Blog respite

In the tradition of Charlie, I will be taking a blogging break. Not because I have other more pressing things to do, but because I will be on vacation next week. My brother is coming to visit and we're going to camp with him and his family, go out on our boat, and just have a great time enjoying the summer in Sandpoint. So... I will be back, and will post more about our UK Trip, and maybe even some photos from next week's vacation too. Happy 4th to you all. See you soon. I'll miss you all.

UK Trip - Day Two (continued)

Pitlochry is a great little town. It’s quite picturesque and was one of our favorite little towns in all of Scotland. We spent quite a bit of time in the visitor center there, partly looking for souvenirs, partly gathering information about the area. The woman who helped us was really wonderful. Her accent was great too! After buying some t-shirts for friends of ours that said “I have friends in Scotland”, a refrigerator magnet, and a great map of Scotland, loading up with every brochure imaginable about Scotland’s various regions, we trekked on down the main street of Pitlochry. There were dozens of great little shops, and I think we went into every one of them. We didn’t buy anything, just did a lot of looking. Around lunch time we noticed several people eating fish and chips from Styrofoam containers. It looked really good, so we asked one couple where they got it. There was a place on one of the side streets called “The Plaice to Be” (spelled just that way). We headed straight for it since we were starving. There was a line of about 10 people that wound out the door and in front of the take out place. Obviously, this WAS the “plaice” to be. We looked at the menu and decided to just go for the fish and chips, though there was pretty much anything you could want on the menu. They had steak pie, haggis, sausages, and some things I had no clue what they were. We saw the steak pies and they looked pretty tasty, but we were ready for some fish and chips – our first since our arrival in the UK. We were not disappointed. The piece of fish was huge! In the US, you usually get two or three small pieces of fish and a pile of chips (fries), so we were awed by the giant piece of haddock that we were given and the enormous of steak fries it was served with. Jonathan and I opted for the vinegar, of course, but Tom hates it, so he just had salt. This was strictly a take away place with no seating, so we walked down the street a bit and found a stone wall upon which we could place our take out boxes while we ate. We joined the others who were eating their fish and chips while standing on the sidewalk. One bite and we were hooked. The fish was hot, moist, and delicious! My only complaint was that, by the time we got to the fries, they were kind of soaked with grease from the fish, and I really couldn’t eat much more. Tom wanted to eat every dinner there for the rest of the stay. He really, really loved it. It was good, but I’d take it somewhere I could sit down to eat it, and separate it from the fries so they didn’t soak up all the grease. If you go to Pitlochry, give “The Plaice to Be” a try. It’s just east of the main street on the north end of town. Excellent food!

After we ate, we explored the town a bit more, taking in the scenery, the quaint stone houses, the beautiful gardens, the old churches. It was a really great day and we would love to go back and try out some of the pubs we passed. I highly recommend a visit to Pitlochry. I know we didn’t see half of what we could have had we spent more time there. Interestingly, I found out from my sister that she stayed at a B & B there when she visited about 8 years ago. I had no idea.

There are some great sights in Pitlochry, like the River Tummel, Loch Faskally, and the Edradour Distillery. I believe the Queen's View at Loch Tummel is close by as well. We didn't get to take in any of those sights - this time. We will next time. We did stop by Blair Atholl and Blair Castle, though after hours, so all we could see was the outside of the castle, the grounds, and the Hercules garden. I will post photos of it in the next few days. I have posted about 15 new photos from our trip to Stirling, which comes on Day Three, so checkout my photobucket.

The reason I am not a worldly success

I was reading an article in today’s paper about a man who was struck and killed while riding his bicycle with a fellow bicyclist along a straight section of the road. It was a really tragic accident. The man had apparently logged over 10,000 miles on his bicycle. What struck me was the way he was described by his brother. He could have been describing me. …well, except for the enormous number of friends who loved him to pieces.

“Smith had a master’s degree in energy planning and was interested in sailing, cooking, and desktop publishing. He memorized dozens of sea dirges and recited Lewis Carroll at gatherings of The Well. ’I think he had far too many interests to be a worldly success in the late 20th century, but he had an enormous number of friends who loved him to pieces,’ Creighton Smith said.”

