It's Marvelous to be Home! *LONG POST*

We got home last night around 7 p.m. I unpacked this morning - it took 30 minutes to get all the dirty laundry out and sorted. We had some serious laundry carnage from our 8 days gone.

It's 11 a.m. and as soon as I'm done uploading this, we're going to make a grocery list and go marketing. Julie is napping and the big kids are whining because Steve just turned the TV off.

This post covers Friday, 25 August through Monday, 28 August. It's long. I'll work on the 2nd half of our trip this afternoon after we go to the store. Plus I'll try to get pictures uploaded and comments from the kids.

Here we go!
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The Marvelous Trip to Scotland – Friday, 8/25

It began a little later than we planned. Steve didn’t get home from work until well after 2 p.m. and then we had to load up the van. I’m not quite sure what time we finally got off, because I was distracted by Audrey’s wails of “My magnets!” We said her Sleeping Beauty magnetic paper doll set had to stay home. This was after we told her and Caleb that they could bring 2 toys with us. Caleb brought his T-Rex stuffy and a car. Audrey brought her Peppa Pig doll and a purse (which had other stuff in it). We figured that it would be worse to try to explain to her that the purse was more than 1 item than to just let her bring it, so she got around our 2 toy rule inadvertently. But Steve drew the line at the magnets. Too many small pieces. She already had decreed that her bowling bag was going. Fortunately it had only items that needed to go – her jacket and car pillow and just a couple of other things I can’t remember now.

So we got off and headed north. The plan was to drive about 4-5 hours to Newcastle on the East coast. I don’t know what the deal was – maybe just normal Friday afternoon/evening traffic, but we didn’t get to the hotel until 10:30. We stopped for dinner then stopped again for a potty break, The stress levels in the van were rather high, especially when we got to Newcastle and couldn’t find the hotel. I navigated us into a premature left turn. Then when Steve was attempting to turn around at a roundabout that had traffic lights (normally no big deal), he cut off somebody who decided to be rude about it. They pulled up on the right side of our van (Steve’s side), and the male passenger rolled down his window and was saying things like, “What’s your problem?” Steve rolled down his window, hoping that this action would diffuse the situation and just replied, “We’re a bit lost.” Before the jerk could reply and impress his girlfriend (who was driving) with his prowess to insult a poor lost American family, the light turned green and we were off. This shook Steve up a bit, understandably. Road rage is never a pleasant experience in the States where we actually know what’s going on, so you can imagine the added stress of this encounter.

We finally found the hotel and got checked in, but then got lost within the hotel before we found the room and got settled for the night. Apparently we were in the annex. It wasn’t just a matter of going down a hallway or up some stairs: we had to go through a stairwell (not up), down a hall halfway then down another hall, then up some stairs, then down a couple more halls. To make it more complicated, every hall and stairwell has a closed fire door that looks like every other door along the hallway. Nice. Anyway, we finally found the room. It’s a family room, so it has a queen bed and a mattress-topped sofa that sleeps one, then a trundle under the sofa for one more.

The Marvelous Trip to Scotland – Saturday, 8/26

Breakfast was at the Little Chef restaurant in the hotel. Like Denny’s but without the biscuits and gravy. Bummer. Instead they had baked beans on toast. Yummy? I can eat pretty much anything (hence my girth), but the thought of baked beans for breakfast made my stomach turn. I just got cereal and toast with coffee, as did Caleb. Audrey got a Kid’s Full Breakfast – egg, sausage, toast, and, yup, baked beans. She ate the toast and a couple of bites of sausage and egg. I’m not quite sure what Steve had. I think I remember seeing sausage, hash browns, egg, toast…I was too busy trying to deal with a starving Julie who was demanding food, but who wouldn’t look at me, but instead was looking at everyone else in the restaurant and making smiley faces at them. Kind of hard to feed a baby when you can’t find their mouth.

