England Trip -- Day 8

Another beautiful day in Scotland.  We woke up and enjoyed a really lovely breakfast of tea, scones, smoked salmon, fresh grapefruit segments, Scottish porridge, eggs, beans, bacon, and haggis (Carrie likes the haggis).
 

And right after that, we made our way south to Inverness!  Inverness is where Loch Ness is, and there's a very ruins-y castle there called Urquhart.

 

Unfortunately, it was completely covered in fog when we got there.

photo by Daniel

But it didn't take long for the fog to begin lifting, and then we could see the beautiful lake and the ruins of what was once a magnificent castle.

photo by Daniel

It was built almost a thousand years ago and passed back and forth between Scottish and English owners dozens of times.
 

Eventually its residents decided they'd never be able to live peacefully inside it (because it was constantly being fought for), so they set it afire and abandoned it.  That was in the 1600s. 

A wheel of a trebuchet built in 1998 -- a replica of the trebuchets  used to conquer castles before they had canons

Beautiful Loch Ness.  No monsters out today.

The prison cell at the castle

Modern steps leading up the castle ruins

We have been missing the kids.  It's so nice to hear updates from both our parents that the kids are doing well and don't seem to be missing us too much.




 
It's nice that they have each other.  I bet it would be harder if they were all on their own with no siblings.



After the castle and Loch Ness, we drove to a farm with a tea room and store, and we ate lunch there.  In contrast to several of our meals recently, this lunch was refreshingly light and healthy!


I didn't really enjoy the pate much, but everything else was delicious and fresh.



After lunch, we took Carrie to the airport so she could catch her flight back home.  She has to work tomorrow (boo).  We'll meet back up with her in Bury tomorrow evening after she gets home.



Tonight we checked into a quaint hotel in one of the Scottish border towns.  We thought we'd walk around the city a bit to find a pub to eat in (although the hotel has a restaurant downstairs).


We asked 4 different people, and every one of them pointed us back to our hotel, saying the restaurant was really good.



So we went back to our hotel for dinner, and we were so glad we did!
 

It was one of the nicest meals we've had -- outside in their beer garden.



We all got a very traditional and yummy Scottish meal -- steak and ale pie (like a beef pot pie).



Oliver is really waking up more now!  He is more alert for a higher percentage of the day.  And he has sort of found his hands to suck on.
 

He's pretty hit-or-miss with them, but more and more he is finding one of them and sucking on it.



Tomorrow---back home to Bury!  Our fingers are crossed for no car trouble of any kind.