To Scotland (30 July)

Well here goes . . . the last leg of this trip has begun! All of the sudden we can say we’re leaving this week (well, leaving the British Isles). Now everything seems to have gone so fast.

We slept at the hostel at Hawkshead/Ambleside in the Lake District. This was definitely my favorite hostel of all time because of the location. Some of us got up early to run around the lake—perhaps my favorite run of the entire trip (and that’s saying a lot). The only bad part of the run was . . . okay . . . story time. Preface: I promise I’m not a complete klutz normally (you might laugh, but I think I’m a relatively coordinated person and I do manage to run on rocky trails quite successfully). At the very beginning of the run (ON PAVEMENT, not rocks)—we’d seriously been running for one minute—my right foot caught in the loop of the shoelace of my left shoe and I totally wiped out. Knees, hands, elbow, hip all took a blow. My right hand and left elbow were the worst. Apparently the thing that saved my left hand was the fact that I was carrying my camera to take pictures of the beautiful scenery we were to encounter. The bad thing is that I dented the lens shutters and now they won’t close. I’m taking precautionary measures to protect the lens, keeping a piece of gauze over it and wrapping the whole thing in a soft cloth. I think I can still take pictures, but I am very sad for the camera.

I kept running and it was great. We went about 5 miles along the gentle hilly road. I saw swans, misty fog hanging over the lake, mossy woods, beautiful flowers, many sheep, and darling lake country cottages. The worst part was afterwards when I had to clean up my hand and arm, cutting of the skin and all. Mmmmmm. So far I’m winning with the most falls this trip. Dr. Anderson says he has a week to take another one and catch up with me.

Morning view from out our hostel window

Moo

The lake we ran around. Our hostel is on the far side, but you can't see it in the picture.

In the morning we went to Hilltop, the cottage of Beatrix Potter. She wrote the children’s tales about rabbits and such (I can’t think of the names of them right now, but you can Google it if you want). It was very quaint and lovely. It reminded me of that huge hardcover children’s storybook I read a billion times when I was learning to read . . . you know the one with the lion who gives his hair to the birds to make nests (okay, only mom might remember this)? Anyway, it was a fun peek into childhood.

The rest of the day consisted of driving, driving, and more driving. Everything takes longer when you’re with 30 people and in a gigantic coach that is too large for the small England roads (not the best for the members of our group prone to car sickness). But my goodness—the scenery was absolutely beautiful. We stopped at Hadrian’s Wall, too. This wall was built under the direction of the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, to keep the Scots out of his empire. This was in the first century AD. In the 4^th century, the wall was abandoned because it was out in the middle of nowhere and the Roman Empire was falling apart. It was fun to see. The best part was when Suzanne, Lori, and I were trying to act out a siege for a photoshoot. It had to be complete with sound effects, of course, and a lot of slow-motion climbing and falling (don’t ask how you fall in slow motion). It was really funny. It wasn’t until we finished that we realized that all of our group was watching and Brother Gardner was videoing the ordeal. Ha. The photos are on her camera, but I’ll get them from her soon.

We arrived in Edinburgh around 8. It was slightly disappointing to be in a city again after all the beautiful country we’ve been in. But we head to the Scottish highlands on Monday! Then we’ll be back in Edinburgh for our last two days and then Saturday we fly out. Woah.