Dave and Jenn’s Adventures

On our way back to Maryland from visiting friends in Richmond, we stopped for a quick hike in Prince William Forest.

It’s convenient and easy to get to - just off I-95 next to the Marine base at Quantico. There’s a $5 fee (a bit of a hassle because you have to go to the Visitor’s Center first to get a little receipt), a drop in the bucket to help defray the costs of maintaining the park. Of course, silly me, it should have been free because we JUST bought a National Parks pass - but of course I had left it at home.

Prince William Forest isn’t anything particularly special, but it’s nice to have a large chunk of protected forest land (15,000 acres) with many different trails and bike paths. The park also features campgrounds and picnic areas. Dave also learned in the Visitor’s Center that there are various small, historic cemeteries located in the middle of the forest, which are difficult to find unless you’re with a ranger (or you just stumble across one).

We hiked a trail called “Farm to Forest”, which got its name because that particular spot was once a farm, and has now been allowed to return to wilderness. I was aiming for a 1.7 mile hike, but once we got there, we realized that there were really two trails - a 1-mile loop, and a 1.7-mile extension. So, we ended up hiking more like two and a half miles. Fine for me, but maybe a little much for Lucas, since his elbow’s not 100% yet.

It was a very nice hike, and it was perfect weather. It was labeled as “moderately strenuous”, which really means it’s perhaps on the slightly strenuous side of “moderate”. There were a few ups and downs, but no major inclines or much elevation change. The trail ran along and/or crossed Quantico Creek for the middle part of the hike, which wasn’t as scenic as you might think. The best feature of the trail was all the evidence of beavers - we had never seen so many chewed trees. The beavers had obviously been quite successful, actually, because a number of the tree trunks had been chewed all the way around and had fallen. There were one or two very effective beaver dams on the creek as well. Unfortunately we didn’t actually spot any of the critters.

If you live in the DC area and are looking for a place for a quick hike, or if you’re visiting the area and are looking for a place to camp near the nation’s capital, check it out: http://www.nps.gov/prwi/.

Today’s adventure was to visit Luray Caverns, in Luray VA. It is the largest caverns in the Eastern U.S., and is advertised as the most popular.

We left Silver Spring around 10:30 am, and drove out I-66 to I-81. We got off the freeway in New Market, VA, and had lunch at a place called “Southern Kitchen”. It was a typical diner-style restaurant in a small Virginia town, which was really fun. The waitress was really friendly, the clientele were fun (though our presence lowered the average customer age to about 55 years old), and the food was tasty and affordable. Unlike while in DC, I could just order sweet tea, instead of first asking if they had it.

From there it was 15-20 minutes to Luray Caverns. We turned off Route 211 to find a much larger complex than I’d expected. In addition to the Garden Maze, which I was already aware of, there were a number of buildings. The main Visitor’s Center for the cavern itself seemed large from the outside (though, once inside, both the lobby and the meandering gift shop were cramped and the space not well-organized). There was also a cafe, a country store, a fudge shop, a “Car and Carriage Museum” (I’ll get to that later), and a small building with extra restrooms and vending machines. Oh, and a gas station at the outside corner.

Maybe I was just expecting a hole in the ground?

The tickets are expensive ($21) but the cavern itself was worth it. Although the promo materials suggest that the tours are guided, it’s actually an audio tour. This is actually preferable, because the cavern’s visitors are all types. Best to go at your own pace anyway.

Luray Caverns has a lot of different formations (which they refer to as the cavern’s “decorations”). It was quite impressive. Our favorite part, by far, was an area called “Dream Lake”. It was spectacular - a shallow lake inside the cavern that acts as a perfect mirror of the stalactites above, making it seem as though there is a perfectly symmetrical area of the cavern. It was truly impressive.

Another unique feature of Luray Caverns is the stalacpipe organ. In the late 1950s a guy visited the caverns and suggested that they connect an organ to some of the formations - because when you strike them, the crystals inside vibrate and make musical tones.� He went around figuring out which formations would give him the pitches he was looking for, and set it up so that it could play four different songs.� When on the tour, though, you only get to hear one.� We heard “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

Caverns are hard to describe. If you enjoy them, you should visit Luray.� [Of course it's nothing near as impressive as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, but that's hard to top anyway.]� If you’re claustrophobic, you probably already know not to bother. What’s fun about caverns is that it’s probably the best opportunity you’ll have here on Earth to feel as though you’re on another planet.

