Girl Trip Part 2

Lillias was amazing...we were able to stop at six different spots (and then some). On this blog post, Blackness Castle was the only one we were able to go in...all the others were closed, but they were wonderful to see.
Blackness Castle
House of Binns
Houptown House
Cairnpapple Hill
Torphichen Preceptory
This is the well where people from East Kilbride used to get their water. After looking in it, we are thankful that practice has changed!

Heading to dinner in Jackie's Convertible

All Girl Road Trip

Jeff needed to work on Saturday and it was a nice day, so we called Lillias to see if she'd be up for a road trip with us girls! We ended up going to Linlithgow because I've wanted to see the inside of the castle since it was closed last time we were here. We got a tour and learned lots of information...much of which made us thankful that we did not have to be a servant back then or someone not in good graces with the castle owners...pretty scary stories. Going to all these castles has temporarily shattered my "Cinderella romanticized" ideas that I like to believe about castles! Jackie, Lillias' daughter, came along which made the girls day! They adore her and she always keeps us laughing! We did so many stops that I'll do post the rest on another link...I don't know how many more photos I'll get uploaded before we need to leave for our going away party.
Picnic Time!
This is inside Linlithgow Castle. The outside shot of it is at the corner of the blog at the top right hand side. This is where Mary Queen of Scots was born.
There was a wedding going on at the castle.

Linlithgow Town Centre

Glasgow

We were going to climb the mountain Ben Lomand today, but the weather forecast was 4 degrees C with 25 mph winds...as you can imagine, we changed plans. We needed to find one item that had been requested from the states but had been unable to find yet, so we decided to head to Glasgow. Thankfully Alan was willing to drive us there instead of to the mountain and was able to help us find the item as well as see the following great sites. It was a great day!Glasgow Cathedral
People's Palace
Oldest house in Glasgow
Museum of Modern Art...some pretty strange exhibits!
We found a fun playground for the girls.

Alan and the church where he got married.

Dunure

Dunure Castle
Checking out a rock pool.

Maddie was loving all the rocks around!

St. Andrews

18th hole of St. Andrew's Golf Course...this is for you Dad!
St. Andrew's Castle
St. Andrew's Cathedral
St. Andrew's University, where Prince William went.
The girls couldn't resist the North Sea!
I loved this church along the road.

Other Castle Ruins we've seen

Craignethan Castle
Cadzow Castle

Dunure Castle

Some pictures

I've picked out a picture of some of the different places we've been to give you a taste of what we've been up to. I'll add more when we get home, which is quickly approaching!
Front of Chatelherault
Back of Chatelherault
Bothwell Castle

Where we've been

Jeff's time with the men went great! They set up for 19...added to 25...ended up having 36! Heard some great comments from some of the men who were there! After that, David, one of our friends here offered to drive us east, a direction we hadn't really been yet. We did lots of driving and made a couple of stops at the water and ended up at St. Andrews. We visited a castle, cathedral, and St. Andrews golf course. We also went down to the ocean, where the girls couldn't resist getting wet! The beach was huge!

The next day the girls and I went to the loch with friends where a church was hosting some kids activities! It was fun and actually sunny and pretty warm! It ended up being our first rainless day in Scotland! Someone told me that Sunday's weather was how the weather had been until 2 days before we got here!

On Monday, we went to Dunure with friends, where we visited an unbelievable rock beach. There was a castle ruin and huge rocky crags (not sure if that's the right word...you can see when I get pictures up!) We were with different friends at that beach.

Today, we went to Rosslyn Abbey with an even different set of friends. It was unbelievable all the detailed carving in there. It killed me though because there were no photos allowed inside!!! I probably would have taken WAY too many if I could have though. This is the abbey featured in the end scene of the Da Vinci Code.

Tomorrow another friend (do you get the sense of good these church members are being to us?) is taking us to a castle and then on Thursday yet another friend is taking us to climb the mountain named Ben Lomond if the weather cooperates.

As you can tell...people are helping us squeeze in a lot in our remaining days.

Jeff had to come to church to get some work done, so I wanted to come and catch up. Picture uploads have not been cooperating, so I may have to wait until next time!

Kicked off the internet

Sadly, I got kicked off the internet on Jeff's computer and didn't have the password to try again. I can get on this from the church computer, but the pictures are on Jeff's so it's not much help! Maybe I can come early for church tomorrow and try again!

MB

Harry Potter Train

The train used in the Harry Potter movie goes under a bridge right by their house. Here are a few pictures.
Not a great picture...but this is the train from a distance and not "in costume." We didn't want to just stand and wait for it at the bridge...we had too much exploring to do. We did happen to see it here on our walk to the Loch.
This is the view from the bridge.

More Updates

Jeff is speaking to the men this morning at a breakfast, so the girls and I came along so I can have internet access and the girls are playing hard (and quietly) with toys.

