Northern England

The next part of our trip was in Northern England. I think it was my favorite portion! I loved connecting with people from my mission, but also I just think it's such a beautiful, unique part of the world and we had so much fun exploring it. Our first stop on our way up north (after a rental car disaster: we waited at a London train station for forever, only to realize they didn't have the van we reserved and had to smoosh into a much smaller car that was also very dirty), was Warwick Castle. We got a late start (because of the rental car disaster), so we hurried in to catch the "Birds of Prey" show. It was very cool! 

Of course we had to do an archery lesson. Max, Violet, and Davis all did it.

Davis was very excited about using a real bow and arrow.

Warwick was so fun. I think it was the kids' favorite castle, because it's a real historical castle but they've also made it like an amusement park.

It was so fun to explore.

Davis bought a sword here at Warwick and we took many pictures. 

He was very excited to buy a sword at a real castle and used it a lot the whole trip. Lots of videos of him throwing it up in the air with it spinning around and him catching it.

The heat wave continued, so it was incredibly hot (hence my rolled up pants).

My favorite picture of Andy from the whole trip. Almost 15 years old. Love him.

They had a viking show with real sword fighting. Major highlight for sure.

After Warwick, we headed to Rotherham, one of my mission areas. We met up with some friends at a pub for dinner. Christine and Graham Gunn, Sarah Gunn, Debbie (Sarah's mom) and her new husband. It was so fun to see them and catch up. There was an epic sneeze from Graham that ended up all over Andy and Max--probably the highlight of the night for me.

Yorkshire is magical. I loved driving around and showing them my old apartment.

We went to church in Barnsley (they've closed the Rotherham branch). I can't get over the generosity of the Gunns. When Graham heard that Andy has been wearing my Manchester United jersey that he gave me at the end of my mission, he brought three jerseys to church the next day for the boys. 

Davis makes friends everywhere.

Violet and her new friend Piper. (Piper is Christine Gunn's granddaughter.) Piper brought a key chain with. "v" for Violet to church.

We stopped and ate sandwiches at a random park. Max in his new jersey from Graham.

We made a quick stop in Leeds to visit Garrett (he has now changed his name to Yeti), someone who I taught and was baptized when I was in Huddersfield. He didn't seem to be doing well. It was a little bit of a life lesson for the kids. 

Our next stop was York, where we spent two nights. We stopped at the Jorvik Viking Centre, which was really fun and interesting. (York was a big viking town over a thousand years ago.)

We visited the York Shambles, one europe's oldest and best preserved medieval streets.

York Minster is stunning. I forgot how huge and magnificent it is.

Most of us feel like this was the best meal of the trip. We ate the the cutest little pub called "Fat Badger" right around the corner from our airbnb.

Their sunday roast was magnificent, with an amazing yorkshire pudding and everything.

We walked around some of the old city walls.

The next morning we went inside York Minster.

Violet's facials really crack me up.

We left York to grab lunch with Paul and Carol Burdon, an incredible couple I lived with in my first area, Billingham. We ate at Nando's in Stockton and had the best time catching up. The kids especially loved the unlimited soft serve. 

After our lunch with the Burdons, we headed to Whitby. It's such a cute coastal town and we loved exploring.

Probably the highlight was catching crabs with the local kids.

Christine Gunn gave each of the kids a big Cadbury chocolate bar and 5 pounds to spend. Davis bought this little stretchy toy with his 5 pounds.

On the walk up to Whitby Abbey.

We made it up to Whitby Abbey only to realize it closed right before we got there. A good Andy quote at this moment: "This probably would have been my favorite part of the trip." (He was not thrilled that it was closed.)

We headed to Magpie Cafe for the best fish and chips.

Davis is magic at this age.

Such a beautiful place.

We headed back to York and got some fudge. David Gunn had given us 20 pounds to go buy fudge here.

And we bought our own York Ghost from the ghost shop on the shambles.

Davis, always chasing pigeons.

We headed to Huddersfield the next day and stopped to see one of my favorite people ever, Kelly. It was so great to see her! She's so sweet and had bought two cheesecakes and drinks for us. She was so cute with Davis and he loved her. He asked if we could go back and see her the next day. :)

After that, we headed up to Castle Hill! (And passed my old cottage in Almondbury village.) Yorkshire was really showing off that afternoon. Isn't it gorgeous? I wish we would have had more time to explore.

We raced to the Man City stadium after that to hit up their store before it closed. The store employees reminded us the store was about to close a million times, but Max snagged a jersey. And of course we had to get a picture in front of the stadium.

We knew we needed to try some amazing Indian food before we left England, so headed to "curry mile" in Manchester. The area was very sketchy and we were glad our car didn't get broken into while we ate. But the food was incredible and didn't disappoint!

After dinner, we headed to the Manchester airport, checked in our rental car, and spent the night in an airport hotel. It was a very basic hotel room, but Violet said it was her favorite place we stayed because it felt "like home." We flew out the next morning: next stop, France!