Then we packed up and headed to Alnwick to see the castle and garden. I learned that it’s pronounced “Ahnik.” Hardly any “L” sound and of course, no “w.” We parked for the garden, then were pleasantly surprised to discover 2 things: the parking pay station was broken (so – free parking!), and the castle was just beyond the garden. We were expecting to have to load up and drive somewhere else. The garden has some really cool features – the world’s largest tree house, a poison garden, a big water feature, a bamboo maze. We saw the tree house first. It was literally a building complex built in the trees. There was even a restaurant in there. There were 2 rope bridges that Steve and the kids enjoyed so much that they went across them twice. Steve would either jump up and down or wobble the bridge and the kids would shriek with laughter. They fell down once, but there was no danger of falling off the bridge. We have some pictures – I’ll try to post them.

After the tree house, we headed to the main garden area. We watched the “water feature” first – it’s actually a huge fountain with steppe levels going down a hill. Very impressive. Then we proceeded to the poison garden. There are wrought iron gates closing the garden off to the public. It keeps the masses from wandering through unsupervised. Since all the plants are either deadly or illness-inducing, you have to be with a tour guide to go through it. There are skulls and crossbones on the gates. Cool. We made it through the first 2 stops on the tour before we decided to bail out. After the tour guide told us that a particular box hedge will cause a horrible painful rash if its clippings are touched after they dry out, I saw Audrey sticking a twig in her pocket. It came from the general vicinity of the box hedges, but I don’t know if it was from the hedges or if it was mulch. Anyway – we decided the poison garden was too much for the kids. Steve and I were disappointed because it had been interesting up to that point - there was one plant that was so addictive that they keep it in a cage. We joined with a group leaving the garden and moved on.

At this point we turned our attention to the water feature. It cracks me up that they call it that. To me, a water feature is a little pond in the backyard – maybe a little fountain or a fancy birdbath or something. This thing was massive; at least one football field long and rising up a hill. There were steppes that the water flowed down and fountain jets coming straight out of the sides above the water and jets going straight up into the air. Every 30 minutes there were “shows.” Basically they ran the jets in different sequences. At the top of the water feature was the ornamental gardens. I didn’t get to look around much here, as I was in time out with Audrey the Awful. I think lack of sleep is making her into a little troll. Anyway – Steve, Julie, & Caleb wandered around and took pictures of plants for Gwen. I think Gwen would have really loved this garden. It was mostly wild-looking with plants very similar to what we have at home. One plant that caught my eye was the 7-foot-tall “King Arthur Delphinium” blooming brilliant purple. Very lovely!

After the ornamental garden, we wandered back down the hill on the other side of the water feature past the serpent garden and rose garden to the bamboo labyrinth. It was a series of coils and circles that led to a large marble map of the maze. The kids had a fun time taking turns deciding if we would go right or left. Caleb seemed to always pick left, and Audrey, being Little Miss Contrary, always picked right. Except when Caleb picked right, then she picked…yes, she picked left. Upon leaving the maze, we briefly wandered through the rose garden. Just a bunch of roses to me. One name caught my eye: Mermaid rose. I pointed it out to Audrey in passing and she spent the remainder of our time in the rose garden asking if each other rose plant was called “Mermaid.”

Lunch break – Steve had chicken pie, I had lasagna, the kids had kid meals with sandwiches, apples & grapes, crisps, juice, and a tootsie-roll kind of thing. Then off to the castle! A three minute walk took us there. This castle is the Harry Potter castle. Scenes from the first 2 movies were filmed there. Here’s a quick rundown of the sites we saw from the films: the grounds where Hagrid’s cottage sits; the edge of the Forbidden Forest; the gates where Ron, Harry, and Draco leave with Filch to go to detention with Hagrid, which is the same gate the Ford Anglia flies through in the second movie; the place where the Whomping Willow was set up; the arches where Ron says that it’s no wonder Hermione has any friends because she’s so bossy (first movie) and the path she goes off on after she overhears this, which is the same area where Hagrid brings the Christmas tree in; and most spectacularly, the place where the first flying lesson was filmed. It was very recognizable. I don’t have to watch the film again to be able to recall it. We went on the “Harry Spotter Tour” to learn all of this stuff.

