Scotland the Brave!

The goal is to share enough about Scotland without writing a million pages.  I could not have happier with out decision to go and spend a week.  The girls and I were blessed to have the Wehmeyer family, who is living in Scotland for a few years, open their home to us.  I had not realized how much I missed living in a home until we were settled into the flat at the Wehmeyer's house.  Not only did we have plenty of space, but we had a living room to sit in which was wonderful.  It was also nice to have a mom around to cook occasionally and to take us places and give us advice on what to do and see.
We were able to take our time seeing the city.  We slept in a little the first day and still had time to go to the museum, get tea at the Elephant House (where JK Rowling would sit and drink tea while working on Harry Potter), explore a bit of the city, and get a bite to eat.  The next day was devoted to Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.  The castle is enormous and I'm not sure that I have ever been more cold in my life!  Tuesday was the day of castles.  Kate took us out all day and we saw two castles and a palace.  We started off at Dune Castle which was used in the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, then we went to Stirling Castle which was huge like Edinburgh Castle, but more restored on the inside.  Kate also took us to Linlithgow Palace.  The palace was in ruins, but it is one of my favorite places that we went.  We also took a day to tour the Highlands of Scotland.  We got to see many beautiful lakes and mountains.  We traveled all the way to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.  After exploring the castle we took an hour long boat ride on Loch Ness and got to search for Nessy between snowstorms.
We ended our trip with a full day on Friday.  After attending Good Friday service at Old St. Paul's in Edinburgh we hiked up to the to of Arthur's Seat which was a steady uphill hike most of the was and almost rock climbing at the top.  All of the work was worth it though because the view from the top was unbelievable!  We got to watch the sun set while we hiked down.  After dinner Megan and I went back into town for a ghost tour through the town and in the underground of Edinburgh.
The first week of Easter was amazing.  So much was done and so many beautiful things were seen!  More exploring to come during the second week of Easter break, but I will save that for a later post!