If hell was an airport....

Morning comes way, way too early. I spent the night trying to pack and shove as much in as I could. I can never get everything packed on the return like I could on the departure. We leave the B&B at around 4:30am. Mandy, the proprietor of the Graham Arms B&B was nice enough to see us off. I don't know if she was sad to see us go or just happy for us to get the hell out of her house.
As we did on the trip from the airport we packed the smaller car that Rob and Jody were driving to the gills with luggage. We put down the back seats and shoved about everything we could in it, including my backpack and camera bag. The other car we put the rest of the family and just a couple pieces of luggage in the trunk.
Driving down and watching the countryside roll by I'm already starting to miss Scotland. There is quite a bit that I didn't get to see. I really wanted to visit Roslyn Chapel, Edinburgh, take a distillery tour, visit the coast, and visit some of the islands. I'll just need to come back some time.
We stop a couple of times on the way to Manchester to recycle some coffee and make pretty good time to the airport. First thing to do is to drop off the rental cars. We're following Rob & Jody's car and go around a few roundabouts in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic. Rob pulls up in front of one of the three terminals and asks some question we can't hear to a uniformed officer who is directing traffic in front of the terminal's loading zone. The officer replies with an answer we can't hear and Rob drives off. Dad, who is driving our car, tries his best to keep up but we get cut off by a few cars pulling out of the terminal. We lose sight of Rob's car around a roundabout. Assuming that he's looking for the rental return we try drive by one parking lot and don't see his car, drive around another roundabout and follow signs to yet another rental car return. We end up at terminal 3 which we recognize as the terminal we flew into. The rental car return is on the top floor of the parking garage, same place we picked up the car in the first place. We still see no sign of Rob and Jody. We wait for a bit thinking that he got stuck somewhere we didn't see. When he still hadn't shown up we headed to the rental car desk to turn in the car and see if Rob had turned the car in at one of the other of the three terminals and rental car returns. No dice. Of course at this point I'm starting to panic. The plane will take off soon and I have a connecting flight in Chicago to catch. Of course I have an additional problem. I have my suitcase with me but my camera and backpack which has my wallet and passport in it are with Rob. I'm having visions of myself as a bum on the streets of England...no identification, no money, can't leave because I can't return to the U.S. without a passport. Reminds me of Merhan Kerimi Nasseri, a man who lived in Charles de Gaulle airport for 18 years. Trapped in red tape limbo because his paperwork was stolen after arriving at the airport.
Even if Rob and Jody managed to turn the car in somewhere else, they would have way too much luggage for two people to carry.
At this point we're really seeing the benefit of cell phones and how much faith we've put in them over the years. We've become so used to the convenience of mobile phone communications that we've become sloppy. Minimal planning and no back up plan. I can always remember as a kid being told things like "if we get separated we'll meet at point x at this time."
Mom tries to use a Sam's Club calling card that is "supposed" to work internationally using the rental desk's phone to call Rob's mobile (which does work here). After struggling with it for what seems like an eternity she gives up. Meanwhile some other travelers have arrived at the rental desk. Cindy, Jody's mother, being resourceful asks a woman who is from Canada if we could use her cell phone to call Rob. For whatever reason, the call doesn't go through either.
