Scotland here we come!

We booked airfare to Scotland in last March. It's been a couple of years since our last big trip and I was glad of something exciting to look forward to this summer. I haven't been my usual self, and having a big trip to plan didn't buoy my mood as much as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to be able to visit Scotland and spend a week with just Ryan. It just wasn't the get-out-of-grief-and-low-mood card I was hoping it would be. I enjoy visiting new and different places. I just didn't get as excited for this trip as I normally do. It took me longer to plan, and I didn't have the usual preplanned lists made up. We kinda winged it. But it still turned out well. 

We left Seattle Thursday, July 17th. We left the house just before Elizabeth left for work, between 5:30 and 6 am. We had prepaid parking near SeaTac. It was a valet-style parking lot. We had to leave a car key with them, as they double and triple parked cars in a limited space. It's the first time we've used this particular business, but it was cheap and worked well. We got in their shuttle, after our three hour drive to SeaTac, and we were off.

Our flight to Chicago left around 11 am. I love seeing Mt. Rainier from the sky.

We had a couple hour lay-over in Chicago, and then we were off to Edinburgh! United did feed us on this second leg of the journey. The flatware they gave us was so.... dainty. The fork was bad at stabbing through the salad greens. 

We managed maybe a couple hours of sleep. Our flight landed in Edinburgh at around 8:30 am local time, which is 12:30 am Pacific. Not great for us, but what can you do? Overseas travel is not easy. 

We made it through customs fairly quickly, picked up our one checked bag (we decided it would be nice to bring hiking poles, as we wanted to do several hikes), and headed over to pick up our rental car. It was tiny! One of the YouTube videos I watched about Edinburgh suggested not driving into the city, and in fact you could just leave the car at a park and ride and catch the bus from there. After doing some Google searches, it seemed in fact that was a decent option. You can leave a car there for up to 3 days for free. It was a bit of a muddle finding the Hermiston Park and Ride, but it was a relatively short drive for Ryan. This is his third time driving on the wrong side of the road, and it still isn't getting easier. The wrong way roundabouts on not much sleep are terrible.  

Our cute little Hyundai. I took a picture before we left the car at the park and ride so we could find it again.

The first bus that came by took us into the old town Edinburgh. There were no maps printed at the bus stops, only the names of the stops in a list. We asked the bus driver if his bus would take us where we needed to go and he said probably pretty close. He decamped two stops into our drive and another bus driver took over. We weren't too sure where we should get off the bus, but guessed pretty well. The Google map that Ryan downloaded prior to arrival wasn't working as well as we hoped, so it was just a guess. Our hotel was 10 Hill Place near the Royal Mile and they had interesting bathrooms. Here's the sassy toilet paper wrapper:

And it had the least private bathroom door I have ever seen. 

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? 

It's one thing to have a peeping husband while you are in the shower. It's entirely another when you are sitting on the toilet, which is the direction I am taking the photo from- straight ahead! (Just to be clear, I was ONLY taking a picture and this was entirely set up because the situation is funny.)

I messaged our hotel a couple of weeks ago and asked if it was possible to drop off luggage earlier than check-in time. Since we flew in so early, we did not want to be toting around our bags all day waiting for 3 pm. They said yes BUT they actually had a room ready when we arrived and so we were able to get into our room before lunch. That was a nice surprise. 

Then we were off to explore! Who needs sleep anyway?

The first place we saw was the Greyfriars Abbey and graveyard.

We next saw Victoria Street. This was our first view-- it is curved and colorful.

It got brighter and more interesting the further down the street we went.

This was a store along Victoria Street. We didn't go in, but the nose and glasses certainly caught my eye.

There were stairs leading up to the 3rd story and you could walk above the street and look down.

We had lunch here. We got a sandwich to share. This is their version of bacon.

I'd heard about IRN BRU soda. It's orange colored but not orange flavored, so we had to try it. It's sweet like cotton candy and cream soda. But there are also other flavors in it. It's hard to pin down what exactly it tastes like. 

Then we hit the Royal Mile.

We had tickets for the Real Mary King's Close. Pictures aren't allowed inside. They take one of you on the lower street level, but the least expensive package was 15 pounds. No thanks. This was outside and free. It was an hour long tour of a "close" named after a woman who lived in the 1600s. We learned about the living conditions of the very poor and working classes. We learned about the different plagues that swept through Europe. (Hence the plague doctor statue.) 

Then we went to St. Giles Cathedral.

                                        

I love exploring beautiful, old cathedrals and appreciating the stain glass windows. Churches built in the post-Catholic, Protestant areas and times get decidedly spartan by comparison.

                                 

This extra room didn't photograph well as a panorama. The walls in the rectangular room look wonky. Oh well.

