Love and Life

I know you all have been missing my daily blog posts ... sorry I should have warned you I was traveling across the entire United Kingdom!!! These blogs are longer so you can catch up on my week... starting with Monday :)


Day 1 of the Week Long Excursion to Northern UK.
Sounds fun, right? Well just think about taking a COACH across the island!! And by coach I mean BUS. Ugh. At least this time our seats reclined slightly. Luckily I was so tired from the lack of sleep last night that it didn’t take much for me to sleep the first 3 hours. After a brief stop we headed up to the Preston Temple. On the way to the temple the back of the bus (aka the cool kids … haha ok ok just kidding) were singing favorite songs. However, as we saw the Captain Moroni we realized we needed to be reverent. In true BYU form we started singing primary songs: I love to see the Temple, A Childs Prayer, Love at Home, As sisters in Zion/Armies of Helamen. Its so cool to be able to be such a dork sometimes! It really did bring a sweet spirit to the experience though. When we got to the Temple we realized the grounds were closed…but the gates were open, and we were super reverent and got to go up and take pictures. I love this temple! The grounds were beautiful!! They were so big… the church has an MTC and a bunch of other buildings on that property. It’s amazing how peaceful the Temples grounds are.






After the Temple we headed up to Preston to visit Rubble River where Orson Hyde and Heber C Kimball came to preach the gospel for the first time in England (where they had immense success by the way). Preston is beautiful, and the River is so serene. There was even a rock explaining the significance of the spot, and about the Mormon Missionaries that came to preach there. It was really cool.








So then we were off to the Lake District, where we would stay the night. The Lake District is beautiful! Its in the country and has all these lakes … with sheep and goats and cows everywhere oh and small villages and towns dispersed in between all of that. We had a bit of confusion figuring out our hostel situation. First we stop at this adorable hostel on the lake, and get super excited. But then we head up in the countryside to the other hostel; and realize that the bus cant take us up to where the hostel is at and it’s a MILE walk up a couple switchbacks to get there! (With our luggage), and approx 40 people are staying there (which is most of the group). Anyway, totally disappointed we get off the bus, but then they say that 8 people can stay at the lake hostel. Of course us GIRLS decide that we aren’t about to hike up to get to our bed, so we opt for the lake… and of course we get our way. HOWEVER, then the Prof’s decide that we should probably take the bus back into town so everyone can get food. So we head back.





Ok, so here’s the scary part of this story. On the way to town we ALMOST DIE. The roads are super tiny, right? (we are driving in the English countryside!) So we are driving along, and then all of a sudden the bus comes to a halt! (and we all jerk forward). We look up and see a bus directly in front of us! (as if it were about to hit us!) THEN the bus in front of us decides to realign, and pass us! I honestly don’t know how this even happened, but see the series of pictures below. The bus was INCHES from us!! This picture is from my window...






So after that tragedy, I had a total clumsy moment and hit my eye on the seat in front of me. It was directly on my eyelid and I even left a mark on the chair! I think my eye is bruised.

So We get dinner at this little restaurant and stock up on our protein –we order salmon, chicken and lamb. Ahh it was amazing!! Then we finally get to our hostel, and after a few musical rooms get settled. We decide to go on this hike to the waterfalls. Although the waterfalls were slightly disappointing, we had a great time taking pictures and getting our energy out. On our way back we try to ask some locals what there is to do in this town. They respond “Drink!” (ok so maybe that’s because we were asking people outside of pubs?…) We opt out of the alcohol invite and grab smoothies and milkshakes, which definitely weren’t like what they are in the states. Disappointed we head home. Now I’ve got my music going and the girls are all appreciating me bring my lap top. After a couple episodes of the office we will go to sleep.

Here are some pictures of our hostel, and views!