After we finished the mile-and-a-quarter meander through the caverns, spending more time than one might think possible looking at stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, etc., we ended up in (guess where?) the gift shop. We poked around there for a bit, and also in the general store.

Admission to the “Car and Carriage Museum” is free with admission to the cavern, so we figured we’d breeze through.� As the name suggests, it has on display a number of automobiles and old carriages (you know, horse-and-buggy type things).� They had an admirable collection of vehicles from the early 20th century, including of course the Ford models T, N, and A, and also a few sweet-looking Rolls Royces. The museum design, however, was SUPER cheesy and dated. It was filled with mannequins that were creepy, old, and had pieces of their skin chipping off. You could tell that the signs describing the different vehicles hadn’t been updated for a while - one described the company founded by Ransom E. Olds, i.e., Oldsmobile, as one of the few original companies that had managed to survive our tough economic times. Oops.

We survived that, and ended up in yet another gift shop. We bought some fudge and hit the road.

We took the scenic route back - Skyline Drive. This is actually the heart of Shenandoah National Park, which we hadn’t realized was a fee-only area. So, we bought an annual pass, figuring we’ll probably be visiting some national parks later in the summer anyway.

Unfortunately it wasn’t ideal weather for a scenic drive. The Blue Ridge Mountains were largely covered by low clouds all day, so we drove through fog for about half the drive. There are a number of beautiful scenic overlooks on both the east and west sides of the Blue Ridge… but we couldn’t see much from some of them. There were a couple of spots where the clouds weren’t sitting on us, and Dave was able to take some photos. But, it was peaceful and beautiful and relaxing.

Clearly this is the place to be in the fall, but no doubt it’s a never-ending ant line of cars when the foliage is changing.

It took us a while to get home, because as soon as we got on the Beltway, we came to a dead stop because of an accident that was blocking 3 of 4 lanes. Welcome back to civilization!

As we have only three months left to live (here in DC, that is), we have compiled a list of things we must see/do before we move.

Very high on the list was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, which is in southwestern Pennsylvania (closest large town is Uniontown, hometown of my dear friend Susan). Fallingwater is one of his most famous works, if not the most famous. Only a few miles away is another home he designed toward the end of his career, called Kentuck Knob.

Today we took a day trip to see both. It took us about 3 hours to get there, up to the Maryland/Pennsylvania border, across the tiny sliver that is northwestern Maryland, then up across the border into Pennsylvania. It was an easy drive with little traffic on a Friday morning.

As we neared Fallingwater, we drove through Ohiopyle, a cute adventure town on the Youghiogheny River. I had flashbacks to a whitewater rafting trip I took with some WIC folks about 10 years ago here on the Yough. Even though today was a grey day, the whitewater was tempting me back.

We got to Fallingwater around 11:30 am. When you arrive, you drive onto the grounds and come to a gatehouse. Here is where they take your money. You are then directed to a parking lot a few hundred yards later, which is in front of a visitor’s center. There you find the tour booth (where you schedule the tour that you already paid for), the cafe, the gift shop, and the restrooms. Once we got there, we oriented ourselves, then ate a quick sack lunch in the car (no picknicking on the grounds).

Then we poked around a bit before putting in for a tour time. There is a short nature path that loops around from the visitor’s center, and from the midpoint you find a fairly nice view of the front of Fallingwater. In a somewhat concentric semi-circle is another path, which goes from the visitor’s center, past the house, to a little spot called “The View” (not to be confused with the ridiculous TV show) where you can get the “signature shot” of the house, and then back up to the parking lot. We spent some time taking all this in (and Dave took MANY photos) before heading back up to get our tour time.

Our tour group was about 14 people, which was a manageable size. The tour guide was okay but not stellar - he gave us a pretty straightforward tour of what was there, and didn’t offer a lot of architectural teaching or trivia about either Frank Lloyd Wright or the Kaufmanns (the original owners). Though the tour was not educational as far as learning much about Wright or his process, the house itself pretty much speaks for itself.