It doesn’t say Smith was interested in photography or writing, but I’ll bet he was. Probably liked gardening too. At last, I understand why I’ll never be the next (name your favorite prominent successful, brilliant female). Too many interests. I think they call that ADD.

Father’s Day Excitement

Wow, it’s been 11 days since I last posted. Right in the middle the tales of my UK Trip, I stop and leave everyone hanging…well, all five of you who read this blog. My apologies. Stuff happened. You see, on Father’s Day, June 18, I called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day. No answer. So, I left a cheery message wishing him a Happy Father’s Day and hoping he was out having fun. I learned later that each of my siblings did likewise. We were to meet my son-in-law, daughter, and their kids for breakfast at 9:30. We arrived a bit early, took our seats, and awaited their arrival. A few minutes later, our daughter and grandkids arrived sans our son-in-law. Daughter was visibly upset. When asked where SIL was, she looked at me and said “he drove your dad to the hospital in Coeur d’Alene”. Naturally, a million questions went through my mind. The obvious one finally popped out “what’s wrong?” She explained that my dad had called very early that morning and said simply “I’m in the ER and I need a ride to the hospital in Coeur d’Alene”, to which SIL responded “I’ll be right there”. He promised Daughter he’d call before he left town to tell her what was going on. An hour passed and he had still not called, so she called him. He was already in Coeur d’Alene. The fact that he’d not called first didn’t sit too well with Daughter. He explained that my dad had asked him not to say anything to anyone until they knew what was wrong for sure. Turns out, he had been having chest pains for a few days, but he thought they were gas pains. They got really bad Saturday night, but he refused to go to the ER. Early Sunday AM (they got to the ER at 5:30 so it must have been 3:30 a.m. or so) he finally relented and drove himself and my stepmom to the ER. Apparently, after an EKG and some other tests, the ER doc wasn’t sure what was wrong. He called the cardiologist in Coeur d’Alene and discussed the case with him. That doctor told him to send my dad down to Kootenai Medical Center (KMC) so he could check him out. They wanted to put him in an ambulance, but for some reason still unknown to me, he refused. It was at that point he called SIL.

Why not call me, you might ask? I wondered the same thing. I alternated between furious and worried. Needless to say, my appetite was ruined and the $15 buffet breakfast went to waste. SIL called Daughter a little later saying they still didn’t know what was wrong for sure. Daughter and SIL had a heated discussion about keeping secrets and not letting family members in on what was happening. SIL was caught in the middle, really. Finally, mid-afternoon, SIL called Daughter to tell her my dad needed bypass surgery. He had six blocked arteries. I immediately called SIL’s cell phone and got voice mail. I basically said “this is not cataract surgery, this is “you could die” surgery”. I want to know what’s going on so someone needs to call me as soon as possible.” Moments later, I got a call from my stepmother. She told me what I already knew – my dad had six blocked arteries. It was a miracle he hadn’t had a heart attack, wasn’t dead, and had no heart damage. The surgery was scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. I asked why SIL was called instead of me and was told it’s because I’m too excitable. What that means is, I would probably cry when told my dad needed to go to ER, and I would probably be worried and/or scared, but I would have been completely capable of driving him to the hospital without freaking out. I do maintain my composure quite well in emergencies. I can’t help the tears. They just come. My real frustration was that my dad hadn’t taken an ambulance to KMC. What if he’d had a heart attack en route? I was left to fume while my stepmother went on to make other calls. I needed to call my siblings. Fortunately, the doctors said they expected an excellent result.

At 9:40 p.m. I got a call from my stepmother. Dad was going into surgery right away. He’d gotten worse as the day had progressed. Now I was scared. And I hadn’t been able to talk to my dad at all since all this had started – another reason I was upset at not being called first thing. What if…. I called my brother and sister on the west coast, but not my sister in the Midwest. It was too late. Besides, the surgery was supposed to last 4 or 5 hours and was pretty routine. I tried to sleep. It didn’t go too well. At 6:30 a.m. my stepmother called. Dad was out of surgery. It had lasted 8 hours. They had had a very difficult time finding enough veins in his legs to use for the bypass. I found out later he had 18 incisions where they’d tried to get veins. His veins are crap – small, not very elastic. Aside from that, it had gone well. He would be unconscious for most of the day. I had to go to Spokane that afternoon anyway, so I told her I’d stop by briefly en route to see him, conscious or not.

