A HOLIDAY GONE AND ANOTHER ONE COMING!

In September we were able to enjoy 2 weeks with my sister Sarah. She's one of the people that Lucy has special connection with. We enjoyed some special time as a family and sisters.

I turned 30 this year and my gift from Myke was two nights with Sarah at Stobo Castle outside of Peebles. It was amazing!!!! Best quote from our stay...."its like waking up in Downton Abbey"! Not only did we sleep in a castle, we enjoyed spa treatments, fantastic food, and total relaxation. During the day EVERYONE walks around in their robes. We weren't sure about it at first, but we got used to it!

Our own Downton Abbey

We had a busy time. This is Sarah's third visit to Scotland but the first time she's been further than Dunfermline and Edinburgh (with the exception of the hospital in Kirkcaldy!). We did loads! We spent a day in Edinburgh, visited the zoo, went to St Andrews & Anstruther, and did Stirling Castle.

The highlight of the her visit was our trip to the Highlands. We stayed right on Loch Lochy, about 40 minutes north of Fort William. We visited Malliag and chased the Harry Potter train. Myke & I have wished for a long time to visit Eilean Donan.....it was beautiful! Eilean Donan is one of the most iconic castles, and now we've checked it off our bucket list. We topped off our visit to Eilean Donan by driving over the bridge to Skye. Skye is a place that we truly fell in love with and can't wait to go back and explore it properly! We rounded off our visit north with a visit to Loch Ness, Urqhart Castle and Inverness. As a side note, one of the best italian places I've eaten at is in Inverness, "Little Italy". If you're there, go!

The view from our cabin!

We missed Harry's train!

Eilean Donan

Our days up north were fun and full of adventure, but the nights is were it really got interesting. Every night we played several hours of Settlers of Catan. Most exciting was that Lucy began walking while we were there!

Our next adventure is coming November 2013

Toledo here we come!