One last check with the rental desk turns up that Rob turned the car in at Terminal 1 about 10 minutes ago. At least we know he's not completely lost somewhere. Of course we still have the predicament that he's in a completely separate terminal with a pregnant wife and two tons of luggage. We decided to trek across the street over to Terminal 3 where our plane is scheduled to leave from and see if by some miracle they've appeared over there. The place is packed to the gills. Wall to wall people waiting at the check-in counters. I scurry about looking to see if I can spot Rob & Jody and a mountain of luggage but return to the group unsuccessful. We have a powwow trying to figure out what the heck we're going to do now. Out of the corner of my eye, I see two luggage trolley piled sky-high with luggage moving through the crowd...a very unhappy looking Rob pushing one and Jody pushing the other.
We're overjoyed to see him an quickly dismantle the luggage pile and start heading to the check-in desks. He mumbles something about the asshole security guard told him that the BMI terminal was terminal 1, which is how they ended up in the wrong terminal.
Cindy, being bolder than I would be, tells an airline employee who is directing travelers our sad story. They take pity on us open a cordon, let us through and check out passports and ask us the standard questions. My parents have an additional problem in that they want to be able to push out the departure date of their flight from Chicago to Austin in order to help Jody move to Canada. Mom of course is freaking out that their luggage will continue on to Austin without them if they check-in without changing the flight now. Rob, who is already stressed out, calls the airline only to be told that BMI can't do anything about United's flights and so on. I'm not altering my travel plans, so I go first to the check-in and get my boarding pass. Cindy and Mike follow me and we get in a line to go through security. We wait for a while wondering what the heck is taking mom and dad so long. I'm assuming that they are trying to finagle their flights around. A few more minutes go by and we realize that we've actually not been waiting in the line for security but rather the line to go to a different check-in counter. Crap. We course correct and are soon going through security and are poked and prodded through the metal detectors.
I start hustling to get to the gate...which of course is at the very far end of the terminal. I get closer and see that the doors to the gate are closed and the queue is cordoned off. Crap...I'm thinking we're doomed we've missed it. I rush up and talk to an airline staffer stationed there hoping to plead my case. To my utter surprise he says "Sorry, we're not boarding yet." Whew!
Mom, Dad, Rob and Jody straggle in a minute later. Turns out it would have cost well over $1000 to get their flight changed, so they won't be staying in Chicago.
Rob and I make a mad dash to the cafe to get 10 gallons of water for Jody to have on the flight. We make it back just in time for our rows to be called to board the plane. I walk down the gangway only to be struck with amusement at the sight of a giant rack full of free bottled water for people to take with them on the plane.
The flight to Chicago was long and boring. I finished reading my book early in the flight. I tried to sleep a little but I'm always too uncomfortable to sleep on planes. The girl sitting next to me sleeps the entire trip. My only excitement came towards the end of the flight where she woke up and started looking nauseas and groped about in the seatback looking for the barf bag. It didn't take long before she was dry heaving into the bag. She slept through all the meals and drink service...so luckily nothing came up.
We touched down in Chicago and deplaned. We get our luggage and head through immigration and customs. We say goodbye to Mike and Cindy who are hopping a ride on a hotel shuttle to retrieve their car and start their drive home. Rob and Jody join us on the tram ride to the domestic terminal so they can retrieve their car and head to Jody's.
After hugs and goodbyes, Mom, dad and I find our gate and realize we have something like 4 hours to kill before our flight leaves. This wait gets pushed out even longer as the incoming flight is delayed due to weather wherever it is. I peruse the bookstores and buy a magazine to keep me occupied on the flight. I take advantage of the airport wi-fi to punch out a few blog posts from earlier in the week...but make it a point not to touch my work email.
After what seemed like an age, we finally board our flight and are on the last leg of our journey home.
Tomorrow, I plan on sleeping and get caught up on all the TV I've missed over the week. Isn't DVR great?

