10 days to go!

I realized this morning we have 10 more days in Edinburgh. We have been here 47 days which sounds crazy long when you say it like that but it has gone by in a flash. M & I were having fun on our own, but we have been happy to have some more company.

On Tuesday morning I went to the airport to pick up our friend, let's call her A. She is the daughter of a friend and is 13 years old. M is very glad to have someone closer to her own age to hang out with.

Day one was a wee bit rough for her. Jet lag can be a beast. But she was pretty excited and managed to power through. She brought us fun gifts from the US. Coffee and NICE SOFT toilet paper, which I cannot find here.

She also brought M a cat's cradle book, who knew a piece of string could bring hours of enjoyment.

Here they are on top of the climbing rock in the playground. 

 In front of Grey Fryer's Kirk, we went in to find out the real story of the wee doggie. 

 The statue of Bobby, the dog. He was very devoted to his owner. 

Even after the owner died. 

We popped into the museum, while M was hugging rocks, 

poor A was fading and about to fall asleep standing up. 

 We managed a walk home and stopped at the Pavilion for a bite on the way. 

 Finally the sky got blue! 

 A mug of Tea! 

We headed home after our snacks, played, ate dinner and all had a good night of sleep. 

We got a slow start yesterday, but we managed to get out the door 

and head to Gorgie City Farm. It was a good way to get out the door 

but only took up about an hour. Fortunately it was a fun bus ride over there.  

 They liked the chickens, except if you get too close they are pretty smelly. 

Driving a tractor. 

Cool mural. 

Then we hopped back on the bus and headed up to Princes Street,

 so A could see the main drag of town, 

Edinburgh Castle! And the sun is out! 

The Wheel is up for the Festival. M wanted to go on it but A is too afraid of heights.

M and her dad will have to check it out soon. 

 

Piggybacks in the Garden. 

On A's list of things she wanted to do was check out the University of Edinburgh. It is spread out all over the city and many of the newer buildings just are not that interesting. However we were walking past the oldest and prettiest part of the University so we popped in to see it. 

A shielding her eyes from the searing Scottish sun. 

Today the sun is out and we have plans to walk Arthur's Seat and go check out the Palace. 

Hope you are out enjoying these last ays of summer vacation. 

The cure for homesickness.........friends!

Last week I got a wee bit homesick. But the cure for sure was having some friends from home come visit. The Schaar's took a rather long journey from Galway, Ireland to come and visit us in Edinburgh. They are having a somewhat similar summer experience, but in Galway. Raja is working while Dave and the kiddos explore. We were very happy to see them and we had a great weekend!

N & M having Ice Cream at the Pavillon Cafe in the Meadows. 

Tea!

M read everyone some bedtime stories. 

Lunch at Pizza Express. 

Hiking over Arthur's Seat. 

It is a bit of work and the kids whined in the beginning, 

but we made it to the top and it was well worth it.  

View from the top. 

Re-charging. 

Taking in the view. 

See all that cool stuff in the background. 

Another view. 

Sweet boys! 

We had a great time and explored Edinburgh with our friends. 

We will miss having those wild boys and Raja around. 

They left this morning while I was already at the airport picking up our next guest! 

These last couple of weeks in Edinburgh are going to be fun filled, lets hope the weather is decent. 

Last day of girls week!

This has been a weird week. Just M & I on our own in Edinburgh. We hit a rough patch and were tired and not eating good and not getting along at all. So I put on my big girl pants and turned it around. Made everybody get a good night's rest and made today better! 

I was tired of cooking so I found us a fun place for lunch, Toast in Marchmont (Edinburgh neighborhood). They serve breakfast until noon, so we high tailed it over there just in time. 

M wanted you to see her cool curly straw, while she's sippin her mango juice. 

I ordered a Belgian waffle with goats cheese and red onion marmalade. 

So weirdly Scottish and delicious.

M got french toast with bacon and maple syrup. 

