Carlisle, PA

So... From Boston I flew on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I flew via Dulles airport in Washington ( i think). Megan and her mum, Mairi, met me at the airport in Harrisburg and we drove back to Carlisle. There were hills!!! :) It was so nice to hear some British voices too. Mairi sounds very Scottish(Highlander) and Megan has more of an English accent. Her Dad, David, has a pretty Glaswegian sound to his voice. So it was really great to hear! And by the end of the time there I was actually beginning to sound like myself.. haha!

Anyway, I had a wonderful time with the Campbell's in Carlisle. Here's the family -

That's David on the far left, then Caitriona, ME, Megan, Megan's boyfriend Ben and then Mairi. Such a great family!

I drank a lot of tea. We watched Pride and Predjudice, followed by Wives and Daughters and then Persuasion. LOVE LOVE LOVE. We went to Hershey's chocolate factory. Here are some pictures of that...

The three of us drink the most amazing milkshake everrrr... :)

Reeses galore.. 

Largest Hershey's bar..

Gabby, Malorey, Olympia - where Hershey's chocolate comes from.. haaa!!

LOL!

Made out of Hershey's chocolate - it was taller than me! 

We went into Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania and saw this. Made me laugh to compare it to Occupy Wall Street or another.. but then I felt a bit bad... It was FREEZING!!

I met my first Austin!! Haha!! For those of you who do not know of Austin, it is a fictional character my darling family came up with that I am meant to fall head over heels in love with while I am in the states and never want to go home again. Pity this guy was in 4th grade. He did say that I had a very pretty name. haaaaa... :)

Caitriona and I went to eat Hotchie dogs... :) Interesting. It is special to Carlisle but is really just a hot dog with cheese, chili, diced onions and mustard. I had it diced onion and mustard - less. And it was ok... :)

We didn't celebrate Christmas on Christmas day because it was a Sunday and David was preaching. So I went to church in the morning and evening, had a fabulous Sunday roast and went for a walk on Christmas day. The next day (boxing day but our christmas) we opened presents - a lot of fun! And then two elderly couples gave over for lunch/Christmas dinner. That was a lot of fun! They were all delightful! One of them had been missionaries in Colombia which was really cool. The others were really fun too. They had met on a blind date their friends had set them up on. Three months later they were married. And 40 years later.... :) How cute!??

Church was really great there. It just felt a lot more like home. I think an accent from home helped. Everyone was super friendly too and I met soooooooo many people.

On New Year's eve, we had an informal service there. Sang some great hymns and there was a talk from a man who had been a missionary in the middle east. After the service, we went back to the Campbell's house and played dictionary. Really funny game where someone chooses a random word from the dictionary that no one has heard of and then everyone has to make up definitions and you have to choose the right definition to get a point. But if your definition gets chosen you also get a point. A lot of laughing occurred.

At half 11, Megan, Ben, Caitriona and I headed to downtown Carlisle and saw the fireworks. Happy New Year 2012!! How crazy is that!? We danced down the street and then went back to bed.

The first day of the new year, we chilled out and watched Persuasion.

So, it was a very relaxing time and I really enjoyed my time to rest. Such a fab family to spend time with.

On the 28th, we all went to New York for a day trip but I'll talk about that in another post.

On the 2nd, I left from Harrisburg, after pancakes for breakfast, and went to Chicago. Spent a night there with Victoria, before leaving for Houston the next day. On my night in Chicago she was working. She is a helper for a girl with Cerebral-polsy. So I went with her, had dinner there and a great chat with the family. Later on, her friends came over and we played a game before I headed for bed.

What a time...??!! So good though! SO many different experiences and more to come....