Hi. My name is Danae and I have an addiction to taking and posting photos of old, gothic architecture. #SorryNotSorry

 

Along the Royal Mile (which is 1.1 miles long), there are alleyways called a "close" that sometimes have gardens or other cool, old buildings inside. Some closes are boring and some are amazing. You just don't know until you have a look. This one was my favorite.

Another pretty view down a close.

It was almost 5 pm and we were famished. We opted for a place called "Oink" for some pulled pork sandwiches. They were pretty tasty. You had your choice of bun, sauce, and type of stuffing. This place closed at 5 pm, but we were inside with 3 minutes to spare and they very kindly served us before closing down the rest of the way.

The Writer's Museum is down one of the closes, and was also closed for the evening by the time we found it. Which was fine because were were just about done in. 

We moseyed our way back to our hotel, showered, and crashed. We had a grand total of 18,000 steps for the day.

California

Ryan's grandma passed away in February. She was 94 and had outlived her husband, all three kids, and her friends. Her grandkids decided to get together at her house for a BBQ during the summer as a final goodbye. As Watsonville is a 13 hour drive (without stops) from home, we figured we might as well turn it into a vacation trip. Elizabeth had to stay behind to work, so we were a family of 4 on a roadtrip. We left Wednesday afternoon and drove to Willows, CA. This made us about 2 hours from the Oakland Temple so we could do baptisms Thursday morning. The Oakland Temple has some special significance in our family. Ryan was sealed to his family there, and I don't think has been back since then. It's a beautiful temple, and we do enjoy being temple tourists. Their baptistry has the steepest, skinniest stairs we've ever encountered.

 

                                  

After my picture taking frenzy, we took a tour of the temple visitor's center. Then girded up our loins for big city traffic to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We've taken the girls before, but Annie and Maddie didn't remember it. We were so close. We could see San Francisco from the roof top garden. We might as well go.

We had to cross two toll roads to get there. We drove across the bridge before getting out of the car to take pictures. We need proof that we are adventurous parents and took them. Again.

When we arrived, the Golden Gate Bridge disappeared into the cloud bank. 

Wait, the Golden Gate Bridge is orange?

The clouds started to clear out a little.

It was a bit more visible when we walked back to the van.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Gilroy, California. While it is about a half hour away from our true destination of Watsonville, hotel prices were less than half. The good news was that there is a Kannely Lane IN Gilroy, so of course we had to go find it. Ryan did examine the sign closely. How hard would it be if the sign "accidentally" found its way into our van? Probably not that hard. But we did leave it. We already have a street sign from this very road in our house. 

I was told this sign (below) was retired, and is not ill-gotten gains.

I took another picture of the street sign from the other direction. It's a nicer view, but my family was too squinty-eyed from the setting sun to take a picture from this direction.

It worked out that we stayed in the same hotel as Michael and his family. We had a picnic dinner at Mt. Madonna with them. And then the next morning we all went to an old Catholic mission- San Juan Bautista. Again, this is somewhere we've been before, but it's been a number of years, and Annie and Maddie didn't remember it.

Catholic chapel. They really are ornate and attractive. Sometimes I wish our church buildings were more interesting to look at.

We were wandering around and there was a museum volunteer who was very excited to share the history of the mission. Tour guides cost extra, but this fellow was happy to give us a short extra narrated tour on his own time. And took a group picture of all of us.

Me: Ryan- why would you position the camera so it looks like the palm fronds are coming out of Annie's head? 

I made him try again. And like the nice husband he is, he complied.

Afterwards, we went to Gizdich's for pie and lunch. Lunch took a very long time to get made, so we ended up eating about half of the pie before our sandwiches arrived.

We, oddly enough, bumped into Ryan's cousin Collin and his Aunt Paula while we were there. They were picking up pies for the BBQ the next day. Once our appetites had been satiated, we visited with family at Grandma Skip's house. It was weird and sad to be there when she was not.

We had one last stop before the end of Friday. We went to Martinelli's for cider sipping, and to purchase drinks for Saturday's BBQ. They do a free tasting, which we haven't tried before. They have a lot of flavors I've not had the pleasure of sampling.

Whew. Friday done.

Saturday morning we went to the beach. 

This is Ryan's using seaweed like a whip.

The only right way to make jumping pictures is to make videos and then stop the videos at the best point of the jump. We had some fun.
                                            

I wanted in on the fun.

Sometimes my hair is just too much.  I pulled my hair into a ponytail and we tried again.

We had the BBQ lunch. Collin did an excellent job cooking us the traditional skirt steak on the charcoal BBQ in the backyard. We filled our bellies, and exchanged stories and memories. Then we went through pictures and Christmas ornaments and other odds and ends. People grabbed special items with good memories. 

There was one last photo session in front of Grandma Skip's house. It was a brand new house in the 60s and she had raised her family there. 

I think this was recreating a cousin picture from sometime way, way back when.

And here are all of the Oakes cousins, minus Brian.