We're Home

Ok, just one more post to let you know we're home, no real big flight delays, and we got ALL our luggage! Yay!

Going to London to see the Queen (she wasn't there)

This will be interesting to see if I can get up the energy to write this blog. I'm really tired! Not as tired as Mom, but really tired! And I have a big blister on my little toe. (feel sorry for me yet?)

We started out earlier this morning, since we wanted to be in London in time to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We drove right into Woking, parked the car and walked to the train station, and rode the train into London. That, by itself, was really fun! Sorry, Corey, I couldn't find the right place to get to Hogwarts! I haven't ridden a train since I was in Sweden. This train was a little faster than others I've ridden, but it wasn't so fast we couldn't see the countryside as we went. Roger showed me which side to sit on so I could get the best view of London as we rode in, and it was fantastic! As we got close I could see almost all the sites I've only heard about or seen on TV - I saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and a bunch of other big, old buildings that I didn't know, and I could see the newest thing in London - it's called the London Eye. It was built by British Airways, and it's like a huge (and I DO mean huge!) very slow ferris wheel. It turns continuously, but very slowly, and has these glass pods on it that hold about 24 people. It doesn't stop for people to get on or off, it just keeps moving very slowly. So you can pay LOTS of money to go on this thing, and you have a beautiful view of London. (we didn't - there was NO WAY I was going to get Mom on that thing!) Anyway, we pulled into London, got off, and then went and rode the "underground", the subway, which was another adventure Mom had for the first time. Then we climbed stairs up to the street and took off as fast as we could to find the Palace.

There's actually 2 places where you can see the changing of the guards, one is at the Horse guards area, and the other is at Buckingham Palace. We got to the Horse Guards area first, but they started at 11, exactly on the dot, as Big Ben was chiming, which was as we were walking up to the parade grounds, so we missed most of that. We got there to take a few pictures, anyway. The changing of guards at Buckingham Palace was at 11:30, so we started walking up the "mall" towards the palace. Today was an absolutely perfect day, by the way. It rained most of the day yesterday, and we had a beautiful thick fog out on the field this morning, but the sun shone and burned it all off, and we had bright sunshine all day long. So here we were, walking up the mall, which is really a long street that all the royal processions go down, through a beautiful big park area. The weather was just a little cool, and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees, so we walked in a big green park with a shower of leaves around us. Beautiful. As we got closer to the palace, we could see very large crowds of people all around, and we realized that we weren't there early enough. There was no way we could get close enough to see the actual ceremonial stuff that takes place in front of the palace - there were too many people already there in front of us, and there was limited space there. We got as close as we could, saw other people lining the street there in front of the palace, and waited. Pretty soon we heard a band coming from our left, and in marched a band in front, and a new platoon or squad or whatever, of the new guards. So we got to watch them marching in, watched them march through the big fancy gates in front, and then all we could see was the tops of their very tall hats.

Many of the spectators left then, so we moved closer. Still couldn't get by the gates, though, those people weren't leaving. There's a huge statue and fountain in front of the gates, so we moved over there, where we could climb up on the steps of the fountain and see through the gates and see a little more. The band stood and played for several minutes, (one piece was a mixture of James Bond themes!) and then they escorted the old guards out of the gates, which we were now in front of. That was really cool, so then we got a much better look at them. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but none of us went to find a guard to have our picture taken with them, nor did we try to get one to crack a smile or something. That was just more touristy than even I could do!

It was fun to look up and see the balcony where the Queen and everybody stands when they have some big thing going on - I've seen the pictures of them out there, so now I know where it is. The gates on the sides of the palace grounds are big and ornate, with sculptures around them, and they're trimmed with gold trim. Very bright and striking.

