Duabi, UAE: May 19-24, 2009

I was invited to speak at the first Teacher Leadership Academy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Academy was organized by a colleague, Christine Coombe and sponsored by Dubai Men's College and a grant through the Middle East Partnership Initiative. This was my third visit to the UAE. I always enjoy meeting teachers and students from this part of the world.


My colleagues, Liz England and John Schmidt, were also there. We observed an English class on our first evening in Dubai. The students are wonderful!




Through a connection with another colleague, Mashael Al-Hamly, we were able to visit the Burj Al Arab hotel. If you've read anything about UAE, you've probably seen photos of this luxurious hotel. A one room suite goes for $2,500 per night. The Royal suite goes for $16,500 per night. Knowing that I would never be able to affor staying here, just being able to visit was a great opportunity.



The view from the top of fantastic! The water is glorious just before sunset.


The two-day conference was really good. There were only about 200 people in attendance which provided an opportunity to talk to people and really engage in meaningful conversations. The participants were eager to learn how to be better teacher-leaders.


We were able to meet and spend time with Mashael Al-Hamley and her family. From left to right: Jamal, Sara, me, Ahmed, Mashael, and Yousuf.


Yousuf and Ahmed were great hosts. Look what Yousuf can do with his tongue!


It was about 100 degrees outside. Dubai has one of the world's largest indoor skiing facilities. It was great fun to watch people skiing indoors. There is one run with a tow-rope or a chair lift. The Emiraties looked like they loved getting dressed in their winter clothing and putting on their skiies to enjoy some skiing time in-doors. May on a future visit I'll give this a try.

Virginia & Washington, DC: May 14-17, 2009

We spent four fabulous days with Amy and her family and Todd and his family on the East coast. It was particularly great to spend time with eight of our 10 grand children.


We stayed at Todd and Kara's home in Woodbridge, Virginia. The kids have a trampoline and it was great fun watching them jump.


We visited a farm in Northern Virginia with the family. It is so much fun to watch Todd and KAra's children play with Amy and Tyler's children. They enjoy being together.




Randy is our oldest grand child. She had her first singing concert with her first grade class while we were there. It was so much fun to watch her perform with the classmates and friends. It's hard to see her in this photo but Randy is on the top row, second person from the left.


Our son-in-law, Tyler, (my favorite son-in-law) graduated from George Washington University with a Master's degree in Asian Studies. We were able to attend his graduation.



We were also able to spend time visiting some of the monuments on the Washington, DC mall.



We had not been to the World War II Memorial before. The layout of the memorial is great because it includes all 50 of the US states in the design.



We also visited Mount Vernon. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

Day 16, Tuesday, 12 May 2009: Pennsylvania to Bath

Today was our final day! We've walked a total of 105 miles since we started in Chipping Campden on April 29. We walked about 10.5 miles today.


We saw the place where a British civil war took place in the mid-1600s. The Royalist Troops (loyal to the King) attached the Parliamentarian Troops (those who wanted to form a Parliament). Two close friends, Waller and Horton, ended up fighting each other on opposite sides of war.


We caught our first glimpse of Bath when we were ab out 3 miles from the end.




The Cotswold Way ends in front of the Bath Abby.


We toured the Jane Austen Centre. Jane Austen finished two of here novels here in Bath: Northanger Abby and Persuasion.

We wish that we had more time to spent in Bath. There is so much to see and do. We'll just have to return for a future vacation and do more here.


We're spending our final night in the Belmont B&B. We leave early tomorrow morning for the airport to fly back to Washington, D.C. We'll spend four days with Amy & Tyler and their children and Todd & Kara and their children before the next adventure begins!

This has been perhaps the best vacation we've had! Walking for 105 miles was a great way to see this part of England. Anyone interested in making this trip should contact us for more details.

Day 15, Monday, 11 May 2009: Old Sodbury to Pennsylvania

The Cotswold Way began just across the street from our B&B this morning. We wandered uphill through a field of sheep and caught a glimpse of Dodington Manor. It is a beautiful estate owned (and being restored) by the guy who invented the Dyson vacuum.



Today’s highlight was our visit to another National Trust site---Dyrham Manor and Deer Park. What a great experience it was! The grounds and gardens were so beautiful. The house was built in the early 1600’s and all of the furnishings are either original or are from that period. There are 200 fallow deer on the grounds and they have been there since the estate was created. It is one of those homes that you might see in BBC movies.


Along the trail we came upon a special wooden box with a notebook in it for "walkers" to write about their experiences on The Cotswold Way. It gave us a moment to remember all of the wonderful experiences we have had during the past 2 weeks and all of the beautiful things we have seen.


Our B&B for tonight is in the tiny village of Pennsylvania and is called The Old Swan Cottage. It is hard to believe that we have only one more day of walking. Tomorrow we arrive in Bath.

Day 14, Sunday, May 10, 2009: Horton to Old Sodbury

This was a perfect Sabbath day. Liz Issac from the B&B drove us into Yate for Church meetings that started at 10:00 a.m. We met Bishop X as we entered the building and several of the members. The Yate Ward begins the meeting block with Priesthood and Relief Society meeting, followed by Sunday School and then Sacrament meeting. It is a small ward but very friendly. What impressed me about Priesthood meeting is that the seven High Priests in attendance (eight with me) had all read the Priesthood lesson prior to coming to the meeting. They were able to engage in the discussion of spiritual gifts in a much more meaningful way because everyone was prepared to be taught. I wish this happened more at home.

