Sometimes back home we get these punks who come in from places like Vail, Colorado or Portland, Oregon and tell us that the Appalachian Mountains aren't real mountains on account of their height.  If that be the case then I suggest that any man under 6' tall isn't a real man.

It's often difficult to distinguish between mountains and hills, though, isn't it?  The subjectivity is astounding.  I've always believed that if I can run up the side of an incline without taking a breather, then it's a hill; that no person can literally run up a mountainside in one quick burst.  I guess that doesn't do much to settle the subjectivity of the matter since your aerobic capacity may vary considerably.  For instance, I consider pulling myself out of these tiny British cars to be exercise (I'm 6'2'' and am, therefore, a real man).

Well, to conclude our stay with Paul and Kathy Bridson they took us to a region of Central Scotland called the Trossachs.  We hiked up what I consider to be a small mountain because I was certainly out of breath when we reached the top.  The views, however, were extraordinary!  What an incredible way to see Central Scotland, and I mean we literally could see ALL of Central Scotland, as far as the Forth Bridge!  Here are some of the views.



 Above is a look out over Stirling (Braveheart anyone?).  Stirling Castle sits atop that hill in the middle of the picture.
 Those of you who hiked around Loch Lomond with us last summer will be interested in the above pic as that is Ben Lomond peeking above the horizon in the distance.



This is Paul and Kathy Bridson with their grandson Rory.  What a generous family.  They were so hospitable, and I'm glad they were our first host family in Scotland; made us feel right at home.

This week we are staying with James and Jenny McGimpsey -- the couple that led the N. Ireland trip.  We've enjoyed building a friendship with them.  Last night we bonded over an indulgence of Belgian Chocolate and "Downton Abbey."  Great fun!  Tonight the girls will join a baby shower for Abby Brown while the guys join the youth at an event in Edinburgh called Powerpoint.  Should be a good evening.

For those of you wondering, we are, in fact, getting quite a bit of work done here in the U.K.  I'm keeping up with school prep. for August and spend much of my free time reading ancient history. There are plenty of ministry opportunities, as well.  We got to hang out with some teenage students during their lunch hour at school the past couple of weeks.  I can't post pictures due to protection regulations, but know that it is a great opportunity to minister to these guys (yes, all guys).  Sarah and I are also enjoying the Link small groups.  Prayer group meets on Tuesday nights and house groups meet on Wednesdays.  Great time of intercession and fellowship.

That's all for now.  Hope all is well with you, wherever you may be -- except for those of you in Vail or Portland: You need to sit down and do some serious thinkin'.

Here are some photos Sarah took at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.  We had a really nice time with the Bridsons and their granddaughter Katie.











Here are some shots we took in the glen near Dunfermline Abbey with Maureen Altman.

I (Keenan) learned a valuable lesson this past weekend: Belfast residents get worked up when you refer to their land as Ireland. "NORTHERN IRELAND! NORTHERN IRELAND!" is the response I got (both times) while speaking in front of a group. The Dunfermline Link youth group invited us to join them on a weekend trip to Belfast. James and Jenny McGimpsey, natives of N. Ireland living in D'fermline, host the youth house group every week and wanted to connect some of the young Linkers with their friends, family, & church back home in Belfast. Sarah and I were privileged to go along with the group. We drove across the country to board a ferry south of Glasgow. The 2 hour journey across the Irish Sea was immaculate. James makes this trip on a regular basis and said this was some of the best weather he'd ever had. Sarah captured some marvelous pictures of the sunset from the deck.












 We were greeted by Stephen & his wife, Paula. After loading the cars, we went on a late-evening tour of Belfast, which included a look at the Titanic dockyards & museum. The ship was constructed in Belfast. Below you can see some of the museum & ramp pictures.

Above is a scale outline (in blue) of where the Titanic would have sat before being slipped into the harbor. While the group stayed with Stephen and Paula, Sarah and I were housed with another very hospitable couple. Riley and Tanya live west of the city and have a beautiful view over the valley and the city below.












On Saturday we joined the group on a tour of the northern coastline, which included the Giant's Causeway. It was really a great time of fellowship with the D-Link youth as well as with our hosts. Several of the youth I had met on a trip to Scotland last summer. Really a great group!


