Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall was built on the orders of emperor Hadrian.  Emperor Hadrian(emperor of the Roman empire) was born 76 AD and died 138 AD.  Hadrian's Wall was built, beginning in AD 122, to keep Roman Britain safe from hostile attacks from the Picts.  The Picts where the predominant people in northern Scotland.  Hadrian's Wall was the northernmost boundary of the Roman empire until early in the fifth century when the Atnonine Wall was built.

Hadrian's Wall stretched from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.  The wall was 73 miles long, 8 to 10 feet wide, and 15 feet high.  In addition to the wall, the Romans built a system of small forts called milecastles which held up to 60 men at each fort.  Sixteen larger forts, holding from 500 to 1000 troops, also were built inside the wall, with large gates on the north face.

Housesteads is the most complete Roman fort in Britain and one of the best preserved Roman forts anywhere.  The fort was occupied by Roman soldiers for about 300 years and changed quite a bit over the centuries.  Housesteads Roman fort was like a little town for the soldiers.

The end of Roman Britain came in the early fifth century AD.  The Roman empire was under attack in many places, including Hadrian's Wall.  When Barbarian tribes invaded German land in 406 AD a self-declared emperor in Britain, Constantine III, withdrew the field army from Britain to fight in Germany but some troops remained.  The field army never returned and Rome abandoned Britain.  This was effectively the end of over 300 years of Roman rule.

 This is a picture of my dad and me standing on Hadrian's Wall near Housesteads Roman fort.

This is a picture of Housesteads fort at Hadrian's Wall or rather the footprint of the fort because as you can see there isn't much left of it now.

My Second 2012 Olympic Experience

My second 2012 Olympic experience was the Men's Marathon.  I was too short  to see the runners very well but fortunately I could see their heads.  I saw them go by twice.  The first time I saw them go by there were three runners that were right next to each other way ahead of the rest.  The first one was from Uganda and the other two were from Kenya.  The second time I saw them come around I was very surprised because of how spread out they were!  The first guy I saw go by was going so fast he was running right next to the motorcycle!  He was from Uganda and ended up winning.  The other two runners I saw go by the the first time from Kenya got second and third.  It was very cool!

 This is a picture of my sisters and me at the Marathon.  Now you can see why I couldn't see very well.

This is one of the Kenyan runners about two miles from the finish.  

My 2012 Olympic Experience

I just got back from the USA vs Canada soccer match!!!!!!!  It was awesome!!!!!!!  We had great seats where we could see the field and players perfectly!!!!!  My favorite player was Rapinoe because she was very good at getting the ball away from the other team, corner kicks and throw-ins!  I also like her personality!  You don't want to make her mad because if you do it usually ends up in her scoring a goal.  She scored two of the USA goals in the game I saw!  I also love her hair!!!!!  The USA won 4 to 3 in the last 30 seconds of overtime!!!!! It was so exciting!!!!!  If you ever get the chance to go see the women's USA Olympic soccer team play, take it, you won't regret it.

This is a picture of my sisters and I at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, England a couple hours before the game started.

This is a picture of the teams singing the national anthems.

This is a picture of Hope Solo singing the national anthem on the big screen.

This is a picture of Rapinoe about to make a corner kick.

This is a picture of the US team trying to block the goal from a corner kick.

This is a picture of some very excited fans on the big screen after the USA won.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the historic and cultural capital of Scotland.  It was once a powerhouse kind of how London is now.  It is now a modern city in Scotland.

The Edinburgh castle is very large and takes hours to get through.  It is visited annually by about 1 million people.  Edinburgh Castle was the home (and regular refuge) of Scottish Kings.  The Royal apartments include a tiny room in which Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to the boy who was to become King James IV of Scotland and James 1 of England upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603.

This is a guy who gave us a presentation on kilts.  He told us how to put them on and wear them.  He also told us all about haggis.  He said that haggis were creatures who have four legs but two are longer than the others. That way when they were on a hill they would be even.  He told us how to catch haggis too.  He said to make a loud noise so that the haggis would turn around making them uneven with the hill and fall over right into a net.  Now if you believe that you'll believe anything.  Haggis is really sheep heart, liver, and lungs.  That sounds really gross to me.

After the castle we took a bus tour and our tour guide was very funny.  He told us a lot of crazy things like in the 1600s at 10pm every night people who lived in the higher homes would open their windows and shout,"gardyloo" which meant they were going to dump the slop bucket out.  If you hear "gardyloo" don't look up just run.  He also told us where the saying "hangers on" came from.  When they used to do hangings it was a very slow death so some times the people who were getting hanged would pay kids to hang on to their legs while they were being hanged so that they would die faster.

This is Holyrood Palace.  As a part of the agreement for Scotland joining The United Kingdom the king or queen has to stay here 6 consecutive days a year or the agreement is broken.

After I went to Holyrood Palace I climbed Arther's seat.  Arther's seat is a very tall mountain and very fun to climb.  Unfortunately we took the wrong way up which made it quite a bit harder to climb but luckily we made it.