Glasgow, Day 2: A Hoot and A Half!

 Piper Museum, Botanical Garden, The Citizen, Tennent’s Tour, Live Sessions and Haggis at Babbity Bowster

We went to bed super early last night at 6:30 Glasgow time, but about half past midnight to our bodies, and after having been awake since very very early the previous day for all the travel. We both slept hard and felt very refreshed at 3:30am! One side effect of overseas travel is the time adjustment, even though we had been trying to go to bed incrementally earlier each night at home, it didn’t always happen, and always you kind of end up a wee messed up when you get over here. So we made coffee and then after a little while, laid back down to just give our bodies and feet the rest since we couldn’t do much at that hour. 

After John fixed us a lovely brekkies of sausage rolls, eggs fruit and toast, we headed out to check out the National Piper’s Museum. It was a nice walk in the gritty city streets and dodging the hurrying workers, and we arrived just as they opened. A bit smaller than we expected, but a really cool history of piping (bagpipes as well as other pipe instruments). Since it didn’t take us too long to see the whole museum, we decided to walk the 40 minutes to see the Botanical Gardens, and though all the roses were all gone but for a few wild white holdouts, they had tons of plants in the greenhouses which were sweltering with the humidity of a tropical jungle. Loads of lovely plants, a koi pond shared with a giant catfish, and even a massive banana tree with a whole clutch of bananas! It was a perfect day with clear skies and cool weather in the 50’s (which at times was still too hot!).

We then grabbed a bus back to the hotel, went for lunch at a place called The Citizen, which had delicious savory pies. I had the chicken and ham with leek and John had the streak pie. So yummy! Then we took a wee nap in the hotel, then headed out for a tour of the Tennent’s Brewery which was awesome! I should’ve asked for a half-pimt sample of beer at the end because I couldn’t drink a full one! The we decided to walk by a place called Babbity Bowster’s to see if they might have live sessions later in the evening, and the gods use have heard our plea for early sessions because they were indeed having them and were in full swing! We stayed to enjoy the music, then decided to just have a wee supper there. We had the haggis bon-bons with creamy mustard sauce and Cajun fries, both were fantastic! The music was wonderful and we had an absolute hoot! 

Now we are back to the hotel to rest in this glorious comfort, and to get up tomorrow for our Outlander tour!

Glasgow, Scotland!

We are on another adventure to this lovely land Scotland!

We survived the arduous travel night/day, which is always so long. We got to the airport by 4pm for a 7:30 flight, and we had bid for an upgrade through Iceland Air and got to sit in first class. We had to sit across the aisle from each other but that was fine since we both appreciate the aisle seats, and thankfully, we both had lovely people sitting next to us. We both found that the seats in the exit rows have just as much legroom (a non-issue for me) as the seats in first class, however you get much more room per seat and they are more comfortable in terms of squishiness. For me, they were generally a lot less comfortable overall (other than the seat cushioning which was a godsend for my spinal arthritis, though I still sat on a pillow) because they were set so far back that I needed to use the blanket as a lumbar bolster, and I didn’t realize that the foot rests had any other settings than the lowest until a little while before landing, so that was a real bummer. I would’ve been so much more comfortable had I known. The rest of the experience was fine, but in my opinion not worth too much extra money. I got really nauseous just as we got our food, so I could barely eat any of it, though it was pretty good. It was fun to try first class once, but I guess I wouldn’t bother with it again, or if we did, at least I know what I would need to get more comfortable next time around.

We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Iceland which was not comfortable at all since they have such hard seating everywhere, but we finally found a softer bench of stretch out on, and due to exhaustion I just had to lay down and close my eyes for a while, it helped take the edge off of no sleep, but we were very ready for a hotel! Thankfully, the flight from Iceland was less than two hours, and the passport control process in Glasgow airport was a breeze! No interview! Just scan your passport at the electronic thingy and we were through!

Our hotel, Native Glasgow, is incredible! It’s like an apartment with a kitchenette, split level layout and even laundry in the unit! We slept beautifully, going to bed around 6:30 because we just couldn’t force ourselves to stay awake anymore! We slept so well, and feel great this morning. Though we woke at 3:30a, and decided we were too awake and just made coffee. One nice thing about that is it gives us a lot of leisure time for coffee and blogging (and the need for our morning poo’s) and no need to feel rushed. 

