first Yorkshire puddings here. It's like a waffle with gravy. The other picture is the view from the pub- stunning!



Many people in Cardiff live in these type of houses. They are called terraced houses. (not to be confused with terrorist house) It makes it easier to walk about town and meet up with friends. Something Ben and I both noticed is that friendships in the UK seem much stronger.

Our Holiday

Well... we have now returned from our whirlwind visit to the UK. We have seen so much that it is going to be a challenge to recap! Let me begin by giving you some slight differences I noticed.

British people are much quieter than Americans (big surprise huh?)
they spell tire "tyre"
instead of whole wheat bread, it's whole meal
chips are french fries, and crisps are chips
they have very amusing signs (at least they were to me) Here are a few samples:

Yonder We Go

For those millions of you that actually read our blog... we will not post anything for a few weeks because we will be traveling to Wales, England, and Scotland. My mother and Ben's mother are going along with us. I'm sure we will have highly entertaining stories to share when we return.

Wales and Whales!







England!








Scotland!

Random Topics

These first photos are of Ben's dad, Ray, and Ben's little brother, John, cruising around.

Ben and his daddy.

This is an oak tree at our primary campus at school. I think it's the most beautiful tree I've ever seen. One of the people that founded the Society of the Sacred Heart (order of nuns) was named Rose Phillipine Duchesne. (pronounced DEW-SHEN) Duchesne in French means "heart of oak." Isn't that neat?

Grandmas

This is a picture of Ben and I with his grandparents, S.E. and Georgia. They are really remarkable people in my opinion. I would've liked to be close to my grandparents, but between being in another state and just well... time together, we never were. My mom's mom, Granny as I called her, was very proper and kind and never raised her voice. I have one memory of her where my little brother and I went on a walk and of course she put a scarf around her hair so it wouldn't get messed up. (I remember thinking that was absurd) My brother must have been very young, because I don't think I was more than 10 yrs old. Anyway, I remember asking if we could make up a song and she said "ok", so she made up this song that went: "Here we go, Jim, John and Joe, over the mountains and over the vales, here we go." After we established who was Jim, John and Joe we sang it over and over and over. It's my favorite memory of my grandmother. My other grandmother is still alive. She is an artist- a painter. She drives all crazy, has loads of rings from the home shopping club she never wears, and wears her hair in a bun. She's a very interesting lady.

Anyway... I want to share with whomever reads this silly blog of ours some of the funny stuff Ben's grandma sent me today. She is very funny, with a very vibrant personality. These are supposed to be from church bulletins. They are misprints of course.

> For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.


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> Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.


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> Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.


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> The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

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> Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in
> their school days.


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> A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.


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> At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.


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> Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some
> older ones.


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> Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.


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> The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.


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> This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come
> prepared to sin.


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> Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall
after the B.S. is done.

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> The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake
> breakfast next Sunday.


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> The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation
> is invited to attend this tragedy.


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> Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.


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> The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours".

Florida Bikers

Here's a picture of what Ben and I will look like in 50 years when our kids take away our licenses.

Also noteworthy, last night Ben and I went to a Japanese buffet with some friends. They had all kinds of sushi there and Ben decided to be adventurous and eat some sushi with a baby octopus in it! Although this picture is not the one he ate, it's close enough. Needless to say I covered my eyes while he ate it. He said it wasn't bad at all.

Bored

Ever been bored? Today was one of those days when Ben and I couldn't figure out what to do. Watched a little of "Conan the Barberian", went to the mall, walked around the park, drove around with the windows down... you get the picture. Tragic, I know.

You Know You Laughed

I thought this picture was funny.

Strange Sightings

All of the following pictures are within a two block radius of our apartment. I thought I'd share some unusual things Ben and I have noticed. The first one is really strange. We used to get our car serviced at this place called South Miami Auto Center. I guess they sold it because they tore it down. Now there are just bounds of rocks and a security fence up, BUT we noticed something a little odd there.
What? You don't see it? Let's zoom in.








OK... are you as surprised as we were? That's right... a fake skeleton in the midst of it all. Or is it fake? (kidding)







A duck egg. We saw the mama duck sitting on the nest the other day and I told Ben, "hey, this is a funny place for a duck to be sitting. I'll bet she has an egg under there." She hissed at us pretty good, so my suspicions were confirmed.





These are outside of an animal hospital near us. They are an elephant and a giraffe.






Finally, there is an old car around the corner from our place that I really like. It is from the 1940's and has this visor thing to block the sun. Why don't they make this on cars anymore? It makes perfect sense to me why everyone would want one of those things. There's Benny in the yellow shirt.

Amish book review

For those of you who don't know by now, I'm very intrigued by the Amish way of life. I don't want to become one and I feel that they are an unreached people group that needs to hear the gospel. For Christmas, Ben got me some books by a lady I've never read before. I've read similar books by another authoress named Beverly Lewis. I really enjoyed this new authoress. I think her books are neat 'cause she uses lots of Pennsylvania Dutch words in there. Below is the series that I just finished. I would recommend it highly! One quote I liked a lot from one of these books is "faults are thin where love is thick".













Just by chance I ran into a television interview by a woman named Ruth Irene Garrett and was interested in her true life story. She wrote about it in her book called "Crossing Over". It is about how she left the Amish life and became English. (English meaning anyone that isn't Amish) It is VERY interesting. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll let you know how it goes.