The Golden Road

We started off this morning with another amazing meal prepared by Katie. Breakfast included some amazing fruit, juices, cereals, and whatever we cared to order from her menu. Her eggs were local and fresh, and sooooo yellow. I was very satisfied, and ready to start the day.

Katie had dropped some hints that she preferred cash, so first on our list today was finding an ATM to obtain it. We had gotten the total required from her, and she gave us a reduced total if we paid cash. The atm would only provide a fraction of the total, so it did require several withdrawals, but eventually we had enough. We decided to go back to the B&B and pay her, so that we didn’t have that much cash on us while we traveled. She was very appreciative, and gave us some good hints about our travels today.

We went back to Tarbert to inspect the Harris Tweed shops. Carrie found some cool items, and we loaded back up to head out for our Golden Road trip, after a brief restroom pit stop.

The Golden Road is a one-lane road coastal loop around the bulk of the Isle of Harris. There were innumerable photo stops, and I would be surprised if any sheep on the entire route escaped unphotographed. We first looked for an art gallery that we had visited in 2018, where older husband and wife artists specialized in the sheep with orange paint on their butts. Apparently, the gallery is no longer open, so we were a little sad.

We did find chickens, sheep, horses, cows, seals, sheep, old buildings, churches, sheep, lakes, and more sheep. Luckily, an art gallery cafe we had visited previously was still open. The driver needed a coffee, and the most of the rest of the crew got hot chocolates, with Walt also getting a coffee, not to mention scones, shortbread, and a brownie and ice cream sundae.

Back on the road, we made it to an old church, where all the passengers exited to tour, and the driver took a little snooze. This entire area is pretty remote, so there are not a lot of dining options. So, near our B&B there is a “Grocery” store. It was pretty slim pickings, but we were able to assemble a very unique dinner menu - ice cream, crisps, tuna pasta salad, crackers, instant noodles, sandwiches and crisps. It actually turned out nicely.

After we ate, Carrie and the crew tried to get caught back up on photos, and I got cot up with the blog. We are still in a difficult upload area, so I will add in photos when I can.

The Michelin Star

We enjoyed the blackout curtains last night, as our room was still dark when it was time to get up, even though it only really gets dark for a few hours this time of year. Once we got ready, we went downstairs and had a lovely breakfast. The room was hopping with a big tour group, but breakfast was really tasty.

Afterward, we packed the car, and headed to check in for the ferry. I went to the gas station (sorry, petrol station), but there was a backlog due to tour vans and buses taking their sweet time inside the store while they had the entire station blocked, not that I’m bitter or anything. Once we had fueled up, we went to queue at the ferry station. We sat in the car for over an hour, but eventually, we were loaded on, and headed upstairs to find a table. Due to the fact that they put all the small cars on first, so they could be stored on the elevated platform in the ferry, most of the window-seat tables were taken. We found a suitable place, and Walt and Rosanna left to go upstairs and find a good viewing spot. Pat joined them, and Carrie and I sat downstairs and worked on photos and blogs. This part of Scotland can be rather difficult for internet speeds, and I’ve still not been able to upload photos for a few days. Hopefullly on Skye…

We had some snacks and worked away, and before you know it, it was time to head down to our car. We got back on dry land, and headed for the north most part of Lewis. As we had many discussions about the fact that there is the Isle of Lewis, and the Isle of Harris, but they are on the same landmass, we did ask a direct question about how they are different. Apparently, until recently, they were governed by different councils. That’s it, the only difference.

Our first stop was the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. It is the most northerly point of the Isle of Lewis. It was very windy, and we got some amazing shots. The waves crashing on the shore was impressive. There were also very windy toilets there. I wont go into too much detail, but it was an interesting sensation.

Next up was the Port of Ness. Since we had decided to skip lunch on the ferry, and I hadn’t snacked up like the back seat, while everyone was out snapping photos, I headed into a cafe and got a nice toastie to go, to share with Carrie - yum!

Next, we headed to the Arnol Blackhouse, a great example of how people lived from the late 1800’s all the way up to the 1960s. it was a long rectangular stone house with a thatched roof. Their animals lived alongside them, and they used a peat fire for warmth. It was very smoky inside, and that provided some extra benefits - the smoke kept insects out, and when it was time to re-thatch the roof, the smoke-soaked thatch was great fertilizer.

Across the street was an example of the type of home that replace the black houses in the 1960s. It was comparitively modern, but still very primitive.

Next up was the Dun Carloway Broch. Carrie and I had been here before, on a much nicer weather day. It is a great example of a tower house built around 200 BC. Since the wind was so high, they decided to only walk up a short way, take photos and leave.

Our next stop is our favorite example of standing stones. It inspired the stone circle from Outlander. It is the Calanais Standing Stones. The visitors center is being remodeled, so it looked like we had to park on the street and walk up to the stones. This walk is up a steep hill, and not a short jaunt. Luckily, some people were leaving, and told Walt, Rosanna, and Pat that there was a car park right next to the stones, so we got back in the car and drove up - Thanks, random strangers! This is a truly amazing site. It was definitely designed with an eye for the cycles of the moon. We enjoyed the walk around the site, and the photos we got.

Back in the car, we drove to one of our favorite B&B’s in all of Scotland. It is run by an amazing chef, Katie and her dog Ruby. Katie has been a chef at Michelin starred restaurants. She came back to help her family and run the family B&B. She has turned it to an amazing experience, and it is tough to get a table at her dinners. We arrived, loaded in, and she prepared us for her chef’s table dinner.

It starts with a cocktail hour in the lounge, where we receive the custom menu she will be cooking for us. Since Pat is not a fan of seafood, Katie had prepared a Chicken Supreme for her. The rest of us got halibut, sea scallops and langustine in a gooseberry reduction sauce, with lovely mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side. I did forget the salad course, which was a roasted pear, arugula salad. For dessert, we had a rice pudding brûlée with a poached plum sauce. AMAZING!

After dinner, instead of working on photos, Carrie and I went straight to bed. We were exhausted. What a day!

A long, long, long, time

We had another lovely breakfast this morning.  Since it was self-service, it was no problem to have an early departure, as we have a ferry to catch.  Our wonderful host had everything ready for us, and even came out to see us off.  I got the suitcases downstairs and we loaded up the family truckster to drive to Stromness.

