Here we are leaving Edinburg. I wanted to capture how cool it looks with the castle raised up, overlooking the city:
Here we are in Inverness at one of the castles overlooking Loch Ness. Both of the kids were taking a late nap in the car so Chris and I are looking for the Loch Ness Monster by ourselves.
Truly it is Nessie Land here (I can't believe how many companies reference Nessie in their name or logo and how many little museums and attractions are scattered throughout this area).
Hailey found Nessie!
Turns out there are two!
I recently read an article about how the photo of the "Loch Ness Monster" may have actually been a giant catfish fin:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/17/world/loch-ness-monster-catfish-irpt/
Rainbow over Loch Ness (I've never seen sun and rain at the same time and rainbows as much as I have in Scotland):
Another castle in Inverness (there are several locks and a walk you can do crossing over little Victorian bridges to the island):
Eating dinner under the tailgate in the rain (luckily we set up our tents before the rains started):
Chris is proud of his rays of light photo:
Egret and the gorgeous sunset (Chris was kind of like a grumpy old man when everyone was loudly traipsing through our campsite spot to take in the sunset):
A nice relaxing break in the rain:
View of bridge in the other direction of the campsite:
Windy roads heading SW to Applecross (or "Applesauce" as Ethan says):
Cute little Coastal village (with awesome cold smoked salmon-Chris and I had a lot of it over the next few days):
Mmm (one of several packages of the cold smoked salmon that we consumed)...
One thing that struck me about the highlands was how few people live up there. There seemed to be mostly just tiny little spread out villages for the most part (not really towns even). Chris and I were thinking that they must have to stock the freezer before winter because some of these roads would be impossible in the snow!
Heather everywhere!
And Heather Honey (and other products):
Hailey snacking (and as Carrie said: "this kind of looks like an REI ad"):
Ethan lounging (luckily Hailey seems okay with him using her chair as well) while we set up the campsite. We were strategically setting up the campsite in preparation for the big storm (rain and heavy winds) coming through that night.
The coastal views near Applecross were breathtaking:
Chris and Ethan went and played/slid down some sand dunes while Hailey and I had a little nap in the car.
We had dinner (and dessert pictured here) at the Applecross Inn. It was an amazing meal (I had duck and Chris had fish with scallops). The desserts are a Strawberry Eton Mess and a Raspberry Cranachen (I think that was the name... A Scottish Whiskey and Raspberry dessert):
Well, we survived the storm (although parts of the night were sleepless). We started off the morning with a gourmet camping breakfast of eggs with Brie and smoked salmon:
And hit the road to Glencoe. Another breathtaking drive! He we are descending through this pass on the crazy snaking road:
Pit stop to search for cool rocks at the Isle of Skye "Skye Bridge":
And another stop at the Eileen Dornan castle (with a working Porticullis and it was featured in the Bond film, "The World is Not Enough"). A very cool picturesque castle that is now inhabited by a family.
Doorway featuring the working Porticullis:
Then we made a few pit stops to clean up Ethan's puke (out both ends actually, poor kid) with wet wipes and paper towels. Not sure what caused this-something he ate or milk that had gone bad? We now have puke clothes in a large ziplock bag and our car wreaks of puke every so often (even though we bought and sprayed some deodorizer, it can only do so much). This car seat liner and straps need washed now too.
Here is Neptune's Ladder (a series of 8 locks) at Fort Williams that Chris and Hailey checked out while Ethan and I relaxed in the car.
We were relieved to have the Hobbit House in Glencoe booked for tonight since we were still in the midst of the monsoon with heavy rains coming down. We lucked out on catching brief dry spells during setup and takedown for camping the past few nights. We saw on the news that one Scottish town had terribly destructive flash floods as a result of all of this rain.
You can tell that this waterfall is pretty active right now due to all of this rain:
We stopped to check out a few galleries. I love how Scottish people say "wee" (as in "little") and "aye" quite often.
We noticed that these cows took over this highway overpass, it was quite comical:
For the last night, we were supposed to camp in the upper lakes district. This particular campsite didn't accept reservations and it was a good thing because we were able to adjust our plans and knock out more of the drive home (the kids fell asleep and seemed pretty content so we might as well take advantage of that and not have to camp in the rain as well). I booked a last minute cheap hotel in this random town, Chorley (a bit south of Manchester). It was kind of a white trashy town with not a whole lot to offer but we just needed a place to crash. The Theatre Guest House had really good ratings (8.5 I think) and reviews but it turned out to be dingey. You know when you walk in and it is a heavy perfume smell (trying to cover up smoking or other smells)? And poor Ethan got bit by bed bugs! So now there is also that to contend with (please please bed bugs, don't follow us home!). Chris was joking, "Chorley bit me and it really hurt!"
Poor kid, it's pretty bad:
I also read this article about taking trips (not vacations-careful distinction) with kids along and it cracked me up because I could totally relate:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7789310
I'm sitting in the car now (a few hours drive left, we are in the home stretch!) as Hailey screams her head off. We call it the "storm before the calm" (the calm is when she passes out for her nap). Ha, it has been a great trip but we are now in the "lets just get home" stage. :)
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