On the Hunt for Nessie!

Hi! Our trip to the Highlands was amazing! After our first day travelling west, visiting as many castles as we could, we continued with a daytrip to the Isle of Mull.
This is a shot just to show the beautiful coastline that we drove along for many miles.

On the way to the ferry terminal, we saw this crumbling castle on the coast, so we walked through some farmer's fields until we came to it. There was no access whatsoever, due to the rugged rocks immediately surrounding it, and the posted warnings of falling masonary, and the heavily locked old door. I'm pretty sure that I could have found a way in, but I thought that I'd better not just in case things went sideways. This castle is called Mingary Castle, and upon looking up its history, I found that it was inhabited for over 400 years! It was the centre of numerous bloody clan wars dating back to the 14th century, and it was laid siege to several times, and visited numerous times by Scotland's King James IV, all because of its importance to controlling the local waterways. Lots of cool history, all in a ruin that stands unattended and slowly disintegrating on the coast.

Here was the Kilchoan ferry terminal! The yellow sign actually reads "Waiting Room". I like how the fare wasn't collected until after everyone drives on and the boat starts to leave!

Approaching the Isle of Mull. Lots of lighthouses in this part of the country.

Driving to the south end of Mull, we came across these rotted fishing boats pulled up on shore. Made for a good reason to stop!

Of course, half the fun is exploring the boats!

On one of our breaks, Emma demonstrated her awesome tree-climbing skills. She was at least 5 feet off the ground!

The imposing Duart castle on Mull. This is owned by the 16th(?) chieftain of the Maclean clan. Apparently Macleans from all over the world visit this during huge clan gatherings. Amazing private collection of arms, armour, and clan treasures from the last 600 years.

The colourful seaside village of Tobermory on Mull.

The next day we started our hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. We thought that we'd begin at the old Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness.

Isaiah decided that he'd start looking carefully over the dark waters of the Loch.

He did take a break to join us in a family shot overlooking the castle. Funny thing is that we are all still wearing the same clothing that we wore in our Paris family shots! Time to change our clothes soon!

Sophie claimed to find Nessie, but I was a little suspicious being that we were in the gift shop...

Isaiah also claimed to have seen something, but we doubted him of course. Funny though, when we later looked at this photo, we realized that he may have been on to something. Could this be the final proof that the world needs?

Thanks for checking out this part of our journey! Next stop, the Orkney Islands!

Cheers,

Jimy MacJohnson

Taking Ewe to the Highlands!

Hiya! Yes, a blog update so soon! Well, we have lots to share with you right now - yesterday we just got back from a week on the Westcoast and the Highlands of Scotland - and believe me, this sheep above was one of MANY. I'm pretty sure that there are way more sheep in the Highlands than people. But what a completely amazing week! We set out on Monday and travelled through all the sights that you will see below.

We started our trip with a day of "castle bagging" - the U.K. term for visiting a significant number of castles in a short period of time. It was a fun way to make our way to the west coast of the country. We tried to keep our visits to 45 minutes or less, and for the most part were very successful with our timing. The first visit was to Lochleven castle in Kinross. This was cool because we had to take a boat on a 10 minute journey to the middle of Loch Leven to get to it. There was also a lot of history in this place as it was the prison castle for Mary Queen of Scots for the year after she was forced to abdicate. After a year of being held here, Mary escaped with the help of local boatmen, to gather her suppporters and unsuccessfully make her move to try to get her crown back. Walking through the nice but small castle, you get the idea that after a year anyone would want to get off the island. Cool to visit for 30 minutes though!


The family outside the walls of Lochleven Castle. Beautiful gardens all around the castle too.

Our third castle was this great fortress named Doune Castle. For film buffs, this castle was the main filming location for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As King Arthur and his men approach the French soldier taunts them "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries..."

After everyone else left, Isaiah decided that he'd do a little jig in the Great Hall of Doune castle. I love how this photo worked out!

Oh yeah, this happened between some of the castles as we wound our way west.

The next castle was the lonely Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe. I love the castles that are completely deserted and open for us to wander about. This castle was on the main shore of the Loch, but out on a spit of land making for great photos.

This was my view from the top tower looking out towards a couple of little islands in the Loch.

Similar view, but you can see Emma and Sophie wandering the little beach. With the incredible weather on this day, it almost seems like a tropical photo location. Who'd have thought this of Scotland!

Emma and Sophie walking out to the little island.

Isaiah and Sophie waving from the top of the tall tower. Goodbye, Kilchurn!

Next was the most-photographed and least-visited castle in Scotland - Castle Stalker. No tours or services to the island. Visitors would have to arrange a private boatman to take them over. Pretty difficult since very few people live in this area. In fact, this is about the only vantage point from the highway that one can even see the castle.