From there, we walked back through the park and bought some sandwiches at a little very busy shop, and walked to where the River Thames cruise boats are. By the way, today I had to pay 50 pence to go to the bathroom! Sheesh. I even took a picture of the machine with the little turnstile we had to go through after we paid the 50 pence! That's about 75 cents! (I'll show you that exciting picture later) We took a boat on the Thames from over by Big Ben down the river to the Tower of London. The guy on the boat told us what the buildings were that we could see, told us some of the history, told a few jokes, and it was great fun. I was amazed at some of the beautiful, magnificent buildings that line the Thames. Some are very old, but many of them are new, and very impressive. We saw the London Bridge, which is about the 4th London Bridge, I think, and we saw a kind of a cable type bridge that the guide said started moving and acting like it was going to throw people off as soon as it was opened, so it was then closed and not opened for another few years until they figured out how to fix it. He told us all kinds of stories. That was definitely the best way to get from the palace to the Tower! We were very glad we did it. Besides, it let us sit down for the full 40 minute cruise, and we got a rest that way.

At the Tower of London, we got to see all the gory details about who ended up being a prisoner there and writing grafiti on the stone walls, and who was executed or poisoned there, etc. Mom pooped out part way through there, but there were a lot of stairs, with little narrow circular staircases to get up into the towers, and her knees weren't taking that very well. Neither were mine, but I'm a little younger and can push a little harder. (Did I mention that I have a big blister on my little toe? Gotta buy new walking shoes!) The Tower of London is actually a castle with several different towers and buildings all within the walls. The White Tower is the armory, and they had full suits of armor on display, including the one made for King Henry VIII and several other kings. We got to see some really ugly-looking weapons - lances, maces, swords, shields, all kinds of stuff that my boys would have LOVED to see! They even had some of the horse armor there to see too. In another tower you could see some of the "graffiti" that was carved into the stones of the prison, and it was fascinating. They have plexiglass sheets over a lot of them, to protect them.

Another building holds the Crown Jewels, and we saw some amazing jewels, in crowns and sceptres, and all kinds of things. I've never seen anything so sparkly! Where they have several different crowns displayed, the floor moves very slowly - I guess that's so you can't just stand in front of one and clog up the line. Roger said it was amazingly easy to get through things today - usually you have to stand in line to even get into the building with the Jewels, and we just walked right in and through the building. They had a video running, showing the present Queen Elizabeth when she was crowned. Pretty cool. They also displayed a whole bunch of gold - basins and plates and pitchers and a HUGE punch bowl (I asked if they would let Josh and Sarah use it for their wedding, but Pam didn't think so). Lots of shiny and sparkly stuff. And there was this little voice in me wondering how much all of that was worth, and what kind of good it could do for people around the world. Good thing I appreciate history and all that. But if I were Queen...

The Tower of London was our last stop. And we didn't see everything there. There is so much to see in London - it would take a very long time just to see everything there in that one area. And it would cost a lot of money too! We were very lucky, because we got discounted tickets and 2 for 1 tickets or something for most of what we did today. Most of the things to see, like going IN to Buckingham Palace, or going IN to Westminster Abbey, cost 15 to 16 pounds each person, each place. That's about $25 or so. We did a very fast, whirlwind jaunt through a very small part of London, and just caught the highlights. We had other reasons for our visit here, and London was added to the list because, well, because we couldn't come to England without seeing something in London. And because I insisted that I wanted to see it. Anyway, after the Tower, we crawled our way back to the "tube" (subway) and to the train, and got back home. We were all starving, or I think we would have all headed for beds.

Tomorrow we leave England. sigh. It would seem that this day would call for something momentous and moving and eloquent, and I'm not sure I have that in me tonight. I hope that as I wrote this blog you've been able to share our trip with us and that you've been able to tell how blessed we feel about this trip being made possible. I'm painfully aware that there are 6 other Burke kids that could very well have been the one to make this trip with Mom, and I've felt really bad about that. And, of course, we would all rather have had it be Dad that came with her. All through the trip we've seen or experienced things and thought about how this person or that person in the family would have liked to have seen that. And, of course, as we went through Hampton Court yesterday or many of the big fancy places, we've talked about how Mom would NEVER have got Dad to move away from those paintings we saw! He would have been there for hours! So, it wasn't possible for all of us to make this trip, so I tried really hard to share it with the rest of you as much as I could, because I felt like I was representing all of us. And the rest of you sharing with us, you just get to come along for the ride too!

