Bonnie, Bonnie Scotland

One of the things that I am most grateful for when I think about our last year is how adaptable Brooks has proven to be with our crazy on-the-go lifestyle. This shot was taken at a ridiculously early hour one Thursday in June. We had a 7am flight from London Luton to Glasgow, which meant that we had to get a taxi before dawn to take us to the train station to get to the airport to check in, go through security and get boarded and take off, all before we would normally have gotten him out of his crib. But look at this grin! He seems just as excited about traveling to a new place as we are. I'm so glad we have another little adventurer in the family.


Scotland was high on our list of places to visit, even though both of us had been there before on previous trips. We wanted to get outside the cities and enjoy some beautiful hikes and scenery and the less touristy parts of the Scottish culture. We had almost 5 days and a huge list of places to visit, just scratching the surface of this lovely part of the world. We put close to 700 miles on the rental car, so hold on tight for the blitz tour!

That first day we made several pit stops on our drive from Glasgow to the Western coast near the highlands. Our first visit was to the beautiful Loch Lomond. As we were getting out of the car and heading over to the water, I said "Brooks! Do you want to go see a big LAKE!?" in my excited, talking-to-a-toddler voice. I heard a snort nearby and a Scot who was walking in the same direction said - pleasantly, but with a chiding tone - "it's not a Lake, dear, it's a LOCH." Oops, our first encounter with a Scot, and I've already stuck my foot in my mouth! :) Brooks enjoyed the pebble-y lake front and talking to the ducks and swans.


Next we drove up this beautiful valley called "Rest and Be Thankful Pass" to find a nice stop-off and a great view. This colorful name dates by to the 1880s when the 2nd and 3rd class passengers often got out to help push the coach (and the 1st class passengers) up the hill.


We did a hike through a little park just as a light drizzle started but we loved checking out these old rock carvings. Can you see the saturn-like shape in the bottom left part of the rock? This is called a cup and ring design. Even though archeologists have no idea what they mean, they're probably older than the Pyramids in Egypt. Wow!


I've mentioned before - I LOVE how the British rights of way mean that anyone can stroll through most anywhere without fear of breaking any trespassing laws. This sign is one shepherd's best effort to keep his sheep inside the right pasture.


We were hiking through his field to get to an old stone circle (like Stonehenge, but smaller) and a cairn, a neolithic burial mound. At first Brooks was excited and ready to go...


But after playing a new game with Dada which involves flopping back off his shoulders, while Dada holds onto his ankles (more on this below)...


somebody was all tuckered out. I love how he curls his hands and arms up under his chest to snuggle in for a cuddle. This is a classic Brooks pose, and I just adore it!


Just before supper, we arrived at our BnB and found the most delightful surprise...


This house was the family home of our host, and we loved getting to know him and his wife and kids. This place was a perfect stop off for families traveling together, and we felt immediately at home. I loved the view from our sunny room out to the water...


Eric loved the huge comfy bed (our British double bed in our flat leaves much to be desired in terms of squishy-ness)...


And Brooks loved meeting Imogen, their youngest daughter who waited at home all day for Brooks to arrive so that they could play together.


That night we got a yummy dinner on the water in a beautiful pub/restaurant and Brooks played and ran around until the sun went down... From there we headed back to the BnB to turn in. Does this seem like the longest day, ever?! If you just said YES, well you're right. Note to self... if you take a vacation to the Northern part of Scotland in June be prepared for longgggg days and very short nights. Parents of toddlers, particularly, be advised to request a hotel room with window-darkening shades. Brooks went to bed late that night and got up at 4am, yes, that's right, at 4am on Friday when the sun started pouring into our window. Eric earned a medal that day for Hero Husband by taking Brooks down to the garden to play while I got dressed and packed us up.


After a fantastically yummy breakfast (Scottish breakfasts are much the same as a "full English" with the addition of blood sausage, fried bread, and sometimes haggis. You can't eat this way daily and expect to live very long), we loaded up and said goodbye and headed off to the Isle of Skye. On the way, we made several stops, the first of which was the picture perfect Castle Stalker. Being in a rather hostile part of the world, the Scottish clan lords of old generally built their fortresses in the most secure and defensively advantageous spots they could find. The castle takes up almost the entire tiny island.


After a quick stop at the Glencoe visitor's center, we decided to do some hiking and - following in the footsteps of our beloved friends from our Chicago church, the Mays and the Wilsons - we did a family hike along the West Highland Way.


Leaving my rock at the top of the summit monument...


Everywhere we looked there were beautiful views... even with less than perfect weather, we had a wonderful (hard) hike, straight up and then back down again...


One favorite detail - this lovely fluffy plant is called arctic cotton. I had never seen it before but it was growing wild all over the mountains up there.


We finished our hike and then climbed back in the car for Brooks's nap time. As we were leaving the Glencoe region, and finally on our way to Skye, I randomly spotted this...


If you double-click on this photo to zoom in and check out the foreground, you'll see a few of the hundreds of small towers of rocks that decorated this amazing field. Some of you know that I love the hymn "Come Thou Fount" in large part because of the (original) second verse which goes ...

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

I had found an entire field of Ebenezers!! Oh my gosh!! I made Eric pull off to the side of this lonely road, jumped out the car, and had a wonderful 2 minute quiet time out in that field with Jesus, checking out the sheep on the surrounding hillsides, listening to the wind blustering about the hilltops, thinking about my own wanderings, and finally adding my own stone to one of the Ebenezers raised by a previous wanderer. I hopped back in the car, knowing that God had sent us up that road for that moment. What a huge highlight that spot was for me!

