Meanwhile in Devon...

Veronica also did some running in January, but she was in Exeter. She likes cows, especially ones that suggest banning beef and milk.

She enjoyed exploring some towns and beaches outside of Exeter, including colorful Brixham.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought this was Australia, not England. You can see more of the beautiful Shoalstone Pool in Brixham on Veronica’s drone video.

Another day, she and Dreda headed to a beach to take some portraits.

Jimmy was thrilled that he got to see Veronica when he happened to be in the area for a business meeting in early February. 

Veronica’s next weekend away was to Wales with the Expedition Society.

It was cold, but beautiful.

The scariest thing Veronica did in February was to participate in an Extinction Rebellion die-in held on campus at University of Exeter. In case you can’t tell, she’s in the middle with an 0 on her back.

A few days later, she and Brett went to Bristol to hear Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist teenager infamous for starting the School Strike for Climate, speak.

Visiting Totnes...

The following day, we caught a train to Totnes, a market town of just 8,000. Its first castle dates back to 907, but the remaining walls and keep date from around the 14th century. Unfortunately, we were unable to enter the castle ruins.

Totnes claims to have more historical buildings per capita than any other British town.

Its shopping street was quite lovely and we enjoyed finding some cool things in their charity shops.

Thought this was a clever name for a shop.

We enjoyed a great vegetarian buffet with lots of vegan options for lunch at Seeds 2 Totnes.

St Mary’s Church dates back to 1460.

In front there was another red poppy memorial for World War I.

There were definitely an impressive number of Tudor buildings...

...as well as a fake castle. 

The train journey was very scenic as well.

University of Plymouth...

The University of Plymouth has a very modern campus right in the city center. Drake’s Place and Garden was named after Sir Francis Drake, who was responsible for the original channel built in 1592 bringing water from Dartmoor to Plymouth. A reservoir was built here in 1825 and was used until the 1970s. Eventually the school bought the derelict property in 2007 to restore to its former glory.

As a future Marine Biologist and an American, it was fitting for Ashlynn to pose with this funny Pilgrim fish. I had my first egg butty (fried egg and mushrooms served on a bun) while she enjoyed a vegan breakfast at one of the cafés on campus.

Our first appointment was to meet with Dr. Stacey DeAmicis, an American who got her PhD there and never left, for a tour of the Marine Biology Department. She brought along a Dutch student named Emma to be able to give us an international student’s perspective. We were really impressed with the facilities...

...which were just as sophisticated as what we saw in Southampton. It was actually too bad that we only had 1.5 hours until our appointment for a campus tour, because it was such an informative visit (and the view wasn’t bad either). 

After our campus tour, we met back up with Emma who had no lectures that day and offered to show us around some more. First she took us over to the Marine Biological Association to see their library, which students are entitled to join and can use as a peaceful place to study. You can only imagine how excited Ashlynn was when this original copy of Darwin’s masterpiece was placed in her hands.

Then we walked to the other side of the harbor to the Marine Station, the school’s waterfront teaching and research facilities, which were also very impressive. We had lunch nearby at a restaurant serving Asian street food and heard more about what Emma thought about the school and city. It was impressive to learn that she’d been accepted to St. Andrews, but chose Plymouth and had no regrets. We would have loved to have stayed an extra night, but we had to get to our next stop: Falmouth.

Special Note: just as I’m posting this, Ashlynn finally made her decision and she chose Plymouth as her top choice (she’ll find out if she has secured a place after her exam results are in on August 16). I’m crossing my fingers that Jimmy and I’ll have many visits to this wonderful city in the future.

Beautiful Plymouth...

When Ashlynn was invited to attend University of Exeter’s Applicant Day on a Saturday in mid-February, it dawned on me that we could also visit Plymouth University along the way. We flew out on the Thursday (I must mention that the closest airports are two hours away!) and explored the city. Directly in front of our hotel in the middle of a traffic circle was the remnants of Charles Church, built in 1657 and destroyed by fire in March 1941 during World War II bombings. Rather than rebuilding, it remains as a memorial to the 1,200 civilian deaths in Plymouth during the air raids.

It’s probably not a surprise that we immediately headed towards the coast. The big open space is know as The Hoe and features statues...

...and Smeaton’s Tower, a lighthouse used from 1759 to 1877 and then relocated here as a memorial to the designer. 

We both loved the views along the low limestone cliffs.

We had no idea at the time that we climbed the hill that this 17th century fortress was built to defend the coastline from the Dutch. The Royal Citadel is still in use by the military today, but does offer occasional tours in the spring and summer.

There were threatening clouds, but luckily we stayed dry as we wandered along the harbor.

Despite the Pilgrims having absolutely no connection with the city of Plymouth until they were forced into the harbor due to bad weather, I’m guessing most of you connect this city as the starting point of the Mayflower’s historic trip to the New World. This portico was built in 1934 to designate the Mayflower Steps, however, historians believe that this was not the actual spot that the Mayflower was boarded. 

We enjoyed visiting the small but very interesting Mayflower Museum. Ashlynn got a good laugh when I wondered why they were selling stuffed empanadas and she reminded me that we were on the edge of Cornwall hence it was clearly a Cornish pasty.

We covered a lot of ground that evening as we went in search for dinner. While we never ventured out of the downtown area, I can say that we loved everything about this city, and I could definitely imagine Jimmy and I having a great time visiting Ashlynn there.