The North: York, Preston & Liverpool

We just had our 1st long (well 3 day long) trip up North to see York, Preston & Liverpool. But before I get into that can I just Wicked was amazing here! Unfortunately (well fortunately) Oliver wasn't playing the night we were supposed to go so we all got to go see Wicked instead-fine by me! I thought it was better than the SF production-maybe it was due to the British accents or to the fact that I knew the music way better & what to expect in the plot but it was amazing! Loved it even more the 2nd time around.



All right now on to the North. It was a 4 hour drive up there & honestly I didn't really know what to expect. We 1st went to York where we stopped off at Fountains Abbey. It was 800 acres of beautiful countryside where the monks in medieval times used to practice. The monastery was incredible & made for some fun photo-ops as the pics down below show. And let me just say it would be an awesome set-up for a big game of hide & go seek or sardines haha




Friday we went to Preston to see the church history sites. It was freezing! My toes were numb & we were all so chilled making it hard to focus. But our tour guide was a nice LDS guy so it was cool to get to see all the sites & hear about them from his perspective. We saw where the 1st missionaries came & preached in 1837, the river where the 1st LDS baptisms in Britain were performed, where Joseph Smith's dentist lived, where President Hinckley got the letter from his Dad saying "forget yourself & go to work" and then last but not least we got to go the Preston temple. I LOVE getting to go to temples overseas. They are smaller & not as crowded but there is just such a good spirit about them. I remember when I went to the Switzerland temple in Bern by myself & had such a good day up there just walking around the temple grounds. Even though we didn't get to do any work in the temple-it just felt neat to be outside of the Preston temple where much of the foundation of the church began.

We ended our journey up North in Liverpool where Beatle mania was felt! We got to go through the Beatles Exhibit, see the Cavern Club, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. My love for the Beatles & their story definitely grew some that day. It was a great trip up North & just made me see how much England has to offer!