Wee Scottish Lads

Dalhousie Castle

Knighted by Sir Andrew. Donning of kilts.

protecting the castle

Jumping

While walking around Rosehearty today, a little Scottish town I lived in when I was little, Eric and I decided we were going to start a Couples Jumping League.  We did some practice jumping, and feel we are going to be pretty stiff competition.  (Owen is our official photographer.)

At Fraserburgh beach, a place my family visited often when I was my monkeys’ ages, Eric invented another jumping game.  We found our entire family has a knack for the sport…

After Owen’s initial timid jump, he went crazy and jumped over and over again. (The sand was very fine, it was more like landing in flour than sand.  It was so soft!)  It is not often that he just lets loose and risks safety, it was exciting to watch.

 

Jack was not so keen on the sport.

Maumau felt as though she couldn’t be left out of the game, so she joined in. 

Elcho Castle

This is our first castle visit.  Elcho castle’s main living spaces are preserved quite well and we were able to explore the whole thing.

Giant doors and spiral staircases are found throughout the 4 stories.

The castle walls are so thick!  You can see how thick by looking out the windows.  This is Jack standing on the window sill!

Rooftops

Looking down is not recommended! This place was full of toilets!  They were covered by Plexiglas, but there were tunnels that ran all the way to the outside. You could usually see the light at the end.  Everyone thought this was pretty funny.

   

I had my mom bring the boys’ knight costume shirts.  The boys thought that was pretty fun especially when they found they could borrow the local horses!

Soon a fair maiden arrived.

That was instantly loved by all of the local knights.The local knights retrieved their swords, and banded together to fight off the foreign competition...

They successfully ridded the kingdom of the enemies.

Not long afterward, arguments erupted between the local knights over who would marry the fair maiden… and many duels ensued. 

By the time the duels were resolved, the fair maiden had moved to another land. And peace reigned once again in the kingdom!

And their days were filled with games such as Roll Down the Hill.

 

Scotland Quick Highlights*

*not all members of the holiday trip agreed on what deemed an event as a “highlight”

BMW 318d

Going 120 MPH

Funny and confusing signs

Ducks

Triple-decker car carrier

Having Maumau to play with

Cool playground structures

Swords

Princess Diana’s Memorial Playground

The boys had a great time at this playground in London.  It is one of the best playgrounds I have ever seen!  There were many different sections for different aged kids, with the highlight being the giant pirate ship on a huge sandy “beach.”All my boys played…

…while I tried to convince British Airways that it was unreasonable to charge us over 900 pounds (about $1300)  because we were now taking two fewer flights with them.  Apparently if you miss any” leg” of a flight, the remaining “legs” of your flights are canceled also.  Since I booked all of our flight in one booking, skipping our Corfu-London flight was considered missing a “leg”.  I spent hours on the phone with them, but could not get them to agree to waive the “change fees.”  They insisted that the remainder of our flights (to Edinburgh and back, and then from London back to Seattle) would  be canceled unless we paid the 900 pound fee for not flying on our other two flights!

The monkeys were gleefully unaware of the conflict, and focused on conquering their fears by climbing high-high up to the top of the crows nest.  Owen was the best big brother and talked Jack up- encouraging him all the way.By the time Jack made it to the top, he was an old pro and made his Mama and Daddy a little lot nervous by using his own methods for getting down.  I turned to see if Eric was watching Jack’s creative swings and jumps, and Eric’s hand had unconsciously moved up over his heart.

Another big hit was this boat that rocked quite wildly from side to side.  The monkeys pretended they were in a great storm, then suddenly they would leap off the boat yelling,  “Abandon Ship!”

The most popular pastime was the simplest – just playing in the sand.

Even Mama and Daddy couldn’t bypass that.

Oh, and for those of you wondering…We did not pay the 900 pound fee in the end, but not because British Airways agreed that the charge was completely ridiculous.  Expedia just suddenly sent a mail saying that the Corfu flights were canceled and the remaining flights we had on our itinerary were confirmed.  This was a complete surprise to us as Expedia had also told us several times that they couldn’t do it, and we would have to call British Airways directly. We are guessing someone must have cleared it up based on a final email or phone call that I made.  I was especially glad as I was just about to leave to go to the airport to try to work things out in person…

Good-Bye Corfu, Hello London

We were sad to leave Corfu, but this made it a little easier.

 

It was rainy all morning and even as we pulled away from the airport, the rain started up again.  Not that rain is that big of a deal, we actually kind of missed it a little, but it just seems wrong for Corfu.  We are accustomed to the 90 decree weather here.  Eric showed the boys the rain and choppy water outside the balcony as we were packing up to leave.  Owen looked up quite confused and said, “I didn’t think it could rain here!”

The monkeys were not super happy to be traveling and waiting around in airports and in lines again.  By the time we were taking the train to the Q’s house, both boys were so tired, and so hungry, and so miserable that they couldn't take it for one more minute (at least those were the messages they were giving to us).  That is, until we got off at the Q’s stop, and they recognized the walk “home” and both monkeys suddenly had abundant energy, burst out in song, and practically skipped all of the way.  Eric and I are really glad to be here too.

Changing Locations

We decided to leave Corfu a few days early as we are paying double for accommodations which is a tad hard on our budget.  We are heading back to London for two nights and then will go to Edinburgh with my mom as scheduled. 

We will miss Corfu, but are ready for a change anyway. 

We were unable to change our current airline tickets which is a bit frustrating, but on a good note, the new flight we bought is ideal.  Instead of a flight through Athens with a long layover (a 9 hour ordeal to London which we were NOT looking forward to) I found a direct flight from Corfu to London (3 hours) at an airport that is closer to John and Lynne’s house. The tickets were a steal (1/4 what we originally paid) – not sure why (should I be scared?!?)  Actually the airline is the same one we flew from Stuttgart to here, so I feel pretty confident.

   

**new blog: The Quanrud Residence