Sterling Castle

Morning arrives and we all have a nice breakfast of porridge and jump in the rental cars to start the drive to Stirling. Stirling is home to Stirling Castle, which played an important part in Scottish history. According to George at the Old Corn Mill we visited, Edinburgh Castle was just a vacation home...Stirling Castle was where all the real work was done.
Once we arrived in Stirling and found a place to park, we walked up a hill past the Church of the Holy Rude and through its impressive cemetery.
I've always been fascinated by cemeteries. Not for any "gothic" or creepy satanic reasons, but because of the beauty that can be found there. For me the old cemeteries with lots of statuary and gravestones which really honor and respect and tell you something about the person buried within. Unfortunately, in this day and age, this is becoming a rare thing as cemeteries are commercialized and designed to be low maintenance for caretakers. Such ideas as "remembrance gardens" and uniform headstones are just poor excuses for making mowing easier.
We have only ourselves to blame as peoples ideas about cemeteries have shifted from being a place to have a picnic on a sunny afternoon to ghosts, goblins and ghouls...some place you rarely visit unless on a dare. I'll step off my soapbox now.
I spend a while walking through the rows of very old headstones and sculpture snapping a few photos along the way. I spot my father who has discovered a hilltop overlook with a nice view of the surrounding country side and Stirling Castle up on an even higher hill. He warns me that the wind is pretty vicious.
He wasn't kidding. The wind whipped up and over this little hilltop with gusts, there is nothing to block the wind and no railing to keep one from tumbling over the hillside. Of course, I take this as a challenge and jump up on a short bench to get a little higher to get a better shot of the castle.
Just keeping steady enough to take the shot was a real challenge. I finally decided I'd risked enough once wind kicked up a little more.
I scramble down the hillside and through the rest of the cemetery and work my way up to the parking lot and entrance to the castle.
The parking lot is the home to a regal looking statue of William Wallace appropriately looking across the countryside at his monument in the distance.
We storm the gates with our Explorer Passes in hand. The Scottish military had used the castle as a headquarters and barracks for some 150 years. The castle has been undergoing restoration for many years since then and various sections are closed off as the archaeologists try to peel back many years of alterations to try to figure out what it really looked like and how it might have been built. Wandering around you can't help but imagine what it might have looked like in its prime.
Some of the buildings like the Great Hall and Chapel have already been pieced back together. Looking up at the beams holding up the roof of the Great Hall you see the incredible workmanship that went into rebuilding it. These great beams around the size of railroad ties are pieced together to form kind of a skeletal arch maximizing the vertical space of the room. I learn later that the whole thing is built without using any nails or screws...just dowels and joints and other carpentry wizardry.
The wind starts to pick up outside and I can hear these beams start to creak and moan. I'm seeing visions of newspaper headlines proclaiming the crushing death of a bunch of stupid American tourists when the roof of the Great Hall at Stirling Castle fell in during a bout of heavy wind.
They've made a kind of creepy exhibit out of what used to be the castle kitchens. I say it's creepy because they've tried to make it look like a working kitchen complete with mannequins dressed in period garb frozen in a chaotic kitchen moment (complete with spilt milk). Various types of fake plastic dust covered dead animals and fish in various stages of being prepared for a feast. At each little scene there are little backlit plaques that point out interesting facts. I had no idea that in that time the kitchen was men's work...women were not allowed in the kitchen.
I look above my head and there are fake salamis and hams hanging from the ceiling by a single fraying piece of string swinging precariously in the wind.
I see flashes of newspaper headlines again about some dumb American tourist being maimed by a falling fake salami.
On my way out I'm further assured that I'm not the first to be freaked out by the creepy kitchen. There a small child pleading with her father "please don't make me go in there!" I don't blame her in the least.
Another interesting spot is the Highlander Regimental museum which is housed in a couple of floors of one of the castle buildings. Lots of displays and men in kilts showing the history of the Highlanders and the various wars and battles that they have been through. Starting with early sword and musket soldiers and leading up to modern day high-tech warriors.
Another building that had been restored was the chapel. I'm assuming that they actual use it as a chapel for various reasons on occasion, since there were chairs set up and some audio gear.
The interesting thing here was a couple of hand made replica tapestries depicting the Unicorn Hunt. These beautiful things were dyed and woven by hand using techniques that would have been used to create the originals.
I spent some more time walking the along the walls taking pictures. The castle is up on a high hill so there are areas where you can just look out at the countryside where William Wallace fought famous battles.
I drifted into the gift shop to buy some souvenirs. This is our last real day in Scotland and I'd held off buying anything up until now mainly because I haven't seen anything I really wanted to buy. All these gift shops all stock the same crap and I really wanted to find something unique. I did manage to buy a few things from the 3 different gift shops at Stirling Castle. Now I'm just hoping my luggage isn't soaked with Scotch from a busted bottle by the time I get back home.
We regrouped as our family members had scattered in different directions.
The next challenge was finding some grub. It's Good Friday and it seems as though every restaurant in town is locked up. Rob goes out on a reconnaissance mission to see if he can located any place in walking distance to eat. After several minutes he returns proclaiming that the only place open was an Indian restaurant. We wander down there and practically take over the place. There is no one else in the restaurant so we make ourselves at home. The food was great, the naan bread they brought out was huge. Everybody got a something a little different. We had a good time. Before we left I decided to visit the bathroom before the trip back to the B&B. The bathrooms were three floors up...over 60 some odd steps to reach them.
Tomorrow we'll leave early, early in the morning in order to drive the 2+ hours to get to Manchester airport the requisite 2 hours early in order to catch our 9:30am flight. Now I have to figure out how to bend space & time to get everything crammed back in my suitcase.

