To my loyal readers… (I’ve discovered that you exist!)

 

We’ve gone a few days incognito without any internet (impossible you say!)  but it’s true!  So I’ll give you the update from when the Wi-Fi dropped off.

 

We left the Edinburgh area on Friday morning after a really great stay at our B&B (she even did laundry for us!) and headed towards the west. We ended up in Loch Lomond area staying in Balloch.  It is a quaint little resort city only an hour from Glasgow.  It was a happening place – so much so, that most places were booked!  So after wandering around for too long, we settled for a nice hotel without internet.  Dad chilled in the room while I ventured downstairs to the adjoining Pub.  The locals were VERY friendly and I had the privilege of sampling some fine whiskey from the Isle of ilay (very well respected around these parts.)  I didn’t stay for long though – they were so friendly that I would have stumbled home otherwise!

 

The next morning Dad dropped me off at the Loch Lomond aquarium where I proceeded to take many pictures of the native (otters!) and non native (including a nurse shark) critters.  I was obviously a happy camper!  After leaving the aquarium, we headed to Glasgow with a mission – find dad his Aquascutum rain overcoat.  We explored the “golden Z” of streets but to no avail!!!  We had many other successes though – much to the chagrin of our wallets…  With our car packed up full, we took off for Dumfries/Gretna region to meet with Will and Jill since they were interested in Pub Crawling before they got hitched.

 

Once we arrived in the Border region, we looked and looked for accommodation, but they were few and far between.  We ended up at the Farmers Inn where we were scheduled to have dinner the next night for the rehearsal dinner.  Dad then dropped me in Annan where Will, Jill, Nicole and I meandered through the town to absorb some pub character.  We ended up in a dance club with a DJ playing Bryan Adams…  Sigh – interesting character, not the Scottish element that we were expecting though!

 

Sunday was the “prep for the wedding day” followed up with a “prep for the wedding dinner!”  we had a great night of conversation and food then turned in early for MONDAY!

 

The wedding day dawned sunny and bright, just as Will had reserved.  It was a day packed with fun and festivities.  Joanne (Jill’s mother) and I had the local hair salon do our hair after which we picked up the cake and her brood and headed for the Castle (where Dad and I had checked in that morning).  We left the men and we headed to Jill’s honeymoon suite where she was being beautified in a manner befitting a princess.  The wedding itself was in the tower and it was a lovely intimate affair (only 12 of us!)  The piper was great and it was a great touch hearing him pipe Jill up the tower stairs to her husband to be!

 

After the ceremony we headed to the grounds for lots and lots and lots of pictures.  At last count I downloaded 557 pictures from the two cameras that I had! (I will have to pick out some highlights – I don’t think I can post that many, MSN would cut my account!)

 

The dinner in the grand hall was, well… grand!  The food was divine and I will definitely miss it as we continue to explore this beautiful country.

 

Today we got up and checked out of the castle (very tragic to be leaving so soon!) and headed back north to push up to Inverness.  We arrived in Perth this afternoon and visited the Scone castle (where the stone of destiny originally lived) but on the way we had a side trip to this designer outlet where we found the fabled Aquascutum store!  WHOO HOO – we found Dad’s rain overcoat (and he accessorized with the fabulous scarf and hat)  it looks super!  I’ve been looking for a handbag which isn’t Coach and I think that Dad was onto something with his love of this stuff, so – I picked up a sweet Aquascutum handbag to match him J  That’s something that you won’t find in Seattle!  To round out our shopping bonanza, we stopped into the Waterford Factory Store just outside of Perth on our way to the hotel and I picked up a small token for the crystal cabinet. 

 

With that!  To bed, to sleep – so that we can hit the highlands by lunchtime!

 

So mote it be…

So following up from the first travel style blog - we've made it to Scotland and are settled into a great little B&B completely contrary to what you'd expect in these parts.  It only opened a month ago and the family had this great addition built onto their house!  The beds are memory foam, a 34 inch plasma on the wall, brand spanking new bathroom and leather seating and oh, did I mention wireless internet?  Yeah, so we're here for a second night...

 

But on to things with character! 