It was a quick jaunt, and before you know it, we were lined up to wait to board.  When you have ferry travel included in your travel plans, it is important not to miss them.  This usually means we have a bit of time waiting in the car for our turn to board.

Once on board, we quickly headed upstairs to claim some tables to occupy.  There was a large group of boys on some sort of school or team trip.  They all lined up to have their breakfast, and were as chittery as you might think.  While the sound of joyful kids has its own charm, we were glad that they had tables to eat at in another area of the boat.

Rosanna and Pat are both fighting coughs, and Rosanna made use of our table as a makeshift pillow to rest her eyes a bit.  I fought the blog (and the blog won).  Carrie and Walt tried to get some photos, but it was rainy and windy, so that wasn’t much fun.

Once we approached the dock, we started the process of descending to the auto deck to load up.  We drove off the boat, and headed to our long driving day to Ullapool.

Our first stop was Dunnethead lighthouse.  This is the most northern point of the island of Great Britain.  We walked around a bit, and Carrie was excited to capture her first real puffins of the trip, though they were a bit far away.  After a brief walkabout, we headed to our next stop - Castle Mey and gardens.

We hit a bit of fortuitous timing, as right after we bought tickets, the sky looked like it was about to rain.  We were going to visit the gardens first to avoid the rain, but decided we would have lunch in the cafe first.

Just as we sat down to eat, the skies opened and the rain came in sheets.  By the time we finished, it was drying up, and we were able to tour the gardens, then the castle, as well as returning to the car before it started to rain again.

Castle Mey was purchased by the Queen Mother shortly after the death of her husband, the king.  It was in dire shape, and she had it refurbished nicely, and she spent every August and September there for the rest of her life.  Many royals have spent time there, from Lady Diana to Harry and Megan (all right, you royalists, put down your pitchforks, I know that Megan is not “Royal”).  It was a very nice tour, with guides in each room spinning tales about the life of the home.

Once back in our car, we stopped off at John O’Groats.  There were some cool buildings, as well as some shops, and a very grumpy Scotsman.  The area is particularly windy, and when Pat opened her door, the wind caught it, and it bumped the car next to us.  Unfortunately, there was a Scottish man and his wife eating ice cream in their car.  He got out to confront me for denting his car.  I apologized,  (and did tell him that I didn’t hit is car).  He groused and went to the front of the car to take a photo of our license plate.  Carrie and I went over to his side to chat, and, I’m guessing, his wife had calmed him down.  After Carrie offered to pay for any damage, he told us “don’t you mind at all, there’s no lasting damage”.  Quite a change from the initial confrontation.

Next up was another lighthouse, Duncansby lighthouse.  There was also supposed to be a sea stack formation nearby, but we discovered that it would take quite a hike in the rain and marsh to get it, so we drove on.

We looked at the time, and realized that we were getting a bit tight on time, as we still had 3 hours to drive, and an 8:00 dinner reservation (well, 20:00 over here).  So, we resolved to drive straight through, and only stop briefly for photos from the car.  That edict was not followed, as I’m sure you can imagine.

We drove through Wick, home of John, and met back up with the road we came from Inverness on.  We continued down that coastal road, until our cut-off came up.  We’ve driven on some narrow roads in Scotland.  When they take the time to actually put a sign up saying “One Track Road”, you KNOW it is going to be narrow.  There are pull-outs regularly to allow for passing.  The speed limit on this road is 60 mph.  I don’t think I ever got close to 50.  We saw some amazing countryside that Carrie and I have never seen before.  There were farms, a few small towns, and a lovely Loch.  What there weren’t, was open convenience stores.  Carrie was in the mood for a cold beverage, and to her disappointment, today is Sunday, and it is after 4pm, which means, in these small towns, nothing is open.  So, she had to wait until our destination.

We saw some truly amazing landscapes, and stopped regularly for photos.  Eventually, we made it to Ullapool, and our hotel for the night.  It overlooked the firth, and was beautiful.  We got our luggage upstairs, and freshened up a bit before dinner.  Dinner was good, though a little spicy for Rosanna.  We finished the day upstairs, thankful for the blackout curtains in our room.  It was another beautiful day.

Fall Weather

Well, not here, but it sure feels like fall - cold, windy, and wet.  But, it’s a perfect Scottish summer day for exploring.  We had a nice self-serve breakfast, which was a nice change.  While I am all down for a Scottish hot breakfast, it was nice to be able to just have what what we wanted to eat.

Once we had finished, we left to start our days adventure with a very important first stop - Laundry.  While some places have access to laundry facilities, we’ve had a run of several that haven’t.  Since we didn’t want to carry three weeks worth of clothes, we planned on doing laundry during our trip.  Luckily, there was a nice laundrette here in Kirkwall.  We dropped off bags of clothes as soon as they opened, and would pick up cleaned and folded clothes in the afternoon.  Easiest laundry day ever!

After our laundry stop, we walked down to a craft fair we spotted while driving in, and there were some really cool artisans there.  Carrie picked up a few beauties, and we walked back to the car to leave town before the docked cruise ship flooded Kirkwall with passengers.

First on the agenda was the Broch of Gurness.  The Broch is a very old tower home, probably the center of a small community.  It was probably built somewhere between 500-200 BC.  Over the years much of the stonework has been repurposed across the area, but when it was built it was probably around 30 feet tall.  It was extremely windy, and we were careful as we traversed the cliff line.  We really enjoyed watching seabirds dive into the water, fishing.

Back in the car, we left for the Earl’s Palace in Bursay.  This is the ruined palace of a not-so-nice “nobleman” who really loved money.  I mean, REALLY - so much he engaged in theft, bribery, torture and murder to achieve his ends.  His descendents didn’t do much better and they all had blood on their hands.  As such people find out, these violent delights have violent ends. And, you’re welcome for the timely WestWorld reference.

When Oliver Cromwell was blustering over the country, he inhabited the castle, and made copious notes about the status of the palace, and its contents.  His description of the kitchens were that they were “filled with muck and mud”.

Nearby, there was a lighthouse on an Island that is walkable to during low tide.  We didn’t take the hike, but got some good photos.

Next, we headed to Yesnaby Cliffs.  By the time we got to the top, the winds were so strong, it was hard to open the car doors.  Carrie was the brave one who headed out for pictures.  She came right back in, as the winds were strongly pushing her toward the cliffs, and she had no desire to test the power of her coat as a sail.

