The Watchman is Coming: England Day 3

Today we visited Alnwick (pronounced an-nick).  First we played in the gardens.

Remember this picture?  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151426249299787&set=a.10151426214409787.507947.677414786&type=3&theater

 While we were there, it decided to hail and rain.  It was awfully cold.

So, we took refuge in the bamboo maze. 

The sun decided to come out for a moment so we could get these nice shots of the fountains.

Then we were hungry (no surprise there), so we decided to have lunch in the Tree House.  Needless to say, it was awesome.

Then we headed over to the castle.  When we got there, we went to the "Lost Tombs", where they put on a little 20 minute skit in the catacombs. My dear husband was extremely scared.  He made me walk into the dark rooms first and everything. I think I laughed the whole time.  Later we walked around the staterooms which were extremely ornate and beautiful.  They had a huge library that I was extremely envious of. 

This is Alnwick Castle.  They filmed a handful of Harry Potter scenes here a few of which include: the Whomping Willow, the first broomstick lesson, where the three friends first meet, and a few others. I about died of happiness.

After that, we drove to Newcastle and had dinner with Sister Madeline Scott and Sam Bass.  It was lovely.  Then we met up with Cindy Tsang and walked to an across the bridges from Newcastle to Gateshead.  Brett finally got his picture on the bridge.  Look and behold.

Happy Days.

Super: England Day 2

This morning we drove to this Harry Potter film spot in Malham.

Climbed up these treacherous stairs to get there.

Took some classy pictures....

... with our make-shift wand.

See?

SEE?!

It's a pretty awesome place.

This is the view from the bottom.

If you look, you can see people standing on the wall.  It's THAT huge.

It was raining the whole time, hence the soaking wet hair.

We had a stick race in the river.  (I lost.)

Brett won!!!

Cute little bridge.

Pretending to fall in.

Lots of sheep.
 (not in this picture, but everywhere in Malham and generally in England)  

Then we headed to Allerton Castle - where they filmed the 1993 Secret Garden.
Unfortunately it was closed,
but we got to get very close to the outside.
It was still cool. 

After these day trips, we headed back to Leeds to see Brett's mission presidents.
It was fantastic to finally meet them.
 Brett was extremely happy to see them again.
He was one happy boy.
We're both excited for them to come home in July.

We had this beautiful sunset as we drove to Hartlepool
 to visit and stay with Brett's friend Sam Fletcher.

Driving on the Right Side of the Car, the Left Side of the Road, and in Teeny Little Lanes: England Day 1

On Tuesday, Brett finished his last final and we took off to England. Shout out to Aunt Allyson for driving us to the airport. We arrived in Manchester on Wednesday at 3:35pm. We visited a few of Brett's old friends and then fell asleep. Here are some pictures that are more exciting than my writing.

p.s. This is from my iPod so I can't do anything fancy with the photos but I'll update it tonight.