Fallingwater is built on top of a waterfall. My favorite feature of the house is a stairway that goes from the bottom level of the house (the main/living/dining room) down into the stream. Not to the side of the stream - right into the middle of it. Very cool. Dave’s favorite part of the house was also in the main room - the fireplace. Aside from being a huge, cool hearth, the fireplace is an amazing example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s tendency toward organic architecture. Rather than move natural features out of the way when building a home, he would design around them. In this case, a large boulder seems to come up out of the floor in front of the fireplace. On the other side of the wall, it protrudes in a natural way from the outside of the house.

The tour lasted about an hour long, taking the group through most of the rooms in the house, as well as the guest house above it. It ended with a video explaining why the house had been donated by the Kaufmanns to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and why we should give them money. I don’t know why I was caught off guard by the plea for money, but I was completely not expecting it. It wasn’t terrible, though.

We poked around for a bit more and Dave took a few more photos of the exterior (no indoor photos were allowed). Then we talked to the lady in the tour booth and got ourselves a reservation for the 3 pm Kentuck Knob tour.

It was a short drive back through Ohiopyle and up a hill, and we found ourselves on the grounds of Kentuck Knob (aka Hagan House, after the original owners; aka Chalk Hill, after the location). We bought our tickets and had about 15 minutes to kill, so we poked around in the gift shop. Then a shuttle bus took the tour group (about 10 people) up to the top of the hill and dropped us off in front of the home.

Kentuck Knob is quite a bit different from Fallingwater, but no less cool. It is situated near the top, but not quite on top, of a hill. Apparently Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t believe in placing houses on top of hills (where they would dominate the landscape) but instead liked to build them into the hill (where they would be an organic part of the landscape). Even with this design concept, though, Wright created beautiful vistas throughout the home.

This home is actually still privately owned, but the owners allow the Conservancy to use it for tours. They don’t live there, but use it sometimes for parties. A lot of their belongings are still in the home.

Kentuck Knob is a lot quirkier and more homey than Fallingwater. There’s not a square room in the house, the design of which instead incorporates hexagons, parallelograms, and trapezoids. A geometry teacher’s dream! There were a number of beautiful features that are difficult to describe, particularly the “invisible window” in the main room, which does an amazing job of bringing the outside in, and vice-versa. I also loved the hexagonal kitchen, which the rest of the folks on the tour group seemed to think was very small, but for me and Dave was spacious, and had a ton of cabinet and counter space!

Our tour guide at Kentuck Knob was not only very good about sharing knowledge about the house and Wright’s work in general, she was also very intentional about getting everyone’s names. At the end of the tour she thanked us all by name and asked us to enjoy the rest of the day.

The original owners of the home were avid art collectors, and they had a number (and variety) of sculptures they had situated around the grounds, including a “sculpture meadow”. We walked down from the house back to our car near the visitor’s center and enjoyed the different pieces. The most fun was called “The Red Army”. There were also a couple of panels from the Berlin Wall - one of which was a bit buried in the woods, but the other was part of the sculpture meadow and could be viewed up close.

By this time were were TIRED. We left Kentuck Knob around 4:30 pm, and Dave wanted to take a few photos of the Yough before heading out. We stopped briefly at a spot called Cucumber Falls and took a few photos. Then we drove back to Ohiopyle, where Dave took a bunch of photos of the falls there, while I imagined how much fun it would be to be rafting the Yough. Alas, not for me today. =(

We headed out by 5:30 pm and drove home, stopping in Hagerstown for some Chick-Fil-A (as the cows say in the ads, “Eat Mor Chikin”). We finally got home around 9 pm. A completely doable trip in a day.

Considering that we live just outside our nation’s capital, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Barack Obama become president.

We woke up at 5 a.m.  Our friend Sarah met us at our house a bit before 6 a.m.  Once we were finally ready and had taken Lucas out, we headed for the bus, a little after 6 a.m.  We took the bus to the Silver Spring metro station, and the platform was already packed!  Fortunately, we made our way to the very end of the platform, and were able to get on the very last car, which was fairly empty.

We took the Red Line to Fort Totten and transferred to the Green Line.  The sun was just starting to light up the sky.  We figured that rather than entering the Mall on the side of the parade route (where there were security checkpoints and it would be harder to cross over toward the Mall), we should enter the Mall on the other side.  Things went smoothly getting on the Green Line (we even got seats!) and got off at L’Enfant Plaza, which is just a couple of blocks from the Mall.

