Being seven hours ahead of Salt Lake, our first session of General Conference was not until 5 pm. Our stake center is in Reading, 20 miles north of us- so, as we would be driving a bit anyway, we decided to take in Oxford before conference.
It has started to be a running joke that the sun comes out whenever we're indoors but as soon as we get outside it clouds over. Truly it was sunny and beautiful on our drive, and literally, the moment we stepped out of the car, the wind picked up and the clouds came rolling in. Then, the second we got back to the car the sun started shining away again.
We enjoyed a short visit to Oxford. We popped into a couple of museums. One had a special exhibition on Gulliver's Travels- with a trail for the kids to follow along with Gulliver to explore inventions and to explore the small microscopic world. At the Bodleian Library there was an exhibit on John Milton with original pages of Paradise Lost and his Areopagitica. The blossoms have been coming out and they were so lovely against the backdrop of the stone architecture.
We left Oxford with what should have been enough time to get to Reading, but half-way there the road was closed by the police. We were sent off to discover a new way to Reading. We traveled through some quaint little villages with thatched-roofed cottages and beautiful bridges and streams, BUT we we had no clue where we were and luckily meandered back to the road headed to Reading. Sadly, we were 20 minutes late to conference and missed the sustaining of the First Presidency and calling of Elder Christofferson. But we did catch some of the end- including the calling of Sister Dalton. Oh well, we did get to see some of England we may never have visited right?
3 comments:
Oh, it sounds BEAUTIFUL! You need to keep a camera in your purse (if you don't already!) for unexpected moments and detours such as this! I'd love to see the quaint little thatched roofs! :)
Gretchen, do you remember being in Oxford when you were 7? We walked down a street and talked about Oxford shoes and Oxford town. We stayed in one of the college dorms and learned about how Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. Somewhere is a little door, blue as I recall, that inspired him. How wonderful that you are back there with your own children around that very age.
I should be making dinner right now but instead I'm looking at the pictures on your blog and dreaming........
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