We've had a fantastic trip, thanks to Pam and Roger, Sue and Ron, and Doug and Barbara. There's no way I can even begin to tell you how much these English cousins have meant to us and how they've smoothed the way for us. They're funny, loving, friendly, and so patient you wouldn't believe it, and they've made us feel very comfortable and at home, even though we were very aware they were doing SO much for us. Hopefully, they'll have the desire to come see Idaho some day soon, and we'll be able to try to pay them back a little. Mom's exhausted, but it's a good exhausted. She may sleep for the next week after we get home, but she's had a great trip, and has been able to fulfill a life-long dream, and not many people get to do that. She'll never let me talk her into going sightseeing for anything ever again, because she's never going to be able to walk right again, but she's accomplished her goal - she got to walk in the footsteps of many (many more than we expected!) of those "dead people" of hers that have always been so important to her.

Unless we get stranded somewhere or have some big adventure on the way home that I need to add, (knock on wood!!) this will be the last blog for this trip. Please DO feel free to add comments, because we will check for them. We should be home around 3:30 on Sunday. Talk to you all soon!

Hampton Court

We did nothing but lie around the house all day yesterday. It rained all day, so that helped make up our minds that we didn't want to even explore some places close by, but we really intended it to be a resting day anyway. We were all a little tired and needed time to just kick back. So, there is no blog from yesterday. The most exciting thing to happen yesterday was that Wednesday nights are bell practice night at the church right here. Remember - I told you that Pam and Roger's home is built on what used to be part of the church grounds. So when the church bells ring, we hear them. Pam & Roger didn't think anything of it - they're used to it. But Mom and I thought it was really fun. We went up to our room where we could open the windows, which are really up on the sloped part of the ceiling because our room is a room built in the attic, and we left our window open for the whole hour so we could hear them.

Today we drove to see Hampton Court Palace. It was where King Henry VIII lived, after taking it away from the guy who originally built it, of course, and where he lived with all his wives. One of his wives is even supposed to haunt one of the halls there, although she didn't come show herself for us. I was kind of disappointed. The place is so big it's hard to even describe it. There would be no way for me to get all of it in one picture from my camera, so I've got some bits and pieces of pictures. This is one of those places where my camera is not going to do it justice, so I rely on other people's pictures to help me remember it. The King and/or Queen hasn't used this palace to live in since the 1700s, it's mostly been used as a "grace and favour" residence, meaning there are areas of the palace where different people who have found favor with royalty or have done something great for them, have been given a place to live, and they are allowed to live there for life. The rest of it has been taken care of and restored so people can pay a lot of money and go in and see the tapestries and paintings and furniture and the fancy staircases. I think the room I liked the best was the armory, where they had hundreds and hundreds of weapons, pistols, muskets, swords, lances, knives, and many things I can't name, hanging way up high on the higher parts of the walls. And they weren't just hanging there - they had arranged them in intricate, fantastic designs on the walls, so that at first you didn't realize they were weapons. It was fascinating!

Then there are the gardens! I'd have to look it up to tell you how many of them there are, but there are several. And they're beautiful and well landscaped and taken care of. Some of my pictures were taken from the rooms we saw inside, so almost everywhere we went you had a beautiful view of one of the gardens. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the rooms, so most of my pictures are of outside things. I bought the souvenir booklet so I have pictures of the inside too, I just won't be able to put them here for you to see. It was fascinating to be looking at these intricate, detailed tapestries on the walls, that were sewn with silver and gold thread, that have been around since Henry VIII's time. And to walk in a place where so many people had walked so long ago! Henry VIII has never been one of my favorite guys to learn about, but it was fascinating to learn about him and the other kings and queens that came after him.

