Random Thoughts about Scotland

This little sign adorned the entry to our hotel. At breakfast one morning the kids made a snowman from the waxy coating off the cheese to replace another piece of art - the newspaper machetes. What a clever idea for a little exchange!

Various patterns and colors of plaid represent different clans in Scotland. We found surnames such as Thomson, Clark, Wilson, Anderson, and many others. Each last name is printed as a label for the plaid.

Then you can find your family plaid in the form of a scarf, kilt, or patch of cloth. These were scarves.
Playgrounds in Europe consist of very different equipment than we have back home. This is one contraption seen everywhere here, but we have never spotted one in the States.

Here we are at the train station in London after the volcano interupted our plans to return home by plane. There were at least 3 news stations documenting the chaos while were we in line to pick up our train tickets, so while waiting for our departure, we found a little quiet spot upstairs.

There weren't many things to do except count the pounds and pence we had not yet used then head downstairs to spend them on snacks for the ride home.

Traveling the Highlands, Scotland to Inverness (April 16th)

I have decided I'm a sucker for ruins and K has found he enjoys natural scenery, so we drove through the Highlands in Scotland, stopped along the way to skip some rocks and enjoy the God created scenes.
The water was unbelievably calm, creating a mirror for the trees and I couldn't help but think of teaching second grade when the kids learned about symmetry. I think it's difficult to tell which was really the top of the photo.
Sure enough there's another castle...honestly, we weren't trying to come here just for the castles. It just somehow ended up that way. We were at the Urquhart Castle near the Loch Ness waters in Inverness which played a key role in the Scottish battle for independence.

After a few hours of driving , the kids by this point were bored out of their minds so we told them the story of the Loch Ness Monster and asked them to keep their eyes peeled so we could catch a million dollar photo of him if he really exists.

They were on the lookout and that bought us another hour to roam the area. At one point J claimed she might have seen something. That's yet to be confirmed.

Can you find us in the picture above?

My kids are becoming quite the expert flag identifiers. Here's the one for Scotland.

Here are the ripples to prove our eldest officially skipped a few rocks while J's eyes were still focused on the water for any sign of the monster!
Guarding the castle was a catapult with the Celtic sign engraved in the wheel.

St. Andrews, Scotland (April 15th)

J sporting her kilt with Daddy on the famous bridge at St. Andrews Golf Course.

After the round of golf ended around noon, we roamed the St. Andrews area which quickly became my favorite. There is the college town and ruins of a castle which was the main residence of bishops and archbishops of St. Andrews in medieval Scotland.

The remains of St. Andrews Cathedral were nearby. The spectacular view is from St. Rule's tower.

Edinburgh, Scotland (April 14th)

Welcome to Scotland!
Edinburgh Castle sits atop volcanic rock.

From our hotel we could walk to the castle for our tour.

We started the tour only to have our daughter complain the whole day about how tired of castles she is. We really haven't been to one in quite a while!

We did find a cemetery for dogs of soldiers which we thought was one of the most interesting parts of the castle. Of course the kids got a kick out of the fact that one possessed the same name as me.

Another find was this guy playing the bagpipes so Flat Nate couldn't resist a picture with him.

We then strolled along the Royal Mile (which was way too touristy) where J found a kilt. She's all about finding the attire of the area we're traveling and dressing to fit in with the culture. (We have a picture of her in it the next day.) R would rather find football (soccer) jerseys from each country.

We ended up at the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the queen spends some down time.

Below is the 12th-century abbey which was my favorite find of the day.

We've Been Busy, but More Pictures are to Come!

We've hosted my friend, Shari (who by the way does not enjoy sitting still - she likes to be on the go!) and just arrived back from a trip over Ascension break, so I have lots of pictures to share soon. I did need to share one story from a recent volunteer time in J's art class. The art teacher was having them draw a picture of the inside of a house with pencil that would later be colored. My daughter all the sudden asked, "Where's the rubber?" Mom (me) is shocked as my eyes bugged out to prove it - the what? Then I glance over and someone is handing her the eraser. She has picked up many words from the British. Rubbish is the word for trash. Apparently rubber is the word for eraser.
We'll have to remind her before we move back that it's an eraser where we come from since she could potentially be expelled from school calling it the other word!

Happy 87th Birthday Great Grandma McClain!!!!

We hope you had a wonderful day!

We made these cards for you. Have Nana click on the pictures so they enlarge and you can read them.