Thursday, June 3rd, From Jason's Diary

...We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland a little after 12:10pm. The trip from Newcastle to Edinburgh was impressive - so far the most glorious scenery in the UK thus far. It was an incredibly beautiful day. Warm. Blue sky, white puffy clouds. This part of England and into Scotland is full of rolling hills, farms, sheeps grazing in the fields. For a stretch the train followed the coastline with the red roofs of the sea-side villages against the blue of the Atlantic.

We took the train from Edinburgh to Linlithgow. Rachel picked us up at the train station in Linlithgow. It was so fun to see her again; hardly changed, she is so vibrant and full of energy and life. We decided to go immediately to Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. Rachel dropped us off, and went to her kids race day at school. Jenny and Jacob toured the very impressive castle, while Julian, Judah, Jackie and I sat on the emerald green grass overlooking a Loch. We layed back in the grass, watched the clowds, rested. Then Judah and I, and eventually Julian, joined Jenny and Jacob in exploring the castle.



We walked to the school where we met Rachel and Matt, as well as their kids Cameron and Heather (both 8), Alistair (?), and Ian. After running a few races in the field with the kids, we drove out of Linlithgow to Matt and Rachel's home. It is a beautiful sprawling farmhouse that looks over fields and trees and is VERY kid friendly; there were all kinds of fun things for the kids to do: basketball, soccer, trampoline, sand pit, etc.

Matt barbequed. We had sausage and British Bacon (which is a different cut than US bacon) and baked potatoe and broccoli as well as a Scottish specialty, Haggis (sp?) which I quite liked. After dinner there was more time for play, then a dessert of Merangue, Strawberries, Blueberries and clotted cream.

Before bed our two families worshipped together. Than the kids went to bed. We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Matt and Rachel. Delightful...so interesting to learn of God's work in their life.