 

After spending a morning exploring York, truly a lovely town - we decided to drive west over the Midlands to Windermere.  WHAT A STORY!  All I can really say is that I am grateful to have my health because the "main" route which we followed was crazy narrow with occasional one way bridges to pepper the fun.  At one point I insisted that we break for a pint because the dash was getting dented with my nail marks!  Yikes!  The highlights were sheep in the road, Mac trucks passing us going rediculously fast, and the bridge which didn't have a sign about single lane/blind crest or the fact that it was a game of chicken gone horribly wrong!

 

But after that trauma we finished off in the lake district. ahhhh, so peaceful and quaint.  We spend the evening dining on the water and then back to the hotel for dad to work - he does do too much of that I must say.  The next morning we took a meandering drive around the lakes and then decided to head to Scotland.

 

We drove, and drove, and drove some more - Northward and upwards!  After passing many places which didn't have the pulse of technology we ended up in this fabulous B&B where we are now.  From here we were able to take a short drive to Roslyn Chapel where we met Tom Hanks digging in their vault... oh no wait, that was a movie I once saw. 

 

We did enjoy a tour of the Chapel and if you look to the photo entries, I went quite nuts with buddy Jacob's camera.  Not sure I'll have any space on my hard drive by the time we return to the good old North of America.

After Roslyn we decided to drive into Edinburgh and take in the Castle, the Royal Mile (tooooourist!) and Princes Street (much like Robson in Vancouver, but a lot older).  The castle was nice - the views spectacular, and the crown jewels... jewel-y.  Overall, I think the city deserves more cudos than the castle itself, but the city - oh, it's gorgeous - again, see crazy photo girls diary.

 

Now we're back after some more fattening pub food (that seems to be all there is!) to have a quite evening at the house. 

 

Cheers! 

So we successfully landed in Heathrow, England after an uneventful 8.5 hour flight (they had a tail wind!) but the downfall of landing at the busiest airport in the world was that we had to "Queue" up for our turn at the gate.  Then the electric walkway wouldn't sync with the plane, so they attempted their backup, which wouldn't work either...  So our early flight had us disembark 15 minutes late in the end! :)  We ended up using the manual stairs which many people didn't appreciate because it was raining cats and dogs.  No problem for us though, we grow best in the rain us north westers!

 

We then navigated over to the rental company where we picked up our spaking Passat wagon which is all black and tinted, quite pimp if you ask me.  Dad was eager to drive so I graciously (and I mean with pleasure) took the passenger seat.  After my navigating us 15 minutes in the wrong direction, attempting to figure out round-a-bouts ?!!?!?! and dealing with the overall traffic of London - I think we were ready to leave London major!

 

We drove up to Cambridge to find a place to lay our wearly, jet lagged bodies and we found a little old hotel known as "the Centurian" (guess how old it is?!) where we promptly hit the pillows - it was 6pm.  Upon waking at around 4:00am we got organized and took the car for a tour of the college town before the crazy drivers scared us out of the city :) After having a wonderful breakfast we headed out to be tourists for real. We got OUT of the car and went to the Cambridge Kings College Chapel which took 100 years to build.  It was breathtaking - the most amazing stained glass I've EVER seen.  Once we were done with that, we promptly got lost and walked around for at least a half hour in the pouring rain looking for our rental car.  Pretty funny - but it was a good walking tour of the city which we otherwise would have avoided for the rain.

 

After we found our car (two minutes from our original destination - one hour from our convoluted destination) we drove North to York, which is a 13th century walled city.  I took my hand at the road and have to admit, being a lefty has its advantages, I really enjoyed shifting with my left!  We secured a lovely hotel and dad rested for a bit while I marched off in search of a photo opportunity while the rain abated.  After a leisurely meander through the walled city streets I came upon Dad who was taking a leisurely drive through the streets - we decided to grab dinner in the pub and have returned to the hotel to "plug in" since we are both such technology slaves.

 

Dad looks as if he's about to pass out on his laptop and I'm enjoying a Strongbow and Calring.  Ahhhh - I love Europe!  That's all for now.  Cherrio!

