Inverness

Inverness is a lovely town and the drive there was beautiful through a national park. However, if I were doing this trip again I would probably skip it to save time and just drive up to Loch Ness one day from Ft William. We used Inverness as kind of a rest in the middle of the trip. We went shopping in town but  we found proper kilts to be way too expensive. We did laundry which was pricey and I don't think our clothes got very clean because we crammed too much in the expensive washer. We went to the movies both nights and saw the new Percy Jackson movie and Planes which was cute. Avery especially liked it. We went to the Culloden battlefield which was the last Jacobite battle and we took a two hour Loch Ness cruise. We didn't see Nessie or anything else alive in the water but it was a beautiful day and we did go by Urquhart Castle and we enjoyed watching the monitor showing how deep the water was getting below us, over 700 ft, and hoping to see Nessie. We also passed a beautiful old ship in the water. Inverness was good but if you are concerned about time and money you could skip it and just go over to Ft William area from Edinburgh.

The dark areas all over the hills is heather.

Culloden battlefield

When we first walked up to this old cottage the younger boys were trying to open the front door
but it's locked shut. There was a tour group walking past at that time consisting of a group of older
people and one lady tells the tour guide he better stop those kids from breaking in so the guide told the boys
they can't go in and not to tug on the door. I was annoyed. I mean, I was right there watching them about
 to say no one is allowed in but hey they just figured that out themselves. They were not going to force
 their way in. I wanted to go tell that old lady to mind her own grumpy business but I didn't.

Please tell me when you are taking a picture Cory. I look like a crazy woman.
One crazy thing did happen that day though. I went outside to enjoy the view and air and
the boat turned and I got splashed big time. My hair, jacket and part of my pants were pretty wet.

746 ft deep!

Urquhart Castle

Looking back at this picture makes me happy that Lidia doesn't have braces anymore and that
we pulled out that baby front tooth of Avery's.

Tristan and Avery decided to keep wearing their 3D glasses everywhere we went.

These activity packs they gave the kids came in handy.

That's Inverness castle but it's not really a castle inside, just government offices I think.

Inverness. I'm not sure where Avery picked up this very Asian habit of giving the peace sign in pictures.
He's so cute and happy though. That smile brightens my day. I hope he never outgrows his happy demeanor. 

We were waiting for Cory. He was looking at kilts and I was tired of taking the kids in stores because all
they do, especially Tristan, is beg for me to buy them stuff. You could give Tristan a thousand dollars
and it would be gone in minutes because money just burns a hole in his pocket that way. ;)

I hate to admit it but the sweet popcorn is growing on me.
What I really like is the two mixed. I got half salty and  half sweet in both buckets.
Cory found an ipod touch here so he got on it and sent a message to the owner
that it was at the movies and then gave it to the cashier.

This air hockey table was out of order but the boys had fun playing anyway using a
happy meal toy smurf as a puck.