Poet, Caravans, Castles and Scottish Scams

Well...Murphy be damned! My talk of the past beautiful days cursed us into rain and high winds. It apparently also made Rob vomit. I woke this morning early as planned to start getting ready for our trip to Edinburgh. Last night my brother stressed the importance that we all be sure to be out the door so that we would make the 7:40am train from Lockerbie (a 20 minute drive away) to Edinburgh. The train waits for no one and the next train didn't leave until around noon, so it was imperative we make it on time in order to have a full day in Edinburgh. I just finished dressing when there was a knock at the door. My mother informing me that Rob and Jody were both feeling pretty ill and we wouldn't be going to Edinburgh today.
Never one to miss an opportunity for a little more shut-eye I jumped back into bed. Meanwhile both sets of parents went shopping.
Few hours later another knock. This time it was Jody saying that everyone was feeling better (Rob apparently having sympathy morning sickness) and that they were wanting to get out and about.
We waited a bit for the parents to return from shopping and finally gave up at about 11am or so. We decided we'd head to Dumfries, a town the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns once called home. Scurrying down small country roads, Rob spotted a sign for farm fresh ice cream. We took a little detour and checked it out only to discover that it was only open on weekends. They had sheep though. We left after contemplating how Jody could sneak a little lamb on the plane with her. We jumped on the highway and along the way Jody spots a sign for Hoddom Castle which piqued her interest but we couldn't find a place to turn around. After a 30 minute drive we reach Dumfries, dumped the rental car in a free parking lot and walked across the river via a quaint little footbridge.
The Robert Burns Center was closed for lunch when we arrived. Having some time to kill we walked around and discovered that a little restaurant called Hullabaloo was also located in the RBC. I'd recognized the name from a recommendation in the guidebook so we decided to check it out and had a spot of lunch and waited for the RBC to open back up.
The Robert Burns museum had a free admission. Which was probably a good thing since the museum consisted of one room with some large signs on the wall describing Robert Burns' life and a couple of artifacts sprinkled in. Interesting stuff, Burns led an interesting life and died young.
After the museum we made the short hike back to the car and passed by Robert Burns' home he lived in Dumfries for a couple of years.
On the drive back we were determined to find Hoddom Castle. We turned at a sign for Hoddom thinking that Hoddom Castle would be in Hoddom. We're thinking we'll just drive down the road a ways and up will pop a castle. Little did we know it wouldn't be that easy. After driving done some narrow country roads with no castle in sight we instruct the TomTom nav system to find it for us and start following directions. Soon it leads us to what appears to be a drive way with a sign that says "no vehicle access to Hoddum Castle". This is good and bad. Good 'cause at least it means we're in the vicinity of the castle and bad 'cause it doesn't look like we can get to it. Of course this forbidden fruit just makes us more determined to find the darn thing. We drive down this driveway a bit and end up in the middle of the woods with a gate barricading the way. It has a little narrow spot for someone to walk through. We can see beyond it a glimpse of the castle and a whole bunch of caravans (i.e. campers to us non-UK folks). Not feeling comfortable with leaving our rental car in the middle of the woods and knowing that there has to be another entrance (how else would someone get their camper in there?) we turn around and head back out on the road hoping to flank our elusive prey. Another road and another sign this one reading "Not an entrance to Hoddom Castle" at the bottom it said that the entrance was a mile back the way we came from. Undaunted, we continued on our way trying to find another cross road that would lead us to a proper entrance. After a lot of sheep and hedgerows, we decided that the best course of action would to be to start over, knowing that there was the sign along the highway to Locekrbie that specifically stated "Hoddom Castle" since we'd seen it earlier that morning. Poking the TomTom to direct us to Lockerbie and we were soon traveling back over familiar territory. We traveled down a few roads we'd already been on and then turned right where we'd earlier turned left...and gosh darn it...there was a nice brick archway entrance to Hoddom Castle.
Hoddom Castle is still standing but is in pretty rough shape after not being occupied by the army since WWII. The place is billed as a camping resort rather than a castle tourism spot. I had a chuckle as I was imagining the castle's former royal occupants rolling over in their graves at the though of a multitude of common folk in their caravans parked on the lawn.
Hoddom Castle looked cool from the outside...everyone is forbidden from entering it as it is too dangerous (so the campground staff said). We spent a little while wandering the grounds looking at the castle and visiting the toilet.

We jumped back in the clown car and headed back to the B&B. I discovered a note tacked to the door of my room from the parents telling us that they headed out to take a photo in Lockerbie and we're planning on eating at a restaurant in town. We stuck around the B&B a little to give them some time to get their photos and then headed into Anan to meet them to eat.
There was a nice little fish & chips place that Rob and Jody had been to on another day. The note mentioned that they were considering either the fish & chips place or the little restaurant we ate at the first night. We hedged our bets that they were going to want fish & chips since every other restaurant we ate at someone tried to order fish & chips only to be told they were out.
We sat there with our fish & chips waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Finally we gave up thinking that the parents had gone some place else.
As we were walking back to the car we spotted the parents car heading down the street and waved them down. Dad had to drive halfway down the street before he could turn around. He pulled up to the curb and we started talking. All of a sudden out of nowhere a tiny SUV scrapes along the front fender and stops in front of us. Some old bag jumps out of the passenger side screaming "You've hit us!" We're all looking at her in disbelief and speechless. Her husband steps out of from behind the wheel and starts to inspect the damage on our car saying something about needing to pay him. We don't buy it. We maybe Americans but we're not that stupid. The old bag gets back into the car and the husband continues to ask for registration information. We give him information from the rental car agency and take a quick snapshot of his damage which consisted of a black smudge and scrape on the top and edge of his bumper. We also took the liberty of taking a picture of his license plate. When we started talking about getting the police he jumped back in his car and drove off.
We'd seen a police station just a couple of blocks down and reported the whole thing.
What a day. Tomorrow we'll head to Sterling Castle.

