A Stairway to Heaven

(song by Switchfoot called "Yesterdays")

Yesterday my father passed away.  I had been thinking about him a lot the previous week.  A lot of it had to do with the fact that I was in Liverpool seeing the Beatles sights, which was something that meant a lot to him, being a diehard Beatles fan since he was younger and the Beatles were actually playing live.  But I also had randomly been thinking about my father for other reasons, and in particular all of the ways in which he had shaped my life and helped me become the person I am today.  Even though I won't be able to tell him all of this, I thought that I would write it anyway.

As I child I was very close to my dad.  I was much closer to him growing up than I was to my mom.  Baseball was a big thing that he and I did together, and it was one of the most important things of my entire childhood and even early adult years.  My dad was also very much into literature and poetry, and I definitely inherited that from him.  Music was also a very big passion of his, and even though I didn't take advantage of the musical talent of his as much as my brother or sister, I have always been able to tinker here or there with various instruments.  My dad also adored Japan.  We grew up watching Japanese cartoons, eating Japanese food, even learning some words here or there.  There are a plethora of Totoros in various forms all throughout my dorm room.  My dad also had a talent for family history and keeping personal records, and we had many great conversations and my love for family history developed over the years.  

I have so many fond memories of my dad, and hopefully I be able to take time to document them soon.  I'm not sure if any other person in my life has had such a huge impact in shaping my personality and helping me become the person I am today.  I love you Dad, and will be eternally grateful for your influence on my life!  You will always be a major part of who I am. 

Preston Temple and Liverpool

I had a 3 day weekend this past weekend, and decided I really wanted to go to the temple.  The London temple (which is theoretically closer) is closed for renovations until mid November, so I decided to trek up north to Preston.  Since I was so far up north and had a 3 day weekend, I decided to spend the rest of the weekend sight-seeing in Liverpool.  The whole weekend was fabulous!

The temple in Preston might be my new favorite temple, it was so lovely!  It reminded me a lot of the Boston temple, but bigger and more ornate.  It was such a joy being there!! I took a lot of pics, of course, but here are a couple of my favs:

After the temple, I headed down to Albert Dock in Liverpool for some Beatles.  I did the Magical Mystery Tour, which drove around Liverpool pointing out spots like Penny Lane, the graveyard with an Elenor Rigby gravestone, the church where John and Paul met, all 4 childhood homes, the Epstein home, Strawberry Field and other great places.  These 4 pics are the childhood homes, in the order of: Ringo, George, John and Paul (both Ringo and George's home are a door halfway down the street).

Here are:  the bus, me at Penny Lane, the church where John and Paul met (John and his little high school band were doing a gig at a church fair, one band member invited his friend Paul to watch), the Eleanor Rigby graveyard, the gate to Strawberry Fields (an orphanage in John's time), and the club where the band played before they were famous (both outside and inside):

After an evening of Beatles, the next day's theme was historic houses.  I went to two, Croxteth Hall and Speke Hall.  In both cases I couldn't take any pictures inside (but I did sneak one...).  Croxteth Hall had a great display of how a wealthy and titled family lived in the mid to late 1800's, complete with a downstairs exhibit on how the servants lived.  It was hard to get to, but it was a neat display.  Speke Hall was much more pleasing to the eye, and was a smaller home, though the family that had lived there had also been wealthy and titled.  The family that lived there had been very religious and strict, so it had a different feel than the other hall where the family was very lavish and ignorant of how lavish they were.  Of course, even in the "simple" life they led, it was much better off and much better decorated than most of England at that time.
Croxteth Hall:

Speke Hall:

Also that morning I went to the Anglican Cathedral, which was the absolute most staggering building I have ever been in the presence of.  I don't know exactly how to describe the impact it had on me.  It is just so HUGE and so present.  Almost like an intimidating fortress, I suppose.  I took a million pics, both inside and out.  Incredible, absolutely incredible.

I ended the weekend at a couple art galleries, Lady Lever and Walker.  Lady Lever was brilliant!  It ranks up there with my favorite things of the weekend.  It was created by a man who owned a soap company.  He built a village for the factory workers in his factory, which was normal at the time, but he was the first man to build in his village things like parks and things for the workers to do for fun.  The art gallery was in honor of his wife who had recently died, and allowed him to put on display his vast private collection so his factory workers could access a museum and cultural experiences.  It was an absolute lovely collection!

Walker Art Gallery wasn't my favorite, but it was free so I didn't mind.  It had some great sculptures that I liked, but other than that nothing really stood out to me.

All in all, it was quite  lovely and successful trip in an outstanding city!  Liverpool was definitely fantastic!!