We chose to reshuffle our agenda, as our next destination was crawling with tourbuses.  It was getting close to our reservation for Skara Brae, so we went there early.  They ended up letting us go on in, so that worked out well.

Skara Brae is one of the best preserved Neolithic settlements in the world.  For thousands of years, it lay covered under the dirt and coastal plants that cover the area.  During a particularly bad storm in the 19th century, the nearby Laird discovered the settlement in the ground.  It was excavated and preserved, and is truly amazing.  The next part of the tour was the Laird’s home nearby, where we got a great look at 19th century posh life.

We grabbed a wee snack in the cafe and headed back out on the road.  By this time, we were able to get a more unobstructed view of the Ring of Brodgar, a large set of standing stones.  We just took pictures from the road, but got some nice shots.

Immediately next, was the Watchstone, one of Orkney’s most impressive standing stones.  It is not clear when it was erected, or its exact meaning, but it is TALL.  Visible nearby, is the Standing Stones of Stromness.  We popped by for a quick photo shoot.

The weather was turning, and there were going to be some traffic interruptions do to the Gala that is happening, so we went back into town for our clean laundry, then a stop off at LIDL for some food to cook for a laidback evening.

While in town, we kept seeing trucks, filmed with men or women covered in muck,, screaming, hooting and hollering. This apparently is a Scottish pre-wedding tradition called the blackening. They even tied a couple of guys to the cross next to the Cathedral. If you couldn’t hear them coming, you could definitely smell them coming - rank! We watched an amazing and then made our way to the grocery store.

It was very nice, watching the fog roll in, hear the rain, and relax.  Carrie worked on photos, then we ate dinner.  Afterward, she and Pat finally got to paint, and both of their works was awesome.  I got to enjoy some stretched-out relaxation in our beautiful room, and we called it a day.

Note: after repeated attempts to upload today’s photos, I have decided to upload it as is, and try to upload the rest of the photos when we have internet speeds faster than those of 1995.

Sailing…takes me away

And, please don’t refer to that song as Yacht Rock, or Donald Fagen might curse at you.  Today we are to take the ferry to the Orkney Islands.  As we had a firm sailing time reservation, and the terminal was about a 3 hours drive from our B&B, we had an abbreviated breakfast, which they were wonderful to accommodate.  Carrie kept us on schedule, and as we had already loaded up the car, we were able to leave right after breakfast.

The drive went really well, so smoothly, in fact, that for a significant part of it, I was either the only one awake, or it was just Carrie and me (I guess it is rather important that I am always in the “conscious” group).  We did pass by several spots we want to see, but we will be driving back this way once we leave Orkney, so we will stop then.

We got to the ferry plenty early, so we hung out in the terminal, and relaxed in the car until it was time to load the boat.  We got the car loaded on the boat, and went upstairs to claim some seating.  Luckily, there were some good tables near the cafe.  We were also a bit peckish, so that was fortunate.

We got a light lunch, and sat to enjoy the trip.  Carrie and Pat went out to the aft sun deck to get fresh air, and take pictures.  As we got close to the Old Man of Hoy, Walt went out to a viewing deck to join in the picture fiesta.

As we approached the dock, we lumbered downstairs to get in our car.  There was a lift available, and a lady was waiting for it.  Pat, Walt and Rosanna joined the queue.  The ferry locks down the car park stairs and lift while at sea, as you can’t be down with the cars while it travels.  The lift light came on, so they thought it was open for business.  It was a small lift, so Carrie and I went down to wait for the stairway door to open.  We looked over at the lift on our level, and saw that the lift was there, with the doors closed.  We saw it go back up to the higher floor, and heard Pats voice from above.  Apparently, they jumped the gun a bit, and the elevator would only bounce between those two floors.  We all waited together to go down the stairs, and get in our car.

We drove off the ferry and to our B&B.  It is AWESOME.  After last nights hotbox, ours had windows (that actually opened) up to a beautiful sea view.  I purposely left the windows open while we were going to be out seeing the island and having dinner, so when we ended up returning, the room was beautifully cool with crisp sea air.

Our first stop after dropping off our stuff at the B&B was St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, a mere 5 minute drive from our lodging.  It is a super-historic church that was started in 1137, and took hundreds of years to complete.  It is beautiful, and still in use.  We got an extra blessing when we entered, there was a string quartet practicing for a performance that evening.  We sat and listened, and were all impressed at the pianist - awesome!

We left there and went to visit the Italian Chapel, a place Carrie and I weren’t able to visit last time, because we got there after it closed.  It is the last remaining building of a POW camp from World War II.  This particular camp housed Italian POWs, most of which came from the North Africa campaign.  While imprisoned, they were allowed to decorate the generic building provided for a church.  What came from that was a beautiful, hand-painted homage to Italian cathedrals.  In 1960, the artist who painted all the murals was invited back to refresh the art and restore some parts.  It was pretty spectacular what people can accomplish, even in desperate times.

We drove around a little more before heading back to Kirkwall to have dinner.  Earlier in the day, Carrie had called to make reservations, as is often required in tourist destinations.  They were supposed to call her back to confirm, but never did.  She did follow up, and the told here that they were fully booked, but if we wanted to drop by, they might be able to accommodate us.  I dropped Carrie and Pat off at the restaurant to see if we could get a table, or if we would just order takeaway, and eat back at our B&B.  They were able to squeeze us in, and we had a very nice dinner of pizza and pasta, with some nice appetizers.

Walt and Rosanna had seen something they wanted to check out while I was circling, waiting for word from Carrie, so we walked there to see if it was picture worthy.  They said it wasn’t worth the walk, but it was probably good to burn off some of that Italian dinner.

Back in the car, we went back to Aultnagar, our B&B.  It has been another great, sunny day in Scotland.  I think our run of weather is about to change….stay tuned.

More or Ness

The morning went smoothly. Most of the crew was thrilled to have French Toast as a breakfast option. I was happy to have my Scottish full breakfast (minus the haggis and baked beans). As we were finishing up our breakfast, Carrie was able to feed the cows again. Her giggly smile lit up the pasture. I overloaded her phone with pictures, to make sure we got “the right one”.