I had many conversations with siblings over the course of the next few days. High cholesterol runs in our family. My paternal grandfather died of a heart attack in 1973 at age 75. My dad’s sister also died of a heart attack several years ago. I think she was in her 70’s. My dad’s remaining brother and sister are fine, and both are quickly approaching 80. I just found out that my uncle takes cholesterol lowering medication. My dad does not, though his cholesterol is 325. I suspect that will change. My brother informed me that his cholesterol is 320. He is not on medication either. I will work on that when he visits me next week.

I saw my dad that Monday. His eyes were open, he was nodding to me, and he squeezed my hand, but I doubt he really knew it was me. He was on a ventilator so he couldn’t speak. They were in the process of weaning him off of it and it was going slowly. As it turned out, it took several days to get him off of it. In fact, his entire recovery is taking a bit longer than they had thought it would take, but he is doing well. He has had atrial fibrillations, where your upper chamber of your heart beats faster than the lower chamber. They are not uncommon after heart surgery, usually brought on by the irritation of the surgery. They make him dizzy, nauseated and sweaty. He’s had a tough time getting enough rest because of it. He has been up and walking on his own a few times, and the doctors say he may go home in the next couple of days. That is great news, but a bit worrisome because he lives in a very remote setting, 9 miles from the nearest town, and 45 miles from the nearest hospital, on a private dirt road. My stepmom doesn’t really drive anymore, and she’s a tiny thing, so I don’t know how she will help my dad get around. I don’t know what their plans are. I did visit Dad the day they moved him from ICU to CCU. He was awake, though drifting in and out of sleep, and could speak a few words. His throat hurt from the ventilator and he couldn’t catch enough breath to talk for very long. I told him I loved him and I was praying for a speedy recovery. I know he’s disappointed in himself. He looks at this surgery as some sort of sign of weakness I think. He has always prided himself in being such a tough guy. Sometimes God has a way of showing us just how human we really are.

So, between dad’s surgery and the insane workload at work lately, I’ve had to leave you hanging in regard to the UK trip narrative. I’m sorry. I’ll get back to it as soon as I can. There is so much more to tell.

UK Trip - Day Two, Part 1

The second day dawned wet and grey.  The plan was to go into Kenmore, the little town just half a mile from the resort, and just walk around a bit.  I made a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice.  Jonathan downed one of the mini boxes of cereal as well (growing kid and all).  We gathered up cameras and maps and headed off for our first day in Perthshire, Scotland.  I have to say this – Perthshire is perfectly situated for getting about in Scotland, especially where we were.  We were smack dab in the middle of the country, making everything around us pretty accessible within a couple hours drive.  I highly recommend to visitors to the country to find somewhere around Pitlochry to stay.  Now, on to our day.

Kenmore is a very small town.  It sports a hotel with a restaurant, a church, an antique shop, a few houses, a school, and that’s about it.  We walked down the path that led from the old Taymouth Castle gate toward the castle.  It started sprinkling lightly, but not enough to make us bring out the umbrellas.  The walk was beautiful and peaceful.  The path was lined will all sorts of trees we’d never seen before.  We’re from a land of lodgepole and Ponderosa pines, grand fir and cedars, aspens and birch, larch, maples, and cottonwoods.  I’d never seen a beech before.  I have no idea what some of the trees were.  All I know is, they were beautiful.  The yews really caught our attention.  We have small yew shrubs around that people plant in their yards, but I’ve never seen wild ones, and never any as large as the ones we saw.  I found myself marveling at the different flora as we walked along the path.  We finally realized the castle was a lot farther along than we’d thought, so we decided to turn back and drive to the other entrance so we could see the castle – our first.  The narrow roads were still a challenge, this being only our second time on them, but we drove slowly and had no mishaps.  When we finally arrived at the castle, we were disappointed to find it surrounded by a chain link fence and covered in large green tarps.  Apparently, it was closed while it was being remodeled into a 6 star hotel.  Previous visitors had commented on how beautiful it was inside, so it was disappointing to not be able to see it.  We decided to drive the few miles into Aberfeldy and explore there.  