Crosses, Castles and Sweethearts

The morning brings another unusually beautiful sunny Scottish day. When I left Austin, I was planning for rain everyday. I suppose since I planned for it and packed a bunch of wet weather gear, Murphy had to prove me wrong. In this case it worked in my favor. I don’t mind lugging a few extra coats if it means that the weather will be nice.

A mandatory Scottish history class destination is the Ruthwell Cross. The cross is an 8^th century early Christian monument which is now housed with in a quaint little country church.

It has been put back together after a rough time during the period of the Reformation when it was deemed to be idolatrous and busted into pieces and buried. The cross is carved on all sides with early Christian iconography with some slightly-pagan mixed in. Apparently, when they pieced it back together they made sure all the more Christian bits faced out to the congregation and the more pagan bits to the reverse.

The church had these incredible little architectural drawings and age old seemingly original documents about the church hanging on the walls. Too bad that they are not being preserved in some better way.

From the Ruthwell Cross, we headed to Castle Caerlaverock which is a spectacular moated castle.

It’s in ruins but it is still in pretty good shape as far as ruins go with many of the walls still standing. You can walk about some of the rooms and dream of how it would have been for the people who had lived here. The castle is unique in Scotland as it is a three sided castle, with the entrance and drawbridge at the apex of the triangle the strongest part. Over the years the castle changed hands and was sacked by the English and then the Scottish and then the English again who decided they’d had enough and knocked the back wall out and ruined all the fun.

A quick drive from the castle in the town of New Abbey is the ruins of Sweetheart Abbey. Some groovy chick named Devorgilla de Balliol, Lady of Galloway, founded the place. She carried the embalmed heart of her dearly departed husband for 22 years before she was buried with it in the abbey. How romantic. The abbey is in pretty good shape after nearly 800 years. It’s a little drafty but has a nice green carpet.

Also in the town is an age old water powered corn mill. Contrary to its name it doesn’t mill any corn. Corn in the Scottish and English sense being a generic term for grain. The New Abbey Corn Mill was operational for a few hundred years milling oats for cooking and animal feed. George, the lonely tour guide, was a real cut up keeping us laughing with “corny” jokes well past closing time.

We had a nice dinner at a pub called “Robert the Bruce” and drove back to the B&B.

Tomorrow we’ll catch the train to Edinburgh to tour the gift shops.

Here Nessie! Nessie!

Rob and Jody decided to spend a day by themselves saying that they would be going on a hike around the countryside. This left the two sets of parents and I free to take a drive up to the town of Inverness and around to Loch Ness. It was a beautiful but long drive of several hundred miles. The way up was mostly highway with lots of sheep and craggy rocky hills with some snow capped mountains in the distance.

Things got a little scary as we started to climb and wind around in the mountains where the road narrows down to a two lane road and blind curves. The Scots apparently do all their road repairs and construction around this time of year. We had to stop a dozen times as the road narrowed down to one lane. They have these little portable stop lights they wheel out so you know when the oncoming traffic has cleared and you know when it’s probably safe to proceed.

We spent just enough time in Inverness to stretch our legs and snap a couple of quick photographs. Inverness is a pretty busy little port town that sits between the Moray Firth (a “firth” is a wide sea inlet) and the River Ness.

Further down the river it becomes a loch….basically a lake. Loch Ness is of course famous for purported sightings of a prehistoric deep lake dwelling marine animal, the Loch Ness Monster. The ruins of Castle Urquhart also jut out into the loch and are basically the quintessential picture postcard Scottish castle. The road down from Inverness to Castle Urquhart was narrow and full of curves, pretty scary when you are used to driving on the other side of the road. To make matters worse the speed limit is around 60mph. Stick the speed limit and you are soon to have a train of crazy Scottish semi’s and clown cars behind you driven by the locals who have no qualms about driving a foot from your bumper. We pulled over for a bit at a little Loch Ness rest area to snap a couple of photos and see if we could catch sight of Nessie cruising down the loch. I didn’t have any luck, but it was a real beautiful spot.

After raiding the gift shop in the quaint little Loch Ness Monster tourist trap town of Drumnadrochit we raced to Castle Urquhart to discover that they closed at 4:15pm. The Castle sits down closer to the water and the entrance to the grounds looked to be a subterranean passageway accessible only by paid admission. Bummer we couldn’t get down there and look around, but we were still able to take a few nice pictures in the freezing cold Scottish wind.

