Castles, Carrubers, and Caddies

Tuesday:

Our first morning with the whole family was quiet and relaxing. They were still shaking off the last effects of jet lag and Stephen and I were recovering from our traveling sprint. After a late breakfast, we piled in the car and drove to the town of St. Andrews. Having two avid golfers in the family, there was no doubt as to whether we'd visit the golf course. Unfortunately, it's expensive and a really long waiting list to actually play golf there, so we enjoyed (Steve and dad drooled) just watching everyone else play. 
I knew the golf course would be fun to see but I had no idea the city would be interesting too! What I love about England and Scotland is all the stone or brick buildings. Living in earthquake-prone California, a stone or brick building isn't the best idea or investment, so the novelty of seeing so many old buildings accompanied by castles and cathedrals and surrounded by green terrain makes for such a picturesque backdrop. St. Andrews and much of Scotland is mostly made of stone and as we explored, we also found an old castle and further on an old cathedral with a large graveyard. Naturally, we explored both and took plenty of pictures. 
During our visit, the sky had sprinkled rain intermittently and it was such a cooler temperature from the rest of our travels so a hot cup of coffee sounded grand. We walked around searching for a good place and even passed a coffee shop advertising that Will and Kate had met for coffee there :) I wanted to stop just for fun but it was closed. Further on, we hit a Starbucks and warmed up, then walked back to our car and returned to our cottage. Although it was deceptively light outside, the time was getting late so we ate dinner, read, and went to bed. 

Wednesday:

Today was Edinburgh day. I came to this city three years ago on a missions trip so I know the city fairly well, but had never visited the Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Royal Mile which was our first stop of the day. We entered the castle just as a royal Scottish band was finishing it's morning fanfare. Normally, they don't do this but since the queen is in town (we seem to be following her since she was in London when we were there) they have to step up their game and pull out all the stops. :) We took a guided tour of the castle which was very informative and entertaining and gave us a good lay of the land. The next few hours were spent exploring the castle and it's different exhibits. Interesting fact: the cannons displayed were never meant to be fired from the castle. When Queen Victoria visited, she was unimpressed so they took naval cannons from their ships and "decorated" the castle to look more impressive. Some of the exhibits included a prison where the prisoners were given food rations, beer rations, a bunk, and health services. The Scottish took good care of their prisoners of war in case they ever needed to trade for their own men back. We also entered the armory mid-presentation with two costumed men whose accents we could barely understand, but they were still entertaining and let us take pictures with them. The last highlight of the castle was the 1:00 cannon. It has been a tradition for hundreds of years to set off this cannon at exactly 1:00 everyday, except Easter, Christmas, or Sundays, so that the sailors could keep time by it. A mass of people accompanied us by the cannon and we all jumped with surprise when cannon exploded with sound and smoke. 
Our family exited the castle and made our way down the royal mile until we came to carrubers cafe. I love this cafe. Walking in brought back so many great memories from working there with the team for almost a whole week. Our pictures are even displayed on a wall above the employees table! The food is great and you can't beat the prices so we ordered lunch while waiting for my friend Leanne to come down.
 It was so good to see her again! I introduced her to my family again and we all had lunch together, later joined by another friend from carrubers, Mairi! The food was just as good as before and we had a great time catching up. Too soon, Leanne had to go back to work, so we said goodbye...slowly, and kept walking down the royal mile, with Mairi keeping us company just a bit longer. On the way down, we stopped in a shop where Peter bought a kilt! :) Who knows if he'll ever wear it, but at least he can say he has one. 
At the bottom of the mile, Mairi said goodbye and we decided to keep going and hike up Arthurs seat. Despite the warning that the right path was steeper, Stephen voted we go that way and we all followed him. You would think steeper would equal shorter, but not on this path because yes it's steep, but then goes back down again and follows this pattern until you come to the back of Arthurs seat where you climb a ton of "stairs" to finally reach the top. It was a beautiful view and the sky offered a beautiful contrast of fluffy white clouds in one direction and threatening black clouds in the other. The black clouds happened to be moving quickly in our direction so we headed back down the mountain...but this time the shorter/not as steep way down. Soon after we'd begun our descent, it started pouring down rain. Torrential downpours would come and go which left us pretty wet at the bottom. Well, it left me pretty wet as the others had umbrellas.:) we even saw lightening just as we'd reached the bottom. 
On our way back up the mile, we stopped inside the two-story Starbucks to warm up with drinks. We then drove home, ate dinner, hung out, and went to bed.