The Ferry

It was just a simple ferry ride out to the Isle of Skye, but there was just something about being out on the deck of the boat with the breezy morning air sipping a cocoa and enjoying the views of the Scottish coastline and Isle of Skye hillside on the shore. Jeff forgot to include a Ferry as a mode of transportation in his itinerary. We were all a little upset about that.

Stacie was a bit cold so she stayed in the cabin most of the ride. She had a pretty lousy night being pregnant and trying to sleep in our B&B we stayed at that night. We took a chance on a place that didn't have as great of reviews because it was located right on the shore. We thought it would be neat to be located right on the shore. The views from the place were great, but the linens and beds were less than desirable. The person staying in the room next door must have gotten plastered at a pub because we could hear her vomiting all night. And after Cindy took a shower in the moldy bathroom, the rest of us just decided we'd clean up in the sink and take a long shower the next day. Which we did.

Castle Combe

Castle Combe was one of the highlights of our trip. Somehow Jeff and Cindy knew of this little village on the way back from Bath. So we turned onto a quaint little windy, tree lined road called "The Street" and ended up here. We just walked around the quiet antique village and took some pics and enjoyed a slice of banana bread by the banks of this little river shown in a picture here. It was such a cozy little town and very relaxing to sit there on the bench along the banks and soak in the sun.

This was in the front of a little church there in Castle Combe where (obviously) they had some grave sites for various influential people from centuries ago. This whole town was just really cool. I had a hard time narrowing down which pictures to include.

Stacie dropping a post card in the mail for the kids.

And the bread store in Castle Combe. We dropped a few pounds in the slot in the door and had a nice mid morning snack. The old buildings here were so neat and so old. It was neat to see a whole village like this preserved. If you're ever in the neighborhood, some of the cottages are avaiable to rent for a weekend getaway.

Highland Coo

As soon as we got to Scotland we started looking for a highland Cow because Jeff desperately wanted a picture of one. It wasn't until we were in the farthest outstreches of the Isle of Sky that we finally came across a small herd. Cindy and I jumped out of the car and took a few pics as the passers by stared in wonderment - you would have thought we'd never seen a cow before.

Ironically Cindy really wanted to get a picture of an Oreo cow - one that is black on the head and rump and white in bewteen. Finally on a random narrow road winding between some small rock farm houses Cindy spotted one and made Jeff pull over. Jeff was bound and determined to be at our next destination at a certain time and somewhat perturbed that we had to stop. But, being a gent that he is pulled over and we snapped this pic.

Stonehenge

We left Texas in the late afternoon Wednesday and landed in England in the early A.M. on Thursday. We hit the ground running and as soon as we could get a rental car, drove out to Stonehenge on the way to Bath. It was a beautiful, clear morning and it was a needed walk around after sitting so long in the plane.



This was just a funny photo. I'm not sure what Jeff and I were laughing about, but i'll bet it was funny. It looks like we're standing in front of a green screen.

Loche Lomond

Our first night in Scotland we stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast in a town called Paisley which is just outside of Glasgow. I think it was the nicest B&B of our trip. It was an old rock home with huge rooms and bathrooms, a grand entry with lots of woodwork and a really nice dining room. The next morning at breakfast I had my first and last sampling of Haggis and another Traditional English Breakfast. We had the same breakfast almost every day while there and tired of it... it actually sounds really good right now.

For some reason now this house kinda reminds me of something you'd see in a scary movie, but it was sure fun staying there and the lady that owned it was very nice.


The following morning we stopped along the shore at Loche Lomond in a little town called Luss. It was a quaint town with a few shops and some vacation homes for the locals. The lake was so beautiful that morning with the light fog lifting off the water and a slight drizzle in the sky. A couple of fishermen were out on the calm water and a few other vessels were docked nearby. It was pretty much what I expected a loche in Scotland to look like.

It was a peaceful place so I felt I needed to skip a rock on the water.


Here are Jeff and Cindy pretending they are on the Titanic. I think they pulled it off, very believable.

Stacie asked us to look handsome for this photo. I did my best, but i'm afraid it was a flop.

