Fourth of July Campout in Hell

Note the choice of preposition - "in". On checking into the campground in Pinckney Recreation Area, I realize we are practically in Hell, which seems to be right in the middle of the park. How convenient, since I've always wanted to go there. Our assigned campsite was flooded, but we got another one, right next to the playground. Which meant that camping mainly consisted of running after Andrew as he ran to the playground. We also made some yummy brats and foil dinners for dinner and eggs and sausage for breakfast with plenty of roasted marshmallows added in. We saw the kiddie parade in the morning and then headed to Hell. The ice cream was yummy, but unfortunately Erik from Survivor was not working on Independence day. Maybe reality TV fame means no more working on holidays ... overall, a great little trip. Maybe we are ready to travel somewhere further away and camp for a couple days! We'll see ...

Glasgow and Crookston - Day 8

Of course, we've been saving the best for last! We woke up and walked to the train station to take the train to Glasgow (about 50 minutes) - thankfully not too long, because someone was getting impatient. We took a walk and went and saw the Cathedral. It was very beautiful. Then, we saw the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life which was actually really well done and had gorgeous views of the Cathedral.




Besides lots of art museums, there didn't seem a lot of other must sees in Glasgow. So, we went to our personal must-see via another 10 minute train to Crookston station - the Crookston castle!!!




After a 15 minute walk, we were there! It was probably one of the most fun parts of the trips. We were the only ones there (obviously) and got to wander around the ruins all by ourself. Andrew, of course, loved it. It was a lot better than I expected with four floors and lots of little plaques describing the different rooms. You had to go up to some pretty small ladders to get to the very top. I went into all the floors but was too chicken to go up to the roof, but Katsu did. We had so much fun and took way too many pictures for all our interested relatives. I'll post a few here.











Then, we walked around and did some shopping (window shopping - all we got was some fish and chips) before taking the train back to Edinburgh and walking home and relaxing for one more night in our apartment.

Edinburgh - Day 7

This was a more relaxing day as we had already seen all the major major sights in Edinburgh (i.e., Castle and Palace). First, we walked uphill to downtown (about a 15-20 minute walk) and split up - Katsu and Andrew went shopping while I went and saw the Real St Mary's Close. This is a cool place. Basically, as I said, Edinburgh is VERY hilly and there are these narrow narrow streets that run between major streets called closes. Buildings are very high on one side (closer to the river), but not so high on the Royal Mile. So, they decided to build a new building back in the 1700's and instead of wiping out the building and closes underneath, they just left them there and just knocked off the top stories of the buildings. Then, they built the new building and the tiny narrow streets were just forgotten and buried underground. Now, you can tour one and they tell you about life back then and some "true" ghost stories - well, as in how they were originally told back then. It was lots of fun for me!



We took another bus tour down around New Town. We had planned on picnicking in the local park, but it was a private park, so we ate on the steps. We were going to tour an example home of the 1800s (the Georgian house), but Andrew was antsy so we went off to find a park. Luckily, we found a great one in the Princes St Park (this used to be the Nor' Loch where my great-great-something grandfather was baptized back in the 1800's). Andrew LOVED it, even when it was raining. At least we got to enjoy the views.





We took another bus up to the Holyrood Park to get a little taste of Scotland. I can't believe how serene and beautiful this park is just right next to downtown Edinburgh. We took the stroller as far as the paved path went and then Andrew and I rested down below while Katsu climbed up further the "mountain", Arthur's seat. Scotland really is beautiful.







We walked all the way home!!! And then relaxed away. We were going to go to the botanical gardens but I was just TOO tired.

Edinburgh - Day 6

After a lovely breakfast, we walked to the Botanical Gardens to pick up the bus tour. We rode on many open-top double decker buses these two days because they were all free and then we didn't have to walk as much (Edinburgh is VERY hilly - they had the first skyscrapers, because buildings that are only 3 stories on one side, might be like 10 stories from the back!). Our first bus took us to the Royal Britannia down on the water. This is the official boat that Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family took everywhere from the 50s till the 90s (they don't have a royal boat anymore). It was 4 floors and really nice. I wouldn't have minded honeymooning like the royals on that boat. Andrew really liked the boat, though got fussy by the end of the audio tour (of course).







We took the bus tour back to the station and then walked down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood Palace. We decided to hit all the main attractions this day - thankfully, the bus ticket covered the major 3. That is why we bought it - the pass was 30ish pounds each I think (YIKES!), but just visiting all the attractions would have been about 30 pounds. Can you believes it costs $20 each to visit a castle or palace! WOW! Thankfully, all the museums are free.

