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!