The Sunday School lesson and Sacrament meeting were two of the best meetings we have attended anywhere we have lived. We felt welcome and enjoyed everything about being at church meetings.

We met Mike Cheskin and his wife Evie who asked if we needed a ride anywhere and if we would like to come to their home for dinner. We were able to get a ride back to the B&B. We then changed our clothes and had a very lovely walk from Horton to Old Sodbury. It was only about a 4 mile walk and didn’t take very long. (Unfortunately we did not get any photos of Mike and Ivy.)


Along the way we saw the Little Sodbury Church. In 1521 William Tyndale lived in this village and began the translation of the New Testament into English here. We love a quote that Tyndale made a dinner at the manor house to a dignitary who protested Tyndale’s views. He responded by saying: “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God will spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy that follows the plough to know more of the Bible than thou doest.” What “boy that follows the plough” do we know who turned to the Bible to know God’s will?


We walked through the ancient Sodbury Hill Fort. There are 11 acres enclosed by ditches and was first constructed in the Iron Age. The Romans used it as one of their posts. Edward IV camped here with his army on the way to do battle with Margaret of Anjou at Tewkesbury.


We saw a fox running very quickly through a field as we crossed.

We called Mom to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. We reached her just before we left for Church.


The Cotswold Way path goes right through the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church where we stopped as well. There were beautiful stained glass windows (as there are in most of the churches here). The church sits on a little hill overlooking Old Sodbury.


This B&B in Old Sodbury is very unique. We are staying in a little cabin behind the main house on the property. Greg recently retired as the gardener at the Chipping Sodbury Golf Club. He has a very well kept garden and yard. We wish we were staying here longer so that we could enjoy this little cabin.


Mike picked us up and drove us to his home. He owns two gas stations in the area. He and his wife Evie have a beautiful place. Their ward has a little pond and they attract wild life. They have a bird feeder that attracts mallard ducks, pheasants, and doves. Just over a little rise in their yard are the train tracks. We actually rode right past this place when we took the train from Bristol to Cheltenham. Mike is a train enthusiast so loves to run up the hill to watch the trains pass. They have a little sitting area where they can enjoy the view of the passing trains.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal and conversation. We asked them about their children and conversion stories. They asked us about ours. It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

Day 13, Saturday, May 9, 2009: Hillesley to Horton

After a good night’s rest at Folly Farm (a large dairy farm) B&B we headed back toward Hillesley (and The Fleece Inn) to find the place where we needed to get back onto the Cotswold Way.
The clematis and wisteria on these old Cotswold houses is just so beautiful….we just keep taking more photos, and more photos, and more photos….


We came across this monument near Hawksbury Upton. It is called both the Somerset Monument (for General Lord Somerset) and the Hawksbury Monument (since it is near that town).


Horton Court is said to be the oldest inhabited manor in England---but is closed at the present time. The National Trust owns it but needs some rich person to buy it and put the money into it to get the restoration done. We were only able to see it from the trail through the trees.


As we made our way down the trail toward Horton (where our B&B was) we saw lots of Holstein dairy cows. Whenever we walk through pastures with sheep, they all run away from us. But when we walk through or by pastures with cows, they come running to have their picture taken! I think they were even smiling!


Neil and I thought that we had found a herd of woolly mammoths---or even bigfoot! These cows were definitely different! These are called Highland cows and they are very shaggy. They seemed to be very gentle animals.


On our way down to Horton we passed this interesting building called a “folly.” It was made as a refuge for barn owls and other birds who nest in buildings.


Our B&B in Horton was very comfortable and we had some great conversation that evening with family and friends of our hostess, Liz Isaac.

Day 12, Friday, May 8: Wotton-under-Edge to Hillesley

What a windy day! We didn’t have any rain as we expected but we have been blown around all day! We walked about 6 miles today.


We had a later than usual breakfast and left the Swan Hotel about 10:30. We wondered around Wotton-under-Edge before rejoining the path. There is a very beautiful church that we stopped to see. St. Mary the Virgin is a beautiful church. We met a very friendly man coming out as we were going in. His son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons live just outside of Kansas City. We have made new friends all along the way.



We saw the oldest building in Wotton-under-Edge. Stephen Hopkins, one of the original Pilgrims, lived in this house. There is a village story that a group of the Pilgrims met in this home before they set sail for America.


We saw more beautiful views today.


For the grandchildren: If a duck is a grown up duck, what do we call baby ducks? If a sheep is a grown up sheep, what do we call baby sheep?

What is a Primary song that you sing about birds singing in the tops of trees? We’ve heard so many beautiful birds singing. Do you know what Grandma Kathy’s favorite bird is? We hear them every day but we’ve only see two. It is a pheasant. Do you know what they look like? There used to be one living in the bushes behind our house in Orem. They hide very well in the fields. As we walked into the B&B this afternoon at Foley Farms I saw one but could get a picture fast enough before it walked into the field to hide.


We also saw little streams and waterfalls along the path today. The water in the streams was very clear and clean.


We ate dinner at the Fleece Inn in Hillesley.

Tonight we are staying at the Folly Farm B&B about 1 mile outside of Hillesley.