Mom is completely wiped out and tired now. By the time we figured out that we could not go on anymore to see another wing of the house or walk through the gardens, (we never did make it to see the maze) we both had headaches, our feet hurt, and my hips were hurting so that I was limping along. We had been planning to go to a garden near here after we did Hampton Court, but there was no way we could make it. Even stopping for lunch and sitting on benches as we walked hadn't really helped. We were worn out. I feel better tonight, but Mom's totally tired. I keep trying to convince her she doesn't have to go to London tomorrow, that I can go alone, but she wants to go and see stuff - she just doesn't want to walk through the Tower of London like I do. And, of course, we'll have to hit the tourist gift shops. I think we've done so much and seen so much in the last 3 weeks, and she's realized that she's about to go home, and she's starting to wind down early. I guess I could suggest we get a wheelchair for her, and watch her explode at me!

We've had a lot of fun figuring out the difference between English and American. Today when we were at the gardens Pam corrected my way of saying Dahlias. It's pronounced "Daylias". We had jelly for dessert after dinner tonight - Jello to us. I've learned that the trunk of the car is the boot, gas for the car is petrol, garage is pronounced "GAERidge" (emphasis on the first syllable), we had "rauzbries" on our yogurt last night, and for supper tonight we had jacket potatoes, not baked potatoes. It's a lot of fun to compare words and try to figure out how us Americans changed the words so much. I have to admit I like the way they say things - sounds better.

I guess that's all I have to write about today. Our sightseeing motors are running out of gas, but we're still having a great time. Pam and Roger have been amazingly good to us, and very patient, and Mom has had a great trip. If we can make it through London tomorrow without anybody falling apart, we'll be doing great. Tell you all about it tomorrow!

Mon. Sept 22 and Tues Sept 23 Runaway Weddings and the Romans

Another big travel day today, although we did manage to see quite a bit on the way. We set off for England again today, and it took us all day because of our stops. Tonight we are staying in Chester Moor, at a hotel called Church Mouse. It’s a pub and hotel both, so we had supper at the pub tonight. All over Great Britain one of the coolest things I’ve noticed is they have these really great signs at pubs/restaurants all over. The names themselves are fun – things like The Green King, The King’s Head, Robin Hood, The Red Lion, The Unicorn, George and the Dragon, and this one, Church Mouse. On the sign, they will have the name of the place and a picture of whatever it is. (except today we saw one called Robin Hood that had a picture of a rooster!) Some of them are really funny. Wish I’d been taking pictures of them all along – I’d have a really cool collection by now! Anyway, I WILL take a picture of the Church Mouse to show you.

When we got up this morning the sky was pretty cloudy, so it looked like we might actually get rain, but instead the sun broke out and shone brightly as we drove. It got cooler as the day went on, but we had beautiful sun, again, most of the day.

Mom and I were a little sad as we left Scotland. We saw and did as much as we could, but we really could have used another couple of days. We stopped just on the border at a place called Gretna Green. It’s a very interesting place – it’s a tourist stop built around a Blacksmith’s Shop. The shop was the site of “runaway weddings” since 1754. When someone wanted to run away and get married, but they lived in England, they could run away and get married at this shop because it was just across the border into Scotland – I guess the blacksmith was also a minister of some kind, or justice of the peace, or something. Now, people still go there to get married, and they have a restaurant, a whiskey shop, a food hall, a hotel, and souvenirs. It’s very touristy, but it was our last chance to check out something in Scotland, so we spent some time there. Right after that building, we were able to find a Welcome to Scotland sign that was on a smaller street so we could actually stop and get our picture taken with it – finally. While we were there, we ran over to the other side of the street to get the Welcome to England sign too, just for good measure!

