Father's Day Weekend

Waiting to be able to go back in and get our trolly full of groceries

Friday night we had a bit of an adventure. We took the bus to the BIG Sainsbury's at Cameron Toll. Which is sort of an old sad shopping Mall.

We had fun shopping for stuff and groceries. When we were about half way done and in the soap isle, this alarm started going off and we thought nothing of it until, an employee came and ushered us out of the store along with all the other customers.

We ended up sitting outside for about 20 minutes, then we got back in found, our trolly (cart) and finished shopping. We bought so much stuff that we had to take a taxi home.

Saturday - the weather was iffy. But we decided to tough it out and go wandering about the city. We ended up taking daddy to see the roof terrace of the museum.

It was actually warm enough that for about half an hour I was wearing just a t-shirt!

However I ended up putting my sweater back on for the rest of the day. But I never pulled out my back up jacket which was in my bag, so I would call it a good weather day. 

We decided we were hungry. Eric got to pick where we were having lunch so we headed to Pizza Express. Which is a UK chain sort of like Mellow Mushroom. It was pretty yummy and they have a great kids menu. They also give kids a paper hat, M added the bow. 

We knew we wanted to head to Prices Street. But to head uptown here, you have to go down first.

It is very hilly and steep to go the short cuts. You can take the bridges and get places without all the stairs but it takes longer and there is more traffic, that's the way the cars have to go. There is so much more to find and explore if you go on foot.  

M got to do one of those bungie jumpy things up at Princes Street. She had a great time. We spent the rest of Saturday in the Princes Street Gardens as well as shopping and wandering. And we took the long way home again. I am at the top of my fit bit friends list, Saturday I did over 20,000 steps.

Saturday night we had a babysitter again. And E & I went out for Malaysian food, and to see the movie "Mr. Holmes" which was another spin on Sherlock Holmes. It was a great story but the movies was a wee bit slow. It was nice that even though we got out of the movie at 10:30 it was still light out for our walk home.

Sunday June 21, Summer Solstice! I feel like we should have had a Solstice party or something. Technically sunset is at 10:02 and the sun comes up again at 3:24.

But check out this fun chart about sunset and rise and how long twilight is, for twilight hours in Edinburgh it just says "the rest of the night" which means it does not really truly get dark. http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/edinburgh.

We had a fun brunch at Hemma. I like the way they deal with reservations here in Edinburgh. They call it a booking. And if you book a table it is yours for the afternoon or evening or whatever. IF they are the type of restaurant that turns over tables they will tell you up front what time they expect the table to be free and it usually two hours or more. This is NOT how they do it in the US.

Next we walked past the Parliament Building and up the Royal Mile to catch the No. 8 bus out to the Royal Botanic Gardens. They were having "Cake Fest", so we wanted to check it out.  Traffic was terrible over in new town for some reason but we got there.

The City in Cake!

The city from the Gardens

M got to make a fondant car to go on the streets of Edinburgh. 

Those leaves are HUGE!

I am glad I brought my real camera with us to the garden. M spent a lot of time taking pictures. We talked a lot about composition and how to fill the frame nicely.


After we got home and looked at the pictures I realized we should have also talked about focus and lighting a little more but it is a lot to learn. And she is improving. Below are some of her better shots.

Photo Credit: M Weeks

Photo Credit: M Weeks

Photo Credit: M Weeks

Photo Credit: M Weeks

It was a nice day out. It was warm enough to not be thinking about being cold and the sun was out the whole day. M took off both her sweater and jacket at one point, but ended up with the jacket back on later. I hope Eric enjoyed his gifts and his day out, I know we enjoyed our time with him!!