Snowshoeing!

Thank you to our wonderful kids and their spouses for this gift!!!  We took advantage of a holiday and 38 degree temperatures to attempt snowshoeing for the first time.  We drove up to Sundance to the yurt (need to get an AWD vehicle if there ever is more snow) and got fitted for snowshoes.  It only took a few minutes to strap them on.  We were handed a map and general directions and headed off. 

We headed off on the trail (we thought).  Along the way we took some pics.  Here we are as we started on the trail.

We realized that we were not heading in the right direction as we came to the road!  Whoops!  So turned around and headed up the steep path and saw these!

Look carefully...bring back any memories from Two Rock?  We took a side trail and ended up near the yurt again-- and I guess we looked kind of lost, because a worker came over to us and asked if we needed any help.   Thanks to her we got onto the right path and with the map were able to hike for about an hour and a half.  It got pretty steep and we hiked up part of the black rated trail (difficult) for a bit, but it was great!  Here are some pics of the scenery and the non-polluted sky.

We weren't quite sure how cold it would be up there, but we both took off jackets, gloves, and I took off my hat after we had been hiking for a half hour.  We were prepared for colder temperatures with layers in the backpack.  It was so much fun and we can't wait to go again!!!  Thank you all!!

Spiritual Journeys

Might as well put some spiritual journeys here as well.

President Uchtdorf gave a very interesting talk entitled “Come,Join with Us.” In his usual loving and humorous manner he talked about why people join the Church and why some leave. For the latter, he spoke directly and gave several reasons of which I want to mention three: Fitting in, mistakes by Church leaders, and doubting our doubts.

(1) Do I fit in?

Some might say, “I just don’t fit in with you people in the Church.”

If you could see into our hearts, you would probably find that you fit in better than you suppose. You might be surprised to find that we have yearnings and struggles and hopes similar to yours. Your background or upbringing might seem different from what you perceive in many Latter-day Saints, but that could be a blessing. Brothers and sisters, dear friends, we need your unique talents and perspectives. The diversity of persons and peoples all around the globe is a strength of this Church.

(2) Church Leaders have Made Mistakes

I appreciated President Uchtdorf's directness when he said:

And, to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine.

I suppose the Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect, and His doctrine is pure. But He works through us—His imperfect children—and imperfect people make mistakes.

In the title page of the Book of Mormon we read, “And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”

This is the way it has always been and will be until the perfect day when Christ Himself reigns personally upon the earth.

It is unfortunate that some have stumbled because of mistakes made by men. But in spite of this, the eternal truth of the restored gospel found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not tarnished, diminished, or destroyed.

(3) Doubt Your Doubts

He stated, “Some struggle with unanswered questions about things that have been done or said in the past. We openly acknowledge that in nearly 200 years of Church history—along with an uninterrupted line of inspired, honorable, and divine events—there have been some things said and done that could cause people to question.”

Later he said:

It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a few unanswered questions but I have faith that there are answers. One reason for that faith is that I have had questions answered in the past. Sometimes it does require some patience. I know someone at Spokane Falls CC who had been less active for years. She confided in an adjunct professor who was a member and told him that she had always wondered about a particular event in Church History. He gave her a number of a professor at BYU. She called and the professor was able to give her an explanation that made great sense. Meanwhile, she had let that affect her testimony all those years. It's okay to have questions -- there are answers.

UK Trip Summary

The map below shows our travels (purple line), where we stayed (blue dots and names in black), and some of the major things we saw (blue in italics):

Miscellaneous Stuff

Worst name for a restaurant ever (in York):

Cool place near Bridge of Allan. You can see a new bridge made over an older bridge. There is quite a ravine and is much deeper than shown here. When the water rushes though in the spring, they say you can hear the rocks tumbling in the river --hence the name Rumbling Bridge:

Had to take a picture of this. It is in Culross, Scotland and goes to an Abbey.