Our next visit was to Hadrian’s Wall. The wall runs all over in Northumberland, England, and some of our ancestors came from that area, so it’s interesting to know that our ancestors would have seen the remains of this wall too – especially the part that we saw, which is over by Haltwhistle, the place where John Sharp was born and he and Sarah Pickering were married. We went in to see a video about the wall and the Romans who built it. What I found really interesting was that after the Romans lost power and the wall started disintegrating, local people used the stones from the wall for their own buildings, so stones from the wall went into homes, churches, abbeys, all kinds of buildings in the area. We wandered all over the ruins of the Roman fort in the Haltwhistle area, and I went a little farther than Mom wanted to walk, and looked over the top of the hill to the steep valley below. I wanted a picture of me sitting on Hadrian’s Wall, but none of the rest of them had come that far with me, so I had to learn to use the timer on my camera all of a sudden. I had 2 seconds to set the camera and get into place. (I’m sure I can set it for more, but I didn’t want to take the time to learn how) I managed, although I know I was not sitting all the way on the rock at the time this picture was snapped! I’m excited to get on the internet and learn more about Hadrian’s Wall – never paid much attention to it before.

We wandered all over little back streets today on our way, and were able to drive through Haltwhistle, Marley Hill, Newcastle on Tyne, and Waldridge, which are areas where our Gill and Sharp family names came from. More walking (or driving) where our ancestors once walked. Some of the towns are really big now, so they’re not even close to what our family members knew, but it’s fun to see anyway, and to see the names of places that have been just names on the family pedigree charts.

Mom’s had a fun day talking to people too. She’s had 2 different people tell her they loved to hear her accent! She thought that was funny! The first one was a young guy at the gas station, and he started asking her questions about being in Scotland just so he could hear her talk. She told them that she loved to hear their accents too.

We’ve had supper and we’re tired, the only internet service here at this hotel is a paid service, so we’ve decided I’ll just write this up tonight on Word again, and blog it when we get to Pam and Roger’s tonight. Sorry you had to wait a day. That also means I don’t get to chat with Herb again. Rats. So, goodnight from the Church Mouse, and we’ll let you know how things go tomorrow.

It's the next day now, and our day was completely uneventful, so we're going to include both days in this one. We drove all day - that's it. We left the hotel shortly after 9 this morning, stopped here and there for bathroom and tea stops, and got here about 4:15 and have just been kicking back. So, that's our day. Exciting, huh?

Culcreuch Castle, Hamish, and Mom's kilt skirt

We headed out first thing this morning for Fintry, which is where Culcreuch Castle is. Culcreuch was built by a Galbraith about 900 years ago, but the Galbraiths only owned the castle about 300 years. It wasn't as big as some of the other castles we've seen, but it was exciting to see it and to walk around the grounds. You can get lots more information about it on their website at http://www.culcreuch.com/, more than we could get today, because the castle is now a hotel, and there was a large wedding party just checking out as we were there. We didn't ask about seeing the inside, we just took pictures and looked.

The best part of the trip today was that it was an absolutely beautiful, bright sunny day, so we had clear views of the countryside as we drove. Everything was green and bright and beautiful. We took a few pictures here and there, but so much of it was just this vast, beautiful scene, and I know my pictures won't be anywhere near as nice. Then, at the end of the day, as we drove back to the cottage, the clouds started moving in and things got hazy and cloudy, but that's even beautiful too!

Today we set off in search of Mom's kilt skirt. We have been asking people at different places, and we were referred to a place close to Callendar, called Kilmahogg. We arrived at the little gift shop and discovered a local celebrity was there - Hamish. (pronounced with a long "a") Hamish is a Highland cow, one of the long-haired cows that I mentioned yesterday. It looks like they've built up quite a reputation for Hamish in that area. He has T-shirts, mugs, pens, towels, postcards, and even stuffed animals that look like him. He's very big, and very sweet. He happened to be up by the fence when we drove up, close to a sign that is written in about 3 languages telling everyone what his name is, his age, and other little tidbits about him. I walked up to the fence and reached my hand in and this HUGE red nose reached over and sniffed me, and then he let me pet him and touch his horns. Later, in the shop, I found out that he wasn't really being sweet and nice to me, you can actually buy fruits and vegetables in the shop to feed him, and he just thought he was going to get food. Reminded me a lot of Peaches, only bigger. (my husband's Pekingese!)