After the Harry Spotter Tour, Steve took the kids to the Knights Quest area while I went to the gift shop. There were a series of about 10-12 “tasks” that the young pages must complete to become a knight. To add to the excitement of this, they got to wear appropriate clothing. So when I rejoined them, Caleb was wearing a white tunic with a red cross on it and a red cape and Audrey was wearing a little burgundy dress and a little cloth gold crown. She was absolutely adorable! They were at the jousting event. It was a little horse they sat on upon a rail that they rammed into a shield. They rammed the horse, not the rail. Then they were knighted by a large mannequin with a sword that was bolted to the wall. Sounds odd, but it worked. So now we have Sir Caleb and Lady Audrey. As usual, Audrey made everyone within a 12 foot radius laugh because of her antics.

Tia, this is for you:
Another thing we got to see at the castle was a birds of prey exhibit. The big kids and I got to “stroke” a beautiful white barn owl. She was truly beautiful. I think I like owls now. Not all of them, just those that are not bigger than the average housecat. No – maybe those that are no bigger than the average obese guinea pig. But they’re all cool to watch fly. Even cooler is seeing their heads twist around. Talk about creepy!

As we were leaving, Audrey asked to carry my bag from the gift shop. It’s the bag fixation again. I told her no because I had purchased a matted print of the castle and I didn’t want her bunging it up. I showed it to her and told her I didn’t want her to accidentally break it. This began the 25-minute walk back to the car with her shrieking, “I’m not gonna break it!” at 5-second intervals. After a while we just had to laugh. She was so tired, bless her.

Then began our drive to Scotland. It only took us a couple of hours – much better than the drive from the day before. To make the drive even more pleasant, our route took us along the North Sea coast. Traffic was not ugly. We went past countless historical sites on the way. I think if one were to try to see every place marked with a brown “historic” sign, it would take a year. At least. You can’t fling a dead cow from a trebuchet without hitting a castle or an abbey or a battle sight or something. But that’s cool.

Scotland is much hillier than England. And greener. Lots of “sheepies in fields.” I say this a lot as we drive and Caleb tells me every time to stop saying it. It’s become a compulsion now – I *have* to say it on principle now. Plus it’s so picturesque to see the white sheepies among the lush green grass on a hillside with hedges for fences. And the hillsides – they FARM on hills. STEEP hills. It’s funny to see the round bales of hay on the side of a hill. You can tell which ones have rolled down from their original positions. I’m so used to farm land being flat that to see these hilly farms is strange.

So we made it to Stirling without hassle or wrong turn. Yippee! We found the “Services” area. Along the motorways here (like our interstate highways), they have places designated as service areas. They always have a gas station and some kind of restaurant and usually a hotel. The first one we stopped at on Friday was spectacular! Huge and bright and airy with at least 4 different places to choose from to eat. It almost felt like a large mall food court. This one in Stirling is older with only 2 places to get food. But that’s ok. We went in and got everyone some food. The big kids each got a kids meal – they got to choose 5 different things from: build-a-sandwich (crackers, buns, cheese, nutella); pepperoni stick; raisins; jello with fruit in it; 4 different kinds of juice or milk or water; cherry tomatoes; chips; jaffa cake (chocolate dessert); and probably something I can’t remember. Then they got a piece of fruit free. Baby food is free, so Julie got 2 jars. I got a chicken pie and Steve went to Burger King. He was so excited because they gave him ice in his HUGE Coke.

Then we got checked in and moved in to our family room here. Got all tucked into bed and crashed for the night.

The Marvelous Trip to Scotland – Sunday, 8/27/06

Caleb was the first awake today – as usual. He, Audrey, & Steve each had a little box of cereal for breakfast. I had a cup of coffee and a Special K bar. Then we headed out to the Falkirk Wheel.

That thing was amazing!

In a nutshell, it is a huge machine that takes the place of 17 locks along a river. This is from a book: “This marvel of modern engineering, the only rotating boat lift in the world, reconnects the Glasgow to Edinburgh canal system, and it will impress all ages.” It literally lifts the boats out of the water up to a cement canal waaay up high that connects to another canal. It’s hard to explain, so I’ll try to post pictures. We didn’t go on it, but we watched it lift 1 boat, then lower a boat while lifting another up. Wild!