Aberfeldy is a really cute little town.  Oh, a warning to Americans.  We tend to call everything a town.  We’ll say things like “hey, I’m going into town tonight.  Do you want to come along?”  We might use that phrase whether we’re going into Portland from one of the suburbs, or whether we’re driving 45 miles from our cabin in the woods into the population 350 town closest to us, or just going from our subdivision into the part of town where the movie theaters are.  Well, in the UK, they make a distinction between a town, a village, and a city.  Once we said something like “how large a town is Birmingham?” and the person to whom we were speaking quickly said “it’s a city”.  Ah-ha… so…how big is a city versus a town?  I suspect Aberfeldy might actually just be a village, not quite meeting the qualifications for townhood.  Nevertheless, it is a great little village.  The first thing we noticed as we entered Aberfeldy was a road sign, their version of a caution sign, that read “Elderly People” with an icon of two people, slightly bent, with canes.  Okay….so we were to be on the lookout for random old folks crossing the streets?  Jonathan, naturally, insisted Tom and I stand under this sign as he took our picture.  You’ll see it on the photobucket site.  We saw several of these signs sprinkled throughout Scotland.  We realized they were positioned wherever there was a nursing home.  Interesting.  We saw other interesting signs.  One was a pretty typical pedestrian crossing sign – an adult and child and a crosswalk – but the school signs were interesting.  They showed kids running.  Oh, and emergency exit signs in restaurants and stores made me laugh.  You know how you’re always told never to run in an emergency, right?  Well their signs show a person fleeing and the word exit.  I guess in the UK you’re supposed to run as fast  as you can to get the hell out in case of emergency.

Aberfeldy has a cute little town center with a little roundabout in the middle of it.  There is a co-op grocery store there, some cute little shops, and a Bank of Scotland.  We went into the grocery store and bought some necessities – Coke, cookies (biscuits), potato chips (crisps), sausages for breakfast, and a few other things.  I honestly believe Coke has a monopoly in the UK.  You could find Pepsi, but it was really hard to find Diet Pepsi, and I never could find it cold.  But any flavor of Coke you wanted – lime, cherry, vanilla, you name it, it was there and cold.  Weird.  

Down the street, we found the most delightful bakery.  You have to visit a bakery daily in Scotland.  They have the BEST stuff!  We went in just as it started raining a little, ready for something hot to drink and sweet to eat.  An older Scot gentleman and his buddy were ordering something he called “double D’s” “for the way they look” he told us.  Basically, they’re meringues and whipped cream, and yes, they do look like “double d’s”.  Jonathan ordered banoffee pie, I ordered scones and clotted cream.  Tom just had a latte.  We chatted a bit with the teenage girls working the counter, mostly so we could listen to them talk and find out a bit about life in Aberfeldy.  Our first Scottish meal out among the natives, so to speak, and it was delightful.  The older man and his buddy were really delightful, very friendly, and great to listen to.  We were loving it!

After our snack was consumed, we continued our walk along the main street of Aberfeldy, meandering into shops, buying some coffee since all we had at the room was instant, and marveling at some of the unique sculptures we found in one of the little gift shops.  But Aberfeldy is a village, and it didn’t take long to exhaust our shopping options.  On to Pitlochry…..