Next we hopped on the 41 bus to head to the Museum on the Mound. Which was way more fun than I anticipated. The security guys at the door were SO NICE! One of them came around and made sure we saw all the cool things and gave us chocolate coins. M got to complete a little scavenger hunt book and do some other fun activities. I would say it is one of my favorite little hidden things about Edinburgh. But the weird thing is, it is just a wee bit off the Royal Mile. Very easy to get to and it is free! Really what more could you ask for. 

The museum is in what was the original Bank of Scotland building. 

When that building got too small they built a bigger one around it. 

You learn all about the history of banking and money. 

And you get to see what you would look like on a £ note. 

Since we had an errand to run up on the high street, we headed from the Mound across Waverley Bridge and up to Princes Street. The little festival was still up there so I told M she could see how long the line was for the bungie jump thing. There was no line! And they have covered it since it has been rainy lately so she got to do it again.  

Along with bungie fun, today there was face paining available. 

M was desperate to get it done. 

She requested a blue and white tiger. 

I am glad I took this picture when it was fresh. Soon after this she made a friend, and they ran around for about an hour and got all sweaty. Then M forgot she had her face painted and smeared about half of it across her shirt. But as she says "don't worry it will wash out". 

I am still sort of procrastinating on cleaning our apartment. We have visitors coming tomorrow! But they won't be here til lunch so I will have plenty of time to clean up! And now that we have a bag for the vacuum cleaner I really have no more excuses. And Eric gets back tomorrow! So excited! 

Hope you have a great weekend! 

WiFi and a wee castle

The WiFi was out for almost 2 days! Which would be fine except it was rainy and cold and we did not feel like going anywhere. Except for when it magically cleared up and we did go out. 

Yesterday we went to the playground, of course. But then after that we caught the bus to go and check out a wee little castle, Craigmiller Castle. Which I have to say is WAY better than Edinburgh Castle (let's call it EC). 

EC is lovely and big and is an imposing figure over the city. But it is jam packed with tourists, and it is all historical and serious. Whereas Craigmiller is was more fun. 

We walked through a big field to get to the castle. 

Where the bus dropped us off was way far from the castle. I was a bit unsure. But then we found the signs and the path and all was well. 

Silly girl in a field. 

Walking up the path to the castle. 

Going in the gate.

A wee window. 

Weird weather.

Good view. 

This is the highest point we could go. 

On the far left is Edinburgh Castle above the city. 

It was much cheaper to get in to see this castle and was much more fun to explore. We managed to leave here and catch the bus before it started to pour. And once we got back to town it had stopped raining. 

It was a fun day yesterday. However we screwed up and did not eat lunch until 3pm. We gotta get better about eating at reasonable times. We both get too grumpy! 

Happy travels to you! 

   

too much togetherness?

M and I have been in constant company for 10 days. G'ma & G'pa gave me some adults to talk to for a while but we parted ways with them on Thursday. Some friends from home (surprise blog guests) are coming in town Friday and Eric gets back Saturday. So that leaves Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and 90% of the day Friday for M and I to fill on our own. I love my daughter, I really do. But we are bordering on too much togetherness.

Yesterday morning it poured and hailed, so we stayed in our PJs until about 3 pm. We made it out to the playground, where M was disappointed that she did not find anyone to play with. But she was happy to be reacquainted with her beloved playground.





However we were both sad to learn that the giant swing was broken while we were gone.  Now it is just an empty shell which is a little sad. Damed teenagers! Ruin everything.

Then we hit the grocery store. The one really frustrating thing about the grocery store is I always muck up the line. My American credit card has a chip but does not work like the chip and pin is supposed to work. It is annoying and I think the people at Sainsbury's hate me, I may have to switch to Tesco or Scot-Mid or just go back to ordering bloody groceries!


This morning the sky was a beautiful blue from the time I got up until the time we stepped out the door, around 11. As usual we stopped by the playground, I was hoping for just a 20 minute visit. But M found a girl to play with and her parents were lovely to talk to, so we ended up at the playground way longer than anticipated.