There was a really cool playground there, so we decided that since we weren’t going to go on the hour-long boat trip up the wheel, back & forth on the canal, and back down the wheel, we’d let the kids play. Julie slept in her stroller as the other 2 enjoyed themselves. It was cold and windy this day. I think it was 14 degrees C (57 F) plus the wind. We used the rain cover for Julie’s stroller to block the wind so she was enjoying an oasis of warm and calm whilst she snoozed. Anyway – back to the playground. There were a couple of other families there. There was one girl – about 8 years old, I would guess – who was hassling Caleb. She wouldn’t let him climb up on any of the equipment. She would run to the top of wherever he was trying to climb up and block his way and taunt him. Steve was off taking pictures, and I couldn’t leave Julie, so I told him to ask her where her mommy was, then to tell her that he would tell her mommy if she didn’t leave him alone. This so bothered the girl, that she refused to tell him where her mommy was, but instead ran to her mom yelling, “Mummy! Mummy!” Caleb was hot on her heels and came over to my picnic table. Turns out we were sitting next to the girl’s mom. As we overheard the girl ask her mom for a drink, I saw a lightbulb go on in Caleb’s head. He grinned and said, “I tricked her. I know where her mom is now.” Then he ran off back to the playground whilst she was still drinking. She left him alone from then on out.

We then headed into Falkirk for lunch. We found the ASDA – the hotel here doesn’t have shampoo and we needed some. So after ASDA we walked a block over and we were in the High Street. This is the equivalent of our Main Streets. Lots of historic stuff and shopping. A pleasant little town. We ate lunch in a mall – Steve had steak pie and I had lasagna. The kids split a large order of macaroni cheese. They don’t put the “and” between “macaroni” and “cheese.” So it feels weird saying “macaroni cheese.” But I do. Steve found a bookstore and we bought some Scotland things – a calendar and some books. He bought a Scottish joke book and as I’ve been typing this, he’s been reading and chuckling. All the jokes are clean and I think they’re his type of humor. Scots are smart-alecks.

After lunch we headed north from Falkirk across the Firth of Forth (a bay) to the William Wallace Monument. If you don’t know who William Wallace is, maybe this will jog your brain: “You can take our lives, but you’ll never take [dramatic pause] our FREEDUUUUUMMM!!!!” As spoken by Mel Gibson in Braveheart. The monument is this really cool tower on a tall hill. Usually there’s a minibus to take visitors up the really tall hill because the hill is really tall. I say “usually” because it wasn’t running this weekend. Steve had Julie in the backpack and she was quite happy. He, Caleb, Audrey, and I hoofed it up this really tall, really steep hill amidst MUCH whining and complaining. From the kids, not from me.

We got to the top just in time. We caught the last of 3 monologues about William Wallace. This one was Wallace as if he were talking to King Edward after his capture. The actor was really good despite the fact that 1) we were outside and he had to shout; 2) it was *very* windy; and 3) there were several dogs who kept making noise. They barked a lot at the executioner – I think it was because he had a black hood over his face.

Then into the tower. Basically it’s a square tower with a spiral staircase on one of the corners. There are 246 steps to the top and there are 3 floors between the ground floor and the roof. But it’s the typical castle with high ceilings, so the floors are about twice the height of normal levels in buildings. Anyway, Steve decided that because the staircase was so narrow, he would stay at the first landing with Julie. He had some difficulty getting past people coming down while Julie was in the backpack. Plus he doesn’t really care for heights, so he figured it was no big loss. So the other kids and I went up the rest of the steps.

The level where we left Steve had some different video presentations of William Wallace and his fight to free Scotland and his capture and accusation by the king, etc. The next level had white marble busts of famous Scotsmen. They called it the Hall of Heroes. John Knox was there. I don’t know what he did, but I know his name because my great-grandmother lived in the John Knox Retirement Village in Lubbock when I was a little kid. The next level had a panorama-thing about the creation and construction of the monument during the mid-1800s.

Finally we reached the top. It was SO windy. I had the video camera up there, but I don’t think any of my commentary can be heard above the wind. The views were incredible. Mountains on one side and lowlands on the other. It was beautiful. The kids kept saying that they could see the whole world. Then we headed back down and gathered up Steve & Julie then went to the coffee shop for tea. After a quick visit to the gift shop and the purchase of a table runner with thistles on it (they view thistles like Texans view bluebonnets), we headed back down the hill.