The ground floor of buildings are the 0 level. So what is the basement? Negative 1 of course:

They had bike storage facilities at the train station in Bridge of Allan including the blue lockers:

Sausage rolls are pretty common. Here is one I tried. It is some type of sausage put in a crust. They put everything in a "pie." Even saw macaroni pie.

Saw these 20 mph signs with a cute saying:

Gayle ordered this. She actually claims it was good.

Driving was always "fun." Here is a typical main road (listen for Gayle's scream):

In Wales, we stayed at a B&B out in a small village on a farm. We took a walk about a mile down the road. I had to laugh at this "neighborhood watch" sign which I saw nailed to a tree several feet off the road:

The reason I laughed is that this is the neighborhood:

At a cafe I ordered a veggie burger. This is what I got. Turns out you have to order it with a bun if you want it that way.

Interesting graphic warning sign:

Paris

We had a wonderful experience being to able to see Paris, even if for just a short time. We had an 18 hour layover in Paris. We arrived in Paris at 7 pm and left the next day having to be at the airport by 10:30.

From the airport, we took a 40-minute train ride to Paris. Here's Meemo anxiously waiting to see Paris.  The trains were not air conditioned and at times were prettty warm.

 Our hotel was near this intersection in the Latin district.

Gayle was craving macarons. They were pretty tasty.  She got salted caramel and Marc got lemon.  She loved it!  Marc thought they were good.

With just a few hours to walk around, we walked a lot (actually almost four hours). Here's Notre Dame:

There were thousands of people around town, including the many tour boats that were floating on the Seine.  We had thought maybe we would do it, but before arriving decided to just do it on our own. 

There are many bridges like this one all over Europe and the UK.  We forgot to bring a lock with us.  You are supposed to declare your love for each other and lock it onto the fence and throw the key into the river. You can see part of the Louvre in the background.  It is HUGE!  This picture was taken around 9:30 or so that evening.  Meemo was enjoying the brreeze.

It started getting dark while we sere still on the way to the Eiffel Tower.

We had expected the tower to be lit up with white lights and were surprized when we saw it these primary colors.  so beautiful!!  We couldn't believe we were actually there to see it in person!!  After we saw the tower we were so hungry and found a cafe that was still open at 11 pm.  We ordered quiche lorraine and a ham omelet that looked like Julia Child made it.  We then headed back to our little hotel and finally got to bed around 1 am.

We had the classic French breakfast le petite dejeuner:  chocolate, warm croissant, baguette with butter and jam, and orange juice.  It was at the  Saint Germaine cafe.  So surreal to be eating on a Paris street!  It was the perfect end to a great vacation!

Cambridge

After York, we proceeded on to RAF Alconbury. It is a US base and about the size of Training Center Petaluma. It was in the beautiful rolling hills of central England. There are quite a few Royal Air Force bases that were set up here during World War II.

On the way we went through Sherwood Forest.

Cambridge was about a half hour from the base. It is a historic town like York in some ways. Here are some shots of the campus of King's College. 

There is a river  that is next to Trinity College which had a lot of punt boats floating.  The "driver" pushes a long pole onto the bottom of the riverbed to move forward.  One of the punters had about 12 people in it and he wasn't a very big guy.  You could hire them and try to do it yourself as well as hire a driver.  It was so beautiful!

This is King's College Chapel.  We just took pictures from the outside.  Pretty much every place charged about 10 pounds to visit.  It had gorgeous architecture.

York

After leaving Newcastle we stopped and spent some time in the historic town of York. The most impressive site was the York Minster, the largest Gothic church north of the Alps.

It is hard to convey the size with these pictures. The cathedral is 540 feet long (almost 2 football fields) and 200 feet tall. The windows were amazing. At one end, the windows take up the size of two tennis courts.

Here is a shot of part of the ceiling.

This area is called "the choir." It is in the middle of the cathedral. We sat in these box seats for an Anglican (Church of England) evensong service to which the public is invited. It was awesome. You can imagine what the acoustics were like.

This area was taken over by the Romans at one point and also the Vikings. There is a really nice Viking exhibit that shows what Viking life was like based on archeological evidence.