Scotland 3

Thursday, 14 June

A very white-toothed George Wallace and an incomprehensible Ewan SomethingMuffled, our drivers, met us at the Edinburgh airport and escorted us to the waiting vans.

The flight in was overcast and our first views of Edinburgh and Glasgow (surprisingly close to Edinburgh) were obscured by the fact that we all kept nodding off uncomfortably.

After passing through Glasgow, we stopped in the village of Luss and all got out to walk around briefly. Lovely, lovely scenery. I was so tired.

I realized that I'm too used to being a tourist when I walked Ellie up to the window of cottage to look at a cat. In my defense, the small stone cottages were flat-fronted and flush with the road. I momentarily forgot that these were actual homes, not some Potemkin facade.

After a short visit in Luss, on the "bonnie bonnie shores of Loch Lomond," we piled back into the vans and drove north. We passed incredible scenery every bit of the way: lochs surrounded by munros.

I was surprised by the evergreen forests and related logging, though it seems more regulated here and not nearly as devastating as the clear-cutting I saw in the Pacific Northwestern US. For one thing, the trees were planted for this purpose and aren't ancient, native forest. (At least in part. What about Frasier Firs and Scotch Pines? All domestic?)

The Village of Arrochar, Lochs Long, Fyne, Eck, all lovely, all obscured by two overtired babies screaming in the middle seat of the van (Ada and cousin Arria). Ellie was absolutely, phenomenally well-behaved.

Behold: Rest and Be Thankful:

Indeed!

Finally, the babies fell asleep and we arrived at our hotel for the first two nights.

The Enmore Hotel in Dunoon was quite lovely, and we had the place nearly to ourselves. Paul, Ellie, Ada, and I had a two-room suite with an en-suite bathroom (given the many signs, apparently this is a major selling feature at B&B's around the country). All was old and cozy and charming.

Dinner: we met in the parlor to have drinks and order dinner. After a while, we were escorted into the dining room for rolls (delicious Scottish butter!) dinner and dessert. Excellent food. I had a traditional meal with vegetarian haggis (working up to it, here) and Paul had the sole. Ellie had vegetable cannelloni.

After dinner, we were all exhausted. We missed a night's sleep last night, you know. Paul and Ellie passed out, and I eventually fell asleep with Ada nursing in our bed.

At 12:30 am I awoke with a start - Ellie had climbed out of her cot and was running through the bedroom door! Through the sitting room! Out the door! Down the hall! Toward the stairs! I caught her and took her back to bed. When she tried to make another break for it - never once responding to or acknowledging me - I plopped her into bed between Paul and me and moved Ada to the portable crib.

We all slept soundly until the morning alarm.