Somehow I ended up in this picture that Jeff took and I'm not sure why. It seems like it should be in the user manual for a new camera. You know, where they explain how to focus on an image in the foreground or one in the background. Either way it's a pretty neat picture.

Being a graduate of Ben Lomond High School, we thought it appropriate that Stacie do their Lassie dance at Loche Lomond. Not bad for a girl 6 months pregnant.

Introduction

Rather than try and keep everything organized in sequence of events I think we will add some of our favorite pictures from the trip, explain about each place and relate some funny experiences we had along the way. So read if you want, or just look at the pictures.

Thanks to Family

We're very grateful to Spence and Tal, and Kinsey and Ben who kept an eye on our kids while we were out of town. I'm sure it wasn't easy for them to watch after 4 kids for that long, but we really appreciate them doing so. When we got home we kept hearing from our kids about all the fun they had while we were gone. Sounds like they got a vacation from us which they probably needed. Rhen was upset when we got home and really had a hard time for a few days after we got back. He screamed every time I left for work, i think maybe he thought I was going to be gone for a couple of weeks again.

Foreword.

In March of 2009 Stacie and I planned a trip to Cancun Mexico. We had been there before with Rich and Jen Jacob in 2007 and had so much fun we wanted to go back. That spring was a good time for us to go because Chloe's treatments were finally over and we were down to bi-monthly checkups at Primary Children's with her bone marrow doctor. We both were looking forward to going, but Stacie especially needed a vacation. Just a couple of weeks before we were supposed to leave there was a Swine flu outbreak that originated in Mexico - and from what the news said, in a town where we planned to go. Normally, we wouldn't have been so paranoid, but having gone through everything we had to keep Chloe healthy, the last thing we wanted to do was expose her to the Swine flu.

I happened to speak to my brother Jeff that night. He mentioned that he and Cindy were going to England and Scotland in the fall and I said something like "Shoot, we should do that... we had a trip planned to Mexico but we're going to have to cancel it." I didn't intend to invite us on their trip, but after some discussion back and forth we all decided to go together. I hope we didn't disrupt their plans at all by going with them, but I have to say that going with Jeff and Cindy was an excellent way to go. They both had served missions in Scotland and knew the great sites to see. Cindy also spent some time in London doing study abroad when she was younger. Traveling with someone that is familiar with transit, culture and sites to see that may not be on every other tourists list has it's benefits. And when it's family that you love to spend time with... even better. Going with them made the trip much more memorable that it probably would have been had we gone without, and I'll tell you why.

Jeff had been planning a trip back to England and Scotland for some time. I didn't realize to what extent he had made preparations for this trip until we began speaking about it. We knew very little about the area, other than a few famous sites that we thought would be fun to see. Stonehenge was on my list, and some sites in London proper like Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliment, etc. The town of Bath was on Stacie's list because it was a popular vacation spot for the aristocrats in Jane Austin's book. Much to my surprise, this was the same reason Jeff thought it would be an enjoyable town to visit. We all discussed what we wanted to see and we planned our trip accordingly. However, for the most part, Jeff suggested sites and we said, "sounds great".

A couple of months before our trip Jeff and Cindy called after the kids were in bed and we discussed our itinerary. Jeff had emailed me a document he had prepared outlining the entire trip with maps and methods of transit planned out. I have included this document for posterity. My reasoning behind including it is that it is a good representation of the type of man my brother Jeff is. He is very thorough and meticulous in his planning, taking into consideration the time, costs and benefits of every activity. I quickly learned this is why he is a CFO and I sell doorknobs. But, the best part of this itinerary is the last page. Being the History buff that he is, Jeff outlined every day, sites we were to see and which historical period of architecture we would see that day. He also planned to make sure we had the full British experience by mixing our modes of transit from black cabs, to double decker buses to the underground. I'm telling you, he is thorough and K2 Share is lucky to have him.

Jeff has been subject to some ridicule (from me) because of this Itinerary; but let it be known that i am very appreciative of his planning and preparation for this trip. We had a wonderful time and would love to go back.