A Day in Belfast

This past January, Luke and a few other Old Testament students spent a few days in Cambridge at the Society of Old Testament Studies (SOTS).  There they happened upon a professor from Queen's University in Belfast who owns a second home near the coast in Northern Ireland.  They were able to use their stunning good looks and combined intellect to their advantage and were offered the chance to use said house for a brief holiday.  Free place to stay = DONE!

So in April, Luke and I decided to take a long weekend and head to Northern Ireland with our friends Kurt and Erin.  We flew in late on Thursday night and hired a car to drive while we were there.  Fortunately we have a GPS.  Unfortunately it sometimes takes a long time to connect to satellites when in a different country.  Luckily said professor had emailed the guys pretty detailed instructions on how to get to the house from the airport.

You may remember from our trip to the Highlands last fall that Luke got a pink car to drive around.  As we were walking through the airport we were taking bets on what color car we would get this time.  I said lime green because that was what was on the website and I was completely joking.  Until we walked out to the lot and hit the unlock button.  This little green guy was the only green car in the entire lot.  But he was ours!

On Friday morning we drove back into Belfast so that Luke and Kurt could nerd it up with a couple of the professors at the university.  While they were doing that, Erin and I explored the city.  I knew absolutely nothing about Belfast or what we should do there so we just wandered around and happened upon City Hall.  The building is impressive on the outside but it is stunning on the inside.  Unfortunately the pictures don't even begin to portray it but you can enjoy anyway.

After we met up with the boys, we headed to the Crown Bar for lunch.  It is a Victorian bar that has been restored and is pretty neat inside.  The booths are called "snugs" and have doors.  It's like having your own private little space in the bar.

After lunch we headed back towards the university to take pictures and to the Ulster Museum.  I often find that I can handle museums for a bit but after a while I feel like I'm going in circles - seeing the same things over again.  However, the Ulster Museum has so many different exhibits that I stayed interested the entire time we were there.

 
And here are a few of the university.

I'm not sure what else there is to do in Belfast, but we had a successful day.

Miss you & love you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther

Linlithgow Palace

Still working on getting caught up on all of our spring adventures, but since my mom and Steve just left, Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris will be here in two weeks and then we head to Spain at the end of the June I think it's time to get all of these posted before I get even more behind.

In March, our friends Andrew and Stephenie decided that they wanted to plan a day trip to one of the Historic Scotland properties in an attempt to start getting their new baby out and about.  Somehow it also turned out to be a beautiful spring day in Edinburgh.  The first one where you could actually feel warmth from the sun if the wind wasn't blowing.

We decided to go to Linlithgow Palace which is about a 30 minute train ride from Edinburgh and easy to walk to from the station.  It is a ruin but most of the structure is still there.  And it is very different than the castles that we have been to.  The building is a perfect square with rooms that all along the outside and a large open courtyard in the middle.  And the property sits in a giant park with a loch.  I'd love to go back at some point this summer when the trees and flowers are all in bloom because it was beautiful.

I felt like I was in a create your own adventure book as I walked through the palace.  You could walk into one room and choose two or three different ways to move on.  You could go up or down or move on to the next room on the same level.  I think you could walk through the palace a dozen times and never go the same way twice.

After exploring the palace, we walked through the park and down to the loch.  There were lots of geese so we took the remnants of the bread from our picnic lunch to them.  As soon as they figured out that we had bread they jumped out of the water and were after us.  Talk about a tame goose!  Unfortunately Stephenie does not like large birds so she worried about us the entire time.

Jackie feeding the goose

It was a great day out with friends and we look forward to similar trips in the future.

Jackie, me and Stephenie

Will, Jackie, me, Luke, Andrew, Kadence and Stephenie

Love you and miss you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther

The Lake District - Day 2

For the second day of our trip we decided to take it a bit easier.  We opted for the mile walk back to Bowness to catch the Lake Cruise up to Ambleside.  Ambleside was a super cute town and I wish we would have taken more pictures of the town itself.  Because it was lightly snowing on us throughout the day it felt like we were in a tiny ski village.  But unfortunately there is no skiing to be had.

We did take a walk through a Roman Fort on our way in to town.  There's not much left to see but it's neat to think that it's been there since AD79.

  

From there our stroll took us by some interesting sites.

This tree is growing out of a rock!

Unfortunately day 2 was much colder than day 1 so by this point we were craving a warm meal and somewhere inside to defrost.  Ambleside is a VERY pup friendly town and we found a super cute cafe with lots of pups and really good food.  After lunch, we walked up to a lovely waterfall.  We were warned that the falls might not be running too high because it hadn't rained in a while.

At home that would mean that the waterfall would only be a trickle.  Here that means it's still pouring like crazy.

The path took you up one side and down the other.  Because for a waterfall to work the water has to actually fall we were pretty high up for most of the walk and Luther was a bit upset that he couldn't get to the water.  But he got to go swimming when we got to the bottom so the world was right again.

There were a few neat things on the path.  Here are a few pics.

This tree had all kinds of coins wedged into it.  Not sure who started this tradition or why.