We finally made our last approach to the town we were staying in. It's the most westerly village on mainland Great Britain, and we only got there after 44 miles of single-track road. Very interesting driving, up and down like a rollercoaster, with nearly every corner a blind one, and not enough room for two cars to pass, except in the "passing place" pullouts. Fortunately, in the 44 miles I only passed a half dozen cars altogether. Here was a herd of about 30 deer that crossed the road in front of us.

Finally we got to the coastal village of Kilchoan. Yes, this is all there was. Maybe 2 dozen buildings, including the church, primary school, pub, and hotel.

Our hotel was nice - only it was a further 3 miles away from Kilchoan "town centre"!

This is really the view from the front of the hotel. Rugged hills, the ocean, and a couple of buildings a mile or two away. I told Kim that the hotel was a little remote - I think that I nailed it!

Isaiah feeding straw to the two cute little donkeys.

Here is a funny little video clip of the girls playing in the "quicksand" of Loch Awe. Sophie gives some important information right at the end of the clip...

So went our first day! Westcoast Scotland didn't disappoint! The next couple of days of our trip will be covered in the next blog entry.

Jimy MacJohnson

Uhers hit Edinburgh!

Greetings! It's near the end of May, and I once again have a few updates to share! Today we recently arrived home from a week in the Highlands (blog entries to follow over the next week), but first I want to share a little of our fabulous visit with our great friends Jason and Suzanne, and their girls Mary and Abby. We've really missed all of our friends at World Harvest Church, so it was really nice catching up with the Uhers for a week in late April and early May.

Here is the happy Uher family overlooking Edinburgh.

Kim and Suzanne really enjoyed their time together. Lots of laughing and complaining about their husbands. (I'm joking of course, there's nothing to complain about obviously.)

This is our countertop after some shopping for breakfast materials. The Uhers REALLY like bagels and cream cheese!

Uhhh... Jason? That doesn't look like a bagel...

Here are Abby, Isaiah, Mary and Monkey-face on the Scott Monument.

We spent an afternoon walking through Holyrood Park, that is except the kids who thought it was much more fun to roll down the hills. Here's an action shot of Sophie and Abby who rolled right on by me.

Here are all of the kids relaxing on the rocks in the park.

They were extremely excited when we told them that we were going to climb all the way to the top of Arthur's seat!

Here Jason and Mary peer over the edge as they worked their way up.

We made it - but found that Joe had beaten us to the top. He didn't even know how to do graffiti - where's the "wuz here"?

Kim at the top of Arthur's seat, looking glamourous as always!

Emma enjoys a quiet moment on the rocks looking over the city. I guess that I should have told her not to sit so close to the edge.

Mary, Emma, and Abby at the top of Edinburgh!

Hmmm. The Uhers post-hike...

Despite all the photos, for the record it was Isaiah who beat us all to the top. He was pretty far ahead of me and my camera, so he gave me a careful re-enactment of the accomplishment. Today, Arthur's Seat, tomorrow, the sky's the limit!

Thanks for visiting us Uhers! You guys are great!

Jimy MacJohnson

Bruges, Chocolate, and the White Cliffs of Dover

Hi! Well, here's the last entry from our April holiday to "continental Europe". Quick funny story - way back in Sept. when we were planning to go to Holland during the October break, I mentioned to a colleague that we were going to "mainland Europe". I was told in no uncertain terms that "We don't consider ourselves an island - they are Europe, and we're the UK." At that point I politely didn't respond, although I was wondering if they realized that the UK was part of Europe, at least according to every Social Studies teacher that I'd had in school. Now, in light of the recent difficulties Brits had in getting back home after the volcano, I wonder if this teacher has changed her view - particularly because she was stuck elsewhere for an extra week.

Anyways, our final day "on the mainland" was spent in Belgium! Only an hour from the Calais port that we were booked into, is the amazing city of Bruges! One of my favourite cities that we do on our Langley Fundamental Europe trip, I was happy to visit it with my family for an afternoon. Our first stop with our hungry children was to find some healthy local eating establishment. Here is the "chef" we found, making - what else - Belgian waffles!

In front of the cool Bruges buildings, are the kids, testing their waffles...

... 30 seconds later, here they are chowing down!

The family in front of the Bruges cathedral bell tower. Yes, we climbed up to the top.

Our family chatting in the town square. Awesome building fascades. You can see them in the great family movie "In Bruges" (Uhhh, maybe don't watch this with the kids).

Another great place to visit was Madame Dumon's chocolate shop. She was really nice, recognizing me from my Europe trip visits, and spoiling our kids with free chocolates (after we bought a fair share as well!) Now the kids know where we go to buy the best chocolates in the world!

Finally, on the ferry back to England. As we approached we got a great view of the famous White Cliffs of Dover.

We spent the night in Dover and enjoyed a morning walk along the water before setting out for Edinburgh.

Overall, we had a wonderful holiday - and we look forward to our next one! See you soon!

Jimy MacJohnson