In the shop, Mom asked about getting a skirt made in the Galbraith tartan, they directed her to another shop just a few hundred yards down the road, and they called someone and then directed us to another shop in Callendar. Callendar is another of those really wonderful touristy type towns that has all kinds of Rob Roy connections and historical significance, and has kept a lot of its old charm but in a beautiful way. We loved it. We found the shop, Mom was measured for her skirt, and she has her kilt skirt ordered and should get it in about 2 months. I'm so excited that she's finally going to get it!

Lunch was there in Callendar, where we went into a shop called Eat Mhore Fish, and had fish and chips for our 2nd time. It was also wonderful, we were very relieved that we had picked a place that made the fish so light and flaky and not too oily. Yum. Then, we headed for Beith.

Unfortunately, neither of us checked our email before we went out today, so we didn't have the information that Cheralyn sent us about Beith and the people they had met, etc., so we were on our own to wander and look. We found both the High Church and the other one she mentioned, but, again, we weren't able to look inside. Everyone was done with church services and had gone home and shut everything up, I guess. But we were there, we saw them, and we also stumbled on the LDS church just for good measure. Beith is a very old town too, not as clean and nice as some of the others, but very old. Again, it was a great experience to walk the areas that my long-ago ancestors would have known and walked in. We also had intended to go to Irvine, which is where John Cameron Galbraith and his brother were working when they joined the church, but there wasn't really anything to see, other than the town itself, and it was getting late in the day, so we chose not to.

The worst part is knowing that tomorrow we leave Scotland. It just doesn't seem like we've had enough time here. We hurried through the sites Mom wanted to see, accomplished the things she wanted to do, and even saw a few other things along the way, but we could happily spend another week or 2 here to see all the rest of it that we're missing out on. Today as we drove we saw, far off in the distance, Stirling Castle, which everyone says is a castle that you can't miss out on. It's huge, and it's perched precariously way up high on the side of a huge cliff. And we're missing it. Not enough time!

We leave here in the morning and head for England again, but we'll be stopping near Carlisle again and staying in a hotel there. There's a place where the Sharps came from that we'll be going through, and then when we get closer to Carlisle Roger had told me I will get the chance to walk on Hadrian's wall. Looking forward to that! We will have internet at the hotel, so I'll be able to add to this tomorrow too, and then we'll be back at Pam & Roger's house. One week from today we will be home. When we look back at all we've done and seen, it feels like we've been gone a lot longer than 2 weeks, but we're both also homesick and ready to go home. That's all about today. More tomorrow...

Loch Lomond, sunshine, and bagpipes

Yes! We have warm showers! This is a good thing. 4 days of taking really fast showers (or not at all) because we had only very hot or very cold water at the other cottage have come to an end. Bliss. And, I have now filled both of the smaller memory cards for the camera and I am now working on the 1GB card. Good thing we only have 1 more week of taking pictures.

We were a little slow getting out of the cottage this morning, but we headed off for Balfron, which is the area where a Hossack came from - that's someone on Dad's side. We found the Church of Scotland, and took our customary stroll through the gravestones. It was really neat to see Douglas, and McDonald, or Campbell on the headstones. One thing we noticed was that these headstones gave a lot more information - we were wishing some of these people were ours, because so many of them gave you the wife's maiden name, instead of just saying she was the wife of... They gave dates and children's names and sometimes what they did for work. I think Balfron is the area where this Hossack person was born. Mom didn't print out Dad's family tree like she did hers, so we can't remember who did what - we just have her list of last names and the city that relates to them. Didn't find the name on a single headstone, but a man walking through told us there had originally been 2 parishes in the area and both had then been moved to this one. The church was one of the more modern churches on the inside - must have been redone.

As we walked down the lane to leave the church, we saw a huge tree standing just outside the church fence. The trunk was huge, and we could tell it had been around a long, long time. It had some big metal bands around the trunk, like it was supposed to be holding the tree together. As we stood there and discussed it, a lady came walking up the lane with flowers in her hands. She saw us pointing at the tree, and explained to us that Rob Roy's son hid in that tree from the Redcoats, so it's a point of history interest, which is why they're trying to keep the tree together. There was no sign or anything to tell us that - we just happened to run into a local to explain it to us. Since Dad always said he came from Rob Roy, it held interest for us because of that, too.