We left to go to Culloden, the place of a deadly battle between the Jacobites with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the government forces trying to retain the throne. It is often mischaracterized as a battle between England and Scotland, but there were Scots and English on both sides. It was the last-ditch effort to restore the Stuart dynasty to the English throne. If you are a fan of Outlander, you are somewhat familiar with the battle.

We toured the visitor’s center and museum, and met up for our guided tour. The last time Carrie and I were there, we just took the audio tour and walked around on our own. We much prefer an actual human tour guide, and ours today was great. We had a nice walk-about in the battlefield, and headed to our next stop.

Nearby, there is a very old historic site - Clava Cairns. There are 4,000 year old passage tombs here, and probably another that has been lost to time. It is very easy to think of this area having old ruins, but these are OLD. Due to the small number of remains found, these were likely only used for very important people, like Chiefs, or whatever they were called back then. Nearby, there is a really cool viaduct that brings the train into Inverness. We got some nice pics there before moving on.

Our next stop led us back to Loch Ness for our cruise. We didn’t see any monsters, but we did stop at Urquhart Castle. This is the remains of a very important castle that protected royal interests on Loch Ness from the often hostile locals, who didn’t appreciate the interlopers. As we got off the boat, there was a piper allowing tourists to take photos with him, as well as playing a few tunes. We walked up the hill, and the others in our crew toured the castle. I wanted some pictures of the piper, so I stayed put, and eventually walked down to our queuing spot for the return cruise. The piper came down to my area to play off a group of tourists, and I got to chat a bit with him as he was leaving the area.

He had joined the British Military at 17, and went right into Pipes and Drum school. He’d never played them before. After a 6 month intensive course, he joined the corps and has piped around the world. He recently left the military, and now pipes around Great Britain for tourists, weddings, and the like. His military background might have accounted for a gruff encounter we witnessed when getting photos with him.

We got back on the boat, and this time claimed an indoor table, as it was getting cold and windy. We enjoyed a hot beverage and some snacks on our return cruise. After disembarking we drove a few miles down the road to the Loch Ness Center, for their adventure tour. This was a multimedia exploration of the Loch Ness history, myths, and exploration. It was very well done, and we all enjoyed it.

After that, we were all ready for dinner, and we went down to the village of Drumnadrochit to the fish and chips vendor outside the restaurant we ate at last night. I think we all enjoyed ourselves, and they even gave us glasses of ice(meager amount that it was) with our cans of soda. We were excited to see tea cakes (our new favorite) at the counter when paying, so we all got one as well.

After dinner, we drove back to our Coo Farm, to rest and peruse the day’s photos. Today was very warm for Scotland, in the high 70’s, so our room was warm. We opened the windows (if you can call it “open”), to get a bit of air inside. Since our internet coverage was pretty sparse there, I decided to just go to bed, and work on the blog in the morning, waiting for the ferry. That is still the middle of the night in Cali, so I felt justified.

…another great day.

The Gift of Aberdeen

Much to Pat’s enjoyment, breakfast this morning was buffet-style, so she got to pick out every element of her morning repast. We all enjoyed the meal (well, most of the meal - Rosanna said her muffin was dry - Pat tried it and said iit wasn’t dry, just weird).

After I retrieved the car, and we loaded up the suitcases, we headed out for an abbreviated tour of Aberdeen. This was where Walt’s ancestors came from, so it was meaningful to him to see some of his origins. “If it weren’t for Aberdeen, I wouldn’t be here.”

When we stopped to take some quick pictures at King’s College, there wasn’t a great spot to park, so I stayed in the car, and the rest of the crew got out to see the surroundings and take pictures. The “quick photo stop”, as Carrie described it, turned into a long exploration of Kings College. Unfortunately for me, the spot I had found to wait was smack-dab in the middle of the zone the bus drivers claimed as their personal fiefdom. After waiting there unmolested for quite a while, apparently one of the bus drivers had had enough of the foreign interloper. He came up to my window, informed me that I could get a £100 fine for being in the area, and I was interfering with the buses. I told him I was happy to leave, and he just stood there at my door. I repeated my willingness to leave, and he continued to stare at me. After I was about to say “if you move, I will move” and he finally went back to his bus, and I was able to pull away from my trespassing spot.

As soon as I pulled away from the curb, one of the buses ahead of me let loose a flow of passengers previously unseen in human history. Eventually, their tour guide told his people to wait, and motioned me forward so that I could exit the area. I found some parking spots that said “Parking with Permit Only” and figured I could retreat before before a ticket could be written.

After another pregnant pause, I finally got a response from my text to Carrie that I had moved. Once my crew made it back to the car, we tried to pull away, but that same tour guide’s gaggle of tourists (what do you call a group of tourists? I think it should be a Hive, as they swarm with no seeming mindfulness, and frequently sting) surrounded our vehicle. They continued streaming down both sidewalks and the street. Once there was enough of a gap, I slowly pulled out. If I had been driving my car, I would have excused the zombie-like ignoring of the car, as it is very quiet. However, It was quite clear to anyone nearby, that a motorized vehicle was very close behind them. Once the final obstacle , er…human, stepped out of the road, I was able to exit the area, and return to glorious, car-centric streets.

Next stop was a super historic bridge with an insane name - Brig o' Balgownie. Though the builder of the bridge is disputed, it was completed around 1320, around the time of the Scottish War of Independence.

We left there to start our long drive towards Inverness. We stopped at Pennan, a small old fishing village. We walked along the scenic pier, and stopped at a cool little coffee stand. The proprietor was warm and welcoming. We had hot chocolates, and I got a coffee, and some freshly baked goods - Scones with clotted cream and jam, and Pat got a coconut, lime cake. We got some awesome photos, and enjoyed the cool breeze. As we were prepping to leave, one of our seagull models dive bombed our car. Since my window was open, the door, steering wheel, and my jeans received collateral damage. Luckily, Pat was there to save the day with some handy wet wipes.

We loaded back up to visit another seaside fishing village - Crovie. To visit there, you have to walk down a pretty steep, so we got some photos from the overlook. After some photos, we loaded back up to continue on. Findlater Castle was closed. Even the road was closed, so we couldn’t even get photos.

