We're Still Traveling....

As most of you probably know, we recently returned to the U S of A on October 2nd.  It was bittersweet for us because we were leaving behind a life to which we had become accustomed and friends that had become and still are very dear to us. 

We were also happy to see our families back "home" and to be around for the holidays this year.  Since we have been back we have visited both of our families and had the chance to spend several days in the mountains for my (Autumn) birthday with my family.

Now we are just looking for our next steps and figuring out what to do now.  Casey and I both have ideas about what we would like to do both now and in the future, but we also are reminded of Proverbs 16:9,  "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."  We are trusting His timing and direction for our next move.

A month or so ago, I thought about how we weren't traveling to any "exotic" new places for now, but I realized that we're still on a journey....

We are still traveling...

A North Coast Holiday...

Last week we took a trip up to the North Coast of Northern Ireland, sort of a last hoorah before heading back to the US on Tuesday.  Some sweet friends of ours offered their holiday home to us for a few days in a quaint coastal town called Portstewart.  It was the perfect getaway for us and again reminded us how much we are going to miss this place.  One of our first blog posts from here was from the Giants Causeway on the North Coast, and while we didn't go back there specifically, it was somewhat fitting to visit the same area almost exactly a year later.

View of the cows out the window where we stayed

Our first stop Wednesday was one of Casey's dreams--to play a links course on the sea...The Old Course at Portstewart

Thursday was the only day we had rain on our trip (which is a miracle for here!) but we decided to go to a place called Mussenden Temple. 

Mussenden Temple sits right on the edge of a cliff by the sea. We found out that it actually was intended as a library on a family estate.

Casey standing down below

Here are the ruins of the estate:

 The rest of the day was pretty rainy, but we went to a place called Morelli's in Portstewart and enjoyed coffee and cheesecake by the sea.

Friday was our busiest day and we started by going to Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.  Fishermen used to cross to a small island for salmon fishing using a rope bridge.  It's now a famous tourist attraction and a place with beautiful views.

View of one of the cliffs toward Ballintoy.

You can see the rope bridge crossing over to the island here.

Crossing the bridge was quite an experience!

Looking down to the chasm below

Casey took pictures of me going over the 2nd time...I squealed the first time

Almost across

 We traveled along the beautiful coastline, but our favorite photo was overlooking White Park Bay...

We then went to Portrush and walked along the beach by the white cliffs....

If you remember our Dunluce castle pictures from last fall, this is the view of the same castle from down below

Harbor at Portush

 We went back to Portrush late in the afternoon and enjoyed a really nice dinner and sunset...

Sorry for the photo overload!!

We really enjoyed our trip to the North Coast and now we're packing up to leave Northern Ireland.  We're sad to leave but glad we had this experience.

Looking forward to more adventures elsewhere...

Walking the Ulster Way....

(Blog title recommended by our friend Adam who was our tour guide to Crawfordsburn Park)

On Sunday afternoon we went to Crawfordsburn Park in East Belfast.  We were surprised at how woodsy and scenic it was.

It had a few open fields full of wildflowers...

But soon we were walking along a wooded path beside water.....

Then this random giant bridge was in one of the clearings.....

Then through the woods some more, we stumbled upon a small waterfall.....

 And then a really big waterfall....

Um, I really like this door....a lot....Adam said it led to Narnia...I wish....

Somewhere along the path we saw a sign that we were walking on the Ulster Way....

Cave Hill Adventure....

This is what we see everyday when we walk to work, school, or church...

The mountain in the distance is Cave Hill, about 5 miles north of where we live.  It is sometimes called Napoleon's nose because if you look at it from the side it looks like a face.  Back in October we took a trip to Belfast Castle which is on the side of the mountain (you can view that trip here: Special Days), but we didn't have the chance to go to the top of Cave Hill then.  So, we both wanted to go back and finally made the trip a few weeks ago.

The trip itself was a fun adventure.  We rode our bikes along the bikepath that follows the Lagan River into the city centre.  We parked our bikes and walked to the bus stop, taking a bus like you see in the above picture all the way to Cave Hill Park.  Then we got to climb the mountain!

Yes, this is why it is called Cave Hill.

There were pretty wildflowers and heather everywhere.

View of McArt's Fort

It was a bit of a hazy day, but this is looking down on the city from McArt's Fort.

After climbing Cave Hill, we went back to the city centre to Starbucks.

The City Hall had the Olympic rings up because Northern Ireland is a part of the UK--the Olympic host country.  I (Autumn) really enjoyed getting to watch the Olympics from a different country especially the host country!  Definitely a different perspective.

Albert Clock

The Fish

These two pictures above are two of Belfast's landmarks.  The Fish has a mosaic of different pictures of people and places, one of them being Albert Clock below.

We had a fun day, and it was nice to take a little adventure around the city....

Summer?

It's August already?

Bare with us while we play catch-up on our summer happenings....

1.  It's been the wettest June and July in the UK ever.  It's also been pretty chilly.  The combination of these two things don't really make it feel like summer, especially when we hear of temperatures that are 40 degrees (F) warmer back home.  There have been more days than I can count when we got soaked walking...not fun.  Because of all the rain, we get slugs....in our house.  That's no fun either.
 One cool thing about the summer here is how long it stays light outside.  We had daylight from about 4am to 11pm in late June.

2.  BBQ--If you're from the South this means an entirely different thing to you than it does here.  Here, a BBQ is like a cookout, and in June we went to one with our fellowship group from church and another for the entire church. 

Here's the one with our fellowship group:

Unfortunately the weather didn't turn out so well for the full church BBQ:

I gave up taking pictures in the monsoon (it rained three hours straight and we had lightning/thunder for the first time since we've been here), but despite the rain, it was a nice time--there was a giant teepee, a bouncy castle, ice cream truck, archery, and other things as well. 

We have thoroughly been blessed by our church here.  They have loved us, befriended us, fed us, given us rides, let us borrow bikes, taken us to concerts and to see places around the country, and given us countless cups of tea and coffee.  We just cannot thank them or say enough about all of them.  We fully did not expect to find a church that felt so much like home to us here, but it really has been a haven and has helped us grow spiritually as well.

3.  Seven words I (Autumn) never expected to say: I work for the Irish Football Association (American friends that means soccer).  It took eight months for me to find a job here, and when I finally did, it was not at a place I expected for two reasons---1. I know pretty much nothing about soccer/football (except to call it football anywhere outside the USA) and 2. I am not Irish (Okay, it might be in my blood somewhere).  The job has been great though and I am really enjoying doing Admin work again.  It's just a temporary four month position, but we are thankful for God's provision of a job while we're here.

4.  Casey has been working hard on his thesis and as of yesterday has 15,000 out of 20,000 words completed!  He has to turn it in mid-September, so continue to pray for him as he finishes strong.  With Casey finishing his paper, we have been planning our next moves and over the summer we decided we will head back to the US on October 2nd.  We are looking forward to seeing family, but are sad to leave our friends here in Northern Ireland.

Okay, I think we're caught up.... :)