Epilogue

We are now back home in Santa Barbara after a long travel day yesterday. We left Edinburgh around 9 am and ended up walking in our door at home at 12:30 AM California time (8:30 am Scotland time), so it was about a 24 hour travel day.

I wanted to share a map of Scotland that highlights some of the places we went. I have never embedded a Google Map into a blog before, so let's see if this works . . .



I'm not sure if my starred or favorite places will show up in the map you are seeing. If not, I can tell you what route we took. Basically, we went North out of Edinburgh to St. Andrews, then headed inland to Kenmore, then up to Inverness. From Inverness, we headed back down through the central part of the Highlands and then toward the West coast where Oban is located. From Oban we headed East toward Stirling Castle and finally back to Edinburgh.

Some General Thoughts About Scotland
I think the whole family really enjoyed this trip. There were a few high points and low points, of course, but that's travel! The Scots are very warm, friendly and customer-service-oriented. We never encountered anything less than great service at restaurants, museums, historic sites and hotels. We sent a meal or two back and there was NO argument whatsoever about taking that meal off the bill.

The food was reasonably good everywhere we went, with the possible exception of breakfast -- and this was mostly an issue for our kids. We are just spoiled when it comes to breakfast in our household. The Scots like a simple breakfast, but there were two things in particular that the kids didn't like. First, they don't seem to make scrambled eggs the same way we do -- they're watery . . . at best. Second, toast is often supplied already cooked (like hours ago) on your table. Third, they don't seem to have cream or half and half available for coffee -- only milk. Sausages were always good, however! Finally, there's the Haggis! It's definitely not appetizing looking, but it tastes fine -- kind of like the innards of sausage, but darker in color. After you read what's in it, you might not want to eat it!

Wine
It was often hard to find decent wine. Most places we went seemed to feature wines from South Africa, Chile, Spain, and maybe a few from Spain. It was tough for me to find reasonably good Chardonnays or Rhone Reds. But a few places definitely had better selections -- the nice restaurants in Edinburgh, for example. Somebody needs to tell these guys about California wine!

Last night in London . . .

Yesterday was our last full day in London. We took it easy in the morning, but did manage to hit the National Gallery and see some great work by some well known impressionist painters, including Monet, Degas, Pizzano and Cezanne in the afternoon. The National Gallery is adjacent to Trafalgar Square, one of the biggest open spaces and busiest places in London. I can't say the boys were exactly transfixed by the paintings in this gallery, but they were good sports about it. Trey will be taking his first Art History course this coming year, so I'll bet he will draw on some of what he saw during this tour -- at least I hope so.

We had a late lunch at a fantastic restaurant that bears a name very similar to Susan's maiden name. The restaurant is called "The Delauny," and it is fantastic! 

The older boys have become fans of the TV show called 'Game of Thrones,' and, sure enough, one of the actresses from the show was dining at The Delauny while we were there. It was Natalie Dormer, pictured here:

The meals were out-of-this-world:

To end our final day in London, we took in a great show down in the theater district. We saw 'War Horse' at the New London Theater. What a fantastic show! We ended up with second row seats so we felt like we were almost part of the action. I think we were all amazed at how realistic the horse puppets were -- hard to even call them puppets, actually.

Tomorrow we head back to Edinburgh and then back home to California. It's been a great trip, but we certainly do miss home. Here are some of the things we have missed about our life in Santa Barbara:

- Fresh vegetables and salads
- Real Exercise!
- California wine
- Larger showers (they are tiny here)
- The Sun
- Consistent Internet Access and speed
- The Beach
- Organic juice
- 120 volt power outlets
- Our dog and cats

Oban and the West Coast Of Scotland

We spent two nights in Oban, on the West Coast of Scotland. Oban feels like a small fishing village -- which is, essentially, what it is. But it does seem to be one of the bigger cities in the region. The picture below is the view out of the window of the Glenburnie House, which was our B&B -- great place to stay, by the way! Since we were pretty far north, it stayed light until 11 pm at least and it started getting light around 4 am. In fact, it didn't ever really get that dark.

