And We're in England!

     After staying with the wonderful Gilardi family for the night, we packed up our suitcases and figured out our plans for today. Paul wanted to visit with a really awesome member family he knew on his mission, so we took some time to go and visit the Sharkie family. We had a wonderful chat with them for a few hours. It really is so nice for me to piece together Paul's mission and put faces with the names and stories he has told me about for several years.

The wonderful Sharkie family. So grateful I got to meet them.

     Once we said our goodbyes we had to stop for a few minutes in Glasgow to get some pastries from a Hong Kong pastry shop that Paul loved. I will be honest, they had some great and delicious looking pastries, but the ones that look good taste weird. The ones that look plain and boring actually taste the best. They are definitely not American pasties, but they are pretty tasty.

Yummy yummy asian pastries

Tastin' pretty good

Paul enjoying his pastry on the go

    Paul and I spend the next three hours driving to Preston England. We made plans to see the first ever showing of the first ever British Pageant. We had no idea what to expect, but we were excited just the same. We drove up to the temple and parked the car about 4 hours before the show started. We wanted to make sure we had a close parking space because once it was over we had a three hour drive to Edinburgh that night. We talked with some fabulous sister missionaries (all from Utah, fancy that), and made our way down to city centre to find some food.
     By this time it is raining pretty good. We had a dinky umbrella that kept us mostly dry...ish. We found an italian restaurant that would let you do take away. Dinner consisted of lasagna for me, spaghetti carbonara for Paul, and no utensils to eat with. It was a hoot watching Paul scarf his spaghetti with no fork. Thankfully, I was a thinker and sort of used our garlic bread as a spoon for me so I didn't make quite as much of a mess. We both concluded that the food was great.

You gotta do what you gotta do...

The aftermath of no silverware 

    The pageant didn't start till 8:30 and we still had a couple hours to burn. The members here planned some activities to do before the show started, but because it was raining, we didn't really want to stand out in the rain. Its a good thing the pageant planners forecasted that the weather would be normal weather for them. The stage was in a portable room so that everything ended up being indoors.
    I really didn't know what to expect about the pageant, but holy wow. It was amazing. Words really can't describe how strong the spirit was there. The story was about the first missionaries coming over to Great Britain, and how the people in Britain impacted the early beginnings of the LDS church. It was a great storyline with a powerful powerful message. I have been to the Manti pageant multiple times, and as much as I love my home state, the British pageant was SO much better and, for me, so much more spiritual was well. Paul and I were a little hesitant at first to drive so far to see it, but we both decided that the drive was absolutely and completely worth it.

In front of the Preston Temple the grounds were locked so we couldn't walk around

The temple in all its glory

Me being silly in the gardens around the temple president's home

Paul told me that this is the straight and narrow path that leads to the tree of life (just under the arch), which ultimately leads to the temple. It was a pretty cool analogy I thought.

Paul's turn to be silly

 Its a good thing the British are smart about their weather. They knew it would rain so they built a covering for the pageant. We were inside while it poured outside. 

    Driving to Edinburgh was a little scary for me. It was raining pretty good for the first two hours of the drive. I am so grateful that Paul is experienced driving in the rain because I get a little nervous when there is water on the road. We made it safely to our B&B at 2 AM and only had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to our room. Oh well, it was worth it.

Ben Nevis

     Today just about killed both Paul and I. We had a crazy day. We hiked Ben Nevis, which is the highest point in all of Great Britain. Yes, yes, I know you are all so impressed! Such an amazing feat! Well, Ben Nevis is only 4,400 feet high. It is lower than the elevation that I live at in Cedar City. However, we were starting from basically sea level. That has to count for something right?
     Actually the hike was really intense. For some reason, trails over here are not mostly dirt paths, they take the rock from the path and make steps up the mountain. Its a nice change of pace sometimes, but going up and up and up thousands of stairs is a killer workout. At least the weather was somewhat in our favor It didn't pour rain on us, and there wasn't any fog. The clouds weren't super low on the mountain to start, but they did sneak a little lower as our hike progressed.
    The first half of the hike was up those thousands of stairs. The second half of the hike was walking on loose rock and inside of the clouds. I just have to say clouds are nothing like we thought they were! They don't taste like marshmallows, they are not fluffy, and you can't eat them like cotton candy. They are wet, humid, and cold, and you can't really feel them but you can see how foggy the rest of everything else is.
     Paul and I toyed with the idea of going back half way. We had somewhere else to get to and didn't want to take all day to get where we needed to go. But we decided to keep going. To be honest, the last half of the hike was really ugly. Rocks were the only things you would see. Thats all. Just rocks. Well we saw lots of people too, and cloud, but mostly rocks. The top was very cold, very humid, and very windy. People at the top had built small forts with the large amounts of rocks so people were hiding out them. We sat by some rocks, had a snack and headed down. We really didn't want to be overly miserable on our hike.
    The trip down was another adventure. For once, the thousands of steps down were better than the dirt path. Paul and I tried to get down the mountain in half the time it took us to get up, so we ran a lot. We mostly ran down the stairs. Surprisingly we got down the mountain in an hour and forty five minutes. It took us three hours to get up. So we felt pretty successful.