We then headed to Bonhill, where we found the big, beautiful church there. This was the church where a McGregor had been married. We were very disappointed because the church was completely locked all the way around with padlocks, so we couldn't see inside. I would have loved to see what it looked like because it's huge, and I would have liked to imagine what it would look like to get married in that church. The graveyard there had many beautiful, large headstones that were lying down on the ground and broken - don't know whether it was vandalism or what, but it was really a sad looking graveyard. The stones in Scotland are not as worn as the ones in England that we were looking at, for some reason, so the information is easier to read, but about 2/3 of them were on the ground. We did find a Galbreath there in that area, though.

Luss, which is right on Loch Lomond, was probably the highlight of our day. One of our Campbells (Dad's side) came from Luss. When we drove in there we discovered a visitor's area, where you could park and then walk to different buildings. We didn't have any idea what we were going to find, but we parked and walked over the information center first. They have all kinds of fun touristy-type things, and were showing a video about the Loch that mentioned the island in the Loch called InchGalbraith. (Inch means it's an island) According to the books found, the Galbraiths were one of the oldest lochside families. "The name is derived from the Gaelic for lowland Briton, indicating southern origins." They say that the Galbraiths at one time owned 4 of the Loch Lomond islands: Inchgalbraith, Inchlonaig, Inchmoan, and Inchconnachan. That was fun!

We asked where a good place was to have lunch, and were directed across the parking lot to walk down a few streets, where they told us there were several shops and restaurants. When we got past the parking lot, this beautiful little village suddenly appeared in front of us, with rows of small beautiful cottages one after the other, with beautiful flower gardens. They had been refurbished, and I imagine most of them could be rented out for people. As we walked along the skinny street only big enough for 1 car we found a cute little restaurant where we had lunch. The best part was after lunch - as we walked down the street to explore the shops and find the water, suddenly I could hear bagpipes! We had already talked about the fact that we were pretty sure we didn't have much chance of actually hearing bagpipes while we were here, because they're for special things, so even though Mom really wanted to hear them while she was in Scotland, we really weren't expecting it. I grabbed Mom's arm and said, "Listen!" She stopped walking, but looked at me funny, and asked what I was doing. I told her again to listen, and in a minute she could hear the bagpipes too. Then, they stopped. We listened again, and they started up again. We started walking faster, and followed the sound. We turned a corner and walked up another street, and there in front of us was the Luss church, with a wedding about to happen! The bagpiper was standing in front of the church playing while the wedding party arrived! I couldn't believe it! We snuck around the corner to get a better position in front of the church but to try to stay out of the way of the wedding people, and Pam & Roger stayed back where they were, probably horribly embarassed that the Americans were pushing their way into a wedding. They were taking pictures of different people there at the gate of the church and everything - but we also weren't the only tourists standing there across the road listening and watching and taking pictures. Only problem was, we didn't get to go wander the church grounds for headstones, because that WOULD have meant pushing our way through the wedding party to get into the grounds, and we weren't prepared to do that. We found bagpipes and the church all at once, and we were very happy. Oh, and the sun was shining for us too - and it was supposed to rain today! Pam and Roger keep making comments about how they can't believe how everything works out for us and we find people to talk to or get to see and hear things we weren't expecting. We've started making jokes now about how the universe is working especially for us, because we're in Scotland.

From there, we walked down by the water and over to the pier so we could see Loch Lomond. All along the street as we walked, we could hear the bagpipes in the background. Mom wouldn't go all the way out on the pier, but I did it, and it felt like I was out on the loch, and we could still hear the bagpipes wailing out to us from the village. It was absolutely perfect - sunshine, the Loch was clear and beautiful and you could see clear out to the closest islands, we had the village where the Campbells (Dad)came from behind us, and could look out to the islands where the Galbraiths (Mom) once lived in front of us, and the sound of the bagpipes reaching us out at the side of Loch Lomond. sigh. Ok, I admit it, I looked out to the Loch and cried a little bit, because it was so perfect and Mom got to go to Scotland, and that moment was just for her. And I will imagine that Dad had something to do with orchestrating it all. You can believe what you will, but that's what I think.