UK Trip - Arrival at the Resort

We finally arrived at our abode in Scotland, The Kenmore Club, in Kenmore, Perthshire, at about 4:00 pm. The trip from Edinburgh took just about 90 minutes. While Tom had become somewhat comfortable driving on the carriageway, the Scottish version of a highway, the road we had to turn onto from it, which would take us to our resort, was a different story. If we thought the lanes on the A9 were narrow – and they were, although there were often two lanes traveling in each direction and not just one – they were nothing compared to the A827. The A827 is a two lane road with no shoulder at all. In fact, not only is there no shoulder, where the shoulder should be, right along the fog line, there was usually a stone wall. We had the distinct impression that, in order to avoid having the side view mirror on the driver’s side ripped off by oncoming cars, we would have to drive so close to these fences that we’d surely scrape all the paint off the passenger side. The car seemed much too wide to traverse this road without some sort of collision with oncoming traffic, especially when the oncoming traffic was a truck (lorrie) or bus. And of course, the road was a winding, twisting road with sharp turns at very frequent intervals. Now and then we’d run into a sign that said “oncoming traffic in the middle of the road”. Uh, okay…and what were we supposed to do with that information? I pretty much sat in the passenger seat and used body English to keep the left side of the car from making contact with the stone walls, closing my eyes when oncoming traffic approached so I wouldn’t have to actually see us scrape the side view mirror off. I just waited for the sound of crunching metal and shattering plastic. Amazingly, it never came. With a sigh of relief, we arrived at the resort and I went to check in.

The staff was very friendly. They quickly gave us our key and parking pass and directed us to our cottage. The resort is made up of a group of white cottages with black wood trim, all arranged in a square around a beautifully landscaped courtyard. Each cottage is comprised of two units. Some units are two-bedroom, some are three-bedroom. We had a two-bedroom unit. The cottages are surrounded by a high stone wall, once part of the original castle’s wall. Two ancient stone gates guard the entrances. Each cottage is two stories with bedrooms and bathrooms on the main floor and the living room, dining room, kitchen and another bathroom on the second floor. As we entered our unit for the first time, we were very pleasantly surprised at how spacious and modern it was. From the outside, it looks to be quite old, but inside it is pretty new. Each bedroom had its own bathroom. The master bedroom had a large bathroom with a tub/shower combination. The other bedroom had a smaller bathroom with a stall shower. Upstairs was another full bathroom with a tub/shower combination as well. The kitchen was spacious and well-stocked with dishes, silverware, utensils, and pots and pans, as well as the “food packs” I had arranged to have delivered. These consisted of a loaf of bread, half a dozen eggs, a variety pack of cold cereals, orange juice, butter, milk, tea, orange marmalade, bottled water, and instant coffee. I had ordered two food packs, so we had plenty of food for breakfast for the week. We would have to remedy the coffee situation as soon as possible, though, and add some bacon or sausage to the list for a hearty breakfast. But first, we needed to sleep. We unpacked our toiletries, had some eggs and toast, then went to sleep. It started raining as we fell asleep.

Below is the view from our balcony at the Kenmore Club in Scotland. The water in the distance is Loch Tay. The old stone gate between the cottages is one of the original gates to the Taymouth Castle, upon whose grounds this resort is built. Behind us is Ben Lawers, one of the tallest mountains in Scotland. This was taken on a really beautiful, rare, sunny morning at about 6:00 a.m. I'll post a larger version of this photo, as well as some more photos of the resort, on my photobucket site: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f58/ginaemory/Scotland%202006/

Microsoft Office 2007 Beta

I just installed the Office 2007 beta and all I can say is “wow!” The interface for the familiar apps – Word, Excel, Publisher, and even Outlook, is completely new. I’m still getting used to the “toolbars”, such as they are. They are completely different and very functional, once you become accustomed to them. Outlook has one feature I really like. You can flag an email for follow up, and instead of the silly blue, red, orange, etc. flags, you select today, tomorrow, this week, next week, and the item is then put into a to do list that shows up on the right side of your screen. That is cool.

One feature of Word 2007 is the option to blog the post. So… this is my first attempt at blogging a post from this beta. That’s the sole reason for this post, so please bear with me.

Edit: a glitch in the publishing feature has been uncovered. I tried to publish this post, and it would not let me, saying I was either not connected to the internet, Blogger was unavailable, or my password was incorrect, all of which were false. I tried "publish as draft" and lo and behold, it worked. So, a kink Microsoft needs to work out, hence the reason for betas. Aside from that, this could prove to be a nice feature since I do my best typing in Word, what with auto-correction of typos and whatnot (gotta love those whatnots).

