A Tale of two Scottish Clans My mother was Scottish and could trace her ancestry back to the Campbells of Breadalbane. If I recall correctly it was her grandmother’s grandmother who was the daughter of the Earl of Campbell (so 5 or 6 generations back). I, of course, grew up […]
Eilean Donan Castle The Eileen Dolan Castle is arguably the most iconic castle of Scotland and certainly the most photographed. It sits on a tiny island in Loch Duich, which opens out to sea and is therefore tidal. You can see from some of these pictures that, when the tide […]
When I was a kid growing up in the Netherlands, we frequently went on vacation to Scotland. My mom was Scottish and she had family that lived in Aberdeen, hence the frequent visits. One thing I remember so well are the narrow, single-lane, roads with turns-outs to allow oncoming cars […]
We had learned about this monument when researching our trip. When we realized they were located in the town of Falkirk, which was just 12 miles outside of Edinburgh, our first place to visit in Scotland, we of course, had to go and see them. They are called “The Kelpies”. […]
Prior to leaving on our vacation, we decided to start the shift to UK time whilst still at home. For about 5 days prior to leaving, we went to bed one hour earlier and got up one hour earlier. In hindsight, we feel that the gradual 5 hour shift paid […]
Ardeonaig AirBnB Our very first AirBnB in the Scottish highlands was located along the shores of Loch Tay, about 70 miles North of Edinburgh. We are meeting my sister and her family there, so this location was picked for its ability to accommodate unto 8 people. Access was a 7 […]
We went to Montana mainly to see the Glacier National Park (see this post), but were not prepared for the other amazingly beautiful attractions that state has to offer. One of the biggest surprises (and delight) was the Makoshika State Park – which we stumbled upon by accident. We were […]
When visiting Canyonlands National Park in Utah we stopped at a turnout that had a view of the canyons below. What blew us away was the dirt road we could see snaking around to the bottom. We just had to find out what that was and if we could drive […]
In preparing for our trip to Maui, we kept reading about “the road to Hana”… Never much about Hana, but always about the road that leads to this little, isolated, town on the East side of Maui. We now know why and, no, we actually never made it to Hana. […]
A few years ago we decided to visit Utah’s National Parks (the state has 5, but, at the time, we only knew of 4, so we missed that 5th one). As we had come from Sacramento via Hwy 80, we entered the Utah at Salt Lake City, so we decided […]