I, being the guy always looking for interesting shots, trekked up the road a bit and found a Scottish postcard perfect shot of green hills, sheep and a little cove complete with moored sailboat. All that was missing was some castle ruins, a piper and a whiskey distillery….I’ll Photoshop those in later.

My father hates to go back the same way we’ve come so the return trip we sped down a golf cart wide sized road in the dark which is on the opposite side of the Loch that we came up. As the sun was setting, I spied an incredible shot along the road and pulled over quickly most likely scraping off the majority of the undercarriage of the rented clown car in the process. I think it was well worth it.

After several hours of single lane golf cart sized roads with hairpin curves in pitch black darkness with a trail of crazed lunatic Scotsmen behind us, we reached Glasgow. We just got accustomed to the nice wide multi-lane motorway when suddenly it is barricaded closed for construction and it diverts us straight into the city center. After a dozen roundabouts we decided to stop to feed our growling stomachs. Hey, what can be more Scottish than McDonalds?

Leaving the Golden Arches behind us we zipped on down a major motorway and soon crawled into the beds at the B&B.

Men in Skirts

The wedding day has arrived. We all drove to the hotel my brother and his wife-to-be are staying. We picked my brother up and dropped the mothers off to get their hair and make-up done. Meredith would have approved, the make-up artist airbrushed their make-up on.

The men meanwhile zipped off to the local bank branch to see if we could get some cash. The English and the Scots are a bit ahead of us in credit card security. We had a hard time over the last few days at shops and ATMs because most of the machines require "smart" chipped credit cards. All of ours are still using magnetic strips so the machines won't read them properly. We lucked out and the bank's ATM was able to read mag stripes.


We drove to Annan to a tailor to pick up out kilts. The tailor spent a while with us making sure everything fit right. Each of us took turns trying things on so the tailor wouldn't get things mixed up. This had the added benefit of allowing us to watch how to put everything on several times.

We went back to the hotel to drop my brother off and pick up the mothers and drove to B&B to get dressed for the wedding.


Kilts are actually quite comfortable and surprisingly warm as long as the wind doesn't kick up.


We drove to Anvil Hall and the wedding party was "piped" in by a piper. We waited for a bit for my brother and soon to be sister-in-law to arrive by Rolls Royce.


The bride & Groom were piped into the church, my brother first, the bride escorted in by her step-father. The wedding ceremony was short and sweet. In Gretna, they say vows over an anvil which has a symbolic meaning of forging together of two things. The minister joked a bit. Told them at one point to hold hands, then explained the meaning of the anvil and picked up the hammer and told them to put their hands on the anvil. Being a little naive, they preceded to do so, which was met by a mischievous grin from the minister who said "just kidding."


After pronouncing them man and wife, he hit the hammer to the anvil. A nice kiss followed.


They were ushered over to a small alcove and signed the marriage certificate together making it official.

We spent the next hour taking photographs in a dozen different places in and around the Hall.


I decided I like this kilt thing. Maybe I'll just wear one all the time now.


No internet access at the B&B...so posts will be sporadic (heck, there isn't even a phone in the room). I snagged some internet access at the hotel my brother is staying at, but tonight is his last night here. The newlyweds will move out to the B&B after this.

Sunny Day in Scotland

We woke up to a nice sunny day and a traditional Scottish breakfast. The haggis was a little gritty. Haggis if you don't already know is a traditional Scottish food made with suet, pork and lamb lungs and hearts mixed with oatmeal and other grains. Yum!

That's the haggis on the far left.

We spent the rest of a nice sunny day in Scotland (I'm sure there aren't many of them) by shopping in gift shops for crap and walking through the Blacksmith shop museum of runaway marriages. Interesting, but quite a waste of a nice sunny day.

When it started raining we decided to drive about the countryside (stopping along the way to snap some photos of the local four-legged residents) and go to Lockerbie to see the memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103.

After showing our respects we zipped off down the road back to the B&B for a nights rest. Big day tomorrow.

Scotland - We have landed

In Chicago, we met up with my brother and his wife-to-be as well as his soon to be in-laws. O'hare is a beautiful airport...just a long walk to the international terminal. We walked quite a distance before getting on a train which brought us to the terminal. We then had to walk a ways to the gate.
The flight was uncomfortable. It was a full flight, so no one was really able to stretch out.
The plane landed in Manchester, England at about 7:30am UK time. We got through immigration without much trouble. I did get chastised by the officials for taking a quick snapshot of the immigration gate. Apparently, that's a big no-no and he made me delete the picture off the camera. He warmed up when we told him we were coming to Scotland for a wedding.

