mjoandjim

Our final day of touring Scotland. It’s been great, the weather held out the majority of the time .. even had some sun at times. There were only a few times that a light rain fell during our stops. I consider that to be extremely lucky for us. We included a city tour this morning, as well as a tour of the Edinburgh Castle. Sometimes it’s just easier to share some pictures than to try describing the uniqueness & character of this entire city. Our late afternoon included a visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which interestingly has a mall attached to it. Dinner at a small Scottish Pub finished off our week. It was a fun & very interesting week. The architecture throughout the country was awesome. We had members of our tour group from ... read more

I can’t believe we are into Day #4 of our adventures already. This morning we traveled through the Culloden Battleground, and then on to the small village of Tomintoul, the highest village in the Scottish Highlands. Here I finally found my first connections from my family name. I’ve looked at all gift shops that carry ancestry information of the more basic family Scottish names, but have found nothing close to my McPhail name. Our ancestry says there were seven McPhail brothers that came together to the US many years ago from the Scottish Highlands. Well ... while walking past a local whiskey store, I noticed their window display featured Gordon & MacPhail whiskey. This is distilled by a local company, and we found a very nice & rather expensive collection of whiskey. Ha, imagine that, the ... read more

Most of today was spent on and off the tour bus. After a drive through city tour of Glasgow and it’s beautiful Georgian architecture, we were off for a cruise on Loch Lomand. Overcast skies kept many clouds down over the hills, but I did get a few pictures. Very limited to just a few mallard ducks and several swans. Plenty of small cottages lined the walkways to and from the dock ... even an old phone booth that Jim checked out long enough for a photo for the grandkids. Remember those days before the newer technology & cellphones? From the small cruise we worked our way to the Glengoyne Distillery for a sample & a guided tour on how it’s made. Overall, quite similar to the process on the tv series “Moonshiners” ... except this ... read more

Our final two nights were scheduled to be in Prince George, British Columbia. We got in about mid-afternoon yesterday. Jim and I had decided we would stay just one night and then start our trip home. Due to some health issues back home, we feel that is where we would like to be. As for our trip, it was fabulous and we visited and did so many things that we had only dreamed of previously. We traveled the full Alaska Highway plus more ... even made a trip to the Arctic Circle. We saw lots of wilderness, as well as a few big cities that kind of shattered the "wild Alaska" image I had. We missed the Northern Lights, but only by a day or so if you believe the "you should have been here last ... read more

Our trip took us from Haines to Skagway by way of a 45 minute ferry ride. To drive, it would have been 350 miles, but the ferry covered the 15 waterway miles easily. Skagway is definitely a tourist town. Our ferry dropped us off between 4 huge cruise ships that had already docked. We were not going to be alone in this small town. We had a total of 2 1/2 hours before a scheduled train ride, so like everyone else, we shopped and then got something to eat. The town is set up to resemble an old gold mining town, complete with old time store fronts and boardwalks up and down their Main Street. Our train ride was a 3 hour ride to White Pass Summit, a 40 mile round trip up to an elevation ... read more