The start of the hike, we were still happy at this point in the day

The view behind us from the trail

This is one of those cute streams that just trickles all the way down the side of the hill

In the distance you can see the trail zig zagging up. It was pretty steep.

I told Paul he looked cute with his pants rolled up, and he gave me that face...

I had planned on wearing shorts and not bringing a jacket, but Paul told me I would want pants and a coat. I am glad that even though I didn't want to listen to him I did. I ended up unrolling my pants and zipping my coat all the way up it got so cold!

Another little waterfall along the trail

This is a picture of the trail, and the cloud we were in. 

We made it to the top!

This is a cairn on the trail. I guess the have to make them HUGE and sturdy so the wind won't destroy them. It is a good thing they are so big because in the clouds, its hard to tell where you are all the time

That is the trail at the top of the mountain. It isn't much to look at, but oh well.

The clouds lifted a little on the way down. This is a view off the trail

    From Ben Nevis we had a three hour drive to our sleeping destination. Good thing Paul is a great husband, because I fell asleep for some of the drive. We got to the Gilardi's home just as they were eating dinner. They were so kind and invited us to join them. I forget how wonderful it is to have a home cooked meal when you eat out all the time.
     After our long hike we were exhausted. We had an early night again and basically went to sleep as early as we could.

Isle of Skye

      Monday was quite the adventure for Paul and I. We had our last morning with Liz and Peter Wilson. I just have to say that Liz is one of the kindest women I know. She let us stay with her for 3 nights, giving up her bed so Paul and I could be together. She also made us breakfast and dinner multiple days. To top it off, she put together a super cute little lunch for Paul and me so that Monday on our drive to Skye we didn't have to stop and buy food. She truly is an amazing woman and I am so grateful that I had the chance to stay with her and her son for several days.

Paul and Me with Liz Wilson, and her son Peter. They were SO kind and hospitable to us. 

    Monday our first stop was Loch Ness. We looked and looked for Nessie, but couldn't find him, so we just took a few pictures and set on our way. The plan for today was to visit the Isle of Ske. Its an island just off the coast of Scotland. Paul said it is beautiful drive so we just had to go see it. I had heard of a place on Isle of Skye called the Fairy Pools and I really wanted to go there. All of the members that we talked to had never heard of it. Paul doubted that it even existed, but I was determined to find it and prove that it did. We found some vague directions and attempted to find it.

Loch Ness in the morning

I guess they sent this yellow submarine to look for the Loch Ness Monster some time ago.

We found Nessie!! Hehe

      Before we drove to the Isle of Skye, we did stop at the Urquart Castle and the Eilean Donan Castle along the way. Urquart was pretty neat. It is just another castle ruin, but it was cool to see where the moat once was and to learn some of the history about it. Eilean Donan is the castle they filmed Maid of Honor at. We didn't actually go inside, but we walked around the outside of it and it was so fun.

I am showing Paul how to use the latrine in the Urquart Castle

Some of the Urquart Castle ruins. It is looking out over Loch Ness

      The drive out to the Isle of Sky was just beautiful. I am sure that my snapshots from the window will not do it justice. The hills were lush and green. Small trickling streams ran down the side of the hills like long steep flowing waterfalls. It is just so amazing how different and beautiful the terrain is.

Everything is SO GREEN!