We spent close to 3 hours at the airport. Getting our luggage and getting out of the airport was a breeze...getting the rental cars was a huge hassle. First we missed the rental desk and walked all the way up to where you pick up the cars. Luckily there was a employee of the rental company up there that directed us back to the desk, where we spent the next couple of hours going through the paperwork (do you want insurance? do you want tires?). After we got that sorted out we had an Easter egg hunt for the vehicles. They don't put numbers on the parking spots, they just tell you what the license plate number is and then what row it's in. Of course, there is no row numbers to be found. So you walk around up and down the rows looking for your car. We asked for some help from some of the employees...there solution was to keep punching the panic button on the key fob until your car blinked or the horn sounded.
Every car here is a clown car. Maybe smaller. We packed one car to the gills with luggage. The other with people.

We spent the next couple of hours driving to Eastriggs where the Graham Arms B&B is located. It's a nice cozy homely little place, though I can't say "warm" because the place is freezing.
A nice little family runs the place. We were shown to our rooms. I was given the single room, which was large being built for the disabled. The bed is about as wide as I am. And I'm a pretty skinny guy. The comforter was just as wide as the bed. This presents a problem since I can never get completely covered. I resorted to sleeping curled up in the fetal position so I reserve a little of my heat. There is no central air. The heat comes from radiators which they shut off at night.


We zipped off for dinner as soon as we got settled in to the B&B. We went to the nearby town of Annan. I was driving and was a bit cranky from lack of sleep and food. Drove through the town about 4 times trying to decide on what restaurant to go to. They had Italian, Indian, Chinese (the Lucky Date) and some pubs. We finally settled on a restaurant called "Caspians" which had a fare of Scottish type food with Lamb and Steak. Pretty good stuff. In the photo from left to right is my Joanne and Bob (my parents), Cindy and Mike (Jody's parents).
After a full belly, we drove back to the B&B trying to concentrate on staying on the wrong side of the road.

Up, up and away...

Made it to the Austin Bergstrom International Airport, with plenty of time to spare. Troy really wanted to come along. Mom & Dad picked me up at about 11:15am. Troy jumped in the van and sat in a seat refusing to move. It would have made a good picture. I'd like to think he was just protesting my leaving but I'm sure it was just that he likes car rides.
We breezed through check-in and security since there wasn't anyone here. I guess everyone is already on spring break.
We'll fly to Chicago from here and then jump on our flight to Manchester. From Manchester we are renting cars which we'll drive up into Scotland.
I couldn't resist checking my work email a little just to make sure everyone is getting along without me. Turns out there was a little bit of a bomb scare as some suspicious package was left in the parking lot. Turned out to be something harmless. I'm sure I would have been a suspect if it had been something since I didn't show up to work today.
My brother is being married in Anvil Hall in Greta Green Scotland. Apparently, it's the Las Vegas of Scotland in terms of quick weddings. I suppose instead of Elvis they have William Wallace officiate. The wedding is on Monday at 3pm Scotland time. They even have a webcam for folks to tune in.
We're about to board so I'll need to shut up for a little while.

Packed and ready to go...I think.

I think I'm now packed and ready to go. I was able to tick a couple of more things off my list.

• Buy new jeans


• Buy new hiking shoes


• Buy a new light windproof jacket


• Buy a copy of Alice in Wonderland to read


• Get a haircut


• Load up the MP3 player


• Buy film


• Get the PSP charged up


• Buy some UK power adapters and transformer kits


• Laundry


• Clean up the house a little


• Pack

I always have a hard time packing for these trips. I can never figure out if I'm packing too much or not enough. I'm going to be gone for about 9 days and the weather in Scotland can be a little unpredictable...though I'm leaning more towards rain. So I'm trying to pack accordingly and make sure I throw in a little extra for the unexpected. I'm always thinking I'm forgetting something. Which in my case is usually a good sign that I haven't. It never fails that if I think I haven't forgotten anything that I find out later that I'm missing my socks.
My backpack is stuffed to the gills with crap to occupy myself on the flight..computer, books, magazines, MP3 player, PSP, games. My father and I have this fear of being stuck waiting in barbershops and doctors' offices with only the supplied tattered copy of Ladies Home Journal to read. I want to avoid a very boring 8 hour flight to Manchester with only the United Hemispheres to read.
I've packed my camera bag as well. I'll be carrying it on the plane since I don't trust those thieving bastards in baggage handling. I hope to shoot some nice landscapes that I can get blown up later. I'm bringing my little tiny digital point-and-shoot camera for some quick stuff.

