A Scottish Thanksgiving

Oh, what a surprise! You caught us eating Thanksgiving dinner in this natural pose! Since our kitchen isn't supplied with the adequate pans/utensils for cooking a turkey, Nick cooked a Scottish chicken for our Thanksgiving dinner. He also made cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes with leeks and parsnips (very British). For dessert, a pumpkin pie. Best of all, I didn't lift a finger for any of this cooking! I offered to help but Nick kindly gave the excuse that there wasn't enough room in the kitchen for the two of us. I think he was really saving me from doing something I'm not fond of. What a great guy I have!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We're off to Madrid for a 4 day trip this weekend so I hope to have some "exciting" stories for you when we get back.

A Week With My Dad

First of all, I apologize to those of you who actually check our blog (i.e. Daisy)...I've been very delinquent in updating the blog these past few weeks. Truth is, we haven't been doing much since we were awaiting an action packed week with my parents last week. Unfortunately, only my dad could make the trip out here (we REALLY missed you Beth!) and we managed to get out and see some of Scotland on day trips from Dundee. Another unfortunate "spanner in the plans" was that my dad and I came down with food poisoning on Thursday and we were sick most of the day. Not fun. Luckily, it was just a 24 hour thing and we were back to touring on Friday.

On Wednesday, Nick took the day off and we went over to Dunkeld and Birnam which was about an hour's drive away from Dundee. The "big" tourist attraction is a Beatrix Potter exhibit and since I was a big fan when I was little, I forced Nick and my dad to go into this exhibit which was really aimed for children. I think they still had fun. (most of you are probably like "who is Beatrix Potter?". Just think Peter Rabbit.) In Dunkeld we went to the old cathedral there and saw this really cool tomb of The Wolf of Badenoch. His story is that he deserted his wife for some other lady and as a result, was excommunicated from the church. So in revenge, he burned down towns. Obviously he eventually made reparations since they gave him such a nice tomb!

After the cathedral, we took a walk in an area called the Hermitage which is just a woodland area by a stream. It was very pretty but I can imagine how beautiful it must be when we're not in the dead of winter! Nick took some cool water shots.

My favorite picture from the week is from the top of St. Rule's tower in St. Andrews. I actually took this picture (I usually give this task to "long-armed" Nick) so I'm pretty proud of myself.

Shout Out

This blog post is a shout out to Heather in CO for sending me something I wasn't expecting: an "I voted" sticker. So I can finally walk around feeling proud of myself! I might get some weird looks around here. Anyway, here is a picture to show you how smug I felt with my sticker. Thanks for sweet-talking your polling place lady Heather!

Another abbey, and some mountain

The weather this weekend was unseasonably uncrappy, so we rented a car and did some sight-seeing. On Saturday we headed to Edinburgh by way of Dunfermline. We toured the ruins of the abbey, hoping to see where Robert the Bruce and some other kings are buried. The abbey was nice in a typical busted-up Scottish ruin sort of way, and the newer church had some pretty great columns- but the area where the kings' tombs are had closed for the season the day before. Sam's disappointment was heartbreaking. We were ok though- after a mediocre lunch of really cheap meat in a pastry casing plus donuts, we got back on the road to Edinburgh.


We spent the afternoon wandering around the Scottish National Gallery, which was pretty good. Surprisingly good, actually, with some pretty great artwork. A lot of the pieces were listed as 'accepted by HM Government in lieu of taxes' which sounds kind of dodgy, but whatever works. There was a painting of a dog which has to hang in the museum forever in exchange for a large donation in 1915 or so, which is maybe a little out of place. After the donor died the museum had to care for his other dog, too, which is kind of whimsical and charming?


On Sunday we headed for the highlands to climb Schiehallion. This mountain kind of dominates its surroundings and is a popular hike, there were probably 80 people or so on it today. It was a great day for it though. A nice steady climb up into the snow with great views. The mountain is more significant than most if you're into the history of science- in 1774 the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne measured the deflection of a plumb line caused by the mountain's gravity and deduced the mean density of the earth, which is pretty good for 1774, and it was the first mountain to be mapped by contour lines. Academic trivia plus moderately strenuous physical activity- not a bad day.

Pictures are here.