On Saturday Madeline, Jeremy and I left for our first big family vacation! We had a brief wait in the airport then flew to the Seattle airport for a 4 hour layover. It went pretty quickly and Madeline did great. Our 9 hour flight to Paris went a bit slower, but also amazing!
Here is Madeline in the Paris airport:
Madeline is such a wonderful traveler, we really cannot believe it! Of course, there was some benadryl involved, but to be honest I'm not sure it really helped, as it was 8 pm our time when she did finally knock off on the plane. Regardless, with the exception of about 10 minutes off fussing before that time, she slept amazingly well.We had a couple hours in Paris before our last flight of
the day to Edinburgh. Madeline and I both slept the entire flight to Edinburgh, and Jeremy got a bit more sleep but was not quite so lucky as we were!
We took a taxi to our hotel and went downstairs for a bit of lunch before Jeremy's parents arrived, and just as our food arrived, the fire alarm went off! This officially marked the 3rd time I've been in a hotel when the fire alarm went off. The first time was in Carlsbad, CA. It was early in the morning and I was wearing flannel pajama bottoms- I had wisely grabbed my shoes and keys and purse so I went to a starbucks...oh I was quite the sight in flannel pajama bottoms in southern California! The second time was in Herzogenaurach Germany a few days after I had met Jeremy...and now the third time, in Edinburgh Scotland. So far, there has never been an actual fire...let's keep it that way!We got back to our food and just about the time we got upstairs, Jeremy's Parent's arrived from England! It was great to see them and after we showered, we all took a train into Edinburgh to get some dinner.
Of course we needed the requisite shot of the red phone booth...
And the churches...
I don't know the name of this Cathedral, but it's unique in that it's the only cathedral with a crown on top (I think...)
We walked by an alley called Craig's Close so of course we took a pic!
We saw a sort of walk of fame they started in 2007, and had someone from 2007, and JK Rowling in 2008, but so far no hands for 2009...
We walked around a bit, took lots of photos, saw the big cathedral in town, admired some of the shop names (I especially loved the restaurant called The Baked Potato Shop!!!) and found some dinner at a pub called Deacon Brodies where I had my first Scottish sausage and Mash! So Tasty!
Maddie was SO happy to see Grandma George!
We saw some street performers and watched awhile...
Maddie loved watching the street performer!
And we loved the people watching!
We took a train back afterwards to the hotel and we were all so tired we went right to bed. I was so tired I could not even properly write in my journal- I would start a sentence and fall asleep before I got to the end, usually with an odd word appearing before the pen slid away... I would wake up and try and figure out what I had been trying to write. I finally gave up and just closed it up and fell asleep! All three of us, amazingly, slept through the night! Maddie woke in great spirits and wanted some Joes O's right away.
Fortunately she was also kind enough to share with lambie.
In the morning we met Craig and Dana for breakfast and all took a Taxi to the airport for our flight to Kirkwall- the Main Orkney Island. Maddie was once again amazing- she is infatuated with Airplanes these days and when we asked her, Maddie- do you want to go on an airplane? She enthusiastically says 'Airpane!!!' She loved watching the airplanes take off and taxi down the runways... every time she would get excited and say 'Airpane!' then once it was gone she would say 'more...more!' Very cute!
She is loving wearing the backpack that we got her and is just stellar when it comes to being patient about getting on and off planes, hurrying to get her sweater or jacket on when we tell her, and just generally being GOOD! Oh we are so lucky!
Jennifer and Robin came to meet us in the Kirkwall airport and we went to the Garden Center (there is a small cafe in the back) for lunch where I had Tatties and Hash and my first white pudding. Tatties are Potatoes, Hash is like ground beef in a gravy, and White pudding they say is a bit like haggis. But to describe white pudding is a little difficult. It had a thick taste to it, a tiny big sweet, and had oatmeal in it, I wouldn't say it was chalky, but eaten with the hash it was so tasty! Haggis certainly has a bad rap in the US, but given my experience with white pudding, I'm anxious to try Haggis!
Jennifer had some wedding shopping to do, so she and Dana went off to do that, and Craig, Robin, Jeremy and Madeline and I went off for a little exploration. We toured St Magnus Cathedral,
which May or may not have anything to do with Skull Splitter ale which is made in Kirkwall. Apparently St Magnus was killed by having his skull split in half by an axe- and Jeremy had heard the story that this was the inspiration for Skull Splitter ale.
But...Robin responded to this with a 'huh, interesting...what does beer have to do with the Cathedral?' Okay, put in that context, I suppose it does sound doubtful! Maddie had a good time in the Cathedral except for one small little....faux paus....
We had reason (urgently) to find a changing Table (yes, the first Cathedral Maddie goes into and she, um....Christens it...). We found one (yay!) and after I took her off the changing table and was folding up the changing pad, she found a string hanging down from the ceiling almost to the floor and pulled it. And an alarm started going off! Not too loud, but definitely an alarm! So we had to go back to the sweet custodian lady who showed us the bathroom and explain and apologize... She was very kind about it fortunately!
Maddie loved running up and down this ramp- it looks like she is falling but she didn't!
We also went to a great specialty store with lots of various organic treats and seeds and seed potatoes in the back, of course I had to take a picture of the seed potato sacks!
We all met up with Jennifer and Dana and had some amazing orkeny ice cream (honeycomb- vanilla with bits of crunchy honey- oh it is like nothing I've ever tasted!!) then walked to the Ferry.
We took the Ferry to Stronsay- 2 hours, and arrived at Jennifers house! Had a wonderful dinner and fell into bed around 11 pm!
And the Shop itself, notice the sign so you can tell it's a shop? Honestly it did not look like a shop on the outside, it's a good thing there is a sign there!
The vegetable section and part of the refrigerator section. This is not the kind of store you can normally go to with a list of specific vegetables....instead you have to have a general idea and a skill to improvise when needed.
Here they are, NEEPS! Or, to some of us, Turnips the size of your head....
The toy store...or rather, the toy section...
Penny candy under the counter...yes there really IS still candy you can buy for a penny!
I had to photograph this....the biscuit section. One of the things I loved about Stronsay was Jennifer's biscuit bin....out comes tea and out comes this fantastic bin of various kinds of biscuits and cakes and cookies like I've never seen before! It was exciting and tasty to try them all! the favorites were the Jaffa cakes (which for some reason I started calling giraffe cakes by the end of the week) and these shortbread cookies with dried blueberries in them, very yummy!
A stained glass window at Jennifer's Church...
Maddie checking out her career options...
Outside the church...
We walked down the road a bit and loved seeing that Stronsay has it's own red phone booth... albeit non-operational...
window of a house...
Everywhere we saw sheep Maddie would exclaim "Baa! Baaa!" By the end of the week she could spot them even as tiny dots on distant fields and identify them as sheep!
These were one of several sets of twins...Mama 8 with Little 8a and little 8b. Or, 8, 8 and 8.
The road leading off from the Manse.
More "baa baa".