Maybe if I have some time I'll try to clean up the house a little in the morning. Our flight doesn't leave until 2pm. Mom & Dad threatened to pick me up at 6:30am. I told them to bring a stretcher to carry me out since there was no way I was going to be awake by then. I think they've settled on 10:30am...which will give us plenty of time. Better to be early and wait at the gate then miss getting on the plane at all.

I'm getting excited about finally getting to go to Scotland. My boss told me the other day that my talking about the trip finally teetered him and his wife over to finally making a trip to Scotland. They've been talking for years about going to the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August. Guess I'm glad I could help.

I'm going to get some shut eye.

Stage Fright

Troy didn't get the part. Yesterday we met with the trainer at the location. He worked with him for over an hour. The trainer finally determined that Troy would need a lot more training time to be able to be ready for the scene. More time than they have. He said Troy had a good grasp of his basics so that wasn't the problem. Troy is a bit scared of anything that looks and sounds unusual so being on a set with a lot of people moving around, a lot of equipment being moved around and banging and other noises...he would just have a hard time. Since Troy was a rescue were not all sure what might have happened to him. The trainer thought that there might be the possibility that he might have been abused. How anyone could think to abuse such an awesome gentle animal is beyond me. Sounds like they are filming the scene on Monday, which wouldn't have worked for me anyway since I'll be in Scotland by then. I think he was a little sad he wouldn't be in the movie.


Meredith, Carolynn and I went to see the SXSW screening of "Choke" which is an adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel by the same name. Meredith and I have both read the book and I was quite pleased that they actually did a pretty good job of getting it on to the screen. The book is better of course, going into a lot more detail, but you can only get so much of it onto the screen. The film was still able to capture a lot of the humor and there were many times the entire theater was laughing hysterically. There were a few continuity errors I noticed and the edit just seemed like it could have been tighter at some points. The cuts for the dialog seemed to just seesaw back and forth to whoever was speaking, kind of slowing the pacing down. Overall, still a good watch.

Meredith just informed me that she will be gone for a gig in Galveston for the week after I get back from Scotland. Sucks that it will be about 2 weeks I won't see her. She tells me that she'll be airbrushing Brad Pitt's ass, so I'm not sure she'll miss me much. Troy and I will have to "batch" it while she's gone.

Friday is fast approaching. I was talking to a couple of guys at work and it dawn on me that tomorrow is Thursday which means the following day is Friday. I still have a lot to do before we leave on Friday for Scotland.
I've managed to tick a few things off my list of things to do for Scotland this week. Still have a couple of things to do.

• Buy new jeans
• Buy new hiking shoes
• Buy a new light windproof jacket
• Buy a copy of Alice in Wonderland to read
• Get a haircut
  
• Load up the MP3 player
• Buy film
• Get the PSP charged up
• Buy some UK power adapters and transformer kits
  
• Laundry
  
• Clean up the house a little
  
• Pack
  

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I'll probably remember it when I'm flying over the Atlantic.

Rambling on....an inaugural post

I thought I'd throw a little blog together to speak my mind about various things going on in my life. Some kind of destination for people to check up on me if they are curious as to what I'm up to.
Whether it becomes something I keep up-to-date on a regular basis remains to be seen.
I've got an upcoming trip to Scotland so this seemed like a good time to start.

Rob, my older brother, is re-marrying. His new wife was close to a grandmother who was of Scottish descent, so they wanted to have a nice very small micro wedding ceremony in Scotland to honor her. Which is fine by me...I've never been to Scotland. The wedding should be quick leaving us to spend the rest of the week tooling around the Scottish countryside.
I'll have to get some tips from Mom on how to sit with a skirt.

Meredith is working on a film doing regular make-up. Some tweenie show about a couple of "high-school kids" trying to win a "Battle of the Bands" kind of competition (think High School Musical. Yuck). She came home one time quite delirious after listening to the same song loop for hours. I asked her if she remembered how the song went....apparently, it was such a tortuous and traumatic experience that she had blocked it from her memory! She'll probably need therapy after the shoot is over.
Troy, our Weimaraner, might make a cameo. They need a couple of dogs to howl. I'm assuming that they will be voicing their opinion of these kids' musical talents. We'll see. I hoping we don't turn into one of those "Show Moms & Dads" couples shuttling their kids to every audition in town. Troy's pretty photogenic. Meredith volunteered him to be a model once for a stock photo shoot she was working on. He looked a lot better than the "stock" fake family that was supposed to be the focus of the shoot.

We leave for Scotland on Friday. More later.