It took us an hour to get out of the Metro station. The place was packed, and they had to close the escalators out of the station because someone had a medical problem.  That meant that people had to walk up the escalator, many of whom really weren’t fit enough to do so.  This caused the entire station to get backed up.  The station staff were managing it in a pretty hands-on way, and ended up letting everyone exit without swiping out.  Still, it took a long time to get out.

We then had to walk from L’Enfant Plaza toward the Mall, down Independence Ave, to 14th Street.  Along Independence, there were law enforcement officers and military personnel trying to keep the street open for VIPs to drive toward the Capitol. A couple of sets of cars passed us as we walked.  The first set was four normal-looking cars (as opposed to presidential motorcade-like cars).  The first car was John McCain driving himself and Cindy!  The rest looked to be other congresspersons.  The second set of cars was a couple of escorted black SUVs with tinted windows - couldn’t see who was inside.

We finally got to the Mall around 9 a.m.  What would normally take us 30-45 minutes took us about 3 hours.  We ended up in the middle of the Mall, around 12th St. When we got there, they were showing Sunday’s concert on the Jumbotrons.  Dave and I had been there, but it was enjoyable to see again, and fun for Sarah to see it, since she wasn’t there.  It was a good way to keep the crowd entertained. I busted out my hand and feet warmers, and put on a pair of Dave’s warmup pants over my jeans.  I was wearing 5 layers on my torso (not counting scarves), and 3 layers on my legs.  According to the Post, the temperature hovered around 28 degrees, but the wind chill made it feel more like 16 degrees

Then the live pre-show entertainment for the actual inauguration ceremony got started.  There were a couple of choirs, then military bands.  They also showed footage of all the various dignitaries arriving to the Capitol, and also entering into the VIP seating area.

Finally it got started!  We were surrounded by some characters who were providing their own commentary, but they were harmless and not too annoying.  The crowd did some booing when George W. came out, and chanting “Na na na hey hey goodbye”. But there wasn’t too much of that.  The crowd cheered, waved flags, and applauded (mostly with gloved hands) when Obama came out!  The crowd had a mostly very good vibe, and was of course very excited about Obama.

When Rick Warren came on, I was worried that there would be a negative reaction, but the crowd was respectful (except for 1-2 people booing). His invocation included a lot of really good thoughts, but it was a lot longer than I expected, and I was surprised (though not unpleasantly) that he ended with the Lord’s Prayer. Aretha Franklin sang, and was of course awesome. It was a thrill to see Joe Biden sworn in as Vice President, and then there was a quartet including Itzhak Perlman and Yo Yo Ma, playing a piece that John Williams arranged for the occasion.

Then, finally, Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President! I was surprised to see him mess up the beginning of the oath. But he recovered, finished strong, then gave his inaugural speech. It was really a wonderful speech, and set just the right tone for the occasion.

Sarah pointed out, “Americans have short attention spans.” After the speech, people started wandering off.  There was of course still a bit left in the program - a pretty cool poem by Elizabeth Alexander, and a (quite long) benediction by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery. Then it was time to figure out what to do next.

We thought we would head for Dupont Circle, but the crowd flow forced us basically in the opposite direction. We were jammed with thousands of people on the corner of 14th and Independence for the longest time. As we waited, we saw the presidential helicopter transport the Bushes to Andrews AFB, to begin their retirement. Bon voyage!

We finally decided that the best thing would be to walk to a further-out Green Line station, so we continued down 14th Street to Maine, and walked along the water to the waterfront. We briefly considered stopping there for lunch, but the line out Phillips Restaurant was LONG. We walked past the Waterfront-SEU station, but it was mobbed all around the block. So we continued another half mile or so to the Navy Yard station (where the Nationals Ballpark is), got into the station easily, got on the first train that came, and even got seats on the train.  Hooray!

When we got back to Silver Spring we stopped and had Thai food as a late lunch. There was a TV on, and we were surprised to see that the parade was just starting (it was 3:30 pm at this point). We finally got home a little before 5 p.m. What an adventure! But totally worth it.

On Saturday morning, I got up at 2:50 am (yes, that’s not a typo) having slept for three whole hours. Took a very quick shower, and tried to keep moving and not doze off while I waited for Dave to get out of the shower. Our friends were nice enough to get up at 3:30 am to take us to the Edinburgh airport (and I hope they were able to go straight back to sleep when they got home).

