Hadrian's what?

Day 3 was seemingly random at times, but very fun. After eating our castle breakfast we drove away from Durham as it rained some more. As we continued driving, the rain turned to snow (???) and, soon the ground was all white around us. Unfortunately, our next destination was a purely outdoor activity- which made for an interesting time. We got to Hadrian's wall, which is an ancient Roman wall that was built to keep out Trajan's troops. You have to hike for a bit to get to Hadrian's wall, and I must say- it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. None of us were properly dressed, and all the grass was pretty much a marsh. The paved trail had water streaming down it, and the snow was half slush all over the ground. Everyone kept slipping, and we were all so wet by the time we got up there -and it wasn't even that long of a walk haha. Once you get to the top, you realize that this wall is not quite what you expected- it is, in fact, about three feet tall. But it DOES go on forever and ever, so I'll give Hadrian some credit. If you stand on top of it, the wind is so strong it almost knocks you off. You can lean over the edge pretty far because the wind holds you up. Lets just say, Hadrian's wall was surprisingly well worth my time- it's nice to do something different.

We then drove to the Lake district. I fell asleep on the coach, and when I woke up all I could see was a big snowy mountain and a lake. It looked SO much like Utah, I was really confused. We stopped and toured William Wordsworth's house, and then we drove on and toured his other house- which had pretty gardens because he loved nature, and I can see why he chose to live where he did. It was very pretty. I was going to buy a book of his poetry.... but I didn't. Hope I don't regret that in the future.




Our hotel that night was SO pretty, we were completely away from any city. No shopping or eating out or anything.. just nature and fields of sheep. I loved it. Ahhhhh. It made me exited for summer. Not the sheep, just the nature.


Day 4: In the morning, we walked around the lake to Beatrix Potter's house, the lovely lady who wrote about Peter Rabbit and Gemima the puddle duck. Dear Ann: flash back to that giant goose we had that told stories and blinked and moved it's wings. Haha- that thing was kinda creepy now that I think about it. Anyways, it was cool being in Beatrix's house because in her drawings for her books, you can see the actual furniture from her house. It was all orginal, which was cool.

After leaving the amazing Lake District with it's green fields and pretty lakes, we drove to Preston for our Church tour- while it rained. It was cool seeing the sights that we have been learning about in class, and seeing the places where the early apostles had been preaching. There was a park that had some monuments to the Mormon missionaries, and we got to see the house they stayed in and the site of the "cock pit" where they held meetings. The most memorable part of the church tour for me was getting to see the appartment where President Hinckley recieved the letter from his dad telling him to forget himself and get to work. Imagine how different things would be if he didn't follow that advice at that moment.

We then drove to the Preston Temple, which was a really cool experience for me. I've seen temples and lived near them my whole life, and now that I'm in the land of cathedrals and castles, I've been obsessed with those. Seeing the Preston temple was a really cool experience. First of all because the rain finally stopped and the sky was blue and beautiful, and second because I realized that our temples are more beautiful than any cathedral I've seen, and the smaller size and pure whiteness was so refreshing.
We drove away from Preston, and headed to Liverpool. On the way, we passed Manchester, and I thought of my missionary cousin Chris. We even passed Stoke-on-trent and I almost made the bus pull over so I could run and find my beloved cousin whom I miss SO MUCH.