Famous Angles Never Come Through England

This blog post will be my first official guest post on anyone's blog, ever. Yes. It's Sarah and I'm posting on behalf of Tracy to recount all of our adventures while I was visiting in England September 2nd through September 12th. The title of this post is brought to you by The National. They write all kinds of sad songs that are perfect for days when you miss your best friend who is an ocean away and even the 5 weeks between the day she left and you get to go visit her seem like too long away. But, 5 weeks did eventually pass, Tracy met me at Heathrow, and we wasted no time getting started on enjoying every minute we had together.

After basically dropping off my bags at her apartment, eating some muesli and yogurt, and opening both late and early birthday presents, we were off to see a few of the best sites around Richmond. Of course, we first headed to Richmond Park, which provides Tracy with amazing green space, wild life, and angry birds. I am not the one to identify animals at all, but this is a green bird that nearly scared us to death and we also saw red deer, which really to me looked like cows with antlers. They were so big.


After picking some blackberries, we headed back home to make scones and take naps because we had a huge night planned. I am certainly not a huge musical theater person (although you might not believe that if you knew I had every word of every song in the Sound of Music memorized), but wise Tracy, who often knows me better than I know myself, suggested that we not miss the chance to see Wicked together while I was in London. So, she and Ainsleigh and I headed out the very first night to see it, me for the first time, Ainsleigh for the second, Tracy for the third. She, as always, was right. I was blown away by the talented Rachel Tucker, who plays Elphaba, aka The Wicked Witch of the West. There are times when one watches performances that so elevate the level of genius and brilliance, that these experiences lead those in the audience to want to not just be better in their own endeavors, but to become better people. Watching Miss Tucker perform "Defying Gravity" may very well have been a life-changing moment for me. In the very least, it made me believe even more that we are all destined for greatness if we stop letting the opinions and attitudes of others lead us to doubt ourselves. And, obviously, the final song "For Good" resonated strongly and I left being so very thankful that I did not miss the chance to see it with both Tracy and Ainsleigh.

Saturday started off the best way possible with a trip to the London Temple. I have this irrational goal to try and make it to more than half of the temples around the world before I die. At the rate they are building them, this will surely never happen. Well, unless I take a vacation to Utah, and then without leaving the state I can hit approximately 25% of them. After the temple, and a brief trip to Regent's Park, Tracy and I headed to my favorite London museum, the Tate Modern. On our way there, we checked out some of the new fancy architecture going up in the vicinity.
After we strolled through a small bit of the museum, we walked across the Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Does this picture make me look happy? It should because I was.

Sunday was a day of rest, sort of. We went to Tracy's ward (congregation), where I got to meet so many fabulous people. And, even that night there was a special service with Elder L. Whitney Clayton, Elder Erich W. Kopischke, Elder Kerr, and their wives, who are international leaders of our church. They opened the floor to questions and their answers were all very enlightening and uplifting to me. So, that was pretty awesome, too!

On Monday, Tracy and I ventured out with the kids, and what better place to go than to the Natural History Museum. We learned about giant trees,

(stuffed) monkeys,

dinosaurs,

and Charles Darwin,

not to mention got to ooh and aah over a seriously beautiful building.

After the museum we headed to Chinatown to get lunch. Ainsleigh's favorite restaurant in Chapel Hill is 35 Chinese, so I thought it would be good for her to have a little bit more authentic Chinese food experience. I think the results were positive.

Mid-Autumn festival was coming up, so we got to see Chinatown all decked out in the traditional lanterns. The full moon unfortunately didn't come until the day I left, though.

Monday night was another night at the theater, this time the famous Globe Theater. Tracy and I went to see a Midieval Mystery Play, which is essentially a play that strings together several stories from the Bible (both Old and New Testament) to show both the folly of man, and the wisdom of God. Needless to say, it was amazing. Here is a view of what the stage looked like. While the seats were not the most comfortable ones I've ever sat in, I was glad to have one, considering the other option was standing for the entire 3 hour duration of the play, like the peasants had to.

One superfun treat was I got to be there for Ainsleigh and Rippy's first day of British School. Here is a picture of the infamous uniform (da da dum). That's only part of it, but a pretty big part. Rippy did leave the lightsaber at home...that day.

When we picked Rippy up at school that day, we had noticed a really cute bakery on the way to his school, so we took him there for a treat, and we also picked up one for sister.

Being with the kids again was one of the major highlights of my trip. I miss them like crazy. Once we were home we got all the reports about what the first day was like. Both Ainsleigh's and Rippy's reports focused on the food that they got for lunch, which included such delicacies as "spicy chips", "ham", and "this amazing pasta dish". The lunches were so good that even the ensuing burps were a welcome memory of the meal.
I left Thursday morning to head to York to visit my friends Helen and Craig, and Tracy took the train up on Friday to meet me. After dumping our bags at the hotel, we went on a walk around the city. Tracy was especially impressed with Yorkminster, and the Shambles (the oldest street in York).





On Friday night we got Indian take-out and took it back to Helen and Craig's to eat and we planned our outing for Saturday. We decided to start the day with a hike at the Hole of Horcum in Yorkshire Moors National Park.

Too bad Rippy wasn't with us on this one because we saw so many sheep.
On the day Tracy and the kids left for England, I flew with them to Boston. One of the flight attendants on that flight asked Tracy and I if we were sisters or twins. Tracy says she never sees the resemblance. But, I think in this picture we could almost pass for sisters...well, maybe if I had more eyebrows. I've always thought Tracy has such perfect eyebrows. I have none. But, maybe, just maybe, on a perfect day like this one, we could pass for more than just the cosmic kind of sisters. Being outside in fields of heather on beautiful days together make for perfect days, evidently.





From the Hole of Horcum we kept driving north to the town of Whitby, home of Whitby Abbey (on the top of the hill).


Whitby is on the eastern coast of England, on the North Sea. The sun came out exactly as we reached the coast, and just in time for us to enjoy some seriously good fish and chips, which most people agree, are the best in England.

We spent Sunday with Craig and Helen and attended church with them in their congregation, and then the afternoon lounging on their couches talking about all kinds of interesting topics. It was so good to catch up with them and their new baby and I was so happy for them to meet Tracy and for Tracy to meet them.

Monday was my last morning in England. We walked the kids to school and then Tracy took me to Heathrow and stood in line with me until she had to leave to go pick up Rippy from school. Thank goodness I will see them again soon. It was a good visit, but never long enough. And, it is always too long until the next time.


So, famous angels don't usually swing by England. And, it may never get the ones it needs. But, best friends have been known to stop by. And, maybe sometimes, that is enough. Well, for at least 5 weeks.