Things for us were pretty uneventful for the rest of the day. We flew from Edinburgh to Amsterdam - a gigantic airport! We couldn’t believe how long it took us to walk from the C terminal to the G terminal, and how many shops and stoned people we saw along the way. (Okay, they probably weren’t stoned, but people really should pay better attention and try not to run people over or cut people off when they’re walking through an airport.) We sat in the Amsterdam airport for about three and a half hours, dozing, reading, trying not to be COMPLETELY bored. Finally we went through the security for our gate, where we waited for almost another half hour to finally board our flight to Newark.

The flight to Newark was pretty good - we had a good amount of leg room, and individual TVs in the backs of the seats in front of us. It was one of those planes where there are rows of two seats next to the windows, then rows of three in the center, so Dave and I didn’t have any extra seat-mates.

It took forever to land in Newark, but finally we did, and got through Customs and Immigration with no problems. We found our car just where we had left it in the Economy parking lot, and we headed for the Jersey Turnpike and drove up to Connecticut. We spent the evening and the next morning (Easter) with Dave’s family, and finally headed home after brunch.

We arrived at home around 8:30 pm and went to pick up our puppy. Lucas was so happy to see us! We missed him so much!

Our last day in Scotland was Good Friday, which in the U.K. is a bank holiday. This means that Paul and Michelle had the day off from work, and could hang out with us all day! Paul offered to spend his day off driving us around Scotland - really the only way to see the countryside.

Since none of us are morning people, we didn’t get on the road until 11 am. It was a pretty strange weather day - alternately sunny, rainy, sleeting, and snowing, but always windy and chilly. It was a good day to be inside a vehicle rather than outside walking around. We took the freeway up past Stirling, driving for an hour or so to a small town called Killin. Here we admired the Falls of Dochart, and spent a bit of time in the visitor center. We weren’t quite hungry enough yet for lunch, so we got back in the car and drove for a couple more hours.

As we passed Glencoe, the gently rolling hills started to turn into what might actually be described as actual mountains. There were even a few snowcaps. We stopped a few times for Dave to get out and take photos (the rest of us didn’t want to get out in the cold). The scenery was quite lovely, particularly the many lochs we passed.

We finally arrived in Fort William, the intended terminus of our trek. The goal was to visit the Ben Nevis Distillery, which is at the base of the mountain Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Scotland (at 4,406 feet). We were starving at this point, it being after 2 pm, and we were freezing cold as soon as we got out of the car. We ate at what was probably the closest restaurant to the spot where we parked our car, a restaurant with the not-so-auspicious name “The Great Food Stop”. We walked in and it seemed a lot fancier than the name might have indicated. The service was S-L-O-W but the food was okay and not as pricey as the decor would have suggested. We didn’t get out of there until well after 3 pm, and we hustled back to the car and drove to the distillery.

When we arrived at the distillery, they informed us that we had missed the last tour of the day, and that we would have to come back at for the next tour at 11 am tomorrow. Of course, this was not an option for us. We inquired as to whether we might just do a tasting, and they said that they only do tastings at the end of the tours, which we would have to wait to do at 11 am the next morning. They were quite snooty about our having arrived too late, and we were rather put off by it. After coming all that way, though, we still felt the need to poke around a bit, read the displays in the lobby and gift shop area, and buy a couple of postcards and a small bottle of whisky.

Shrugging off the defeat, we headed back to the car. Paul suggested that we drive down the coast to the seaside town of Oban. Michelle and I dozed in the back seat as we drove into the setting sun. We got to Oban perhaps an hour later. Paul and Michelle took us to their favorite spot there, a monument on a cliff called McCaig’s Tower. It was a neat spot, and offered a beautiful view of the bay. It would have been a good place to sit for a while, have a picnic, and watch the sunset (which wouldn’t actually take place for another hour or so)… except that it was, still, very cold and windy and not too pleasant to be outside. We would have spent some time walking around Oban, which was very quaint and scenic, but it was too bitter out. It was also too soon after our lunch to stop for dinner or even tea, so we piled back into the car and headed back in the direction of Edinburgh.

We were getting to Stirling around 7:45 pm, so we decided to stop there for dinner, rather than get back to Edinburgh to find that everything had closed. Michelle had studied there about ten years before, and had a few ideas of places where we might eat. However, we got into the center of town to find that the restaurants were no longer there! We ended up eating at this American-themed restaurant called The Filling Station. I don’t recommend it! Not only was the food not great, the service was terrible. As I told Dave, “We’re never eating there again.”