We headed on to Bow Fiddle Rock. We hiked a bit down to see the rock formation, as well as the seagulls. I stopped and chatted with a nice Scotsman with a beautiful dog. I complimented him on the dog’s training, and he said - “She’s only doing that because I have a biscuit in my hand.” I got permission to pet her, and she was super sweet and friendly. He asked about our trip, and was fun to talk to.

After everyone was done, we headed off to our next stop - the Scottish Dolphin Center…which was closed. We stopped in the parking lot to take some pictures, and maybe see dolphins. Carrie got an awesome shot of an osprey with a fish in its talons.

We were all getting a bit tired (especially the driver), so we began the 2 hour trek to our B&B on the shores of Loch Ness. We drove through Inverness, and though it is not as big as the cities we have left behind, it was still a bit hectic, and my stress level greatly reduced upon exiting the city limits.

We found our B&B, and once we determined we were actually in the right spot, Carrie and I went inside to check in. While giving us the nickel tour, our host saw that the farm’s Highland Coos were up close, so he let us get a preview of our Highland Coo Experience. Carrie was the brave one to feed the very friendly and cute animals, who also have prodigious tongues.

After sanitizing herself, we saw our rooms, and unloaded the car. We had some rest time before our dinner reservation, so the chauffeur was happy to partake. Once it was time to leave, we went to have dinner. While some were a bit hesitant at the few choices, the dinner was very good, and we were filled.

Back at the farm, we worked the pictures, and I wrote the blog. While today’s content wasn’t as epic as other days, due to the long drives, It adequately represents our adventure. Good Night, Johnboy.

Just a little Puff(in)

Due to the ever-changing ruleset for our photo contest, I need to clarify that there will only be one photo of the day (whew!), and it will be shown at the top of the daily blog. It won’t necessarily be called out, but if its a big photo, it is the winner. And now, something completely different….

We awakened to the sound of Carrie’s alarm…and then again, 9 minutes later. We gradually drug ourselves from our beds and began the morning rituals. At least the shower was good. We had been told that breakfast began at 8, but apparently, that was pushed to more of an half-eight (ish), so we went ahead and packed everything up first.

Breakfast was an adventure. It started off poorly for Pat, when her fruit salad was filled with little cubes of watermelon, infesting all of the other fruits with its watermeloniness. I had ordered toast and jam to go with my hot tea, but I switched with her, and was happy to, since I ended up with some toast as well. Once the mains came, Pat was nonplussed at the look of her fried eggs - way too underdone for her. She switched with Carrie, and found the scrambled eggs were also rather soft. She had relearned a valuable lesson - she prefers the pancakes and such when she has a choice.

Walt got to taste haggis on his full Scottish breakfast. I also got a full Scottish, minus the haggis, beans, and mushrooms. I was soundly mocked, but was probably the happiest with their breakfast. Duely sated, we fit ourselves in the car to head off on our journey.

First stop was petrol. As the diesel and Unleaded pumps have different colors than we do in the states (totally reversed), I had to endure the reminders of the time in Iceland where I pumped unleaded into the diesel car, and we had to have the tank pumped when it “randomly” stopped working.

From there, we left to go to Arbroath Abbey. This is an extremely historic site that gave us the Declaration of Arbroath, probably the most famous document in Scottish history. In a nutshell, it was a letter to the pope from the nobles of Scotland, requesting his support of Scottish sovereignty, under Robert the Bruce, who had been excommunicated. Its most famous lines are: “It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”

We enjoyed the visitors center, and Pat, Rosanna, and Walt even donned costumes for a photo shoot. Just to clarify, Pat’s costume is a monk, not the dark lord of the sith. After enjoying the center, we toured the abbey grounds to talke pictures. Much of the abbey was off limits, due to restoration and safety work that was under way.

Leaving there, we headed to the Red Castle, a ruined dwelling that, until the 1950’s, was among the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland. We couldn’t really get close, as the grounds are private, but we did get some good photos.

Next, we drove to a beach Carrie and I had visited previously. We got some great photos, and chatted with some locals who were out with their cute dog.

Back in the car, we drove to the Boddin Lime Kilns. Carrie and Walt got out to take some quick pictures, but ended up walking all the way down, and even further, for some awesome shots. Once they made it back, we tried to drive to Scurdie Ness Lighthouse, but the road to it was private, and long. So, we decided to head on to our next stop.

On our way to our scheduled stop, Pat’s eagle vision spotted a sign for another lighthouse, the Todhead Lighthouse. To get there we needed to drive a few miles on VERY narrow roads, weaving through farmland. Rosanna was playing “name the crop”, and Carrie was scanning the horizon for sheep. We happened across a field of ewes and lambs who weren’t scared of us at all. The lambs were very curious, and dang cute. Walt even got out of the car to take some pics. We were stopped on the road for a while, then continued toward the lighthouse. The next serendipity was a field of cows who weren’t scared really curious as well. We got some great photos, and drove up to the lighthouse. It was clear it had been converted into a residence, so we turned around to head to our waterfall hike.

On the way back, we were met by a few cars that had to do the whole “back up until you find a wider spot in the road” thing that is a reality in rural Scotland. Once we made it to our hike, we parked and headed off to see what we could see. Crowton Waterfall is a small coastal waterfall found on a short looped hike. Farther on down the trail is a cave where puffins nest. While we were viewing the waterfall, we saw lots of puffins beating their cute, stubby little wings flying to and fro. Since we are going to be able to see puffins in a much better environment in a week or so, we decided to head on to the next location, as we were all getting tired.

Next up was Dunnottar Castle, a cool coastal castle. Carrie and I had been there before, and I decided to sit this one out in the cool, shaded car. The rest of them headed down to see and shoot some photos. I think they really enjoyed it.

Next up, was heading into Aberdeen city center for our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Unfortunately, they have limited parking that requires reservations. They only notified Carrie to make a reservation a few days ago. She called them back within minutes of the text, and there were no reservations to be had. Luckily there was a parking garage just down the street. We unloaded all the suitcases, and I went to park the car. This left the “seasoned” citizens and Carrie to lug everything to our rooms. Another lucky thing was they had a lift (not universal in Europe), so it wasn’t too crazy to get stuff upstairs. Though, there was a problem with 2 of the keys, so Carrie had to run back down to the desk to get them re-keyed.

We relaxed for a while in our rooms, before heading downstairs for dinner. “Dinner” was pretty generous when we looked at the menu, so we walked across the street to have dinner. Boy, are we glad we did! We had a great meal, and came back to blog and do pictures.