Today the plan is to visit the National Piping Museum, the Tennents Brewery tour, and the Potstill bar with live sessions! We also would like to see the botanical gardens and potentially see a play and grab a savory pie a placed called the Òran Mor. We may also check out a place with good sounding food called Babbity Bowster. There’s a lot to see but not a lot of time to do all the things!

Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy all day, so we signed up for an Outlander tour with a tour company called Rabbie’s. Outlander is a tv series we like that is set in Scotland, and the tour takes you to a bunch of sites from the series, which includes a bunch of really cool castles and quaint villages. We will be taking another Rabbie’s 3day tour to the Isle of Mull in a few days and we are really excited for that. Rabbie’s run smaller tours of about 12-14 people, local tour guides that know a lot about the history of Scotland and they use smaller but very comfortable buses that relieve the strain on smaller villages that have to deal with those massive bus tours all the time. 

We did a little walkabout the neighborhood yesterday and got some groceries at a place called Salisbury’s and got a simple dinner  of pre-made sandwiches and Cullen Skink soup, which is a delicious rich, creamy fish soup that originated in a town called Cullen here in Scotland. We watched some Rick Steve’s videos about Scotland before turning in. 

We are excited for another day!

Artemas, PA

We checked out of our little nest in Pittsburgh by 9am and started the drive to visit Aunt Joan in Artemas, PA. We brought our little toll thingy, which you add money to, put on the windshield of the car and it will deduct tolls as you go through toll roads. These days, they also charge the tolls by your license plates, so even if it doesn’t register the little doohickey, the charges (and fees) will then be charged to the rental vehicle, and we’d have to pay those when we turn in the rental car. It hasn’t been too bad, and one benefit of the toll roads is that they are easier and flatter to drive than the scary highway roads that are super steep, narrow, lots of blind passes, more animals like deer running in the roads, and where there often is no signal to see your GPS! So I’m happy to pay for good roads.

We made it to Artemas by 12:30 or so, dropped our stuff off in our cute little cabin, then went to Joan’s that’s about 3 minutes away and just one direct road. She has the funniest, cutest little dog who looks like a wee basketball on tiny legs! His name is Buddy and follows her around everywhere. She said he doesn’t like to go outside without her because he’s scared of a neighborhood cat that comes by to hiss at him. She had a hummingbird feeder and a tiny swing for them which they loved! There were a bunch of hummingbirds flying around, but I never could get a photo because they are so fast! They looked so cute preening on the tiny swing!

Joan made us some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and we caught up a bit, then she called her brother Ronny (John’s uncle) to make arrangements to meet him and his wife, Jackie, at a restaurant in Hancock. We met them and had a nice early dinner and talked about genealogy with Jackie, who has done loads of research on Ronny’s family back to the 1500’s! We are very interested to see those results. We grabbed all about the family, and found out that Jan (John’s mom) and Joan (her twin sister) were married on the same day and were each other’s witnesses! We never knew. It was interesting to hear Ronny’s perspective since he is 7 years younger than them, and the difficulty he faced in having to move around so much. Their family had a lot of hardships, and still does, following their kids and now grandkids, so it makes me grateful for what we have, the stability we had, and for making positive changes in my life before the road became too set in stone. Being here also helps to understand why city and rural living and perspectives are so vastly different. We weren’t able to see Ashley or Trinity, Joan’s granddaughters, so we will have to plan another visit out to see them. Ashley is pregnant, so we will hopefully be able to come back out to meet the baby. 

After our meal the Jimmy Joy’s Log Cabin Inn, we brought Joan to our little cabin at the Road Kill Cafe and Cabins, chatted for a bit, then ran her home. We came back and vegged out for the rest of the night. There is not a lot to do out here, so we strolled up and down the road a bit, but we’re pretty glad to just chill on the comfy beds in the A/C. John slept a full 8 hours! I woke around 3am and was up for about 1.5 hours before I finally fell back to sleep for a bit. We woke up to see a whole herd of deer nibbling on the grass near the woods out back! We will be having lunch with Joan at the Road Kill Cafe, then heading off to Gettysburg. I’ll be relieved to get somewhere with a better signal for peace of mind! 

