the north trip...

this is a long awaited post... i am neck deep in homework and studying things for finals- but i needed to take a break- (and i need to do it before i forget everything!) It is going to be mostly photos, but i will do my best to explain them... we went on a five day coach trip to northern england, stopping in york, preston, liverpool, and many other places. i was dreading the coach ride for five days, but it honestly wasn't that bad. i spent most of my time sleeping... thanks to my trusty neck pillow. :) (special thanks to tori and rachel for the photos- i am a dummy and left my camera battery at home.)

we went to the chatsworth house... it was just another huge fancy house. this is another place pride and prejudice was filmed... i really think i need to see it- they played it on the coach on one leg of our journey, but i was sleeping. (lou- we will have to watch it when i come home mmmk?) i had a lot of fun dressing up in the costumes. i think i want to be a colonial man for halloween this year. what do you think?

{this nice mustard number was definitley for a little boy, but i managed to squeeze in}

next, we went to howard where the brontes grew up. i don't really know much about this- so it was cool to learn about the conditions that they grew up in, and that explained a lot of their writing. looks like jane eyre is another book i need to read.

{rachel and i in front of the bronte parsonage}
{main street in howarth}
{me and dr. howe. we are twins.}

after dinner, we drove to york for the night. we got there jsut in time for dinner. jen and i went to zizzi's for dinner- it was so yummy. we were there for over two hours. we got appetizers, a main course, and dessert- baked apple crumble. it was the best. jen was my roomate that night and it was the best. the next morning we went to york minster. . . the church in york, and then had time to grab lunch and had to jump on the coach. although i only have one picture from this short stay in york, it was one of the most meaningful parts of the trip. this is where my ancestors were from, and it was very neat to be in the same place they were, and i am sure they spent a lot of time in the minster. i have a lot more learning to do about them, and their life in britain.

{york minster}
{me and rachel}

after leaving york, we went to fountains abbey. this place was seriously amazing. it was a lot like tintern abbey- a place we visited earlier in the semester, but even bigger and better. the only crappy part was the rain- but that is what you get in northern england. it is pretty much always rainy- it made for some cute umbrella photos though. :)

{fountains abbey}
{loving the rain}

{inside the old abbey}{laura, rachel, jenny, shar, me}

our next stop was durham. we had to hike on up cobble stone streets with all our luggage, it was miserable- but once we got to our caste it was totally worth it. yeah- our castle! we got to sleep in the durham castle. it was so sweet. there is a university there now, but the students were on holiday so we got to sleep in dorms there, and have a really fancy breakfast. it was great. we got to visit the durham cathedral and went to evensong there... i loved it. evensong is the best!
{the castle}

the next morning after our fancy breakfast, we made the trek back to the coach and drove to hardian's wall. i slept the whole way, and when i woke up it was snowing! boo. i definitely didn't sign up for that. we walked up this huge mountain to get to the wall... and it was quite the experience. this wall was built by the romans for fortification of their empire in britain. i had zero traction on my shoes, and that made it practically imposible to get up. thanks to the help of jen and mk, i was able to get up. (literally- i fell because my shoes have no traction, and couldnt get back up- i kept trying to stand up but my boots weren't having it) once we got up to the wall, i practically blew over- as you can see in the picture. i have been so pleased that i haven't had to deal with the snow... but when all is said and done, this snow experience was worth it.

{blowing over on the wall}
{dear snow, go away. please and thank you.}

after this we went to william wordsworths two houses in the lake district. i am not in the british literature class, and the whole trip had a lot to do with things from that class. he was a poet, and wrote a lot about nature. the are he lived in was beautiful! we got to have homemade gingerbread there too... it was delicious! sadly, i don't have any pictures of this. oh well. i guess that means i will have to go back someday. after visiting his houses, we headed to our youth hostel in hawkshead. i had never stayed in a hostel before, and i had no idea what to expect- but it was actually really nice. we ate dinner there, and even had class there! i had the best nights sleep ever! the next morning we went to hilltop farm! this is the farm where beatrix potter lived. she is the one that wrote and illustrated peter rabbit. we walked there from the hostel, and it was one of the best decisions i have ever made. not really- but really. it was so so so pretty. another gerald r. ford moment. this whole experience has been full of them. i am so sad it is coming to an end.

{me and rach at hilltop farm}

after the farm, we got back onto the coach and made our way to preston! this was a really cool part of the trip. we met up with our mormon tourguide peter and he walked us through the town telling us about the experiences the missionaries had there during the first and second missions. my first impression of the town was "wow this is dirty, ugly, and trashy..." but once we got walking and heard all the stories my opion changed. it was so neat to see the actually places i have been reading about in my religion class. we saw the ribble river, where the first enlish saint was baptized, the cockpit- where they used to teach and where the first sermon about the word of wisdom was taught, and also the monument in the town square where they used to teach. (that is also where president hinckley chipped his tooth during his mission in england) after walking through the town and seeing various sights, we got back on the coach and went to the preston temple. it was seriously so beautiful. it is one of my new favorites. the whole day had been kinda crappy weather, but of course, once we got to the temple, the sun was shining. it was beautiful. this was my favorite part of the trip for sure. i really wish i would have had my camera on this day. after this, we went to liverpool. . . but i am going to do a separate post for that. this one is far too long.

{preston town square}
{chorley/preston temple}