Adventures in Aberdeen: January 2009

One day at a time...

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Driving in the Highlands: Part 2

So, here are some more pics from our driving adventure. We decided to drive the northern route to Durness, and here are some of the things we saw along the way.

We pulled over when we saw a waterfall on the other side of the loch, and were a bit shocked when we got out of the car. You might want to click on this picture and look near the bottom. We found that we had some friends all around us when we stopped.

We looked around and noticed 30-40 Red Deer, some down by the water, some up on the hill and some crossing the road.

Seeing the Red Deer was definitely unusual, while, on the other hand, seeing sheep was not.

This sheep was nice enough to use the passing place.

To continue our animal theme, we also saw a lot of birds flying around. There is not much else I can saw about that, other than that it was a great drive. The Northern highlands had a very different feel than I expected. I expected a lot of greenery, which there was, but there were also shades of maroon, red, yellow, purple, and brown. It was similar to what fall would look like with the leaves changing, but the whole countryside looked like that. It was beautiful.

Chocolate!

I don't consider myself a chocaholic. Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate, particularly the non-American kinds, but I don't crave it. That being said, we found ourselves in chocolate heaven in the most unusual of places.

When Kelli and I went up to Durness, we heard that we had to stop by an area right outside of town. The area was an old radar station that had been turned into an arts and crafts village. Most of the places were closed for winter, but we found a bookstore/cafe and a chocolate cafe. The chocolate cafe is the home of Cocoa Mountain Chocolate, a delightful little cafe that is known for its incredible truffles, hot chocolates and gifts. They distribute their chocolate worldwide and have even been compared to the chocolate from Belgium, which is about as high a recommendation as there is in chocolate. We were not disappointed.

One advantage of being a part of an arts and crafts village is that you can get your own pottery made. These were made especially for the Cocoa Mountain Chocolate company, and were for sale at the cafe as well (we nearly bought some but I talked Kelli out of it - if there is anything more tempting for Kelli than coffee, it is cool coffee mugs!).

From the outside of the building, which you will see below, you could not possibly be prepared for the interior. It is bright, modern and full of chocolate goodies.

I decided it was in my best interest to nurse a hot chocolate, which they deemed the "best." It was really rich and equally as good. You can see the pottery mug I got, which was more of a bowl than a mug. It might have gotten a bit sticky.

Kelli and I bought some gifts while we were here (not for you), and here is a picture of a box of truffles we bought. My mouth still waters, and I'm not even a big fan of truffles.

Here is the outside of the place. It kind of reminds me of the rainbow factory in San Clemente, mixing one part bomb shelter, one part woodstock and one part modern cafe (with an extra part of awesome).

Kelli and I decided that we needed a box of truffles for the road. The favorite so far has been the coffee and vanilla...mmmmmm.

At World's End

So, moving beyond the ankle incident (an update will come later), we wanted to show you a bit more of our trip up North. We covered the entire Northern coast of mainland Britain, minus islands, from Durness over to John O'Groats, driving over the Kyle of Tongue (which was a thrill for me) and down to Wick. Here is a shot driving from Durness towards the Kyle of Tongue.

There isn't a shortage of sheep in Scotland. They are everywhere. Kelli tried to make friends with some but they tend to be a little skittish. These ones were lucky that they had a view of the beach, albeit a beach closer to the North pole than Moscow, but a beach nonetheless (they do come fully furbished with wool).

There are two main roads leading up to the North from the West or central Highlands, and they both look like this (yes, this is a main road). There is a legitimate highway on the East which we took our first day, but that kind of thing ends rather quickly. We drove at least 130 miles yesterday, with 100 of them being a road like this - one lane the whole way with random passing points. It is a bit nerve racking because the roads were rarely this straight and flat, rather they were usually hilly, bumpy and incredibly curvey, so that cars coming your way (or trucks for that matter) usually came into your view only right before you were upon them.

This picture was taken right around the area where I took my spill - that is all I have to say about that.

"Dunnet Head: The Most Northerly Point where Kyle has Sprained His Ankle." We are erecting a flagstone soon, perferably a flat one on that stupid trail.

Meet Charlie...the Castle Cat

This is Charlie, the castle cat. As I write this he is sleeping in his bed by the fire. I guess about 8 years ago he just showed up, and he has lived in the castle ever since. He is an incredibly well behaved cat, he doesn't jump on any of the tables or chairs, and just wanders around from time to time purring.

Out for a short walk

For your viewing pleasure, I have provided a video of a short walk I took - as well as the sole bad part of our trip. Please watch and then I'll explain below.

