Edinburgh

The cruise is almost over. Our last stop before France was Edinburgh. We did not take a Princess excursion in this city. We were on our own. There's good and bad to that. The good is not having to spend a million dollars. The bad is...well, you're on your own. That can be a little scary for me.

This was taken from the ship. Nice view. 

You can barely see our ship under the bridge, to the right. 

A row of houses on our way to the bus stop. 

As in, a for real bus. A city bus! 

A 200 ft tower dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, the poet.

It was pretty much the first day of sun the city had seen this year. 

Edinburgh Castle. I should have noticed how pale Bud had become, but didn't. 

Changing of the guard

The castle from another view

I love these kinds of city blocks.

A field of rapeseed is so pretty. 

Same bridge as before, but this one looks like bow tie pasta. 

And this? This made me feel 16 again.
Even though it's a Triumph Spitfire and not an
MG Midget, well... it's a long story.
But I still felt 16 when I saw it. 

Five Guys

I've got two more cities to cover on our trip, but I thought I'd take a little break from that for a minute. Two weeks ago, we took Karen car shopping. It was lunchtime and we pulled into a shopping center that had several food choices. Karen was surprised when I parked in front of Five Guys Burgers and Fries. She asked if I picked it because it was what I wanted or because it was what I thought they wanted. I told her I wanted it. I'd been to Five Guys only once before and that was with Samuel's family in California. Bud and Karen had never been before. Because they'd never been, we broke out the camera (the purse camera. My Nikon is going to take $200 to fix and I haven't decided if it's worth fixing or if I should buy something new).

This guy saw us taking pictures and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of all of us together. This is what we got.

But he got a little better after a few more tries. 

We ordered one small fries. They filled up a cup and half the bag with fries.
We couldn't finish them all. 

Fabulous! 

Nicko, when you get here, we're going to have a taste test between In-N-Out and Five Guys. We'll see if Five Guys can win you over too.

Let's Eat Cake!

Today is Bud's birthday. I thought I would put a few of my favorite pictures of him on the blog today.

Red Lobster for his birthday in June of 2004

Carthage Jail, December 2004, standing with his great-grandfather and great-grand uncle. 

Florida, 2006

In his uncle's yard, circa 1953ish. 

Yes, he wears a lot of hats. May 2009

Showing us how to do sit-ups after Laura's graduation from BYU, April 2004

Christmas Eve 2004

June 2004

October 2004 

March 12, 2012 (Danny's birthday!) Hello Eliot and Agnes! 

He's useful for so many reasons. 

His birthday at the Roof, June 23, 2010

And just for fun, here's a photo of one of Bud's 106 Eagle Scouts. Recognize him?
He was running for President earlier this year.

October 2007

Happy Birthday to my dear husband. I love you! I hope you have a terrific day, and that you are blessed with many more birthdays to come. Now let's eat some cake!

At One O'Clock

In Edinburgh, you can set your watch to the accuracy of the following event.

Dunrobin Castle, Scotland

And now we come to my favorite castle of all time...in a few moments. This is the view from the ship. Quaint, yes? See that patch of yellow way back there?

There were yellow fields all over. It's rape seed which is then harvested and turned into canola oil. 

But there is also this yellow stuff all over. It is the gorse bush. I wished I could bring it home and plant it in my yard.  

The guy who serenaded us into the castle. 

We didn't get to take pictures of anything in the castle, but they let us take pictures from the castle to the outside. 

Hello Husband. 

Nice stripes. 

It's a good thing I've already shown you the castle a couple weeks ago or you might think I'm trying to keep you in suspense as to my favorite castle and how charming it is! 

Ta-da! Now that I've shown it to you, I'll show it to you several more times. 

See what I mean? Now THAT'S a castle! Sleeping Beauty could only wish for such a castle.