We got back to Edinburgh rather late, and had to pack and get ready for our EARLY flight the next morning.

Today was our last day to sightsee in the general Edinburgh area, so today was quite a bit less relaxed than the previous days had been. There were a few things that we wanted to try to see before we left, and it was a bit stressful to try to cram it all in.

Dave, Michelle, and I tried to get out earlier in the morning than we had been, and took the bus into the center of the city to eat breakfast at The Elephant House, a lovely coffee house that has the distinction of being the spot where J.K. Rowling wrote a good bit of the first Harry Potter book. (She wrote the end of the last book at the city’s fanciest hotel, the Balmoral - very telling about her change in circumstances.) Even without the Harry Potter connection, it’s great cafe - simultaneously spacious and cozy, with large tables (a good place for students to study) and an excellent view of Edinburgh Castle through the west windows.

After a quick breakfast, we went across the street to the National Museum of Scotland, which has several floors of exhibits that take the visitor through the entire history of Scotland, from pre-history to modern times. We knew we didn’t have enough time to see everything, so we focused on medieval up through Victorian times. It still wasn’t really enough time, and we felt very rushed to try to read things that we found interesting, skip things that weren’t so interesting, and see as much as we reasonably could. Although it sounds pretty linear, the truth is that each floor’s exhibits are arranged topically rather than in a timeline, so it was confusing to get the whole story of things. Their collection is quite good - from huge swords to a medieval church ceiling to a life-size mill pump and a train engine. It was worth seeing, but we should have planned to spend 3-4 hours in there instead of 1-2.

We had to rush off to try to catch a bus out to the countryside, so Michelle hailed us a cab and we barrelled down to St. Andrew’s Square, where the main bus station is located. Michelle left us to go off to work, and Dave and I then had a frustrating adventure trying to figure out what bus we were supposed to take, and when, and how to get change for our 20-pound note to buy our bus fare. It all went awry, based on bad information and unhelpful information desk workers. When the bus finally came, the bus driver wasn’t able to give us change, so we had to wait for another hour for the next bus. We were pretty grouchy, but we ducked into a sandwich place across the way, regrouped, and got change when we bought our sandwiches. We walked around a bit to kill some time, and ended up catching the bus on Princes Street.

Our ultimate destination was the Glenkinchie Distillery (which of course makes Scotch whisky), which is about 20 miles outside of the city. There are very few buses that go in that direction, the closest one being to the town of Pencaitland. We caught the 44B and rode it for over an hour, through various little towns along the Firth. It would have been a fairly pleasant ride if it weren’t for the stresses of the day, and the fact that we weren’t sure we’d make it to the Distillery in time to see anything. When we were almost to Pencaitland, Dave pointed out that we wouldn’t get to the Distillery before 3 pm, which is when we had been lead to believe they would have the last tour, because the Distillery closed at 4 pm. He asked if we were still going to try to go all the way to the Distillery!! Of course we would, after all that hassle and travel.

The bus driver told us where to get off in Pencaitland, and advised that we had quite a walk ahead of us to get to the Distillery. A woman getting off the bus with us told us that it was about 2 miles. Indeed! Two miles down a hilly, blustery, country road, not having any idea how long it would take or what we would be able to see or do once we arrived to our destination. Again, it would have been quite enjoyable under other circumstances, but we were so pressed, Dave didn’t even get a chance to take photos of the countryside.

We finally arrived at the Distillery - which was surrounded by what was basically a tiny factory village - and found the visitor’s center, and entered. We were greeted and asked what they could do for us, and we explained that we had been hoping to take a tour. They told us that there were no tours just now because this was the two-week period in the year when the distillery gets refurbished! So, we hadn’t missed the tour because there was no tour. However, there were some exhibits about the history of whisky and how it is made, and there was a tour guide on hand to give us a personal explanation of whisky and to offer us a tasting. The exhibits were well done and very informative, and the guide was a very nice older man, who was very kind in answering all of our questions. The tasting made it all worth it - not only did he give us samples of several different whiskys, but he explained a lot about where different types of Scotch whisky originate, and gave us a little map that explains which whiskys are lighter and which are stronger. Very helpful for my future Scotch buying excursions!