Kelli and I had just driven up to the most northern part of mainland Britain. Basically, you take this crazy one-lane road for several miles (it feels like you are in a national park or something), and the road dead ends into a light house. From there, you can take a trail up behind the lighthouse to see the view from the otherside of the hill. That is what we decided to do.

Here I go on the walk.

I was walking on a path through tall grass and there was a part that dipped down. When I stepped on the ground it wasn't hard, and I rolled my ankle. Sadly, I've rolled this ankle 9 times before, and so it isn't the strongest. I heard crunching. Yuck.

I'm not going to lie - it hurt a lot. I stood on it pretty quick but decided to lay in the grass for a while because when I was standing I thought I was going to vomit. Kelli went ahead to see if there was any view worthwhile enough to forge on (which there wasn't) and so we walked back (much more slowly).

So that night we took a picture of my ankle before it started bruising. As you can probably see, it is pretty swollen, but now add some purple and black to this picture and that is what it currently looks like. It hasn't really slowed us down much; I just whine more which has seemed to help.

Driving in the highlands

Well, Kelli and I have had a lot of fun thus far. We went driving yesterday to the northern most point of mainland Britain, and looked over the beautiful horizon to the Orkney Islands. Interestingly, driving in the Northern Highlands is oddly similar to driving the road to Hana in Maui. The roads wind tightly around the coastline, weaving in and out with the landscape. Both boast incredible views over the water as well as lush green fields and forests. Now, of course, the weather is a bit different, though both receive a good amount of rain and rainbows, and the kind of lush greenery you see is certainly different, but you can't help to be in awe driving alongside either one.

Along the way we saw a lot of animals: horses, sheep, cows, sheep, highland cows and more sheep. My favorite have always been the highland cows. I just want to hug one. These ones watched us as we drove by.

This is all the way up on the northernmost tip of mainland Britain. The water is incredibly blue, and as you can tell (which was shocking), it was a beautiful day. In fact, it got all the way up to 80 degrees (or maybe just 40).

Just like back home they have the crazy X-Files wind farms. These were right by the road though which made it seem even more odd.

This was an entrance to a castle that is now privately owned. We were going to sneak in but decided not to. Pretty sweet looking though.

All in all, we had a great driving experience. The wandering experience was not the greatest (stay tuned for updates), but it was truly beautiful. What is nice about the Highlands this time of year is that if you time it right, and if you are willing to have a long lunch, you can begin to have lunch while watching the sunrise and then when you are having desert you are watching the sunset! Actually, the Sun and the Moon were at about the same height in the sky at the same time which was weird, and it was like 1 in the afternoon. Crazy.

We made it to Dornoch

Well, Kelli and I made it to our much needed vacation spot. After several weeks of being under the weather and missing home over the holidays, we were able to drive up to Dornoch, Scotland. We are staying up in the Northern Highlands for the next several days, driving around and seeing as much as we can while we are here. It is a good chance that we'll never make it back, so we want to get as much out of our time as possible. There have already been some interesting adventures, some good and some bad, but I'll leave those for later posts.

Dornoch is a beatiful little town in the highlands. We are about an hour north of Inverness, which is the northern most city on mainland Britain. The hotel(pictured above) we are staying in was formally a castle in the 15th century and later a jail. In fact, attached to it is a mall that uses the old jail cells as rooms for soaps, kids clothes, etc. It is a neat little place(Pictured below).

Right across the street from us is the Cathedral(first picture, and below), made famous from Madonas' wedding. It was built in the 12 century, not knowing its fame would be stoked by the singer of "Like a Prayer."

Right now, Kelli and I are sitting in the lobby by a roaring fire, watching Charlie the castle cat prowl about, and sipping our tea (reading of course!). It has been a good trip.

The craziness of 2008

This blog post is a photo-guided review of the year. It was definitely an emotional year, full of hellos and goodbyes, packing and unpacking, driving, flying, and more driving. Rather than try to summarize our reflections in words (which I'm sure Kyle will do soon), I thought I'd share some photos that reflect the diversity of 2008.

January: On the road to Connecticut, where we lived until May.

February: Adventure in Providence with Jenn

March: Coffee shop time in Brandford. While we lived in Connecticut, we spent most of our Saturdays at Common Grounds.

April: Nice wedding and sunshine in Arizona.

May: More exploring in Connecticut.
This is the oldest stone house in America. 1639

June: A really busy month back in California full of visiting family and friends, catching up and celebrating weddings and births. We also got to spend a bit of time in our favorite towne...Orange.