We had a late start this morning, but we had done so much the other days, so it was okay. We decided to visit the University of Edinburgh, which ended up being a bunch of random buildings around Edinburgh. The buildings weren't particularly beautiful, though. Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment for lunch before going to the Hibernian vs. Dundee United football game. We were in the "people who like to stand" section, and there was a HUGE flag that we were under at one point. The match was pretty exciting, and the best part is we won! 2-1. One [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop today was Edinburgh Castle. It is a pretty big complex. We saw the batteries where they had the 18-pound cannons, and one cannon is still in use today. They set it off everyday at 1pm so people can set thier clocks to it. They said that the reason why they didn't choose high noon was because they didn't want to use up 11 more rounds everyday. Another building we went to on the castle grounds was St. Margaret's Chapel. It is the oldest building in Edinburgh. They still have weddings there today, and the brides' fathers really like [View Full Entry]

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This morning when we woke up, the weather was actually kind of nice, and it stayed that way all day. This was great because we had an outdoors day planned. First, we went to Easter Road Stadium to try to buy football tickets for Saturday's game, and we were successful. Next, we went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This is the official residence of the queen when she's in Scotland. She wasn't in residence today, but we decided not to go in anyways. Right by the palace is the beginning of the trail to climb Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is 822 [View Full Entry]

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This morning we checked out of our hotel and caught the train to Edinburgh. Luckily, we got seats this time. When we arrived in Edinburgh, we went to buy bus passes for the week. We had a little bit of trouble finding the bus stop, then a lot of trouble finding the hotel/apartment. The rain didn't help either. Then, when we had finally found the hotel and the receptionist was giving us our key, we learned that we'd have to walk all the way around the building to get to our apartment. It wasn't that bad, but we were jsut so [View Full Entry]

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We decided to take the 6 1/2 hour tour to Loch Ness. We wanted the whole experience. Our bus driver, Kenny, told us so much information that I can't even remember it all. Our first stop was at the Loch Ness Centre, which had a series of videos that showed the geological history of the region and the scientific studies done to see if there really is a creature living in the lake. We also went to a whisky shop and bought some whisky chocolate. After that, Kenny took us to the Caledonian Cairns, which is a stone circle based on [View Full Entry]

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This morning we had to get up really early so mom could drop us off at the train station before going to work. We ended up being able to catch an earlier train than expected on each leg except for the last one. We had to kill 2 hours in the Edinburgh train station because we had just missed the train. When we finally went to catch our train, it turned out that almost all the seats were reserved, so we had to spend the entire trip in tiny little fold-up seats by the doors. It was ok, but not very [View Full Entry]

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We woke up really late this morning, so I knew that we probably weren't going to see as much as I wanted to. First, we went to Framlingham Castle. That was a really cool castle to visit. When you first enter the castle grounds, you see a few different lawn games you can play. There was even lawn chess. If we had more time and if it wasn't raining, I would have wanted to try it out. A free audio guide came with it, so we decided to get it. There were 2 audio choices for each view point, and 1 [View Full Entry]

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After a slow start to our day, we headed out to Castle Acre Priory, which is about 20 miles away from mom's house. When we arrived at Castle Acre, we parked (a lot farther away than we needed to) and walked to waht we thought was the Priory. It wasn't. It was a church. So, after walking through the cemetary and seeing the actual Priory off in the distance, we made our way there. Joey and I bought an overseas visitors pass for 2 people for 43 pounds. The Priory is a bunch of ruins now, but you can still tell [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in England yesterday. Mom and Debbie picked us up at the airport, and the timing was perfect, because they were there for less than half an hour. On the way to her house, we stopped at a rest stop, which are called "services" here. It also appeared to be called a "Welcome Break." They have a tradition of stopping there and getting tea, so that's what we did. Before getting to her house, we met up with Mr. Davis and went out to eat at a Thai restaurant they like in Mildenhall. It was almost 9pm when we finally [View Full Entry]

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We decided to join my parents for a day trip to Mt. Rainier. We went to Paradise, which is where we have gone several times before. We packed a picnic lunch and ate as soon as we reached Paradise. We were so hungry, we just camped out on the hillside right where we had parked--not even bothering to find a picnic area. After lunch, we decided to hike up the trail to see the glacier. It was beautiful up there. We even saw some wildlife. [View Full Entry]

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