As I am finishing this entry, the votes have been tallied, and we have a winner for photo of the day. I will attach it and get the rest of the days pictures uploaded. Thanks for reading! Tomorrow, we head to Inverness, home of Nessie.

History of the World, Part One

I was told that my posts should have more history content in them, as people were wanting to learn the history we are experiencing. So, in honor of mine and my father’s history professor, Doug Skeen (Dad, from Decatur Baptist College, me from Dallas Baptist University), here’s my best shot.

When a mama planet and a daddy planet love each other very much, they have a baby planet. This baby planet was called Earth. As it grew and grew, many people lived and died and enjoyed breakfast sandwiches. As to why they had such affection for breakfast sandwiches, the answer is lost to time.

With deepest apologies, those responsible for the previous paragraph have been sacked. Let’s continue…

We started our day rather early, as we had to pack up and leave this lovely place. As we were just about to leave, Carrie noticed some highland coos near the fence, so,, of course, she had to get a few more pictures. Once we were all in the car, we added our destinations to the navigation, along with a stop for coffee, and headed out.

First on our agenda were the Kelpies statues. These are representations of Scottish mythical creatures who can take on many forms. One such form is the horse made from water. In legend, it was to lure people to the rivers, to their deaths. These particular statues also represent the agriculture of the area.

The consensus for a quick breakfast/coffee stop was a nearby McDonalds. This was partially a nod to Nana, as when she was with us in Scotland, she insisted we visit at least one Mickey-Dee’s, so, of course, we acquiesced. In this particular case, I made the mistake of using an American credit card to pay. As bitter a pill is it would be for the Ron Swansons of the world to admit, there are some things that Europe has over the US. One thing is the chip and pin credit card. We recently got the first part, but signing a receipt is so foreign to Scots that the poor cashier in the drive thru was practically speechless.

This process ended up taking forever, and I’m sure some Gaelic curses were being thrown about in cars behind us. Eventually, they figured out how to cancel the transcaction so that I could use Apple Pay, which didn’t require a signature, and we were able to receive our food and leave.

We headed off to Linlithgow Palace. When Carrie and I were here in 2018, the tours were led by high school students, who got special credit for doing this. Unfortunately, Covid killed another wonderful thing, and the tour was self-guided by poor technology.

Linlithgow Palace was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is a beautiful example of Renaissance architecture. As an adult, she came back to visit (she hadn’t been there since her childhood), and sent trumpeters in advance to proclaim her arrival. Even though it has seen better days, you can really get a feel of life back then. It also has a still-active church right next to the palace.

Carrie and Pat were in hyperdrive mode, and I hung back to make sure Walt and Rosanna survived the roughly-hewn stairs. We figured that Carrie and Pat had headed over to the church, so we went that way. Actually they had hiked up to the top of the palace, waaay up the crazy spiral stairs.

We eventually made contact, and let them know we were waiting in the car. The weather was nice and cool, and I actually enjoyed sitting in the breeze while they finished their tour. Then, we headed to Culross for the Abbey and Palace. After some tense moments of barely-single-lane roads and oncoming cars, we made it to the abbey. After a quick visit we went down the hill to see the palace.

Culross is a stuck-in-time town. It is so historically frozen, that it was heavily used in filming Outlander. We stopped in an art studio where we had previously visited, met the photographer, and bought my awesome Eliean Donan print. This time, there was a sad memorial to the photographer, Graham Harris Graham. He was such a nice guy to talk to. Apparently he had been out hiking and photographing, and was found dead by the highlands rescue teams. RIP Graham.

We then walked over to Culross Palace. It is a beautifully preserved historic mansion. The insides are a slice of history. Outlander used many rooms in its production, and you can really see why. It is so authentic and real. I must say people in the past lived in such dark environments. My favorite room is the painted chamber, with its intricately painted walls and ceilings.

At the rear of the palace are the exquisite gardens. There were lots of beautiful flowers, and many many happy pollinators. Carrie had a blast taking pictures of the bees and flowers. Afterward, we stopped at the cafe takeaway, and got some coffee, hot chocolate, scones, and a wonderful caramel shortbread. As we drove off, Pat divvied up the goodies, and we all shared a little snack.

Next on our list was Dunfermline Abbey. This is another very historic site. Robert the Bruce’s tomb is here, and his presence is inscribed in the top of the central tower. Inside the still-active church, we saw some beautiful stained glass, and an amazing pipe organ. They had a cast of Robert’s skull on display. We also found some great gifts for the kids there.

As we walked outside, Carrie was struck by the view. In one of her painting sessions, she had painted THIS view! It was really cool. We met back at the car to try and make it to our next stop, ST. Andrew’s castle and cathedral before the last entry at 4:45. We didn’t make it in time, so we walked around the outside and took some great pictures of the ruins, as well as the castle and nearby coast.

Back in the car, our next stop was our lodging for the night, Taypark House, in Dundee. We made it there, checked in, and the nice clerk brought our luggage up the stairs to us. We settled into our rooms, and Carrie and Pat explored a mysterious staircase leading up from the bathroom.

Apparently, we have a turret room. I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, as our room is called “turret room”. There is a spiral staircase leading up to a turret, with windows all around, with nice views. There is, oddly, a big tub not in the bathroom, but right behind the sofa bed Pat is going to be sleeping on tonight. Walt asked if she was going to have to leave the room when Carrie and I take a bath (there is actually a shower in the bathroom), and she said, “They’re going to lock me in the turret.” (We made no such threats, at least publicly)

After relaxing a bit, we left for our dinner reservations at The Giddy Goose, a quirky restaurant. Tonight was £2 tacos. We all made our dinner choices, and when it came to me, I asked for the taco menu. Then, we all started adding tacos to our existing order. We had a feast. Everyone was pleased with their food tonight, and several of us stated how we should have eaten less.

We went back to our hotel, and got ready for photo importing and judging. I wrote the blog, and hope that the history content of today’s writing passes muster. Goodnight, and good luck.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Waking up this morning was much easier. It probably helped that the actual sun was actually visible, along with mister blue sky. We did find out the source of the water on the floor in our bathroom last night. We thought some of the shower-takers had been careless, but it was proved to be coming from under the pedestal sink. Our hosts were duly notified.

