Senior Couples Retreat - Day 2, February 23, 2018

Top of the picture is Sister & Elder Lathen, then Sister & Elder Lee with me and the top of Elder Luke's head.

What a great time we had. It is so good to get together and strengthen one another. We love these two couple so much because they have been our mentors while in Sri Lanka.

Day two of our retreat we visited the ancient ruins of Anuradhapura.

A stupa.

Some old ruins. They are trying to fix some of the buildings.

These ancient ruins are in the site of Anuradhapura. It was an ancient Abhayagiri Buddhist monastery.

Elder Lee and Elder Lathen.

Sister Lee, Sister Lathen and myself.

The Lathens and Lees.

Say, "cheese!"

Abhayagiri monastery was a great center of learning.

There appears to have been workshops where practical training in special crafts such as sculpture of Budhha images was conducted.

Loved these stairs.

Looks like an old cemetery.

An amazing place.

Moonstone.

The monastery lands extend over an area of around 240 hectares. (Over 593 acres)

Old learning facility.

This Stupa,  originally constructed by King Valagamba.

Water was very important to them. Some ponds had filtering sieves to purify the water that was collected.

Twin ponds.

Bodhi tree. Apparently it was started with a branch from a tree that Buddha sat under.

Before leaving we had to take one more dip into the pool.

We sure enjoyed the pool!

Trying to take a selfie.

Last stop was a Hindu temple.