At 1:30 we finally hopped on the bus. As we sat down the rain started pouring.

But when we got off at our destination it had stopped raining. We were headed to the Omni Center for lunch and a movie. We ate at Slug & Lettuce. The place is adorable, the food was ok, but they had a lovely kids menu and the drinks menu looked FANTASTIC. I will have to go back there with grown ups. But really there is no shortage of fab bars in Edinburgh, I just have a lack of time to go and people to go with.



We saw The Minion Movie, it was cute and actually pretty funny. The theatre was very nice and assigned seats which always makes things a bit easier.

I have no idea why they have huge giraffe sculptures outside a movie theatre in Scotland, but they are really cute. When the movie let out it was not raining. But 2/3 of the walk home it started pouring. So M is soaking in a bubble bath to warm up as I write this. The weather in Scotland is ever changing so always bring your rain jacket and a scarf at the least.

One thing I find hard about summer no matter where we are is the lack of schedule. We have no where we have to be and nothing in particular we have to do. I am terrible about eating and going to bed when there are no constraints on my schedule. I really need to get better about it, but I have been saying that for years. Without E's influence M & I would be like feral cats and only wander in once in a while.

We hope you had a fun forth of July, was a quite regular old day here. We come home in 21 days! We are going to have fun while we are still here but I am starting to look forward to going home. 

And we are back....well two of us are!

Thanks to Eric's parents M & I had a great time in London and Paris.

I am so thankful we got to spend the week with them and that M got a chance to get to know them a little better.

Without my in-laws I would not have taken M to London and Paris. They are the reason we went. To spend time with them. Seeing London and Paris were secondary really. They live so far away we rarely get to see them and never for very long.

I really hope that M has fond memories of this trip. And that she gets many more fond memories of her Grammy and Grampy (which is what she calls them when she talks about them but in real life calls them Grandma & Grandpa).

While we did have a great time. We were both very happy to get back to Edinburgh. Which feels a lot more like home than it should. But the biggest perk is the weather! It is 65 and sunny right now in Edinburgh! Paris has cooled off to 96, which is better than when it was over 100 but still not exactly great. We powered through with just minor boughts of heat exhaustion.

Thanks again! We love you and we had a great time! We hope we see you again soon! And we hope you enjoy the rest of your trip on your own.

Oh a travelin we will go....

This morning it was cool and dreary and damp. But we had planned to take a cab up to the castle and go for a tour so that is what we did.

We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and some other castle-y stuff. But M pretty quickly lost interest. It was part because it was wet and she was cold and part because sadly well the castle is just not all that interesting. I think that there are other castles that are more fun to tour and we will hit some of those up in July.

So M and I headed to the castle cafe for a little pick me up. She enjoyed her muffin and the view from the cafe was really nice so was not such a bad stop.

When it finally stopped raining I got my good camera out to take some pictures, only to discover that the battery was dead!! URGH! So I essentially carried around a useless heavy brick all day. So travel tip - carry a spare battery or at least remember to charge the one you have.

 We saw this wee little truck up by the cafe and it made us laugh so we had to take a pic.

We headed out to the royal mile. M suckered me into buying her a kilt. She did look super cute in it! But she may have to be Scottish for Halloween since it was a wee bit pricey.

Our destination was lunch, and we knew we wanted to have lunch at Greyfriar's Bobby. Yes it is a little touristy but it is cozy and they really do have tasty food. 

Outside the resturant

Inside the restaurant

Another fun thing today is that it is Grandma's Birthday! Hope you had a great day! 

We bought her a wee cake at Choco-Latte, was yummy! 

Tomorrow me, Marion & the Grandparents are heading to London and later on to Paris. Don't be worried if you don't hear from me for a while. I am not lugging my heavy computer around with me. I am going to enjoy the sights and spending time with my peeps. A vacation from my vacation, if you will.