Gaping Gill

Saturday was a lazy day of sleeping in and hanging around town. On Sunday, we drive one hour to a place called Ingleborough Hill in the Yorkshire Dales. This hill has one of the deepest caves in all of England called Gaping Gill. It's only open 2 times a year this past weekend being one of them. We tried to go down the famous cave, but it was so crowded that they closed the line down by 3 PM. So plan B was to take a tour of a different cave that's open year round. It was still fun. You'll find pictures below.

Other big news... WE LEAVE FOR SPAIN ON THURSDAY!!! We are both very excited for the break from our hard schedules (especially for Lisa). And we're looking forward to the warm and sunny weather. It's supposed to be in the 80s! Hooray! So this will be the last blog before we get back from our 5 day vacation in Barcelona and Costa Brava. We'll take lots of pictures! :)

TAKE CARE.

The entrance to the Ingleborough Cave.
 

These stagmites are called "Elephant's legs." :)

The cutest caver around!
 

 

It was a 2.5 mile hike to the Gaping Gill. At times, sheep were only 8 feet from us; not your typical hiking environment. :)

All the equipment and the big setup for lowering people down into the hole.

What we missed out on! There was a 5 hour line at 11 AM and it was closed to new people by the time we got there at 3 PM. I downloaded this picture to show you where we tried to go and how awesome it is.

 

Bath

Last weekend we went to Bath, a city just over 100 miles west of London, and a four hour drive from Harrogate. The city is most famous for it's Roman baths (hence the city's name) fed by 3 hot springs. From the Elizabethan to Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. As a result of it's popularity during those periods, the city has a lot of Georgian architecture. Bath is one of the 3 biggest tourist cities in England and is comparable to Florence, Italy.

On another note, Brandon's birthday was good. He had to work all day, but for dinner we went to a new (to us) Italian restaurant in town called EstEstEst. It was very good food! Brandon got a new game, Basari, that we played after dinner. (I showed no mercy to the birthday boy and won, hahaha.) He also received lots of other wonderful presents from friends and family! One gift in particular was a delicious chocolate cake from our small group in California! They ordered a cake and had it shipped to our front door! What awesome and thoughtful friends we have!!!

Well, hope everyone has a great weekend and we love you all! AUF WIEDERSEHEN.

Mmmm... CAKE!
 

 

The birthday boy and our friend Mason who also enjoyed the chocolate cake. (T.shirt: Yay, In'n'Out, we miss you!)

The famous Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol. It is 75 meters high and was completed in 1864.
 

If you look carefully on the right side of the cliff about 1/4 of the way down you will see a lookout point we went to. You have to go underground through a cave to get there.

The cave we went through to get to the lookout spot. It had very low ceilings.

A side view of the Clifton Suspension bridge.

This is one of the most photographed bridges in Bath; I had to be part of the crowd. :) It's unique in that it has shops on either side of it. You can see the store windows in this picture.

The view of the many shops that line the bridge.

This area is called the "Circus" because of the rows of identical, Georgian style residences that wrap around in a complete circle.

 

H A P P Y . B I R T H D A Y .
B R A N D O N !!!

GOD HAS RICHLY BLESSED ME WITH HIS CREATION OF YOU. THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH A WONDERFUL, CARING PERSON AND FOR ALL THE LOVE YOU HAVE SHOWN ME AND MANY OTHERS. YOU HAVE TOUCHED SO MANY LIVES IN THE LAST 25 YEARS AND WE ALL LOVE YOU DEARLY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD!!
XxOOXxoOxO

 

Birthday plans and our crib, hollar!

Conversation of the year...

B: "So where are we going to dinner for my birthday?"
L: "I can't tell you; it's a surprise!!"
B: "Come on... where are you taking me?"
L: "No, I'm not telling you!"
B: "Are we going to pizza hut? Just tell me if it's pizza hut."
L: "Hahaha, no! We're NOT going to pizza hut."
B: "Okay, well I didn't know if you knew that their buffet is only for lunch. It's not a dinner buffet."
L: "Uhhh.... yeah. I knew that. Don't worry, I have something a little classier in mind. I've got it taken care of."
B: "Oh, okay."

Haha, what a husband...

Below, you will find pictures of our flat. It's all pretty self explanatory, but just in case, the captions will explain everything. Oh yeah, and did I mention we get fresh flowers of our choice every other week in addition to a weekly cleaning service. Ahh, I love the King's Court. You would almost think I was getting a little spoiled! Now if only we had a chef... ;)

This past weekend we went to a city called Bath. AND we remembered our camera this time. So that's what's up next. Stay tuned...

This is the front of our building. The top window in the
center of the picture is the window into our living room.

 

The view out our bedroom window

Where the cooking goes down

 

Dining table (note the fresh flowers) and desk area

Living Room