We left the following morning but not before having breakfast.  Unfortunately Windermere is not quite as dog friendly as Ambleside so we had to dine al fresco.  However, the restaurant did have heat lamps and blankets which was nice.  And I had a very handsome date.

It was a short weekend but it was definitely much needed and was a lot of fun.  I'd love to go back in the summer when everything is in bloom.

Love you and miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther

The Lake District - Day 1

Back at the end of February (yes, two months ago and I'm just now getting this posted), Luke and I took a long weekend and jumped on the train to Lake Windermere, England.  It was a great weekend with acceptable weather and beautiful scenery.  

I rented a cozy little flat through airbnb.com in Windermere.  It was perfect for us for 3 nights but any more and I think we would have gone a bit stir crazy.  But it was a 5 minute walk from the train station and 2 minutes to the store. 

On the Friday we packed lunches and headed out to do a LOT of walking.  We stopped by the tourist centre, picked up a map for £1 and headed off.  The first leg of the walk took us down a walled path out of the town centre and into the Lake District National Park along the Wynlass Beck (stream).

From here it took it right to the lake which we walked along for a while.  Lake Windermere is the largest natural lake in England.  Because we went in February, there was still snow on the mountain peaks which made for some pretty cool views.

From here we left the lake and crossed a field of sheep to head to our next stop on the walk.  Trespassing is not really a thing in England so most defined walks will cross private property at some point.  We just have to be careful with Luther because he hasn't learned that sheep think he looks like a wolf rather than the cute, cuddly puppy we all know he is.

Our next stop was Brant Fell which is a hill over the lake that gives you a great panoramic view of the countryside.  This too was in the middle of a sheep farm so we had to keep Luther on leash.

Rather than complete the circuit at this point, we headed down to Bowness-on-Windermere and caught the ferry to the other side of the lake.  It was £1.50 for each of us and only took about 10-15 minutes.  Our goal was Wray Castle which is a 4 mile walk from the ferry.  Either we didn't see the correct signs to the castle or it wasn't marked because rather than take the easy flat road along the lake we took the steep hike up the mountain to get there.  It was a beautiful hike, but it was tough.  Luckily we found a spot where we could come back down pretty easily to take the lake path the rest of the way.  

Unfortunately the castle was closed due to renovations, but we took a few pictures and walked around the grounds for a bit.  And that's where we found the giant picture frame at the top of this post!

We also found this guy!  Not sure what the heck he's doing in the UK.

And then we walked by Wray Church on our way back to the ferry.  As is typical for any British church, the yard doubles as a cemetery.  Apparently the ground is a bit rocky because there were a few who weren't buried very deep.

   
All in all - I think we determined that we walked about 15 miles on Friday.  Needless to say everyone was exhausted and both boys were asleep by 9pm.  Luckily we were all able to sleep well and get rested up for day 2.

Love and miss you!
Aubs, Luke  & Luther

Cooking in the UK - Breakfast Casserole

After going home for Christmas, some friends of our brought their dog back to Edinburgh with them.  We've been getting the dogs together for long walks to play and burn some energy.  Last weekend Luke had to work so he didn't get to join us.  This weekend we planned an outing to the west side of the city and invited our friends over for brunch before our adventure.  Unfortunately Bethany hurt herself Friday night and wasn't able to join us so we're still working to find a time when all 6 of us can go explore.  Luckily there are so many places to explore that eventually we should be able to do that.

Anyway - as I was deciding what to make for brunch I thought back to this awesome breakfast casserole that our friend Megan introduced to us.  It's your typical breakfast casserole with eggs, sausage or bacon and eggs.  Should be no problem, right?  Wrong!

I am most thankful for my iPhone when I am at the grocery store.  I always have to Google substitutes or UK equivalents or what things are called by the Brits.  Yesterday I had to Google both Swiss cheese and frozen hash browns.  

Luckily Swiss cheese was easy.  Apparently Swiss cheese is actually an American version of Swiss Emmental cheese.  Done.

Hash browns were not so easy.  There is a section about 6 feet long of frozen potatoes but the only hash browns are shaped like triangles.  Not exactly what I needed for my casserole.  So I did the Google and learned that I could boil potatoes and then shred them to make my own.  And that's what I did.  

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I was rushing and my hands were all covered in potato while I was trying to take the picture.

It was a success!!!  The casserole tasted great and it was probably actually better for us because the potatoes were fresh.

So that's my second adventures in cooking story for you.  Moral of the story is - always keep your smart phone handy and give yourself some extra time in case you have to substitute.  

Here's the recipe so that you can enjoy the awesomeness that is this breakfast dish.

Cheesy Amish Breakfast Casserole

1 pound sliced bacon, diced (or 1 pound sausage because I'm not a big fan of the bacon here)

1 sweet onion, chopped

4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed (or 4 cups freshly made shredded potatoes)

9 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese 

1 1/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; cook and stir bacon and onion until bacon is evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain. Transfer bacon and onion to a large bowl. Stir in potatoes, eggs, Cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, and Swiss cheese. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish.

Bake in preheated oven until eggs are set and cheese is melted, 45 to 50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Love you & miss you!

Aubs, Luke & Luther