Our hosts' church welcomed us for a youth event Saturday night as well as worship on Sunday morning. It was great to see the Scotland youth making friends with the N. Irish youth. They really hit it off. Lord willing this will be just the beginning of their friendship. The youth leaders from both countries seem interested in continuing this relationship. A truly memorable first weekend in the U.K.

Keenan and I have made it to Scotland!  Wanted to do a quick post about our journey and our happenings so far.  We flew out Monday night and when we tried to give our boarding passes to the attendant to get on the plane, they weren't working and we were asked to step aside!  I think we were both a little bit worried at that point but then they came back telling us they had changed our seats and guess what....we were upgraded!!!  We were upgraded to World Traveller Plus, which is behind first class and the business class cubicles.  We were even in the front row of this section so Keenan was able straighten his legs out COMPLETELY in front of him!  Isn't that amazing!!!

Made it to London and had a short layover so we exchanged a little money and got some breakfast!  Then, we took a short flight here to Scotland and Iain picked us up from the airport.  We went to their home and visited a bit with Norma then went back to Paul and Kathy's house which is where we are staying for about a week.  We ate dinner and couldn't keep our eyes open past 6:30 and so we headed to bed.  Woke up around 9:30 and at 1:30.  At 1:30 we were so awake that we decided to watch an episode of Planet Earth.  Then, right back to sleep until morning!

On Wednesday, we went to the Allens for a sort of planning session for the trip.  We filled in our calendars with dates and times of various events.








It was raining outside so I wasn't able to get too many pictures but it is a beautiful Abbey.  I am sure I will get some more later on our trip.  After we left the Abbey, we walked to the bus station for some information on the buses then came to a coffee shop where we are right now.  We are just relaxing/doing some work until it is time to take the bus back to Paul and Kathy's for dinner.  We will be going to a garden party tomorrow in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee and then will be going with the youth to Ireland tomorrow.  I think we will be driving along the coast doing a little sightseeing while we are there and then attending a youth conference on Saturday afternoon.  We will return on Sunday and I think Keenan and I have Monday off to rest up so hopefully we will be able to post about our Ireland trip then!


Things I have learned so far:
-bacon is not the same thing in the UK
-you have to look right, left, right
-plugs are different
-it rains a lot (haha, j/k, I already knew this!)
-it only gets dark for a few hours here (about 11pm-3:30am)

I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I just can't think of right now.  I will try to remember some more of them for my next post!!!

>>>

Here are some pics from the retreat:

Liz, the fabulous host, watching over us!

Quilters in action, sewing, cutting, ironing and of course, asking Lori for help!  Its something I do at least every 5 minutes!  Ha!

Mabel Ann and Dottie....I seriously LOVE them!  I look forward to quilt retreat because I see them there every year.  Dottie was so sweet to let me borrow her heating pad when I was going through chemo and I can honestly say it improved each treatment SO much!  

PS- Chemo is kept in the freezer up until the moment they pull it out to put it into your IV.  Yeah, frozen liquid straight into a vein please.  Doing that for 4 hours leaves you very chilled!  I would put the heating pad behind me and cover with a blanket!

 Front half of the room.....

Back half of the room. 

Snack bar and location of Happy Hour, I mean, appetizers. 

A big cutting board.... 

and another iron.  I think there are 4 or 5 irons going at once!! 

And the other start of quilt retreat.  The food.  Oh, the food.  SO. GOOD.  

I really look forward to the food as much as the quilting!  

And the company of course!!  My mother in law, Lori, and Renay.  She is one of my favorite people and I enjoy getting to hang out with her for an entire weekend.

They are so silly! 

So, thats quilt retreat.  How many days until next year's????

PS- Just to let you know what's going on in real time here is Sarah-land.  I tried to figure out a grinder today, it didn't work.  So, all I really managed to do was spill about 2 cups of wheat berries into the floor of my pantry.  For real.  I know I swept them up, but I'm sure I will continue to step on them for months days to come.  Ha!

PPS- More real Sarah-stuff.  I just went back to put my strikethrough font for some words and accidentally made most of the post in that font.  Just spent the last 20 minutes trying to undo it.  Couldn't figure it out.  Then, saw a strikethrough button (blogger redid some things so I don't have to go into and edit the html code anymore).  Yeah, all I had to do was highlight the text and click the button undo it.  Just like it was a bold font or something.  I thought about just leaving it and just telling you to read through it.  Sigh....