Scotland!

We loved Scotland!  Our first stop was a quick nights sleep at an airport hotel!  But the next day we were off, rented a car, drove on the other side of the street and headed to Durham, England to see Aunt Catherine and Anna.  The drive was beautiful and Durham was a nice town.  We had lunch with Aunt Catherine and Anna.  After Aunt Catherine had to leave, we went on a tour of the Castle with Anna.  The tour was great, and the castle was very interesting, especially since parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed there.  After the castle we walked along the river and enjoyed the views of the castle and the cathedral.  We saw a man catch a fish, the kids liked that a lot!  We ate Krispy Kreme donuts too, a nice treat!  Then we met up with Anna for dinner.

Next day we are back on the road to Edinburgh!  We stop to see Hadrian's Wall, the most northern part of the Roman Empire.  We were able to climb around in an old fort and on the wall!  Kelsey didn't want to walk, so Brian stayed in the car with her, while I took Shawn and Alyssa!  There were sheep all along the roads of our drive.  At the fort there was a little lamb calling for its Mommy!  So sweet!  We ate lunch at a nice little pub and met some other Americans living in Europe, always nice to swap stories!

Next day, we take the kids to the zoo...so fun!  The kids loved all the monkeys, as they were playing around and having fun.  Shawn did a ropes course while the girls played at a playground!  Then that afternoon we explored the city and found the park or garden, that used to be where the sewer from the city would run off.  We ate at TGIF for dinner...nice treat!

I wanted to go to Holyrod Park...thinking it was a big park...which it was, but on an old volcano.  By the time we got there, we knew the kids would not be able to walk that much, so we let them run around and went to the Dynamic Earth.  After that we wondered around the city and found a great view point!  It was a little bit of a climb, but the kids did great.  Chinese for dinner tonight!  So fun for the kids! 

Cool bike racks!

Parliment building, very cool design!

Off to Aviemore and Glenmore National Park.  The forcast called for rain today in Edinburgh, so we went north to see the Reindeer!  We drove through some snow and into the Park, just in time to take the 11:00 hike to the reindeer.  We hiked in the snow down and up till we got to the reindeer.  It was snowing and quite windy!  The reindeer were amazing and all over the place.  Brian was able to feed them, the kids were a little too nervous and afraid to step in poop!  After that we did a Treasure Trail, which was a scavenger type hunt around the town of Aviemore!  It was fun for the kids!

Last full day in the city and we went to Camera Obscura and Edinburgh Castle!  On our way we wandered through a park, passed the Greyfriars Pub and cemetary. The Camera Obscura was really cool, the kids loved it.  We were able to go for a little, leave and have lunch, go to the Castle and then go back into the Camera Obscura!  Brian taught the kids how to play a card game during this trip, so that was another source of entertainment on most nights!  Amazing day!

Our last day in Edinburgh we were able to meet up with one of my friends from growing up, Matt Coburn and his family.  They are currently living in Belgium and were in Edinburgh for a half marathon!  We met up at a coffee shop, moved onto a pub for lunch and by then the kids were fast friends!  We had a great time visiting and are hoping to visit again soon!  We loved Edinburgh, friendly people, good food and just overall fun!