We loaded the car quickly and headed to Edinburgh, with a quick stop off for breakfast at Starbucks. The map showed that the neighboring petrol station had an ATM, so we had planned on getting some cash as well. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be one, and the clerk on duty stated when asked “I don’t know, its my first day.” So we got back in the car with our coffee and food items and searched the map for another ATM.

After one false alarm, we did find one. Walt and I got out and navigated the obtuse ATM menus. Hint, they REALLY want you to get your balance (we were each asked 5 times) because they can charge you even if you don’t end up completing the withdrawal. With our plastic Monopoly money in hand, we continued to Edinburgh for our tour.

We had pre-paid for our parking spot right by Edinburgh Castle, and I had a handy QR code to scan for entry. Unfortunately, every time I held my phone up to scan, the screen shifted, or did whatever it took for the scanner to fail. More and more people started enjoying the show of a stupid American failing at technology. Eventually, it scanned, and allowed us entry.

We parked and headed up the stairs to street-level, and met up with our guide, Sam. She took us across the car park to start off showing some of the castle features. We loaded in the van and started touring the city. Carrie was convinced that we had seen our driver Steve before. She asked if he led Outlander tours in the past, and he had. So, Carrie dove into her photo library and found a pic of him from our previous trip - Small World.

Sam was a fantastic source of information, and it became clear that we had taken a tour with her as well. It makes sense, as they are the same company. Actually, they ARE the company - and a family, as they are husband and wife. If you are planning a trip to Edinburgh, you should check with Carrie, as they have our hearty recommendation.

We took a stroll through the village below the castle and took lots of great photos. Sam shared lots of insight about life here. After a long walk, we got back in the van to see more of the city. Walt got to get a definitive answer to his questions about the vast number of chimneys visible on the roofs of all the houses. No, they no longer use them for heat, but it does provide ventilation to the individual homes. They also didn’t really use wood, but rather, coal. There is now a “no burning” rule here, so, no fires.

We made it to the Royal Mile, and stopped off for lunch. The restaurant had a traditional Sunday Roast, which Walt selected as his Father’s Day lunch. Unfortunately, in this case, the “traditional” in Sunday Roast meant “like mom used to make” if mom wasn’t a particularly good cook. Pat and Rosanna enjoyed their fish and chips, though Rosanna wasn’t sure about the mushy peas. My bacon burger was good, and Carrie’s sandwich was “Meh.”

We finished up the tour, and made it back to our car to head back to our lodging. When we had taken the tour with Steve, he had taken us to Smiddy’s Farm Store for our lunch. So we stopped off there to grab some quick items for dinner. Even though the cafe was closed, they had some take and heat items for a nice quick dinner.

Back at our cabin, we got comfortable, and photo organizing began. I relaxed for a nice nap, and waited for them to get all organized. Once it was time for photo selection, I came back downstairs and we all voted on the photos of the day. Once all that was done, I jotted down some quick notes to share with those of you interested in our progress. It is our last night here, so we will need to get fully packed up in the morning. It was nice to have such a warm place to spend our first few nights in Scotland. Tomorrow, off to somewhere new. Good Night

Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time

So, I feel like I should clarify one thing. On yesterday’s entry, I listed a “Photo of the Day”. We decided to add an element of competition to our trip photography. We are selecting a Photo off the Day each day. At the end of our trip, I will put up a gallery of the daily pics to have you, dear readers, help select the Best of the Trip photo. Due to the highly lucrative element to this, we will keep the identity of the daily winners secret. Well, back to today’s adventure….

Today, we didn’t have to get going super early, but we did want to run into town for a quick breakfast and some warm go-juice. I REALLY needed some caffeine, as my body was not happy with me. We all got ready, and drove in the quest for coffee.

We found a nice little coffee food truck, that not only made a good cappuccino, but freshly made some breakfast sandwiches. Carrie and Walt chose the egg roll, and I chose the bacon one because, well, BACON. They fired up the grill and cooked up some fresh bacon, and fried up some eggs for the rolls. Somehow, the cook gave Walt’s roll to the person who ordered after him, so she quickly fired him up one. Unfortunately, his was a little messier than Carrie’s, as it was more over easy than hers was. The loose yolk did escape his roll and found his hands, his shirt, etc.

Carrie was envious, as she had forgotten that bacon over here is more like Canadian Bacon than our good old US bacon - a lot more meat. It was delicious. So was my coffee.

We made it back to our lodging to go on their farm tour. Matt, our host, put on a great tour. He is retired military, and is totally invested in traditional farming techniques, and doing the right thing for his land, his animals, and his community. We found out more about his military career, which revolved around Special Forces. He even lived in the US for a few years instructing our vaunted Seal Team Six. As avid watchers of the Seal Team TV Show, we understood when he brought up “door-kicking”.

After the awesome tour, we ended up at one of their cabins where Allison, Matt’s other half, had prepared a nice tea for us to escape the rain with. Their chef whipped up a wonderful warming roasted tomato soup. I don’t think I mentioned the weather, but what was a sparse drizzle turned into a very cold rain. So, the fire in the cabin, with hot tea, and hearty soup was a perfect ending to the tour.

By the time we finished our lunch, the rain stopped. We walked back to our cabin to get ready to go to our castle tours. First up was a castle Carrie and I visited on our Outlander Tour a few years ago. At that time, unbeknownst to me we were going to be visiting a much more important filming location than Outlander.

Doune Castle was the location for multiple castles in Monty Pything and the Holy Grail. When scouting locations, none of the more posh castles were approved for their use. Doune Castle was the only one available for them to use, and so they changed filming angles to pretend to be multiple castles. If you’re not savvy on British Comedy, this is the reference in today’s title. It was the location for a savage taunting by poorly translated French knights. I guess I can mention that Outlander did use it to film in as well.

Then we headed to Stirling Castle. We had a nice drive to Stirling and parked in the handy Park and Ride. The last time Carrie and I were in Stirling, we fought our way driving through town to get to the castle. Right before we entered the car park, the road was blocked off, because the castle was full. So, I had to drive back through town, weaving in and out of the oddly parked cars and brazen jaywalkers. We decided we would not see the Castle today. So now, they have a nice free parking lot and a very cheap bus that took us almost all the way to the castle - much better!