It was getting to be closing time, so we bought our discounted bottle of Glenkinchie whisky and got ready to leave. Our guide was kind enough to drive us into the town, since he was on his way home anyway, saving us a 2-mile walk against the wind (and slightly tipsy to tell the truth). He dropped us at a bus stop a couple of towns away from the end of the line, giving us a bit of a jump start. We got there with about 5 minutes to spare, so we didn’t even have to wait for very long.

Got back to Edinburgh and did a bit of shopping on Princes Street, then headed back to Michelle and Paul’s apartment. Paul had to go to his church to work on an Easter-weekend project, so Michelle, Dave, and I went to a nearby pub called The Bailie to have some dinner. Very tasty burgers! Then we headed out to Joppa, which is right on the Firth, and picked up Paul from the church. We were thrilled to get to see the church in which Paul and Michelle were married. We walked along the promenade on the beach for a couple of blocks to the nearby pub called the Dalriada, where we enjoyed a drink and some incidental bagpipe music. It was getting late, so we finally headed home, and got to bed perhaps a bit later than we should have.

The goal for Wednesday was a spot a bit outside of the city: Rosslyn Chapel. We boarded a bus and went 30-40 minutes out of the city to a “wee village” called Roslin. Just off the main intersection of the town is a chapel of much renown and controversy (most recently because of Dan Brown’s book - you may have heard of it - The DaVinci Code.

The truly amazing thing about the chapel, and the true reason to go and visit it, is the intricacy and diversity of the stonework. The chapel was built 1446-1450 or so, incorporating a variety of architectural styles and a range of themes in the stonework. Of course the main reason it’s famous and controversial is that some people think the Holy Grail is buried underneath the chapel (which it may be; it has been sealed for 300 years and the current Earl of Rosslyn won’t disturb it); other reasons for controversy have to do with potential links between the chapel and the Knights Templar and the Freemasons, who are of course controversial in their own right. Whatever may turn out to be the truth of all of this mystery, the chapel was certainly worth the trip out of the city, just to see all the stonework and hear the stories. Also, the chapel is currently covered by a large scaffold and canopy, so you can actually walk up to the roof level and stair at the upper stonework from eye-level. Very cool.

Afterward we had lunch at the pub on the corner, where we had probably the best pub lunch so far - quite a bit of very quality food, for the same amount we’d been used to paying for mediocrity. If you’re ever in Roslin, I recommend the pub at “The Original Inn”. Great atmosphere and a very friendly and helpful staff.

We took the bus back into the city and weren’t quite sure what to do next. On the way, we heard a 70-year-old Scottish man tell his 50ish friend all of his woes with his church, the Gas Board, and others. It was such good entertainment, I was very disappointed when his friend got off the bus and we were left only listening to his mutterances to himself.

We finally decided to spend the afternoon hiking up to Arthur’s Seat. We almost did so the day before, but it was cold, overcast, and starting to sprinkle at the time. Today was warm(er) and sunny, a much better day for hiking up to a 823 foot summit. Of course by the tme we got up there the sun disappeared, but being up there was well worth the hike. There are fantastic 360-degree views of the city, the outlying areas, and the Forth (aka the bay). However, it was VERY windy. While we were up there we met a guy from Orange County who told us a story about how he was hiking around the hill with a 120 lb female friend one day and she got picked up and blown away 3 feet. I didn’t feel too comfortable with this, so I was quite happy to start heading down the hill.

Cold and tired, we stopped at The Bean Scene and had some wicked cafe mochas, then we hopped on the bus and headed home. We got fish and chips (with authentic Edinburgh brown sauce - tasty!) “takeaway” (aka To Go) for dinner and ate in Paul & Michelle’s apartment.

Dave had requested an outing to hear some live Celtic music, so Paul drove us back into town to a pub called Sandy Bells, where we listened to some musicians do a jam session, and had some drinks. As it approached 11 pm, we realized we needed to finish up and get ourselves home; we were in bed around midnight.

Our strategy for Tuesday was to be sure to see the most important highlights to be seen here in Edinburgh, so that we could take Wednesday and Thursday to fill in with whatever we missed. The priority, of course, would be Edinburgh Castle, which was our first stop in the morning.