Pittsburgh Day 2

We had a wonderful day yesterday, and great weather! John started us off with a nice hearty breakfast and we enjoyed our coffee out on the little outdoor landing that overlooks a cute yard. We set out on the bus to downtown, starting our walk along Point Park, across one of the many bridges here to take the two furniculars they have here. So we went up the Duquesne Incline (which is pronounced Du-Caine), and took a bunch of cool photos at the top of the sweeping views of Pittsburgh. 

Then we walked the hills for about a mile to the other funicular,  the Mononcahela Incline to take it down again. We hiked across the river along a different bridge, this one had loads of inspiring and thought-provoking and supportive graffiti for anyone considering suicide, and I took some photos because it’s been sort of my thing these days to photograph graffiti. 

We then went to the Science Museum where we got to see a really cool Vikings exhibit, a planetarium show, an awesome meticulously maintained electric train village, toured a submarine, and got to take selfies with a bunch of our favorite TV star robots: C3-PO, R2-D2, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo! A very exciting day! And we wore masks indoors with all the germy people and kids!

Then we met up with my friend Molly and two of her kids at a little pub to have lunch and catch up. It was getting pretty hot out and the rest and fuel up in the a/c. Her one very shy and stressed kid seemed to lighten up and start laughing with us as I regaled them with my many hilarious toilet tales of woe! 

Then we meandered over to the PNC baseball stadium and waited to be able to get into the stadium to eat and walk the stadium before the Pittsburgh Pirates vs Atlanta game started. It is a super cool stadium! We had a really lovely evening watching the sun set over the gorgeous view of the riverfront and cityscape and the game. We treated ourselves to a Lyft ride home because I have a pretty gnarly blister on my pinky toe, and we were happy to collapse into our comfy king bed in our loft apartment. A wonderful, perfect day!

Pittsburgh!

Our flight to Pittsburgh was super quick, only 1.5 hours, but all the airport stuff and waiting took way more time than the flight itself, and a delay on the tarmac, but once landed we were off to fetch our rental car and driving into the city! The driving was blessedly tame, but finding a parking spot on these skinny streets which all look like one-ways was quite the challenge! They have an interesting parking permitting system here that requires you to register your car, license plates and dates of stay, but then all street parking is free. So we pulled off into a Rite Aid parking lot to take care of all that and to call my Mama and let her know we got in ok. We contacted the AirBnB buy to see if we could check in early (the normal check in time is 4pm!) and then walked around the neighborhood for a bit to wait and hear back. Thankfully we barely have any baggage and having the car we were able to just lock our stuff in the trunk.  Finally around 2pm we could check in and relax a bit. We had barely eaten anything and had been up since 3am so it was nice to just have the evening to grab some groceries and hang out in the a/c of our very cute and comfy digs!

We slept really well, although I got many times throughout the night, but still feel well-rested. We are in Pittsburg for two nights in a bit of a whirlwind stay to catch a baseball game and meet up for lunch with my friend Molly and her kids, who just moved here at the end of June. So we are heading out shortly to take the bus downtown and see some sites. We are planning to check out the Duquesne Incline, Point State Park, Carnegie Science Center and PNC Park. I’ll try to post photos later today!

Winona, Wabasha, LaCrosse

 We did so much hiking on this trip, despite such horrible heat! On this trip we’ve hiked in Great River Bluffs State Park, John A. Latch State Park, Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge, Frontenac State Park as well as the local river walk in Winona, and a bit around downtown Wabasha.

Yesterday on our final day, I made us an omelette, and we enjoyed a leisurely start to the day. We were packed up early and checked out of the Airbnb by 9am, and decided to break up the drive home with some last minute hiking. We first checked out this little trail right across the river from where we stayed, called the Agaming Trail, and this little funky shanty river village right on the waters, kind of reminiscent of the fishing village homes along the fjords in Norway. You can watch the most adorable mother & baby snapping turtles swimming together in the video! So cute!

 

Here’s some photos from Trempeauleau hike: 

Here’s some photos of Wabasha, a few random shots of LaCrosse and the rest of our journey:

It was a very relaxing trip, so good to get away from the normal schedule for a while and you always feel a million miles away from normal worries when traveling, but we were so grateful to return to our wonderful home, and our very comfortable bed! And blessed be central air!