Things to know when visiting Scotland

Everyone in Scotland owns a dog, and they walk them all the time, no matter the weather.

They don't have restrooms in the UK. They have toilets. It felt odd asking where the toilet was (a bit impolite), but I'm not sure they'd have understood had I asked for the restroom.

Do not confuse the "To Let" signs with the "Toilet" signs. Your bladder may never forgive you, although your brain wants to fill in the missing "i" more often than not.

"Give way" signs = our "Stop" signs, not our "Yield" signs.

They have speed cameras. Radar checks your speed, and if you are speeding, the camera takes a photo of your license plate. I suspect you get a ticket in the mail a few days later.

The whole of London, and I suspect most of England, is under CCTV surveillance 24/7. The ACLU would have a field day with that here.

Scottish food has gotten a bad rap. We found the food to be excellent, as were the ales and wine.

Visit a bakery every day. They are full of wonderful things!

On a dual carriageway or motorway, the right lane is the fast lane.

Cookies are called biscuits, so don't go asking for biscuits and gravy or they'll think you're daft. They have cookies called "digestives". I have yet to understand why they're called that (Charlie?). They're like a shortbread cookie with or without chocolate coating. I liked them. No one else did. They were great with tea.

Potato chips are called crisps and come in all sorts of flavors like lamb and mint, steak and onions, prawn cocktail, and salt and vinegar. It's hard to find plain old potato chips. We never could find chips in a large bag like we have here. They were always sold in large bags of small bags, usually with a variety of flavors in one bag. I really liked the prawn cocktail and steak and onion flavors.

The checkers in the grocery stores are seated, not standing like they are here. I told them our checkers would be jealous.

The Bank of Scotland does not charge a fee for using the ATM to get cash with your debit card. At another one I used (can't recall which one) I was charged $10 to withdraw 50 pounds. I didn't find that out until I got home and looked at my bank account. :(

"To go" is called "take away".

UK Trip - Day One (cont)

Upon arrival at the airport in Edinburgh, we made our way to the Hertz counter. I was waiting in line, furiously digging through my file folder with all our trip info, trying to locate my Hertz reservation. The gentleman at the counter saw me pawing through my papers and motioned me up to the counter. He had a wonderful Scots accent, much like Sean Connery. He said he saw a look of panic begin to cross my face and figured he'd help erase it. All I needed was my last name and he'd get our reservation. Sure enough, in a jiffy, he had my reservation on the screen in front of him. Since I had no intention whatsoever of driving in the UK, I motioned Tom to the counter. He presented his driver's license and credit card, signed the documents, and we were handed the car keys. The man behind the counter was SO nice! He was just a foreshadow of the kind of people we would meet in the UK, especially in Scotland. He took the time to get me a map of Edinburgh and Scotland and to give us instructions for getting out of the airport and en route to Kenmore. He honestly couldn't have been nicer. Next to me at the counter was a couple who were not so nice. They apparently wanted some specific SUV (WHY????) and were upset when the only option was a Volvo XC. Gee, rough life. They were not very nice to the guy helping them, but he remained professional, polite, and helpful. Fortunately, the people didn't sound or appear to be Americans.

After we got the keys, we decided to get a latte and catch our breath before embarking upon what was sure to be an adventure in driving. As we sat drinking our lattes, two gentlemen, one with a Scots accent and one with a "down under" accent, sat near us. We ended up talking to them for a bit. They were in Scotland en route back home to New Zealand after being in Germany on business. The one guy was from Scotland but now lived in Kiwi-land. The other was a German who had lived a long time in New Zealand. They were very reassuring about how easily we would get to our destination, how easy the roundabouts were to navigate, and how easily Tom would adapt to driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. They did chuckle when we bid them adieu saying they would be watching from the plane for the car stuck in the roundabout. Funny.