This Picture and the next are just snaps of the scenery on the way to Skye

Eilean Donan Castle 

This is Eilean Donan from the other side

     Thankfully, for my sake, we found the Fairy Pools. The fairy pools actually exist. We were so surprised that for such an amazing and beautiful place, there are not any good directions to get there. There were tons of tourists though, so somehow they all found out about it. The plan was to try and see some of the beautiful sights before the rain hit us hard. The only problem was that I had to go to the bathroom SO bad. There was no public bathroom and tons of people and I had been holding it for a REALLY long time. So we looked around and tried to find a place I could.. ya know. So we find this really big rock. Its kind of off to the side and bigger than the grass and stuff out there. Paul and I hike up to it, I make sure no one can see me, and I go. Sweet, problem solved. Then I walk over to Paul and he is laughing. He says I have to show you the greatest picture I just took. He snapped a picture of me behind the rock! What a little stinker! I won't post it for everyones sake, but man, what a little sneak!

    The Fairy Pools are amazing. Its basically a series of really awesome waterfalls that are small and have lots of pools. Its like a natural water park. Some of the falls you could slide down, some you could jump off, there were pools to swim in, and it was just amazing. Whats better is that the water is crystal clear. Seriously Crystal clear. It is also surrounded by tons of bright purple flowers. Insert note here, the picture going around pintrest with the crystal clear water and lots of purple flowers is not real, but the pools are that clear, and there are purple flowers, just not that many. Any how, Paul and I didn't have our swim suits but we were just dying to get in the water. Mind you its chilly and raining on and off. But when you see something so clear and amazing you just HAVE to jump in. We chatted with a few others who were swimming and decided to get our suits.

When you google image Fairy Pools you see lots of pictures of purple flowers. There are TONS of purple flowers at the Fairy Pools, but not as many as the pictures show. They still are amazing and beautiful. I tried to get a picture of some of the purple. 

Us just being us while we hiked around

One of the first sets of cascading waterfalls. The water is seriously crystal clear

More waterfalls

I wanted to swim. I was jealous others were in the water!

Paul posing for the camera

Paul told me to stick my feet in so he could take a picture of how clear the water is. The deeper part is around five or so feet and you can still see right to the bottom!

More beautiful waterfalls

The waterfalls and pools here just keep going up and up the mountain. We didn't continue to follow it up, but I am sure there are even more nooks and places to swim and play in. It was like one giant water park!

I can't believe how beautiful it is here!

    We trudged the long half mile hike back to our car, attempted to secretly change into our suits, and hiked the horribly tiresome half mile back to the water. The looks from the tourists was so great. I think were surprised that we were going to swim in the weather. We knew from talking with some other locals that the water was cold, so we were prepared. I told Paul he just had to jump in. If he tried to work his way in, he would never get in. So I took pictures of him jumping into the frigid water. I knew it was going to be freezing, but I didn't want to have any regrets about being there. Paul snagged the camera from me and got so pictures as I jumped in. It as cold. I have been in colder, but man it was cold. It was not so cold that I hated it, once your body was numb it actually felt pretty good. We swam around for a little and swam up to some other waterfalls then decided we didnt want hypothermia so we headed back to the towels. A group of older people (like 70 year olds) asked if they could join us. We warned them that it was cold but they wanted to swim. So we had to stay and watch the old people swim. It was so impressive to see a 70 year old woman get into the cold water. I want to be a cool old lady like that when I get old.

You can tell by Paul's expression that the water was COLD!

I was having a hard time deciding if the cold was worth it

Okay so I finally jumped in. So cold, but SO worth it

We asked someone to get a picture of us in the water together 

This old lady was determined to swim in the Fairy Pools. So cool. Had to get a picture!

The crystal clear, beautiful, freezing water

Me just being silly on the hike back to the car

    We had a long drive to our B&B after Skye so we didn't stay too terribly long. We did have time to stop and look at the Harry Potter bridge, (which is really cool), before we headed in for the night. We got ourselves a chippy for dinner (fancy that), and checked into our room. We were kind of lazy and just lounged around the rest of the night. Being on holiday is great. I don't feel like I have to be on the go all the time. Its nice to just relax for a little bit.

This is a picture of the Harry Potter bridge. It has a real name but it is long and I don't want to spell it wrong. So we will just call it the Harry Potter bridge. 

It rained on us most of the day

We got a chippy for dinner. Notice how HUGE it was! I didn't eat all of mine. It was great fish though. We watched them hand batter it fresh!