Guest Post – Grammy & Grandpa Steve’s Visit

To all my loyal readers, I’m sorry I’ve been AWOL for a bit.  I have been very busy hosting family visitors and recuperating between visits.  Just when I think I’ve finally gotten all rested up, mum and dad decide to take me for a run or invite one of my friends over to see me.  Needless to say, it’s been a busy summer for me.  But I’ve finally gotten a chance to sit mum down so she can help me type this up. 

A little over a month ago mum told me that Grammy & Grandpa Steve were coming for a visit.  I LOVE Grammy because she’s a total pushover and spoils me a ton.  So when mum and I headed to the bus stop I was super excited for what I found on the other end.  When I saw them walk through the gates I couldn’t contain my excitement.  I jumped and hugged and kissed just so they would know how excited I was that they had come to see me. 

I showed them how to get on the bus because I’m an expert.  They were both a bit scared about driving on the left side of the road but I assured them that it was okay.  It just takes some time to get used to it.  Then after we got home and they had a rest I took them to my hill (people call it Calton Hill but that’s because they’re silly).  I had a good time running around while they took in the views. 

It was great having them visit because we got to go on lots of adventures.  It had been a while since I had gotten to ride in a car but dad came home on Sunday morning with an Audi.  I told him I could get used to that so he better get a good job one day.  Unfortunately the first place they decided to stop didn’t think I would make a good visitor and I had to stay in the car.  Silly people – they just don’t know how friendly I am.  But it was okay because then we got to go play on a golf course.  Dad said it was famous or something but all I cared about was that there was lots of green grass.

And that same day I got to go to two different pubs!  Pubs are fun for me because I get lots of attention.  At both places I got a nice bowl of water.  But I only got biscuits at one.  Oh well. 

We spent a couple of days in a part of Scotland called the highlands.  I didn’t get to go everywhere with Grammy & Grandpa Steve, but I got to stay with them most of the time.  My favourite part was running around on the beach.  I never get tired of swimming.

When we got back to Edinburgh I had to kick them out of the house so that I could get some much needed rest.  Luckily mum is a pretty good tour guide so she was able to take on this task for me.  Although I did muster up enough energy to take Grandpa Steve to the top of Arthur’s Seat.  The things you do for family.

That’s about it.  It was a fun visit because I got all of Grammy’s sandwich crusts and got lots of rubs.  Hopefully they’ll come back to visit again one day.

Cheers!

Luther

Holiday with the Bridgers Day 4 – Scottish Breakfast and Double Castle Day

For our last day outside of Edinburgh we decided to make our way south to visit of few of the wonderful castles owned by Historic Scotland.  Mom and Steve had already decided that they wanted to see Stirling Castle so I looked to see if I could find another castle that was on our way there.  I had seen pictures of Castle Campbell and have to admit that it was on the top of my list of Historic Scotland sites to visit.  Perfect excuse!

But before we could head out on our journey, we needed to fortify our stomachs and make sure we could sustain the journey.  So we left our wee little cabin in the woods and headed to an inn in Aviemore for a true Scottish breakfast.  This was actually my first Scottish breakfast as well because we don’t tend to go out for breakfast very often.  A Scottish breakfast is similar to an English breakfast but there are a few more items on the menu.  Ours came with sausage, bacon, eggs, fried toast, potato scone, grilled tomato, black pudding and sautéed potatoes and mushrooms.  Sometimes it will also come with baked beans and haggis. 

I’m not usually a big eggs/sausage type breakfast person but I’ll eat it on occasion.  This was such an occasion and it was quite tasty.  We all tried our black pudding – Luke liked it a lot, I liked it but Steve wasn’t too keen on it.  Oh well. 

It took us a couple hours to drive to Castle Campbell but it was a fun drive.  We wandered off into some small towns in search of a filling station and drove through some very dramatic back roads to get to Dollar where the castle is located.  The last couple of miles to the castle was a bit crazy.  I’m not sure how to even describe the road except that it was one lane, bumpy, curvy and on the edge of a steep drop.  (This is where I praise my husband’s driving skills because he’s AWESOME!)  Luke dropped us off at the castle and then went to park the car in the teeny tiny lot about a quarter mile away. 

The castle was did not disappoint.  In and of itself, it wasn’t all that big but there were definitely details that were unique and very interesting.  My favourite part however was the garden.  With the castle behind you and beautiful views over Dollar Glen in front of you it made for a great place to sit and take it all in. 

Lamps used to hang from these faces

After we had thoroughly explored the castle, we hopped back in the car and headed the short distance to Stirling Castle, our last stop before heading back to the flat.  Because we had already visited Stirling and Luke had his Linguistics exam coming up on the following Friday, Luke and Luther opted to stay in the car and study.  That left me to give mom and Steve the castle tour.  We took our time and saw most everything.  It was neat to be able to show them what an intact castle would have looked like after visiting a couple of ruins.  (You'll have to go to the link above to see pictures of Stirling.)

And then we headed home to rest up before trekking through Edinburgh for the next two days of their stay.

Love you & miss you!

Aubs, Luke & Luther