You’d think the kids wouldn’t complain because this was the easy part – but NO. Whining abounded from Audrey. Caleb was walking with Steve and he was making Julie laugh. Audrey was just grumping about everything. The only time she was happy was when we stopped to look at a 3 inch long black slug. Then we moved on and she was whining again about her jacket, her hood, me telling her what to do, and other stuff that I couldn’t understand. When we got to the bottom and to the van, she started whining about how she was “going to miss this place.” Whatever.

Twenty-minute drive back to the hotel. Relaxing for a few minutes, then dinner and back to the room. Dinner tonight was the same little kid meals for C & A, a pasta/pesto/mozzarella/tomato salad for me, free baby food for Julie, and once again, Indian food for Steve. It’s 9:54 p.m. as I write this and I’m the only one awake. Thank goodness. Caleb & Julie sacked out about the same time – about 8:30 and Audrey and Steve have both just gone to sleep in the last 20 minutes or so. I’m going to finish up here and join everyone in slumberland.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to ride a tour bus in Edinburgh before we hang out there for the day.

The Marvelous Trip to Scotland – Monday, 8/28/06

Monday dawned. We ate little boxes of cereal in the hotel room while we were getting dressed for the day. Then we headed out for Edinburgh (Ed-in-bur-uh).

We decided that since it was the August Bank Holiday (a day off like Labor Day), we’d try to go straight into the town center to find parking, as opposed to utilizing a park & ride on the edge of town. We were rewarded with a parking spot in a car park across the road from Edinburgh Castle. Talk about imposing! The castle itself isn’t that large or overly impressive, but the location in unbelievable! It sits on an extinct volcano – lots of craggy rocks – and very steep. We got some cool pictures standing at the base looking up.

So we walked around 2 sides of the base of the castle hill to the tour bus ticket place. At a corner, there was a man in a kilt playing bagpipes for money. The kids put some change in his box and we took a picture of them with him. He was not bad, I guess. I don’t really know how to judge a piper’s playing. It didn’t make me want to cover my ears and run away, but it also didn’t entrance me and make me want to hang around all morning to listen.

We decided to get a ticket that would allow us to get on any of the 4 different tour bus types they run. All 5 of us hopped on and we were off on our tour. But the “hopping on” wasn’t as easy as that. We had 2 strollers because we planned on walking around a lot. So we had to get the girls out of the strollers, then get the stuff out of the bottom of the strollers and put into a backpack. Then we had to fold the strollers, locate our ticket (in one of my pockets), get on the bus, get the strollers situated in the stroller holding place, get headphones for the tour audio, get upstairs, find seats, get settled, and get the headphones plugged in. What an ordeal.

But we were rewarded with a trip around Edinburgh complete with commentary. The kids even were entertained by the commentary. At one point, Audrey switched hers to French and listened for quite a while. Steve got lots of pictures and video of what we were seeing. I was content to just sit and listen. I don’t know that I can tell you much of what I heard, but I do remember that we saw the Edinburgh School of Art where Sean Connery posed decades ago. Posed, as in art class posing.

Fortunately this tour took us by a Burger King that was close to the end of the tour. We disembarked when the tour was over, got everything off the bus and got kids back into strollers, then hoofed over for lunch.

After lunch we stopped by a bookstore that was next door and bought 3 CDs: one of the rainbow fairy stories the kids are enjoying (we still needed the yellow and violet fairies at this point), “Treasure Island,” and a CD of Paddington Bear stories. The CDs were 3 for 2, so I felt compelled to get 3.

We decided then that we would ride a different tour bus that took us on a direct route to the Edinburgh Castle entrance then go in. That ended up being a hassle because after the bus dropped us off, we had to hike up a street to the castle. But this wasn’t a normal street – it was a cobblestone street. No big deal for walking, but we had 2 strollers. Plus I had Julie in the front pack. People can be so rude – cutting us off, stopping suddenly in front of us, not letting us pass, walking side by side on the sidewalk when coming from the opposite direction. I’m convinced that these people have never had small children because otherwise they’d remember what a pain rude people can be. I was steamed by the time we got to the top. It didn’t help that both big kids were whining. I don’t even remember why they were, just that they were.

Got tickets, got inside.