View out the window of our B&B, Glenburnie House - looking West / Southwest

Oban is home to the Oban Distillery -- a place that three of the four men on our trip (Dad, Austin, and Bryce) visited one afternoon. Austin and I sampled some single malt scotches, starting with the Oban brand and then moving into the smokier, single malts. As a novice Scotch drinker, I have to say, it was tough to take the more smoky, peaty, single malt varieties. Granted, it was about 11am when we tried them! But I was only able to drink about 1/2 of a shot glass full of the Oban and small sips of the other. Austin didn't like any of them at all.

View of Oban from the Ferrie looking East

Four Jackson Men with our B&B, in the background

Yet another International Swim . . . 

During our first morning in Oban, I went to the local community swimming pool to see if I could swim some laps. I had heard that the Atlantis Swimming Centre was a great facility. Well, it is a great facility. And though  this was not a 50 meter pool, like the one we tried in Edinburgh, it is a nice, 25 meter pool with a nice locker room and amenities, including a sauna. Here is a picture of the pool:

Being able to swim during this trip has been a lifesaver for me since my hip has been pretty bad. Thank goodness for the hiking poles!

The Iona Abbey
Our second day in Oban was the day that Susan headed out to the Isle of Iona while the Men decided to take a day off of buses and ferries and just relax in Oban. Here are some photos from Susan's trip to Iona Abbey.

Dinner in Oban
During our second night in Oban, we found a great dinner spot -- Coast Restaurant on George Street. Being so spoiled on good food as we are, it isn't often that we've been impressed here in Scotland. However, this place was fantastic!

After two nights in Oban, it was time to head back to Edinburgh.

Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

After two nights in Inverness, we headed toward the West Coast of Scotland. On our way, we got to see one of the most iconic sites in Scotland . . . Loch Ness. We didn't have to go far from Inverness since that city sits right on the banks of the River Ness -- we just headed up river about 20 miles. As we had learned earlier in the trip, 'Loch' is the Scottish word for lake. We also learned that there are freshwater Lochs and seawater Lochs throughout the north of Scotland. Loch Ness is a fresh water lake and is quite large at 27 miles long and pretty narrow as can be seen in this photo below. We were, of course, hoping to see "Nessie," the Loch Ness Monster, but no such luck. Maybe next time.

There is an ancient castle on the shores of Loch Ness called Urquhart Castle (pronounced 'Ur-kut').  This castle was built in the 13th century and, like many other castles we saw, was destroyed and rebuilt many many times. It played a role during the 14th century in the Wars of Scottish Independence. Frankly, we are having a hard time keeping Scottish history straight as there have been so many different wars, not only with England, but among the Clans as well.

View of Urquhart Castle with Loch Ness in background

From here we went on to to Glencoe and finally to Oban, a picturesque town on the West Coast. More on both of these soon . . . .

Three Historic Sites in the Scottish Highlands Near Inverness

Yesterday we visited three historic sites close to our home base, Inverness: the Culodden Memorial, Clava Cairns and Cawdor Castle.

The Culodden Battlefield Memorial and Visitor Center is a very impressive museum. It must have been renovated recently as everything in it is completely up to date, technologically. The Battle of Culloden was an important battle between the British Army and the Scottish Highlanders (Jacobites). Unfortunately for the Scots, they were outnumbered and outsmarted in this battle and lost many more men . . . nearly 2,000 casualties in a battle that lasted a little over an hour. This was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
I overheard a guide in the museum talking about the history of Scotland asking some Americans "How would you feel if your Civil War had been fought 8 different times?" That kind of put things in perspective . . . .

The Museum has a very life-like video recreation of the battle that surrounds you on four walls. They also have a table-based video representation of the battle that shows exactly how the two armies were situated throughout the short battle.

We were treated to a demonstration of the period weapons by a great volunteer who used Bryce as a prop while showing us how to put on an old-school Kilt!