The Holyrood Palace is the official palace of the Royal Family in Scotland (they are coming there this week, in fact). It includes the famous rooms of Mary Queen of Scots where her friend was killed. Lots of murder in that place. It also has the very picturesque ruins of the Abbey behind which we enjoyed until it started raining. The grounds and park are lovely and look like a little bit of the Highlands - we went hiking on them on Day 7. The "mini-mountain" is the remains of an extinct volcano.







After some lunch, we took a couple more buses on the way to see the Edinburgh castle. Although Andrew often got antsy on the bus and screamed, it was a fun way to see the city and we got some great views!





Next stop was touring the castle. There was quite a crowd around what we can only guess was a movie star touring the castle (it was during the Edinburgh film festival). The castle was pretty large and included the Crown Jewels (with a lovely exhibit there) and a nice prisoner/jail exhibit. We took turns seeing them while the other one walked around with Andrew.








After a very busy day, we walked around the New Town and then took the Bus back to our apartment, did some more grocery shopping (I guess you really do need salt to cook!) and relaxed at home.

To Scotland - Day 5

Totally stuck in my research, so here is another day on our trip.

After breakfast and goodbyes to Katsu's parents, we took a cab to Kings Cross train station in London (wow - that cab driver drove fast!) and waited like an hour for our train! Andrew kept running outside the train station and I had to stop him before he ran into the street. Then, we took a 5 hour train ride to Edinburgh. This seemed like true torture to Andrew. He napped some and we tried in vain to distract him with toys, books, looking out the window at passing churches and beaches and farm animals (lots of sheep and cows), and eating lots of snacks. The last hour or two, we took turns walking and around and trying to quell his shrieks. Poor other travelers on the train. But we did finally arrive in Scotland and the train was somewhat scenic, especially of the British coastline. Someday I'd like to stop and see York too.

We took a more calm afternoon in Edinburgh. We took a cab to our apartment. Which was WONDERFUL (the apartment, the cab ride was normal). Somehow we got a 2 bedroom apartment instead of the one-bedroom we had booked (and pre-paid for). So, we had TWO rooms, a living/dining area, kitchen, and bathroom, and a long hall. They also had put in a crib and a high chair. Thankfully, no more eating out, as we cooked all our meals (and even brought lunches with us). Of course, this apartment was expensive (90 pounds so like $180 / night!) but everything in Edinburgh was expensive so I think that was well worth it. Mostly (my miserly self hates to spend $$).

Okay, so then we walked downtown, bought bus tickets for a 2-day open top double decker bus tour (more on that later). Then, we went for some sightseeing. We saw the National Gallery. The paintings were nice and I really liked how they were displayed. Andrew got antsy, but all the other patrons were very nice and said we didn't need to hush him too much. We took a walk around afterwards and Andrew had quite a fall on the pavement :-(, but seemed to recover. We then went to the Museum on the Mound which was about the bank and money and showed us 1 million pounds (the notes were all cancelled, of course). After buying some pastries and seeing the Giles Cathedral, we walked home, bought some groceries, and relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Some pictures:

Princes Street



Scott Monument



National Gallery looking up to Old Town (right around where Andrew fell)



The Giles Cathedral (my favorite part was the inscription thanking God for the invention of anesthesia! Amen!)

Hampton Court - Day 4

After a nice breakfast together, we took the tube to Waterloo station and a train to Hampton Court. Originally, we had thought of taking a ferry down the Thames, but it takes a long time (3 hrs!) and we didn't have that much time. Good thing because Hampton Court had tons to do.

Hampton Court is the palace where William the III and Henry VIII lived. It is about 30 minutes outside of London. It's interesting to see because you go on separate tours of the different apartments and they all look so different. It's almost like a few different castles all put into one. Andrew was not a huge fan of the tours and was very apt to scream, so we did most of the tours while he napped and toured the gardens while he was awake.

The front of the palace:



Andrew was SO excited when he saw the fountain:



Among the yew trees:



Back of palace:



Beautiful gardens - we really loved them:



The stroller did not stroll so well on all the pebbles, so you do what you have to ...



Typical sign of distress at not wanting to be in stroller:



There was a maze in the garden (they are hundreds of years old). It was pretty difficult. We found the center of the maze and got a sticker, but we got lost trying to get out, so we took a shortcut from the center. We were just so tired of walking ...



We took the train to Wimbeldon and then took the tube back from there. After some relaxing, we did another Andrew-dinner-dance at yet another Chinese restaurant, another cab home, more talking in the Funai's hotel room, and blessed sleep.