Mike's Mom visit

I have, yet again, been slightly behind in reporting all our adventures. Mike's mom was here for about 7 days and left last Friday morning. It was great to see her after all these months. Here are some highlights of her trip... She flew in on Friday the 18th, since I was working, Mike took her out to see some of the city. George Square is really close to our apartment and is spectacular. Especially in the Spring time with all the flowers and activity warmer weather brings. Mike took her on the tour of the City Chambers, which is amazing. The exterior of this building is amazing, but then you walk inside and see all the mosaics, marble staircases, woodwork, etc. Nice to know my council tax payments are helping to maintain such a lavish building... Either way, the goal of tiring her out succeeded. We found it helps with jet lag and becoming accustomed to the time difference. That and as it was my last day of work, all my work friends were having a night out for me and another girl who was leaving as well. We had pints to consume! Didn't really matter to Lee... especially since Mike tired her out so much that she was falling asleep eating dinner. :)
On Saturday we were going to go see the Scottish Piping Competitions down in Dumbarton (a suburb of Glasgow) but it was raining horizontally, so we ditched those plans for indoor endeavors. We went over to the West End to see Glasgow University and the Kelvingrove Art Museum. We stopped at a popular restaurant for lunch called the Ubiquitous Chip in Ashton Lane (a small street filled with restaurants and bars). It was alright, but not my favorite Scottish restaurant by far. Then on to Glasgow University for a quick walk through the wonderful courtyard. It still reminds me of Hogwarts from Harry Potter.

At Kelvingrove right now they are doing an informative series on the Highlands life and culture. So on Saturday we were able to hear a harpist and a singer. It was really lovely and reminded me of all the different musicians from the Celtic Connections earlier in the year. The Kelvingrove has always been one of my favorite places in Glasgow. The art is in a beautiful old building and there always seems to be something new to see. It was slightly sad walking through the rooms knowing it was the last time I would see it in quite some time...

Sunday Lee tried her hand at driving a manual transmition on the opposite side of the road. Mike and I had been wanting to visit the Isle of Arran, which is supposed to be a miniature of Scotland, for quite some time now. Since Lee was only going to be here for a short while, and wanted to see standing stones, we decided to check it out with her. Unfortunately the only automatic cars that they had was a 2 seater Smart car. Not very big at all and no way 3 people could fit. But Lee was up to the challenge, so we went. It was a beautiful day out and the island is lovely. The stones above are in Machrie Moor. There are quite a few of them there, but we only saw these and another stone circle near the start of the walk. We were also able to stop in the distillery while we were there. We couldn't take a tour as it was too late and we needed to get the car back and make the ferry. We did try the Isle of Arran whisky at a wonderful pub called 'The Pot Still.' Even I liked it. It was nice a sweet, not peaty like the isle whiskies. Lee bought a sampler pack for Joe (Mike's dad), so hopefully he will like them.
We rented a car so we could tour around for a few days, unfortunately the car that was supposed to show up at 10am didn't arrive until noon. Car company's response: our bad. Thankfully we had a small car tour we could do for the day, so as soon as the car came we jumped in and headed for the Borders. We were able to see three different abbeys - Melrose, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh- , and one - Kelso- on the outside as it had closed. The three abbeys that we did see were wonderful. All in ruins, of course, but for being as old as they were, they had fared pretty well. We also stopped off at a couple of wonderful view points of the borders. One Mike and I climbed up a big hill in the middle of a sheep pasture. The view was great, but the sheep were vile. We were walking along, and started hearing a clinking noise... Yup, it was poop that had dried in the sheep's wool and made butt rattles. So gross.

On the way home, we got slightly turned around and hit the English Border. Opps... but at least Lee got to have her picture taken at the border!

On Tuesday we headed up to the Highlands. Most tourists cannot pass up a trip to Loch Ness when they visit Scotland. Lee was no different. The drive up to Loch Ness is not that far, but its long. There are not that many major highways in Scotland, and certainly none where we were going in the Highlands. The roads wound A LOT through valleys, next to lochs, and were very narrow. It makes for slow going. But there are beautiful stops along the way to Loch Ness. The lochs and mountains along the way are absolutely beautiful, and at one of these viewpoints we even saw a reindeer! How cool is that? I got pictures to show all my younger cousins, neighbors, etc. Really, just to anyone who will look. :) The picture above is from Glen Coe, one of my favorite stops along the way to Loch Ness. Its the sight of a horrid massacre and always feels sad and creepy. And the weather there has always been crap every time we go through it. Odd.

Unfortunately, we did not see Nessie this time at Urquhart Castle. The water was too choppy. You had to use even more imagination powers than last time we were up there. I thought I saw her a couple of times, but I was the only one. Then it was back down to Glasgow. We were able to drive through the Cairngorm National Park for a bit on the way back down to Glasgow, which was wonderful. We had not seen that part of Scotland yet, so it was nice to see something new. We tried to hit the Edradour Distillery in Pitlochery, but it was closed by the time we got there. My parent's neighbor, Jill, had recommended it to us from her travels in Scotland, but we'll just have to settle for trying the whisky. It was a slight disappointment, but it gives us something to do for next time! The town was very charming though and we walked down to the salmon fish ladder (no fish jumping though - but lots of fishermen) and had dinner down by the river in a wonderful little place.

Wednesday was another Borders day. We had to drive quite a bit to get down to where we wanted to be, but it was worth it. Lee reads a lot of romance novels, and apparently Gretna Green is in quite a few of them. It was a big place to elope so that family members could not stop the weddings. So Blacksmiths married runaway couples way back when in Gretna Green. We started looking at routes there, and when she found out Gretna Green would be so close, we had to make a trip over. It was interesting... nothing Mike and I would have chosen on our own, but it was definitely educational!

Then it was on to see 6 different castles - Lochmaben, Caerlaverock, Threave (pictured above), MacLellan, Cardoness, and Carsluith. It was a lot, but they were all close to each other so once we got down there, it was easy to see them all. And each one was very different from the rest. Lochmaben was incredibly ruined, but very pretty. We had to drive down a very small dirt track to get there, but its on a loch and has wonderful views. Threave was out on an island in a river and we had to take a boat out to it! It was a lot of fun. Caerlaverock was wonderful. The stonework was still very visible, as was the river harbor, and its situation was lovely.

After all those castles, we stopped at a very OLD burial tomb called Cairn Holy with standing stones outside of it. Lee had not been able to touch the stones in Machrie Moor on Arran, so she really wanted to see some more so that she could touch them. Our only other option for the day was a couple of standing stones out in a field. And it had been raining all week, and Lee's shoes leaked slightly. We were really glad that we found those stones! It meant for a much more comfortable ride home for her! The stones were wonderful and so was the burial tomb.

Her last full day here was spent packing and then talking a tour bus around Glasgow. Mike and I had seen most of what was on the tour, but it was a great way for Lee to see Glasgow, and it allowed us a last look at quite a bit of the city that has been home for the last 8 months. It was sad to see it and have to say goodbye to places that I have seen nearly everyday for months and months. I love this city and have loved living here. Like I said before, if it wasn't for the large amount of family members that I have left behind, I would have no problems living here permanently. But, I have missed you all greatly and cannot wait to see everyone again. Web cams are nice, but not the same.

After the city tour, we went out for one final meal at Cafe Source, which has become our favorite Scottish restaurant. The food there is spectacular and the Orkney Fudge Cheesecake is to DIE FOR. Really. Its that good. And the employees incredibly friendly, the building beautiful AND the prices reasonable. I will miss that place greatly as well as the rest of Glasgow.