We took the shuttle to where the car was parked, located it, checked it out, and started off. We had a Ford Mondeo Estate Wagon - basically a Ford Escort wagon. It was a very nice car! Tom practiced driving on the left a bit in the parking lot, then ventured out onto the open road. We made it through our first roundabout at the airport with no problem. We followed the directions with which we had been provided, which were to take us to the Forth Bridge, then on to Kenmore. Somewhere along the way we went east when we should have gone west, or something like that. We ended up in downtown Edinburgh. Some soccer game must have just gotten over, and the folks in Edinburgh were very happy. The streets were teeming with fans laughing, yelling, carrying flags in maroon and white, honking horns, celebrating their victory. And here are three crazy Americans, driving on the left side of the road on the right side of the car in the midst of all this madness and traffic. Welcome to Scotland! We drove all over the place with no idea where we were or where we were going, and Tom was getting really stressed. We finally asked a car in the next lane how to get to where we needed to go (the A9 north). He gave us directions, which we were able to follow, and we backtracked along the route we'd traveled into Edinburgh, finally seeing the signs for the Forth Bridge, and making our way to the A9 toward Perth. Phew! We had survived! Somewhere along the way, we came upon a toll booth. Thankfully, one of my coworkers had given me a little coin purse with some British coins before we'd left and we had enough to pay the toll or we might still be on that bridge. The Forth Bridge, and it's companion railroad bridge, are beautiful. Too bad I couldn't get a decent picture of either of them. The Forth Bridge reminds me a bit of the Golden Gate Bridge, only not red. It's pretty huge. The scenery around it is breathtaking. I wish we'd had more time to really take it in and take photos. But we were tired and wanted to get to our resort.

The "carriageways" in Scotland - in England too - are really nice. They are very well-marked and have lots of pull-outs, which they call "laybys", in case you need to stop for some reason. But they don't have much of a shoulder most of the time, so for Americans, this is a bit harrowing. The lanes seem impossibly narrow, and they drive really, really fast! We felt like we were holding up traffic whenever we were on a single carriageway, though we seemed to be going way too fast. When the road would change to a dual carriageway, we could take a breath and try to take in the exquisite scenery around us. It was all so new, so different, so beautiful, and so green! Little stone farmhouses dotted the lush hillsides while sheep grazed on the green grass that was cut into squares by ancient stone fences. There was nothing like this in the US. We definitely weren't in Kansas anymore!

First set of Scotland photos

Some lovely homes in Pitlochry. They had beautiful gardens.






The main street in Pitlochry. As you can see, it was a bit damp out.




We just liked this view from above the town with the beautiful green hillsides and the interetsting rooftops.





This is the golf course in Kenmore on the grounds of Taymouth Castle upon which the resort we stayed at was situated. We took a little walk along here first thing upon arriving.





This is a monument in Pitlochry to those who died in WWI.





Again back at Taymouth Castle grounds walking along the lane that runs alongside the golf course. It was so beautiful!





This is the elementary school in Kenmore, alongside the path we were walking.





One of the gates of Taymouth Castle, looking into Kenmore. The clock is in Kenmore on the church there.





This is the main gate to the castle and golf course about three miles from Kenmore.





Jonathan insisted we pose for a photo next to this sign. We did get quite a kick out of these signs, which we found in several towns. Notice the frizzy hair I'm sporting? The damp conditions and hard water left me with a head of frizz for the entire trip.





This was one of the hundreds of streams (or burns) and waterfalls we saw along the way during our trip to Isle of Skye. The photo doesn't do the scene justice. It is hauntingly beautiful.





This is a view from the castle Eilean Donan looking up Loch Duich.






The road back from the Isle of Skye.





Eilean Donan - a beautiful castle.





The bridge over which one must pass to get to the Isle of Skye.





A shot from the viewpoint near Kilt Rock on Isle of Skye.





Another little waterfall just along the roadside.