David Meadows | April 27, 2006

Recently my dog Red discovered the wonderful flavor of this little known bean known as "cocoa"  It started two weeks ago when his snout sniffed out a bag of Oreos (with only about 6 eaten out of the bag).  Oh what joy!  Red munched through the whole bag and when I discovered him the next morning, he was well on his way to a day full of upset stomach.  I had the pleasure of doggy sitting him to ensure adequate passing of the chocolatey goodness.  Thankfully, chocolate is one of the last ingredients in Oreos (interesting eh?) so he was back to normal by the end of the day.

 

Two days ago was my husband’s birthday - we celebrated with his family and had a delicious double fudge chocolate cake. It was truly yummy, but we were only able to eat half of the 3 pound treat.  You know where this is going.  (Sniff sniff) Red woke me up in the middle of the night crying and licking his chops.  I came out to the living room but couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.  I checked his stomach for ailments but he seemed okay.  So I went back to bed.  The next morning my dog was coo coo for cocoa puffs and all that was left of the cake was the tray.  WHOLLY DINA!  Bottom line - he had consumed more than the toxic level of chocolate for his weight and was having a serious reaction to all of the "theobromine."  For those of you who aren't aware of this naturally occurring chemical, it is lethal to dogs in quite small doses; it causes kidney, liver and heart failure, not to mention seizures, crazy erratic heart rate, vomiting and diarrhea.  Kind of "dog on crack"

 

Guess who got to visit the doggy doctor yesterday!  Sigh, a couple of valium later (for him, even though I could have used some) he was brought out of the rafters.  They IV'd him and took his levels.  He seems to be recovering alright, still waiting on the blood work but I was able to bring him home last night and he was wagging his tail today.

 

So for those of you with dogs - please take heed to my story, keep chocolate WAY away from your pooch.  It will save your nerves, and your dog’s life.  Thanks for reading!

 

(An important side note: Anti-Freeze is also EXTREMELY deadly for your dog or cat so please ensure that any spills are cleaned up and keep your pets clear of it)

I had an unexpected pleasure occur late into my Thursday evening.  It was brought on by a musical known as Sweeney Todd.  A play that I would never have "sought out" like I would say, Phantom or Les Mis or even Miss Saigon... In fact, it was because of Miss Saigon that this little treat was introduced to me.  Let me rehash.

 

Back in the spring of 2005, I was very excited to learn that one of my favorite musicals (Miss Saigon) was coming to seattle playing at the 5th avenue theater.  I quickly got online and ordered the best seats I could find - for it was my husbands first experience with the theater and I wanted him to have a great time.  On the eve of the performance we sat in our seats with baited breath waiting to be dazzled by the great storyline and wonderful score.  Sadly, it was not to be, the performance was tainted by many many technical errors.  By intermission I was prepared to cut out of there but I wanted to give my husband the opportunity to see the famed helecopter scene.  So we waited it out.  The scene was good, but not good enough to overcome my dissapointment...

 

The following day I wrote an email to the box office expressing my dismay that a first class theater would permit such a weak technical performance.  To my surprise they called me the next day to attempt to rectify the situation.  The agreed upon solution was to offer us opening night tickets to this musical known as Sweeney Todd.  Hum, don't know that one, oh well...

 

It was wonderful!  The cast was phenominal, music pitch perfect, yes it seems technically that the 5th needs a little help, but it was better than Saigon.  All in all, I would HIGHLY suggest scooting down to the 5th and take in this unusual macabre musical.  Not suitable for children though...  a little gory. ;)

 

Well this weekend was an interesting one!  Team "Chair Force One" braved the wilderness in a 12 hour adventure race to push and test their personal limits.  The team consisted of James, Kristy (my cousin), Magnus (James' co-worker and long time pal) and Charles (co-worker and new pal).  Magnus' girl Autumn and I were the "support staff" destined to cheer them on into the night.  Talk about a big challenge!   They were up at 4am on Saturday to get out to Snoqualmie, started the race at 7am where they Kayaked, Trekked, Biked and Orienteered all day and into the night, totalling 15 hours!!!  Many teams dropped out as the course was grueling but proudly, our team prevailed!  Maybe - if I train for the next 12months, I can join in the foray.  Maybe.  Bottom Line - I'm very proud of Team "Chair" in completing a task that many would not!