Pembroke, Wales

April 20, 2008

Top of the mornin to ya- Breakfast Wales style.Showing off our great purchases at the "1 pound" store-just like the dollar store, lots of junk!

Church in Johnston. Thank goodness for the GPS, these tiny villages can be tricky to locate sometimes. We had to cross a toll bridge to get to church, the sacrifices that some of these members make each week has been a big testimony builder for all of us.

They gather in a small rented hall, this is the room they had their sacrament service in. We told the kids that we may be a small distraction when we arrived because we figured it would be a small branch and we were going to be a tiny bit late. Well, we were right-when we walked into the hall with the wood floors all 30 members turned around to look at us, a nice gentleman hopped up off his chair and had to lay on his belly to retrieve some chairs out from under a table for us. Just a little distraction.

One of the members had a son on a mission in Scotland so lucky for us they all posed for this group shot. The Branch President is 23 years old and they have 2 great missionaries serving in their branch. They asked us if we were interested in moving there. It was temping, we loved Wales so far and they speak English.

After church we went to Pembroke, which is the county town of Pembrokeshire.

Mark read the information on the castle and bridge which were built in 1093.

Along the castle wall there were some great photo ops-so we took them.

Looking down the main street at the cool clock tower. It's a double whammy for me, Red and a clock.

The castle. The weather had turned for the better-lucky for us and there was only one other family there. We could do all the exploring our hearts desired.

Despite the endless warnings Mark and Annie still struggled to keep their heads free from goose bumps.

No problem for Dallas-he fits just fine.

If you look hard you can see Mark and Dallas up at the top of the tower.

A few views from the top of the tower.

The family in the keep.
Can you tell that they have been studying about the Romans at school? Between Jesse & Dallas we had quite the production going on.
This castle was like a dream castle-all of it was open for you to wander through. So every time you have ever been in one and wondered what was behind that door, or up those stairs-well in here we got to see it all. There wasn't anywhere we couldn't go-it was great.
It was the inspiration for Annie's horror story she had to write for her English class at school.This is a special place for Will and "Wogan". Reeds at Pembroke Castle.
Once we had finished searching out the castle the ladies in the gift shop were most helpful. Mark had asked them if they knew where the poorhouse was in town. They had a little booklet for us with a map and directed us right to it.
This woman is telling us her cute store of the poorhouse.

I loved this!

The poorhouse.
This is where James Crane spent a good portion of his childhood. The kids favorite story is the one where he was the gatekeeper, so when gentlemen came to check on things at the poor house, it was James responsibility to hold tend to their horses. One day the temptation was too strong and he hopped on the horse and took off up the mountain. The horse was very strong and it took him quite some time to get control of the horse and return to the poorhouse. When he made it back the gentleman was there waiting and not very pleased and so James took a lickin with the mans cane.
It is a retirement home now.

The trip wouldn't be complete without at least one photo of a doorknob or a door.


The beach where James Crane was baptized.

Typical landscape in these small villages.

One of the arches in the city wall.
There were several churches in Tenby, I guess if you missed your service, there were plenty of others to choose from.

We are all Wales fans!
We don't know the significance of the shirt other than the fact that it says Wales on it.