We are back from 12 days of traveling around up north. I don't want to get in the car again for a while. Traffic was a nightmare on the way to the pageant on Friday August 9th. It is usually worse on Friday afternoons but this was really bad. It should have taken us 2.5 hours to get to the Preston temple. It took 4 hours and 15 minutes. The M6 was packed and barely moving. Maybe we should have taken smaller roads but I didn't know how and you keep thinking it's about to get better. Luckily the rest of the trip did not have bad traffic and our car held up very well. No incidents. Up in the Isle of Skye a lot of the roads are little one track lanes with little turn outs to let someone by coming the other way every 200 meters or so. It seemed there was always one when needed so it works. You just have to be slow and careful.
We are glad to be home and have our own space and beds again. It was a nice trip with lots of beauty but I think we could have shaved off a couple of days and been fine. If I advised someone about a trip to Scotland I would skip Inverness and just see Loch Ness by driving up from Fort William one day. It would have been better if the weather were nicer the last few days but it could have been worse and I am thankful for the nice weather we did have. I was glad we just spent one day in Edinburgh. I just don't love cities. I prefer nature or towns that are less crowded and chaotic. August is a crazy time in Edinburgh. I guess some people like all that's going on but not me. I loved our walk along Hadrian's wall. Northumberland was beautiful. I also loved our hike up to Arthur's Seat at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. St Andrews was nice and it was fun to play on the putting course at the home of golf. I also really enjoyed our hike at the Fairy Pools on Isle of Skye and around Ben Nevis in Ft William. We also loved the Jacobite steam train, watching it pass Glenfinnan Viaduct as well as seeing it up close at the station. Old trains are fun. We enjoyed York as well. It is a fun old city with kid friendly museums that are not expensive. Cory enjoyed seeing Scotland, especially the highland areas that some of his ancestors came from. He said it reminded him of the Sun Valley area in Idaho if the mountains were covered in green carpet and had less trees. hee hee. It always feels a bit like home to be around mountains again even if they are technically not high enough above sea level to be considered mountains. The height from the valley is about as tall so it feels the same. We did not buy a kilt as they are super expensive (like close to a thousand USD) for one made with Cory's ancestor's tartan. Now we could have bought one ready made with a generic plaid that is a wool blend instead of 100% wool for about 60 GBP but Cory didn't want that. They do look a little cheap but that's still like 100 USD. Cory bought a wool plaid tie instead for 12 GBP that has a tartan from his ancestors.
I am so behind on blogging, lots to do once the kids are back in school. They start next week after labor day. It will be good. The summer has gone by so fast but this week the kids actually said they were bored. I told them they could clean but then they found other things to do. They want me to let them veg in front of the tv all day. I can't go for that. No can do. They have had plenty of screen time. Tristan has had so much fun playing with Dylan who lives down the street. I am glad. Avery and Aiden go over and play sometimes too but mostly Tristan. They have three boys as well. They all go to karate together too. They go to a different private school though. I just can't ever go for Saturday school. The kids are excited to go back to school and see all of their friends again. I will be happy to have a cleaner house. hee hee
