"there's nothing you can say that isn't sung"

WEDNESDAY

Happy Birthday, Brittany!

We woke up in the castle…In the castle…Castle…and ate a good breakfast before loading up the coach. The first stop for today was Hadrian’s Wall in Housesteads, an old Roman wall on a very windy and cold hill with lots of slush. The wind was practically knocking us off of the wall. The next two stops were the homes of the poet Wordsworth. First was Dove Cottage, where he lived for a few years. Then was Rydal Mount where he lived for 38 years until he died. They were pretty houses with lots of history.
That night our sleeping arrangements were at the Hawkshead youth hostel in the middle of the lake district. It was so beautiful where we were at!! It reminded me of Oregon.
It was Brittany’s 20th b-day, so I got her a money cake and we partied it up in the pool room in the hostel.

THURSDAY

We started off the morning walking to Hilltop Farm, aka Beatrix Potter’s cottage in the lake district. It was one of the most beautiful walks ever! I saw the England that I imagined before I came here and how it looks in all of the pictures and movies.

{walk in the Lake District to Hilltop Farm}

{Hilltop Farm}

We then took the coach to Preston, where Peter took us on a tour around the city to see the church history sites. We saw the square where the missionaries preached and the Ribble river, where the first British convert raced to be baptized (George Watts). We saw where the cock pit used to be where the meetings were held by Woodruff and other missionaries. It has been a great opportunity to be able to see church history sites not only on the north trip, but throughout the study abroad program.
The next stop was at the Preston LDS Temple. It was so beautiful and I’m sorry that we didn’t have enough time to go inside.

{Preston LDS Temple}

That night we stayed in Liverpool. Brittany, Kira, Annie, Mary, Jake, Laura M., and I found the huge Liverpool shopping complex where we ate at a not so good burrito place (the further away from Mexico you are, the worse the Mexican food…). A few of us decided to stay to see “Bounty Hunter”, which was an OK movie.

FRIDAY
Happy Birthday, Margaret!
Liverpool is known for their mass emigration movements to America and Canada and elsewhere, including many saints who travelled to get to the SLC Valley. Liverpool is also known for…THE BEATLES!! So, we spent our morning at the Beatles Story Museum, of course. It was so good and fun. We then went back to the shopping area and ate and, well, shopped.

{Sky of blue, sea of green, in our yellow submarine}


{Guess who caught Beatlemania?}

The bus wasn’t very enjoyable, besides the good movies shown. The stops were great and I’m so glad that we got to check out these cities before we leave England.