Blessed be our God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

2 Corinthians 1:3

Scotland, North Ireland and Ireland

The city of Edinburgh. It was a very impressive city. Back when it was built the people were fined if they built out so everything was built up. Many of the old buildings have double and triple basements on them. I didn't get a very good photo to show how tall some of the buildings really are, but it was quite impressive.

A watch tower in a cemetery in Edinburgh. There was a medical school there and to keep the students from digging up the bodies back in the day they had to construct watch towers and pay people to watch over the new gravesites.

An inner banquet hall of Stirling Castle. That wood ceiling has been reconstructed, but it is a replica of what use to be there when it was built back in the late 1400's early 1500's. There isn't a single nail or screw in it. All the wood pieces were intricately cut and engineered to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The Queen's Yacht

To set this table on the yacht would have taken three hours. Each piece would have been measured with a ruler to make sure all spacing was the same for each place setting. I thought that was kind of crazy so I took a picture of it. :)

We got to watch the sheepdogs herd sheep in the Highlands of Scotland. Each of them were individual trained so the Sheppard could call out different commands to each of them as they were bringing in the sheep. It was neat to watch the sheep dogs work.

This is Glen Coe. I loved learning the history of the place. You should look it up if you get a chance, but the short version of it is the Lord of Glen Coe was late about 8 days late in pledging his allegiance to the new king because they had had an unusual early and hard winter and he had had trouble getting out of the Coe to go pledge is allegiance to the new king. In the spring the king had sent the Campbell clan in and they had been given orders to massacre the McDonald Clan at Glen Coe. Before they did however they had resided in the homes of the McDonald Clan and feasted upon their hospitality. When the shot rang out on a morning three or four days later they killed everyone in the McDonald Clan that were unable to flee the Coe.

 

The cottage where Robert Burns the Scottish poet grew up.

The City Hall of Belfast, North Ireland.

Inside the City Hall.

The Titanic was built in a shipyard in Belfast. This is a scaffolding only about a third of the height from which men would work as they constructed large ships like the Titanic. They would work from trusses like this with out any anchors or support. There were often many fatalities.

One of the gates that hung at the entrance to the shipyard where the Titanic was built.

 

The Giant's Causeway

 

 

One of the Giant's boots.

The Walled City, also known as Derry. The history of this city is also pretty neat if you aren't familiar with it, it to is a good read. Inside the walled city lived the Catholics and outside the city walls were the Protestants. There was a lot of contention between the two groups at one time in North Ireland.

Yeats' grave....though they don't really know that he is buried there. He actually died in France I think.

 

One of the homes in the Ulster American Folk Park.

 

The haunted castle we stayed in for two night. Kildonan Castle.

Cliffs of Mohr

I Heard This Artist in Ireland. I love her music :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGd7SdeaSXI

I May be Miss Broken Jaw, but I can Still go Backpacking!

11 days after my biking accident I found out I had broken my jaw. I had been out to dinner with my friend Amy and was chewing  on some Garlic Naan. I heard a loud crack and pop. The pain that shot through my jaw at that moment, about dropped me to the floor. It was then I admitted my jaw wasn't feeling any better since the accident. I went and saw a dentist the next day and had my jaw x-rayed

Before the dentist had seen the x-ray he told me he thought the pop had just been my TMJ joint popping because of pressure that had built up in the joint from the accident. He said I would have known right after it had happened if I had broken my jaw. However, after one look at the x-ray he said, "No, it looks like you definitely broke it."

After looking at the x-ray he thought I probably separated the bone further as I tried eating solid foods after my biking accident. He said the fracture was bigger on one end. After speaking with a specialist and determining that my bite wasn't off much I was told I wouldn't have to have my jaw wired shut, but that I'd be restricted to a liquid diet for three weeks and a soft foods diet for two more weeks after that. :(

Have no fear, my broken jaw didn't keep me from going backpacking! :) I took two short trips into the backcountry these past three weeks. One was an overnight trip in the Uintas and the other was a three day trip in the Beartooth Wilderness.The overnight trip in the Uintas was probably the hardest as I had just learned my jaw was broken and hadn't really figured out what things I could have that would give me substance in the backcountry. Beartooths was two weeks later and a few days before I was told I could start eating soft foods, so I cheated a little and ate some soft foods up in Beartooth :)

Pictures from the Uintas:

 

Beartooth Wilderness Trip:

Family Backpacking Trip in The Winds

Awesome trip with the family! Not everyday does a 30 lbs. Porcupine decide to visit camp! I still hear that shot echoing off the mountains :)

The fishing was good and the kids kept us all entertained!

A Day of Paddle Boarding at Slide Lake and One at Yellowstone Too!

Good times had by all! Ray came up from Arizona. We spent Friday night at Slide Lake on the paddle boards. Saturday we decided to go up to Yellowstone for the day. It's a good thing our Yellowstone trip was all about what we didn't see :)

I'm still not sure how Ray missed seeing that fish at Ripple Pool, but he did. As far as that lion....I never saw it ;)