After the bus let us off by the old Jail, we walked up the hill and made it to the castle. Walking through the car park, Carrie saw a wallet on the ground next to a car. It was full of money, and I’m sure someone would be really upset at its loss. So, we left a note on the car, and took it to the car park attendant, so hopefully it would find its way to its owner.

We made it into the castle, and saw some amazing views, and a beautiful garden. We started back down the hill and visited the Holy Rude church. I’ve met more than a few people in various churches who would be a good fit there. It is a very historic church - where Mary Queen of Scots worshipped. There were also a few cannon there - my kind of church. If I weren’t so tired, I had a whole plan of making a meme out of one of the cannon. It involved making a sign on the wall that the cannon faced, saying “Worship Music Complaint Department”, and a caption of something like “If you didn’t like the worship music in church today, please fill out a form here…”

After the church, we got back on the bus to head to our car. We made it back in, and drove off to see if we could get a closer photo of the William Wallace Monument, as we couldn’t enter, due to it already closing for the day. Afterward, we went to dinner at a recommendation from Allison. It was the restaurant of Nick Nairn, a famous Scottish celebrity chef.

We ate out on the patio, which was covered, and they provided blankets and a heater. It was perfect. The rain came back during our dinner, and we were warm and happy. For being a Celebrity Chef’s restaurant, it was very reasonably priced (for Scotland). After dinner we drove back to our farm, and began the work of sorting photos. Rosanna served up some ice cream, and I made Carrie a mug of hot tea. We planned out tomorrows driving routes, and I sat down to write. My work is done, and as soon as photos are picked, I’ll post. It was a perfect first full day in Bonnie Scotland.

People Photo of the day

Animal Photo of the day

Still Life Photo of the day

Flower Photo of the day

Landscape/Building Photo of the day

The Longest Day

It’s probably not the most appropriate title, especially since the anniversary of D-Day is so recent, but it is an apt description of what we are facing today. We woke up at 3am to get ready and load the car to head to Sacramento to fly to Scotland. Our original flight wasn’t supposed to leave until almost noon, which would have had us getting up at a reasonable hour. But, man makes plans and God laughs…

We now will have a 5 hour layover in Seattle, and a 4 hour layover in Reykjavik. So, from when we left Anderson this morning, to when we finally make it to Glasgow, it will have been over 24 hours of travel. The things you do for adventure :). I guess the bright side is that we wont really have to worry about tight connections :)

We are currently sitting in the airport in Sacramento waiting to board. I’ll have more to share later.

We had a slow but uneventful flight to Seattle. Due to the rain (who would have thought - rain in Seattle?), we sat on the tarmac for a while in Sac, then took a serpentine route to Seattle, to burn some more time. Once we landed, we made our way to the Amex Lounge. Unfortunately, it was full, so we got on the waiting list. We got in rather quickly, and found one of the few available seating areas and relieved ourselves of our bags.

We had a nice lunch, and did some iPad tech support for Pat, and waited for Walt and Rosanna to arrive from Idaho. Once they did, we made our way to the gate, to wait the rest of the multi-hours long layover. Icelandair has a somewhat unique boarding policy, which combined with some less-than-stellar communication techniques, resulted in a huge scrum at the boarding aisle. I must say, it was rather awesome to be blessed with the actual Charlie Brown’s Teacher doing the gate announcements.

We got on the flight, and got situated for our long summer’s flight. When we sat down, the AC blew nice and cold, so I put on my hoodie to be prepared for a nice chilly nap. Once we got in the air, however, I think the female flight attendants were in charge of the thermostat, as the cold air vanished (only to reappear right as we landed in Iceland). We had a nice, if cramped meal, though it took them FOREVER to come retrieve the dining implements. This meant that my table had my leavings, as well as Carrie’s and Pats, as they were settling down for some snoozing. It was ok, as I was in my own world (literally) watching shows on my Vision Pro, with the Moon at night environment blocking out the claustrophobic surroundings.

We finally made it to Iceland, and we disembarked for our next long layover. We found some tables to occupy, and had breakfast. It was 6 am in Iceland, but 11pm in Cali.

We still have miles to go before we sleep….miles to go before we sleep. I’ll wrap things up once we make it to Scotland….FREEDOM!!

Well, we finally made it to our destination. The best part of stepping off of the plane was feeling the cool air. Unfortunately, the terminal building’s atmospheric controls could not keep up with the sheer numbers of people lining (well, queuing would be more appropriate here) up to go through border controls. Once we finally made it through (Carrie was grumbling at the new digital gating system, because we didn’t get a stamp - they don’t do that for most people any more), we got our bags and got to the car.

I think driving in Scotland was far more stressful on my passengers than on me. I’ve done it a lot, and it became comfortable pretty quickly. Based upon the (mostly suppressed) gasps, I think it was challenging for them.

We didn’t have that far to drive to our lodging - a nice working Highland Coo farm. Our host met us before we even got out of the car, and made us feel really welcome. It is a really nice, newly refurbished space that is really warm and lovely.

Once we had gotten all our luggage in and up the STEEEEP stairs to our rooms, we settled in. My post-travel routine usually includes a nice warm shower to wash off the ick of flying. Today’s ick was over 24 hours in the making, so it felt really good. Carrie laid down to rest her eyes, and I joined her.

Two and a half hours later, Pat beckoned us, saying that the home cooked meals the host had provided were being heated up. Once we got downstairs, Rosanna opened the door to ask Walt “Do you know where my hearing aids are?” The response was priceless - “What did you say?” Carrie giggled for quite a while.

Once dinner was ready, we filled our plates and sat down to eat. As the weirdo who isn’t really that picky of an eater, but who has one clearly stated food rule - No Beans - I was left with only one option of the choices given by our host - A venison stew. After all the travel today, I wasn’t really that hungry, and I was even less inclined to try something new. I did taste it, and it wasn’t gamey at all, and was very lean and tender. I still only ate some of the veggie sides, but Walt, also not a venison-lover, did try some as well, and said it was really good.

After dinner, we got pictures imported, and I sat down to finish today’s epic travelogue. We got to FaceTime with Emma and Mariana, so that itch was scratched. It’s about 8:30 pm here, and Carrie, Pat, and I got up 33 hours ago, so we’ll probably call it a night before too long. We’re finally here 😎.

Photo of the day