Oh joy – more cobbled streets UPHILL. I vaguely remember that at this point we took Julie out of the front pack and put her in a stroller. Steve ended up with her stroller and I had the other one. I think it was because he said I could make the big kids walk and the stroller would be easier to push uphill. Yes, physically it was easier, but I had to endure the WHINING and CRYING of 2 children who wanted to be chauffeured up the hill. I won’t go into how long we were going uphill. Suffice it to say it was too long. Then we discovered that access to see the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (upon which all Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned) is up a spiral staircase. By this point I was fed up, so I sent Steve and the 2 big ones in and Julie and I stayed outside in the COLD wind. But at this point, tolerating wind was much preferable to tolerating whining.

They came out 10-15 minutes later in much better moods. We looked around a bit more, and decided as far as castles go, the only impressive thing about this one is its location. We had incredible views – it was truly fabulous. At a lower level of the castle, our feet were higher than the rooftop of the 4- and 5-story buildings around the edge of the castle grounds. Whoever thought of building a castle here was a tactical genius.

After the castle, we went down the cobblestone street. Much easier than coming up. This street had tourist-y places along it, so we browsed for a while. The girls were both riding and both went to sleep, which made the browsing easier. We found a little purple kilt for Audrey and a tam (hat) for Caleb. He picked out a green plaid one and wore it all afternoon. The funny thing about it is the little pom-pom on the top. We looked for something for Julie, but didn’t find anything. No big deal – most of these places have internet sites. I’ll look when we get home.

We browsed for a while, then decided that since it was around 5 p.m., we’d head back to the van. Uphill again, but this time on normally paved streets. It took us between 20-30 minutes to get back to the van. We got back, got in, and headed out. I thought it would be fairly straightforward to get back to the road we needed. That’s what I get for thinking. We had a minor detour and exchanged some heated words, but finally got to the road we needed. We don’t have the GPS to rely on now since we don’t have a compatible cord for the laptop. We were going to buy a serial-to-USB converter cord from Magellan, but for $80, we were a little hesitant. I wondered why we couldn’t get a generic one, but Steve explained that we couldn’t. I won’t go into it here (mainly since I don’t want to), but it’s technical stuff and certainly not “technology snobbery” on our part of wanting only the best and only name brands.

Back to the services area and the hotel. We ate dinner, then headed to the hotel. We asked (for the third day in a row) if they had a cot (crib) available. They didn’t. You’d think the first time I asked they would have made a note that the people in room 31 needed a cot for the next night. But no. And not only that, but the lady had the gall to tell me that I should have asked sooner for the cot. I did! I asked on Saturday, and again on Sunday. That’s certainly sooner than Monday at 6 p.m. Grrr.

That night as I was getting ready to pack stuff back up, Steve laughed and declared that he had found our cot for us: the suitcase. I laughed and agreed. So I didn’t get to pack up as much as I had hoped, but I did get some stuff put back in before we put Julie in there. She slept for a while in there until I woke her up by turning on the cold water faucet at the bathroom sink. It shrieked loudly. She cried loudly. Steve scowled silently.

This is from Steve:
This phenomenon is called “water hammer.” It has to do with slugs of water hitting the curves and bends in the pipes, I think. It’s not a constant flow of water because there are air breaks in it. Anyway, I’ve never seen it this bad. Even at low speeds it was enough to shake the bathroom sink. I’m surprised we didn’t wake the whole hotel with it.

April again:
Steve wants me to tell you about the phones. The phones there had a credit card swiper on the side of them. So when I would try to get a dial tone so that I could connect the computer to upload things to you fine people, I would only get a weird beeping tone. I thought it didn’t like our credit cards – all 4 different ones we tried. I tried to call down to reception to find out what I was doing wrong and got the same beeping. Steve went down and found out that the phones were out and had been out all weekend. This was Sunday when he checked. The lady told him that she wasn’t sure when BT would be out to fix it since Monday was a Bank Holiday. Sure enough, when we checked on Tuesday, the phones were still out. Nice of them to let the guests know when they checked in. Oh, wait – THEY DIDN’T. I guess we got what we paid for: no shampoo or bath soap, only 2 towels, no cot, no phone, screaming cold water faucet. We’re going to send an e-mail complaint to let them know that our experience wasn’t as good as we would have liked.

Tomorrow: ferry to Northern Ireland.