Halloween

Happy Halloween from the UK - it is a windy, spooky evening.  Very fitting indeed.

My knight and Robin Hood - appropriate for our current home

Final Day

On our last day in Scotland we headed through Glen Coe Valley back to Edinburgh to explore the city a bit before we flew home.

 Hairy Coo

 Glen Coe Valley

Edinburgh

 Edinburgh Castle and "the boys"

 a fun street with a yarn store Alexi scoped out - yes I purchased some yarn - local stuff to make some something special

 the boys were a little awestruck by this

 a fun pub where we stopped to sample some whisky  - it was located next to the gallows 

 the gallows

had to capture some of this

 we took a ghost tour (so we could see the underground) and thank you to Jim for being such a great volunteer - the boys were thrilled

the tour was good - just right for the boys

On our way to the bus stop I thought to myself - hmmm we are headed to the airport, already checked in, we will sit down and eat some dinner, catch our 8pm flight, arrive in London, catch our train, arrive in Worthing and walk home all before 11:30 pm.  Where else can you do that - visit basically another country and be home so quickly and efficiently.  Although many locals believe the public transport system needs to be much better.  I guess when you come from the US you have a different perspective.

Our trip to Scotland was amazing.  There is so much more we want to see and explore.  The warmer months would be a great time to try out the river rafting, rock climbing and boat trips to the outer islands.  I knew when we came to the UK that our mini trips would basically give us a taste of what we would like to explore even more.  If only we could live a life of long term travel and adventure.  For now we will appreciate what we can do and immerse ourselves in our school work, rugby, rotations at the hospital, ( a quick trip to Oxford) and planning what we want to see on our next "international" trip - Barcelona.

Thank you for sharing our trip to Scotland with us Alexi and Jim.

Isle of Skye

After taking some time to search for Nessi and no luck we headed north and west to the Isle of Skye.

Eilean Donan Castle - part of Highlander was filmed here

the boys absolutely loved this area -they were free to roam and explore - what they do best

the rugged mountains reminded us of colorado and we were surprised by how impressive they were

"fairy pools" - as the world has been taken over by infamous fairy pools of Scotland - we asked the locals at a cafe we stopped at for lunch.  After a questioning look one young man gave us some directions so we could find the fairy pools but continued on to say there are many around.  Basically Scotland is full of beautiful "fairy pools" - and I have to agree

it was impossible to capture all the different dimensions with the meadows, fall colors, rolling hills and jagged peaks

Dillon had a very personal experience with a bog - one that he will never forget.  I will never forget the expression on his face when it happened.

Third and final installment of Scotland up next.......