penultimate weekend

Our time in Scotland is nearing its end- it's pretty crazy to think that we've been here over a year now. We didn't do much on Saturday, but today we headed up toward Aberdeen to see a castle that we hadn't gone to yet. Travel Tip: there's no electricity and therefor no credit card machine at Dunnottar castle, so you need to have enough cash to get in. Bonus Travel Tip: if you don't have enough cash to get in you can still have fun on the beach and you get a nice walk out of the day.

Hanging out at Magdalene Green on a nice but windy day.

Happy baby coming in for a landing.

Dunnottar castle- dramatically situated, still protected to this day by a steep, narrow approach and a ticket stand that takes only cash.

Calvin thinks it's pretty funny that we were denied entry.
Heading to the beach below the castle.
Swooping around the beach.Calvin is still very short.
We learned that Calvin is not only no good at skipping stones yet, he actively hinders your ability to skip stones when he's strapped to your chest. This stage of development isn't in any of the baby books that I've seen.

We had a good day despite not seeing the castle. I mean, we've seen a lot of broken castles, and the scenery is really the draw for this one anyway. We have one more weekend in Scotland- not sure what we'll do yet, it will probably be epic like Braveheart but with fewer swords.

a visit to Cambridge

Sorry for the delay in posting but we've had a busy time down in England. We set off a week and a half ago for Cambridge, in search of housing for the three of us to live in for the next three years. I had lined up 6 places for us to look at on a Friday and Saturday in hopes that we would see something we liked before Nick's conference started on Monday. Instead, we saw houses complete with disgustingly stained carpet, dark cave-like qualities, bathrooms with no shower, and (the worst) shattered glass strewn across the floor from a broken window that the landlord hadn't even bothered to clean up (but had bothered to board up the window). I won't go into the despair that both Nick and I felt after our two days of house hunting but we did decide that we needed to up our price range and look further out from the city. So to make a long story short, we now have a beautiful place to live in Grantchester, which is just 2 miles outside of Cambridge. Nick will be able to bike in along the River Cam and Cal and I will be enjoying living in the countryside while being able to take a short bus ride into the city center. We are really looking forward to it.

While Nick was at his conference in Cambridge, Cal and I stayed with first my Aunt Beverly, and then my Uncle Ken and Aunt Liz. My cousin Amy was also able to come down from Manchester for the day so she could meet Calvin. We had a great time and it seemed that Calvin made quite a bit of progress while we were down there. He is handing out lots of smiles now and starting to grab things. He is also quite the drool monster and we think he might be teething. Let the fun begin!

Here are a few pictures from our time down in the Midlands. Only 3 weeks left in Scotland!

Falling asleep in Aunty Liz's arms


Cal thinks Uncle Ken's phone conversation is hilarious


Meeting up for a picnic with Dad in Cambridge


His first set of keys


Aunty B reading a story to Calvin


Cal getting caught cuddling with Aunty Amy

Farmer Calvin

Not much to report this week except that Cal is packing on the pounds. He was weighed today (12 weeks adjusted age) and he is 13 lb 6 oz. Quite the big boy!

Cal's overalls (or dungarees as they call them over here) are courtesy of his friend Milo Galvin

We're off to England again for a week and a half. Nick has a conference in Cambridge and Cal and I will stay with my family. We're also doing some house hunting in Cambridge so wish us luck! I think we're going to need it.

smile!

orkney trip

We had a short vacation in Orkney this week, and it was pretty awesome. The weather was forecast to be terrible, but it ended up being great. Windy, but mostly sunny and no rain. Orkney is a group of islands off the north coast of Scotland, and we drove up to catch the ferry across on Tuesday, spent Wednesday and Thursday poking around the largest island, and headed back to Dundee on Friday.

Orkney is full of stone-age monuments and spectacular coastline, so that's what we did on our two days there. Calvin handled all the activity pretty well, even the restaurants, so that was good. We saw the highlights of the biggest island (called Mainland), but if you were going without a baby you could easily spend another several days hiking and taking boats or planes to the smaller islands. If you're ever planning a tour around Scotland, seriously consider hopping over to Orkney for a while. We had a really good time, the people were very friendly, and since it was owned by Norway until the 1400s there's a feeling of vikingness that's different from the rest of the country. The one downer was the food, which was a bit of a crapshoot. The only Orcadian specialty we saw on a menu was some kind of cured herring. If your local delicacy is an interesting way to preserve fish, then in my book you've got some problems in the cuisine department.

We put up a bunch of pictures, here are some highlights of the trip:

Calvin's first boat!

Stone circles of various diameters!

Fearsome local wildlife!

Coastal walks with wind and birds and cliffs!

Pensive brooding in the Orkney tradition!

Calvin's adverse reaction to sunlight at high latitudes!