Tour De...Northern Ireland?

Wednesday:

This morning promised to bring a wonderful day as indicated by the blue skies and bright sun! It was perfect weather for the activity we had planned: biking. Andrew met us at the bike store in Belfast and introduced us to our guide for the day: his brother Simon, who only just returned last night from a missions trip in Spain. Andrew had to prepare a sermon and wasn't able to ride with us so he told Simon that he would be riding with us. Typical older brother, I suppose...telling his siblings what to do. :) Fortunately, Simon was happy to do it, but initially intimidated because Andrew had told him that we were pretty much professional cyclists who ride 40 miles at a time! It's true about my parents (maybe not the professional part) but they were only expecting to ride leisurely today. As soon as we'd each received a bike, Simon led the way and took off...fast! I was the second rider and was peddalling fast just to keep up! Steve and Pete were close behind me and together we zoomed through the first section of the path. At one point, we stopped to wait for my parents who asked if we could slow down a bit. Lol. Yes, they normally rode fast, but today they just wanted to enjoy the view. The pace slowed and we enjoyed the rest of the bike trail which followed a river and showed us fields, forests, and plenty of various, colorful flora. The weather was perfect, maintaining sunny skies and a comfortable temperature. 
After riding 11 miles, we arrived in Lisburn and ate lunch at a park. We then rode a little further to have coffee and ice cream at a cafe and sat for awhile talking and getting to know Simon better. 
Hopping back on our bikes, we rode back to Belfast and arrived just in time because a dark cloud had slowly been approaching. It ended up looking more threatening than it actually was and only sprinkled a little bit once we were safely in our cars riding to Andrews house. As we drove back, Andrew took us on the scenic route to show us more of Belfast. We passed several murals painted on the buildings by different paramilitant groups and visited a monument of C. S. Lewis since he was actually from this town! 
Andrew's family was gracious enough to invite us for tea (dinner) and we enjoyed a delicious meal of lasagna with salad and other various side dishes. Lemon flan and coffee completed the meal and we adjourned into the living room to keep talking and telling family stories. They are such a klass family and so much fun to talk to. :)
Then it was back to the house and off to bed (after a few more rounds of pool, that is).