Next thing on my agenda was actually standing in the Loch Lomond. I tried really hard to get Mom to do it with me. I begged, I pleaded, I told her she'd regret not doing it when she got home, I told her this was her only chance...nothing worked. So, I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pant legs, and walked out to the water by myself. Mom put her hand in the water. Whoopee.

After that, our day was pretty much done. We drove around and looked at a few things, went into the shops and bought postcards, shortbread, and a cute little stuffed "hilen koo" (Highland cow - they're long-haired and reddish colored) for Shannon (my granddaughter). Unless I can't part with it and decide to keep it for myself. Maybe I better buy another one for me.

We drove to a kilt maker and talked to them about making Mom a skirt from the Galbraith tartan, and the lady didn't know if they were still doing skirts as well as kilts, so she's finding out for us. We drove around a little, bought food, couldn't decide on anything to do, (nobody wanted to go find a castle like I did!) and decided to make it an early day and headed back to our cottage. We were back home by 5:00. I went for a walk up the lanes past the cottage and took some pictures and just enjoyed the scenery. It's green and beautiful here - absolutely perfect. The day was almost perfect - if I'd seen another castle, THAT would have been perfect. Tomorrow we're going in search of the castle that a Galbraith built. From the information we have, it's now being used as a hotel, so we don't know how much it will look like the original castle, but we will see it. Heading for Beith tomorrow - birthplace of John Cameron Galbraith. I think it's John Cameron. John, anyway. I think Mom and I have decided that since we only have 2 full days in Scotland - today and tomorrow, we're going to skip church tomorrow so we can get to everything she wants to see. She was originally wanting to attend church in Beith, and we had looked up the church times, but I think she would rather visit the family history places while she's still got one more day here. The end of another great day!

Mom's in Scotland!!!!!!!

This seemed appropriate with the tomtom in the window.

(from your loving husband)

I know, this isn't the picture I wanted in here for today either, but the Welcome to Scotland sign was on the freeway, and there was no place to pull over so I could take a picture of us in front of it. We'll have to settle for a picture of us with city signs or something. Yes, Mom is in Scotland, at long last!

The cottage we are staying in is actually an upstairs apartment with a very friendly couple downstairs who own the house. The beds are comfortable and it looks like we will be able to get WARM water out of the shower. It's really a cute apartment, and best of all, it has lots of books in all the rooms. I could just find me a spot outside with the birds singing and sit and read all day. Yeah, right!

We had to drive around the outer edges of Glasgow to get out here to our cottage, which is actually in Croftamie. The cottage is called Tullycross Cottage. We were very glad to get out of Glasgow - VERY big city! Lots of very tall apartment buildings - looks like they really stuffed people into the city. Here, we're out in the country, with fields and sheep and farms all around us. Here in the cottage the owners have a little basket with all kinds of pamphlets and information about the area - we could stay here for a month and never get bored!

Don't have many pictures to show you today - we drove and drove all day. Stopped for lunch in Carlisle while we were still in England. It's close to the border - close to the Hadrian's Wall - more of that to come later, because we're going to go walk on that on our way back home.

Carlisle is the place Mary Queen of Scots invaded, and there's a lot of Roman stuff in the town. I'll put in some pictures of the town we walked through so you can see what it looks like.

And, here's our culture lesson for you - discovered a new and exciting way to wash your hands in a public toilet, water faucet, soap dispenser, AND hand dryer, all in one little hole in the wall! It was actually quite interesting!

Ok, I've got this blog updated, pictures entered, and I'm heading for bed. Should have lots more for you tomorrow. I was writing the blog in Word the whole time we were at the other cottage and didn't have internet, so at least all I had to do was add pictures. We should have pretty good internet access for most of the rest of our trip now. We're so happy to be back in touch!!