The structure that became Edinburgh Castle is the foundation of the city. The oldest structure at the Castle is St. Margaret’s Chapel, built around 1130 AD. The rest of the castle was built in stages over the centuries as the demands of the times required. The result is an impressive fortress and (now) tourist attraction on a high hill overlooking a busy, lovely European city.

We saw most of the key attractions at the castle, including the Great Hall (exactly as you would imagine a medieval “great hall”), the Scottish Crown Jewels (aka the Scottish Honours), a prisoners’ dungeon where American rebels were held during the Revolutionary War, and St. Margaret’s Chapel. We skipped most of the explicitly military exhibits, but we were on-site for the One O’Clock Gun, which they shoot off daily.

As it got to be lunchtime, we headed out of the Castle and down the Royal Mile. We ended up at a pub called the Jolly Judge, where we had a small lunch and a pint each. I forgot that the pints here are more than 16 oz. It was okay, though. It was cold outside and the pints didn’t help. So we sought out a shop where we could buy something warm. Dave bought a knit cap with the Scottish flag on it, and I bought a nice plaid wool scarf.

We kept heading down the Royal Mile, all the way to the new Parliament building. My opinion: the new building, on the outside, is UGLY. We did go inside, and the architecture inside is interesting enough and well-thought-out enough that I had a much more positive opinion once inside. The debating chamber is particularly interesting. The inside didn’t really revise my opinion of the outside, though.

We walked across the street to Holyrood Palace, but it had closed for the day. Then we started wandering a bit, aimless, until we finally realized that we had the time and energy to walk up Calton Hill. We went up there, where there was a really excellent view of the city and of the Firth (which is the bay on which Edinburgh is built). It was well worth the hike.

Then we hiked home, the weather being reasonably sunny. Paul made us a tasty haggis dinner. For those who have heard of haggis and are scared, fear not! It’s tasty, much like a peppery meatloaf. I recommend it to any meat eater.

After dinner we drove to the Forth Rail Bridge, which is a pretty cool cantilever bridge (according to Dave). It wasn’t lit up as well as we had expected, but we got a good view of it.

Then off to bed!

At the urging of our friends James and Arbory, we took a 45-minute train ride from Edinburgh to Glasgow to visit. The weather was nice - chilly, but mostly sunny and not at all rainy. The train ride was nice, across the green Scottish countryside.

We came out of Queens Street station, got ourselves oriented, then walked several blocks to the Glasgow Cathedral. This was a very interesting space, and had quite a few lovely stained glass windows. We poked around here for a while and Dave took lots of pictures.

After a short while I realized that it was really lunchtime, so we walked back toward the center of the city to the Willow Tea Room, which had been designed by renowned Scottish architect Charles Rennie Macintosh. The decor was really interesting and fun, and the meal was delicious. We of course also had tea, which was lovely.

Then we went to a museum called The Lighthouse. It features contemporary art, and also is built around a much older building designed by Macintosh. That being the case, there is one entire gallery devoted to his work, and his life and times. We also hiked up the tower that he had designed, up a spiral staircase. It was quite a hike but it was worth it, because the top of the tower had an outside balcony that went almost all the way around, affording great views of the city and the outlying areas.

We spent quite a bit of time there, and after we left we walked down to the River Clyde for a bit. It wasn’t too scenic, but it had quite a few interesting bridges crossing it. We walked along it for a few blocks, then headed back up to find a subway station. We took the subway (which isn’t much of a system - it’s just a loop - but it works) up a few stops and then went to find the Glasgow School of Art, the original building of which was designed by - yes - Charles Rennie Macintosh. It was approaching 5 pm by now, though, so we didn’t take the tour.

We walked around a bit until we got to the next subway stop, then got back on and went up to Glasgow University. It was a beautiful campus at the top of a hill, with amazing views. There wasn’t much to do there either, so after we’d walked around for a while, we started heading in the direction of finding dinner. We ended up at a pub called Stravaigin, where we celebrated St. Patrick’s day by Dave having Guinness and I had Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. I had haggis for dinner, which was YUMMY - I completely recommend it.

It was getting late, so we took the subway back to Queens Street Station and got there just in time for the 8 pm train. It was a smooth trip back and we hiked downhill (amazingly!) back to Michelle and Paul’s house, and spent the rest of St. Patrick’s Day just hanging out, having a quiet evening with our friends.