I have so many pictures I want to post, I don't even know where to start! I'll probably try to finish the Ft. William trip (Oh, how we wish we had time to go back!) and then show pictures from our big adventure yesterday.

We braved it out alone (well with the help of the GPS system someone is letting us borrow) and visited three different spots. It was a wonderful day! The GPS has mostly helpful, although it said we had arrived at our destination of a castle when we were on a dead-end street with only houses! (The other day, we were trying to get to a friend's house and it sent us to the police station! I think Jeff couldn't read my messy writing though and put the wrong post code in!)

The day was wonderful. It was cloudy most of the day and I was constantly shifting between 2 coats, to one coat, to no coat, but the rain held out until we were driving home. The amazing thing was these places were no longer than 20 minutes probably from the town where we are staying.

Jeff did great driving despite being on tiny, curvy roads that host 2 way traffic. They have periodic pull overs in case two cars are coming, but it's pretty unnerving. I tried to get a good picture. Here is one to give a bit of a view...hard to show how it really feels though!Yes that's a car coming towards us, but thankfully they had a pull-over because we were on the bridge.

Quick Update

I realized that I’ve gotten so focused on sending pictures from our Ft. William trip that I haven’t updated you on what we’ve been up to this week.

We love Sundays were we get to visit with the wonderful people at Calderwood. There are so many wonderful believers in this church. They have been extremely accepting and generous towards our family. Annye helps in the crèche (nursery) each week, and Maddie participates in the Sunday club (Sunday School). The girls got quite a shock at communion at the Parish church Sunday night when the drink was not grape juice!

The girls went to see Kung Fu Panda with a friend. Jeff mowed the garden (lawn) with what he calls the Tonka Toy mower, a small plastic lawn mower that you have to plug in! The girls had a play date while we visited with the parents, and we’ve had wonderful dinners and visits with two different families from church. We also went to the Science Center in Glasgow with a church member. This provided hours of hands-on fun.

The pouring down rain postponed our trip to the beach, but is allowing us to do some laundry and household chores and rest up a bit. It has rained everyday here, but we’ve had more downpours and longer stretches of rain the past few days. The rain today made for a quite unpleasant walk to the gym, but I still figured it was better than trying to drive! I had to blow dry my pants before I worked out!

A note from Jeff

Ministry has been a blur here in Scotland. The people of Calderwood have been very gracious in helping us see their country. We have been in about all of the regions in Scotland. The country is truly beautiful.

The first week I was able to speak in a private secondary school. The time was entitled, “Grill a Christian.” My platform was my military service as a Christian. The group was good, but there were some difficult questions about evolution, being a Christian in the military, and atheism.

I had the honor to be a part of Ian and May McRobbie’s Baptism. It was a very special time. I’ve also had some great meetings and experiences with a wide variety of people including a Baptist minister, a Church of Scotland minister, and a Free Church of Scotland minister.

I have been working with Calderwood Baptist and Claremont Parrish Church in preparation of this fall’s mission trip for high school students and volunteers from Living Hope. The time over has been a great opportunity to work out the details of the trip. The churches have named this partnership opportunity Hope 08.

Preaching every week has kindled more respect for senior pastors. Between all the travel and visiting various people of the church, I have been scrambling to prepare for each sermon. The people have been very kind and patient with my southern accent. Last week the Executive Secretary of the Baptist Union of Scotland came to the service. I am glad I found out after the service instead of before! I have two more sermons. The one this Sunday is to both Claremont and Calderwood. This Saturday I am also the keynote speaker at a men’s event at Calderwood.

Ministry here has been exciting. Like Americans, the Scottish are very busy. Most people choose to attend either Sunday AM or Sunday PM, but few do both services. To work about busy schedules, most meetings don’t start until 7:30 p.m…they tend to last until very late at night though!

Ft. William Hospitality

The girls love Ian and Marion!
The Smiths welcomed us like family from the moment we arrived.
I had to take a picture of them in the kitchen...they fed us tons of great food. Their grandson told us to pack pants that stretch at the waist...now we know why! They are GREAT cooks!
You can see Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Great Britain from their yard.
The Smith's graciously opened their home to our family. They were such a blessing. We had such a wonderful time sightseeing, eating, sharing devotion, and visiting together. What a gift from God they were to us!

Shots from the car

These shots were taken from a moving car...just wanted to give you a sense of a bit of the beauty we observed along the way!

Scenic Stops On the Way

There was a beautiful waterfall.
Just minutes from the waterfall, was this lovely glen.
The view across the road from the glen.
Girl time!

Lunch Break

Between our bathroom break and the 10 minute drive to the mountain spot we were going to stop for lunch, clouds and big winds had really rolled in. Thankfully I decided to snap a couple of pictures before we ate, because the rain began and the conditions became unbearable and we completed lunch in the cars!The view was beautiful despite the clouds!
These red deer were hanging out in the rain and wind. We later ate venison from red deer. It was actually really delicious (and yes even I ate a little of it!)