The harbor at Portree on Isle of Skye. The dark blue part of the building on the right is a restaurant at which we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

UK Trip - Day One

The journey began at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 13. We got up, took our showers, dressed, finished packing our toiletries, laptop, reading materials, and miscellany, and headed for Spokane. Our plane was scheduled to depart at 1:14 p.m. and we had been advised to be at the airport two hours early. We were to arrive at our oldest son's home at 9:30 a.m. so that he could drive us to the airport, eliminating the need to pay to park our car at the airport during our absence. That meant we had to leave our house by 8:00 at the latest. We left our driveway at 7:30, well ahead of schedule. In fact, we had time to stop for a Starbucks on the way. So far, so good. We arrived at Tommy's in plenty of time, he drove us to the airport, where we arrived with time to spare. I saw the Northwest e-ticket self-check kiosk and headed for it. It was pretty darned easy - just swipe my passport and it brought up all three of our names. In a matter of seconds, we have three boarding passes with seat assignments. Off we go to security. We decided to take only carry-on luggage. That meant we each had a carry-on suitcase with wheels and a backpack, or in my case, a large messenger bag which contained my laptop and important travel documents.

Security required every passenger to remove their shoes, regardless of type. We complied, placed our bags on the belt so they could be x-rayed, and went through the gates. They decided to pat down Tom for some reason, but beyond that, not a single hitch. We were over two hours early in Spokane International Airport. All I wanted to do was sleep. The previous night had been a restless and short one. Too bad there was nowhere to snooze.

The plane arrived and began boarding right on time. Almost three hours later we were landing in Minneapolis for a brief layover and a plane change. When we boarded our international flight, the bin with my suitcase in it didn't want to close. I did NOT want my bag checked in and watched anxiously as a passenger and a flight attendant worked to close the bin, finally succeeding. Unfortunately, on this flight, Tom, Jonathan and I occupied the middle three seats in a five seat row. Tom between Jonathan and me. We were squished, and would remain so for the next eight hours. That was the worst part of the trip. The plane was scheduled to land at Gatwick at 9:30 a.m. London time. The person next to Jonathan was obviously a frequent flier. He had the eye mask, the neck pillow, and the Bose noise-cancelling headphones. He told Jonathan if he needed to get out to just punch him in the arm. He was asleep almost before we left the ground.

I made the mistake of wearing my contact lenses on the plane. It didn't take long for my eyes to feel as if someone had poured sand into them and was rubbing it around. My contact lens solution and case were in my suitcase. Boy, was I dumb. I tried to snooze, but it just was not happening. We had decent food. Don't ask what it was because I don't remember anything except that it wasn't as bad as I thought airplane food was supposed to be. We had a movie, but I don't remember what it was either - one I'd seen before. The picture quality was horrible, as was the sound. You'd think in this day and age of amazing electronics they'd put in an LCD screen or a plasma. This was pretty terrible resolution and the color was way off. I got up to stretch my legs a couple of times and got a glimpse of first class... wow, what a way to fly. But not at triple the fare I'd paid. Although those wide, reclining seats sure looked inviting in the middle of the night.

We touched down at Gatwick right on schedule. I got off the plane first, Tom's suitcase in tow since it was nearest me. He and Jonathan were busy retrieving Jonathan's and mine. I waited for them at the entrance to the airport...and waited...and waited... and waited. Finally, a passenger coming off the plane said to me "you might be here a while. They can't get the bin open to get one of the suitcases." Great. Finally, they came walking up the jetway. Tom's body language gave his aggravation away from 30 feet away. Apparently, they almost had to get a mechanic to take the bin apart but a combined effort finally got the bin open and my suitcase was retrieved. Unfortunately, the delay put us at the end of the line for Immigration instead of the front of it. We had a half hour wait in the hot, stuffy bowels of Gatwick Airport. I was tired, thirsty, and my eyes felt like I'd been in the Sahara for a month. Finally, we were cleared through immigration and customs and headed for the British Airways gates.

Gatwick is weird. The gates for local flights are not pre-set. You have to watch a monitor and wait for it to tell you which gate your flight will be boarding at. It was barely 20 minutes before our Edinburgh flight was scheduled to leave that the gate was finally posted on the monitor. We nearly ran to the gate, but got on board, suitcases stowed, with no further mishap. Just a bit behind schedule, we landed in Edinburgh. Off to the Hertz counter to retrieve the car I'd reserved so we could embark on our Scottish adventure.

More to come...