The Events of Friday, May 27, 2011 (Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad‼)

                The water of Loch Duich lapped gently against the shore as I climbed carefully to some purple hued bluebells. Gazing across the loch, I framed the Eilean Donan Castle with the bluebells and snapped the perfect postcard shot. I looked back as I walked to the car, and pondered the fact that this beautiful castle was built as a private residence in 1912, although it now looks ancient. Its fame comes mostly from movies and postcards. Climbing into the car, we continued our drive from our beautiful house in the Isle of Skye that we had parted with early this morning and headed to the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh.

                Along the road, we listened to a Rick Steves’ podcast. Some sections of the podcast elicited gales of laughter. One of these sections was a lesson on the Scottish accent. One of the Scottish guests made clear to us that ‘Edinburgh’ is supposed to be pronounced Ed’n-burah, because that is how the Scots pronounce it. For example, the Scots would pronounce’ Pittsburgh’ Pits-burah. Another humorous section was a popular joke in the British Isles:

The British Isles are composed of four races of man

. . . the Scottish, who keep the Sabbath--and everything else they can get their hands on.

. . . the Welsh, who pray on their knees--and on their neighbours.

. . . the Irish, who don't know what they want, but are willing to fight for it anyway.

. . . and the English, who consider themselves a race of self-made men, thereby relieving the Almighty of a terrible burden.

                Laughing heartily at this, we bounced up and down the country roads to Loch Ness. Even without the monster, Loch Ness would still be a tourist attraction. It is 24 miles long, and less than a mile wide. It is even the third deepest lake in all of Europe. Parking at the visitor center, but skipping the actual visitor center because of lack of time, we stretched our legs, snapped some pictures and saw our first man wearing a kilt! A path from the visitor center led down to a ruined castle on the shores of Loch Ness, creating a great photo opportunity, so we took some pictures of the castle and watched the tourists swarming below. Suddenly, a huge head came out of the water and swallowed them all up, destroying the castle. It couldn’t be, but it was… the Loch Ness Monster… oh, just kidding!

                Shortly after Loch Ness, we stopped for lunch, and lots of laughter. We laughed because Lindsey was trying to steal some of Mom’s M&Ms. Mom pushed Lindsey away, knocking her off balance. As Lindsey fell backwards, her foot caught on Mom’s leg lifting it up. They both fell backwards, right off the bench, landing on their backs. The rest of us just sat there laughing and taking pictures of these two helpless victims of laughter who could not get back up. Following that episode, Ben started wrestling with me and we fell over backwards, too, but Dad and Caitlin gracefully stayed upright for the whole of lunch.

                Continuing on the bouncy country roads towards Edinburgh, we began to notice a strange occurrence – civilization! Since Dublin in Ireland, we have not been in any big city. We love the countryside of all countries, but were rather excited to be back in civilization.

                Finding our apartment in a nice neighborhood of stone houses was easier than we thought, and we quickly moved in to our spacious home. Actually since poor Ben and Dad had to carry our heavy luggage up three flights of stairs, they did not find the move in very quick or very easy. However, the apartment was worth all their effort. It had a beautiful living room with leather couches, a master bedroom downstairs for Mom and Dad, an upstairs with three beautiful bedrooms, an expansive kitchen and even a dining room (most have our houses have a table in the kitchen with no separate room for dining)! Having moved in, we hopped back in our car and drove to… Costco‼

                Jumping with excitement, I bounced through the doors and to the food court, claiming a couple of tables for our enjoyable dinner of jacket potatoes and ice cream. Mom and Dad had their own table because it was their anniversary, a very romantic dinner indeed! They will, however, get their real romantic dinner soon! Following dinner, we shopped for bare necessities (including a huge box of Walkers potato chips) and then went home. Dreaming about using and eating all the items we bought from Costco, we headed to bed, ready to explore Edinburgh when we awake tomorrow.