That afternoon and evening, we did a lot of driving. We saw Loch Leven, Ben Nevis (the tallest peak in Scotland), Fort William, the Five Sisters (a group of mountains that pose beside the banks of a beautiful river) and Eilean Donan castle all before crossing the bridge to Skye. More important than what we saw though, was that we had a lot of really good time to talk. We covered everything from news from our family and friends, to our recollections from the past year, to dreams about the future (one fun discussion - will our kids go to summer camp or Kamp?). One of my best memories from this entire vacation will be those great conversations in the car as we discussed everything we could think of - me reading the map, Brooks napping in his car seat, and Eric loving that manual transmission! Thanks for helping me fall in love with the road trip, darlin'. :)


Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast at our next great BnB. This one had a wonderful tub of toys for Brooks to play with in the sitting room while we lingered over coffee and a trampoline that we could bounce on when he wanted to get some wiggles out before breakfast (more on this below). The owners loaned us some hiking guides and we set out for the lighthouse on the far western end of the island. This picture shows how short I *thought* the hike would be to the edge... but then, where's the lighthouse?


Oh there it is... over three more hills. :)


Good thing we're all still smiling, because once we got to the end of the trail, we couldn't exactly let Brooks out to run around. With the extremely strong wind and the SHEER cliffs down to the Atlantic...


we weren't letting Brooks out of the backpack for a moment. Another one of those spots that in the US would be covered in "WARNING! DANGER!" signs, here it was just beautifully exposed and barrier free. I get chills thinking about how one of those big gusts of wind could have taken even Eric over the edge, had he gotten too close.

That afternoon, we did more driving and talking and checking out beautiful scenery and then just before supper, we went on a treasure hunt! My old friend Ewan Kennedy dropped me a line just before our trip and described a place that he thought we might enjoy seeing. When he was a child, his parents bought a summer home on the Isle of Skye, a little cottage really, up on the northwestern end of the island. His directions to the house were sketchy - not exactly sure if it's in this town or that one, but just drive on this stretch of road for about 5 miles, look for the little Presbyterian Church and then find the house with this kind of landscaping around it just before a rise in the road on the left. Um, seriously?! I can imagine him trying to piece all of those instructions together from a long-ago fuzzy kid-memory, but it was still funny to get that description and think how in the WORLD are we going to spot this house?! Well, well, well, lookie here...


And then just three houses down, lookie here! :)


The reason that this story is even better comes many years later, over in the US. The Kennedy family had kept the former name of the house the same after they bought it, HeatherLee. Ewan moved to the US while I was in high school and met and fell in love with the older sister of my dear friend, Tim. Ewan's bride to be's name? Heather Leigh Padgett. So fun! His family home and his future wife shared the same name. Not sure if you have a better shot of this house anywhere, Ewan, but I got as close as I dared to snap this picture - I didn't want to freak out the current owners! Thanks for the fun suggestion, I really enjoyed searching and finding this place from your past. And the directions were perfect! :)

Sunday morning we got up and enjoyed the trampoline some more (video to come...) and then packed up and headed back to the mainland. Eilean Donan castle was our first stop, the clan home of the Family MacRae. It's been restored and rebuilt after considerable damage and while still a private residence, it's also used for weddings, events and of course - movie shoots.


The next stop - Loch Ness. Of course, we had our camera zoomed in on the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous sea creature, Nessie, who has definitely put this Loch on the map... but to no avail. The legend of Nessie actually dates back to 565 AD when St Columba is said to have seen a large creature on the water. Modern sightings began again in 1933. Extinct dinosaurs, large sturgeon fish, whales who swam too far upstream and got caught in the Loch - there are a million different scientific explanations for this hoopla, but until the mystery is finally solved, I feel sure that tour operators will sell postcards and stuffed Nessie dolls will go home with young children...

In keeping with the extra-touristy area, we popped into Castle Urquhart. Earliest written records of this fortress date from the 1200s, but remains have been found on this point from the Iron Age and the Pictish times. Now, the ruins have been converted into an easy tour-bus photo op stop and the place has its own audio guide, cafeteria, movie theater and gift shop. It was absolutely over-run with Sunday afternoon visitors. Though the sight was beautiful and the views truly amazing, after the wonderful loneliness of other parts of the highlands, I was ready to say goodbye to Loch Ness fairly quickly.


We spent that night in Inverness and had a great dinner at a vibey restaurant on the river. We're always amazed when we can take Brooks into a chic restaurant successfully. He had a great evening and we had a wonderful last dinner out! After several late nights in a row, we turned in early.

Monday morning, we packed up again and drove down to Edinburgh. We did a Rick Steves self-guided walk through the old town - we like getting his quick snapshot of culture and history and quirky tidbits - and then drove out to Arthur's Seat to climb the hill overlooking the castle. Oh. My. Gosh. The. Wind. It was unbelievably strong up there! When I had visited the city before, I climbed a lower outcropping, but with Eric and Brooks, we went to the tippy top and I was completely exhilarated by the hike and the fresh air.


Brooks and Eric had lots of fun on the way down from the top of Arthur's Seat (more on this below).


From Edinburgh, we jumped on the highway and zipped down to Glasgow for the flight back to London. What a wonderful long weekend - a ridiculous number of miles, a fantastic collection of sights and photos, and a great amount of precious conversation.

Thanks for an awesome trip, Eric and Brooks! :)