Spontaneous visit

The day after I heard the news about David, I was talking with Andrea and she said that she would come visit. I didn't realize at the time how refreshing and encouraging it would be to have a friend here for a wee bit. I was amazed that Andrea got such a great deal on a plane ticket so last minute, that she was able to get time off of work, and that the weather was so glorious! God surely provides above and beyond what we ask or imagine! So we took a road trip and had a brilliant time exploring some of Scotland. Yes, her visit was also an incentive to learn how to drive my car quite quickly. The first time I shifted into 5th gear was on my drive to pick her up in Edinburgh. I definitely learned how to handle my car on this trip... such as how to abruptly stop when sheep decide to stray onto the road! Here are some picks from our travels.

Here we are in St. Andrews!

This is the beach in St. Andrews where Chariot's of Fire was filmed. I love that movie. Just in case you didn't know, when I play frisbee I feel God's pleasure!

There have been over 2000 castles in Scotland, although many are known through historical records. So we stopped at a few on our journey!

And as you would imagine, there are beautiful gardens at every castle.

In the highlands!

We stopped off at Glen Nevis to hike to Steall Falls. "Glen" is the word used for a valley located in the highlands. Steall Falls is one of the three highest waterfalls in Scotland, where the Allt Coire a'Mhail joins the Water of Nevis.

Yes, this was a one-wire bridge. It was a wee bit scary!

I believe I should invest in some hiking boots! I was the only one I saw wearing sandals.

Isle of Skye

Due to my inexperience with a manual transmission, I was quite nervous when we started out on our road trip. And I often felt like this!

But by the end, I was much more relaxed and felt more like this!

Andrea had never been to London, so we traveled there to see (haha) the London Eye...

Big Ben...

and more!