Clava Cairns

Clava Cairns is a prehistoric burial ground and bears some similarity to Stonehenge and Avebury in that there are large and small stones placed in a way that commemorates the winter or summer solstice. The rocks at Clava Cairns aren't as big as those at Avebury or Stonehenge, and there are several large piles of somewhat smaller rocks, which we were told were actual tombs. The site lies just above the River Nairn. It was fascinating to think about how these prehistoric folks moved all these rocks 4,000 years ago -- nobody knows exactly how they moved them there. Our guide told us that one of the large piles is set up in a way that, when the winter solstice arrives, the light shines directly into the center of the tomb.

We also visited Cawdor Castle that afternoon -- more on that later . . . . 

Visit to Leault Farm, a Working Sheep Farm

Leault Farm
Yesterday on our way to Inverness, we visited Leault Farm, a working sheep farm in the Scottish Highlands. This was truly a unique experience. The manager of the farm, Neil Ross, is an authentic Highland Shepherd. Neil gives demonstrations on how he uses his sheep dogs to herd sheep and how he trains his dogs. This was a particularly fun day for our boys as they love animals and who can resist sheep dog puppies (or "Collie Pups" as Neil refers to them).

Neil Ross Demonstrating How He Commands his Sheep Dogs

Austin & Collie Pup

Neil Showing Bryce How to Shear

Neil has more than 25 sheep dogs. And of course he had to bring out a bucket of 'wee' pups for us to see! Susan got some great photos of the boys with the puppies.

Needless to say, this was a lot of fun. It was also fascinating to hear about Neil and his wife and their experience as farmers. Their biggest challenge recently was (get this) that the big city environmentalists are trying to shut down their farm due to 'over-grazing' and 'damage to environmentally sensitive habitats.' These bureaucrats have already successfully shut down many family sheep farms in the name of 'conserving the environment.' It turns out that many of the 'sensitive' trees are now not doing so well as the native grasses have grown so high, due to lack of grazing, that the intended beneficiaries aren't doing well at all.

St. Andrews and Kenmore

Today we left Edinburgh and headed to St. Andrews for a quick visit on our way to an awesome village in the Scottish Highlands called Kenmore.

St. Andrews is a charming town and the golf course is, not surprisingly, impressive. We were told that the standard wait for a tee time is 18 months! Not sure if there are 'special deals' to get around that or not - sounds like there are.

We arrived in Kenmore a bit later that afternoon. Kenmore is right on the shores of Loch Tay, which is the source of the largest river in Scotland, the River Tay. Since the weather has been so warm and we had been driving for a bit, Bryce and I opted to go for a swim in Loch Tay. This lake was formed by glaciers and we thought the water would be cold, but it wasn't bad. Very refreshing! I'm guessing the temperature was 72 degrees.

The Kenmore Inn is (supposedly) the oldest continually operating hotel in Scotland . . .

After our swim, we had dinner at the hotel dining room. I brought my guitar along on this trip and, as luck would have it, there was kind of an 'open jam session' happening in the hotel bar after dinner. Being the shy guy that I am, I jumped at the chance to play some Scottish folk music. I joined in with the two guitar players and fiddle player. One of the guitar players was exceptionally good and also played the banjo -- so it wasn't long before he suggested Dueling Banjos! They were very welcoming. We also played a song that I used to play with Tom Brigham and The Mobile Homeboys years ago -- and old Sea Shanty called 'Leaving Liverpool.' They loved when I suggested that one as they knew it cold. They knew tons of American country songs as well, so the whole thing was a blast!

I will try to link a short video that Susan shot here:

Exploring Ancient Crannogs
While in Kenmore on Loch Tay, we also got to explore some recreations of ancient 'Crannogs,' which are wooden hut structures that are built out over the water -- the first of these were apparently built 2,500 years ago! These recreations are built right on Loch Tay. We had a fabulous tour guide who even showed us how the ancient residents created fire. It was fascinating to learn about the technical sophistication that these folks had so very long ago. It would take them a year to build the structure, but it might last (with a few repairs here and there) for well over 150 years.

Looking out the bridge toward the Crannog

Inside the Crannog

Bryce Trying to make fire from ancient tools

Bryce using an ancient lathe

From here it's off to Inverness on the River Ness (near Loch Ness). Will report more soon.