Edinburgh Arthur's Seat, Castle, Whiskey and Cannonball Heather Beer

Scottish people are so friendly and really go out of the way to entertain our kids and help us find our way. We got kind of a late start and we kind of botched taking the bus (when we got on the 35 going the wrong way) but we set out to climb Arthur's Seat (dormant volcano towering over Edinburgh). It's in the middle of this huge Holyrood Park that is right in Edinburgh. It was spitting rain for awhile but it cleared up and the sun came out in the afternoon on our way down. Poor Chris had Hailey in the hiking pack which is quite the heavy load. She finally fell asleep in the pack-phew. Gorgeous views of Edinburgh and the Royal Mile from the top!

We grabbed some lunch at the Holyrood Palace Cafe (Holyrood is where the queen stays when she is in Scotland). 

Their super modern new Parliament building:

The Birth of Harry Potter was in this cafe:

Edinburgh Castle. Very cool how it towers above and is built into the rock. Ethan was determined to navigate the map:

We had to sample some whiskey while in Scotland! We went to this Amber Whiskey bar and each picked one from the huge (probably like 15pgs of options) booklet of offerings. Mine was the one on the left and was supposed to have hints of lemon meringue pie, vanilla, honey and some other things. Chris admitted he liked mine better, it was smoother (after that initial burn from the first sip). 

Next we dined at Cannonball, another restaurant that Jen recommended. We were a little nervous going in there with kids when we saw it was a bit fancy. But it turned out to be fine. We had 5:30pm reservations and were the only people in there for an hour! The servers were really nice to the kids and one guy came over and made napkin hats for the kids. Excellent food (my pork and Chris' fish)! We had the Haggis cannonballs (deep fried balls) as an app which were actually really good. (Ha, if you're going to try Haggis, that is the way to go!) And the Heather Beer was really good too! Chris is going to try and brew some when we get home. 

Beatrix Potter and Edinburgh

This morning we went to Hill Top which is the house that Beatrix Potter lived in when she wrote/illustrated many of her children's books. They did a great job of preserving her house, exactly the way it was with all of the original furniture and some of her letters and things laid out. They had books of hers open to specific pages where it was based in that specific room or was a view from that part of the house. She was a very talented botanical water colorist! We had to buy Samuel Whiskers and Peter and Rabbit after seeing all of this! They also have several galleries and museums in the area with her water colors (and her family used to holiday at Wray Castle nearby). Wordsworth stuff is all over The Lake District as well since he is from the area. 

Does this look familiar from Peter Rabbit?

With the kids in the rain in front of the house (Ethan wasn't actually as thrilled with touring the house and comparing the book to the views as I thought he might be).

Gorgeous Lake District countryside:

Car packed to the gills. Who needs to see out the back window, anyways? :)

Once we reached Edinburgh (luckily, we made it puke-free although we were paranoid she was going to puke anytime she didn't sound content), after getting situated we headed to Mums Comfort Food for dinner (Jen Pinter had recommended it and said that it was kid-friendly). The waitress was AWESOME (so good with the kids, we left her a good tip), it really made a difference. The sausages (see the daily special favors below) and mash (they probably had 12-15 different flavor of mash-I got the popular bacon and leek) were a hit! Chris got their super cheesy Mac and cheese.

Ethan hit his head on the bench and the waitress gave him this for getting over it quickly:

Treacle pudding (has dates as ingredient) is a popular Scottish dessert we had to try:

I was teasing Chris and telling him that he was "home" and that there were more of "his people" every time a redhead walked in (there really are a lot of redheads here!).

Lakes District

It is so weird to stay at a hostel again, but with a family. The Hawkshead Hostel had quite a few families and wasn't just 20-something's but an older crowd. We had a 6 person room to ourselves and then switched to a 3 person room. The reason we stayed there was because all the camping areas had either a 2 or 3 day minimum or more and/or were booked up for the weekend. And the B&B's were either booked or around $400+\night. Just craziness! The Lake District is popular and expensive as a result (there really aren't a ton of places to stay). Personally, I was glad that we weren't camping since it was pouring rain (even if the rate for Sat. Night in a room that didn't include towels and had shared showers with hot/cold issues and smelly bathrooms in the hall was the same as the rate we were paying for a 5 star 2BR apartment/2bath rental in Edinburgh!).

It was still quite rainy this morning so we headed to nearby Ambleside, full of cafes. You have to get these little clock wheels that you turn to the time and place on the dash (you can only park for an hour). We headed to the Rattle Gill Cafe since the receptionist at the hostel recommended them and their tasty cakes. We ordered the cake sampler plate where you got to pick 5 different kinds of cake. My favorite was the almond pear cake. The pieces were quite substantial!

Then we re-parked and went to look at the most photographed Bridge House by the old Mill (Ambleside used to be a Mill town). Apparently at different times it had housed a cafe and a 6person family! Ethan and I climbed the tiny swirling stairs to go sit in the top part. 

We were going to peruse the shops but Hailey was losing it and didn't seem to want to sleep in the hiking pack (we didn't have room to bring the stroller since our car was packed to the gills with all of our camping gear). So we set out on a drive to see several of the lakes in the area (and Hailey took her nap in the car). So gorgeous! Loads of sheep everywhere! I was surprised at how many black sheep I saw as well. You don't really see them that often in the rest of England but they don't seem as rare here.

Some sheep taking a rest by the side of the road:

The sun came out in the afternoon and we took a nice little hike with gorgeous views. There are all sorts of little Tarn walks and little hikes off the side of the road. These flowers are plentiful and some sheep were hanging out up there as well:

Outside the shale mine, looking down on the valley winding road:

We ordered some pizza, grabbed some wine and had a little picnic dinner on the lawn at the hostel (apparently you aren't allowed to have wine on the premises but we got away with it this time):