Thanks to Peg (a family friend), Matt and I along with Matt’s parents took a trip to England! We left March 29th and returned April 9th, spending 6 days in London and 4 days in southern England near Peg’s house and her family. The main reason for the trip was Peg’s 90th Birthday Party, a celebration that indeed justified a trip “across the pond”!

I enjoyed London, it does not feel like a huge city as New York City does, although there are a lot of people going their separate ways. Thankfully the bus and train (underground) systems are quite good and decently priced so we were able to see more than we could have on foot. I think my favorite part of the trip was spending time in the south. We got to experience the real culture of England! Yes, there are sheep and cattle and horses all over the place. They have supermarkets, although any store over 3,000 sq ft was mandated by law to close on Easter Sunday which was kinda cool. The roads are quite interesting, as you will see in Day 8 when we came across a young girl riding her horse in the road between parked cars on the left and the lane of traffic - which was only wide enough for 1 direction even though it was to be shared among 2 directions of traffic! The castle visited in Day 10 was amazing, made even more so by the fact that a family lives there! Can you imagine growing up in the biggest, coolest house on the block?! There were doors everywhere, such history whispering from the walls and the crazy small stairwells… And the tour was barely one third of the castle area! Imagine the living quarters

I have grouped the photos by day and labeled the main attractions visited on that day, as this was the only way to keep our 1,800 photos somewhat organized!

The weathervanes of England is for Howard… For his birthday on March 28th, Matt and Chris made him a coupola for his barn out of wood and sheet metal. We’d originally tried to purchase a suitable weathervane, then time grew short and we tried to make one but that proved unsuccessful. So Howard/Papa is supposed to be shopping for one he would like, but in the meantime we took pictures of some we saw during our English travels.

As many of you know, both Cindy and I went to Virginia Tech, along with many other close friends and family so this tragedy hits home with us. Cindy was listening to a Christian radio station and realized something, all of the questions people are asking about this tragedy may not be answered right away, if ever, but we can answer people with stories about Jesus!

Nicole Shepard said, “Why has the course of history changed, based on the actions of one man?“… Cindy said, “do you remember December 25 roughly 30 B.C. and Good Friday in the proverbial year of 0 A.D.? Um, the course of history changed based on the actions of one man!!!“

Along with countless Hokies, Americans, and Humans, I am praying for the souls of those lost; praying for the souls of those who are still here and are in complete turmoil; praying - as hard as it is - for the soul of that young man that turned evil… I think we’d all like to know he’s paying for what he did, but in God’s eyes - his sin is just as bad as lying to your friend, stealing that CD back in high school… If God can have mercy on us, he is certainly allowed to have mercy on the VT gunman.

Hokies: Let’s stick together, share God’s word, and PRAY!!!!