Our Scotland Trip

So, I'll start our May '11 travel log with our trip to Scotland!  Just a little warning... this is probably going to be a looong post.  Mom and Dad Smith got here on Thursday, the19th of May.  They've been our first visitors here, so we've been excited to have them with us for a couple of weeks!!  We took them to our favorite local lunch spot, Webbs, when they arrived.  They've got great sandwiches.  We let them snooze for a bit after lunch and then we drove around to show them the area.  They're troopers!  I think they handle jet-lag better than I do.  I would have been out for the night!  We took off the next morning bright and early for Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jake and I had planned our trip to Scotland a few months before because I signed up to run the Edinburgh half marathon.  Running is my little escape from reality, my 'me' time, and my self prescribed Rx for a happy self.  Signing up for these runs adds a little more excitement to the hobby!  I didn't want the pressure of training for another full marathon now. Getting ready for the half has kept me plenty busy.  My awesome friend Stacy and I have worked out a lot together over the past few months and she wanted to run Edinburgh as well, so she and her two cuties met up with us in Scotland for some sight-seeing before the race.

Edinburgh is supposedly a 7 hr drive from our house.  On the way up it took us a lot longer though!  We were stuck in traffic forever.  In England, when there is an accident on the motorway, be prepared to sit.  for a really. long. time!  There's not usually a shoulder on the road, so accidents totally stop traffic until they are cleared out.  Emergency vehicles have a tough time reaching the accident to clear it out, and it's just a really big mess.  Anyway, between crazy traffic jams, stopping to eat, and filling up with gas at another base on the way up (definitely the scenic route) it took us a few hours longer to get there then we had planned on.  Taking pics out the car window and being with fun people passes travel time quite nicely though!  Here's one from on the way up!  It's a gorgeous drive.

We stayed at a hotel that was about a 10 minute bus ride into downtown Edinburgh.  Here's the view from the main bus stop downtown.

We spent Saturday seeing the sights around the city.  We got tour bus tickets and they were our main mode of transportation around the area.  I'm starting to be a big fan of tour buses.  Easy way to see and learn about the city!  We got lots of pictures from the top of the bus.  No ceiling means you can get some good ones :)

Group picture!

Ella and Grandma Sherry checking something out...

Bus Riders!

Scott Tower...

One of many of churches in the city...

The royal mile.  It's the stretch of road between Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill and Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom of the hill.  Lots of cool old buildings and shops in between!  I told Jake that he and Rick should try on a kilt just for fun.  He didn't think it was such a cool idea.  Whatev.

In case you were wondering where you can find some bagpipes...

Edinburgh has the same cutie cabs that London has...

Just liked the name of this restaurant!...

 

Edinburgh castle.  Mary Queen of Scotts gave birth to King James VI here.  It's home to the Scottish crown jewels.  Kind of fun to see those! 

We checked out the castle with Stacy and her kidos while Rick and Sherry looked at other things around the city.  You can see that Luke brought his sword along to Scotland.  He loves that thing.

You can see all of Edinburgh from the top of the castle. 

Sign post at the castle..

Cutie...

And more pictures of things around the city!....

A few hundred years ago, people used to come to this tall, skinny hotel and would be given a pig to take up to their room.  The pig would keep them warm.  Sick!

We weren't fans of the fudge we found in Edinburgh, but their shops sure are cute!

The large building with the clock on top was JK Rowling's inspiration for Hogwartz. 

At one of the museums...  Scottish Natl. History, I think.  Luke got to check out all kinds of stuff.

Another of the Royal Mile... 

Gates of Palace of Holyrood House.  The end of the Royal Mile... 

That was pretty much the end of our sightseeing!   It's an awesome city!  Later that night the kids and I relaxed at the hotel while Jake, Sherry, and Rick went out to look around a little more.  

Sunday morning was race time.   We met Stacy in downtown Edinburgh before the run , and she and I took off to find our starting pens.  While running over the past few months, I was thinking I'd smash my last personal best time in the half this run.  I beat it, but not by a whole lot.  My fastest half has been the first half of the Utah Valley Marathon I ran last June.  The first half of that I ran in 1:49.  I was planning on something under 1:45 for this run.  As luck would have it though, I was sick with a bad sinus cold. I hadn't run in over a week and felt like garbage throughout the run. The cool atmosphere made it worth running anyway.  I finished in 1:48.  

Rick, Sherry, Jake, and the kids had spectator bus passes and I thought I'd see them somewhere along the course.  The spectator situation is where this race got really funky.  They hauled the 'spectators' to a big bus parking lot, only to make them walk down a mile or two to wait for their runners in a field about 1/2  a mile from the finish line.  So lame!  The spectators couldn't see anything.  I felt bad that everyone came to watch and ended up standing in the cold wind and on/off rain.  If I would have known that would be the situation, I'd have had them all just sleep in and stay at the hotel.  I'm thinking that the next international run I do will just be a runners/girls trip. 

Here's a pic I snapped with my phone while waiting for the race to start.  You can see the start line way ahead in the distance!  The rain kept coming and going.   

   

The course was amazing.  You run through Edinburgh, then along the coast and through some very cool old villages and farmland.  They only gave out water, and even that didn't come up very often, so I opted to use my running belt.   At the end of the race they gave all of us a sports drink, our shirt, and medal.

I'm a little ghetto... here's a few of the copyrighted proofs the race emailed me.  haha.  I'm not paying 20 pounds for a picture!

Here's a pic Rick took after I finished and found the cold fam in the random reunion field!  The kids were ready. to. go.

Stacy and I once back in Edinburgh!  She's a trooper.  3 months pregnant and she finished her first half!  Shes' awesome. 

I took some pictures from the bus on the way back to Edinburgh after the race.   This area is so pretty! 

We drove back home Sunday afternoon.  Luckily the drive was much quicker on the way back!
I guess I'll end there with Scotland.  I loved it.  More of our recent adventures coming soon :)