Highland Games and Glencoe (08-12-19)

All 4 of us enjoy Highland Games, and were definitely excited, as we headed to the Abernethy Highland Games in Nethybridge.






Along the way: We stopped at the Glen Morangie distillery. This is one of Mike and Julie's favorite Whiskies.  So sad that it was 11 am and we were driving- they settled for buying some new Glencairn whisky glasses.

Although we are no strangers to Highland Games, for Paul and I, these were the first we have been to in Scotland. Here there are games almost every week in the summer.

Most are small, local games, a few are bigger and last more than one day. This was a relatively small one, but extremely well done, and a lot of fun.








Our rooms were at the historic Nethybridge Hotel, built in the late 1800s. The hotel let us park our cars in the lot, even though it was only 10 in the morning.  From there we could easily walk to the games.

 One of the dancers was sitting next to us, with her dad, so I chatted with them a bit, and enjoyed watching her compete.












The outer track hosted numerous races, for people of all ages.

In addition to the piping and drumming competitions, there were, of course, the traditional heavy weight competitions. 

 One of the favorites  is the Caber toss.The athlete walks forward, holding what is essentially a telephone pole. When he has it balanced, he throws it.

 The first requirement is that the pole has to flip, end over end.  If it does, the goal is to get it to fall as close to straight as possible. In other words, using a clock analogy, if the athlete is standing at 6 O'clock, he wants the caber to fall at 12 O'clock.

Whoever gets the closest, wins. 

A new world record was set when Colin Dunbar, from the U.S., tossed a 56 lb weight 17.5 feet in the air. Yikes.

Once the games were over, some of the pipe bands marched to the hotel, and set up in the garden, where they played several traditional Scottish songs before disbanding.

From Nethybridge, our next destination was the historic town of Glencoe.

These days, Glencoe is a haven for hikers, however, it has a very sad history.  This area was inhabited by the MacDonald clan in 1692 when King William lll offered a pardon to all who had fought against him.  

The MacDonalds were delayed in swearing their allegiance and missed the deadline.  In February, they were housing a group of soldiers, including many of the Campbell clan.  After 10 days, on the night of February 12, the Campbells received an order from the King to kill all MacDonalds under the age of 70. In the middle of the night, they started the slaughter. While many escaped into the night, most of those died of exposure. 

On a more fun note, that first night Julie and I went for a short walk, and ended at the site of a Harry Potter filming location- Hagrid's Hut.

With one day to hike, Paul and I chose the Lost Valley Trail.

For several miles we hiked along numerous waterfalls, climbing up about 900 feet of elevation.

At the end, our reward was a view of the Lost Valley....

On our non-hiking day, we explored the nearby town of Kinlochleven.  The drive to get there was pretty spectacular.....

The town itself is picturesque and owes it's beginnings to the aluminum industry,  of all things.

In the early 1900s, because of the availability of water and hydro power, an aluminum company built a smelter here, and what was a place with two hunting lodges, grew to a town of thousands. It is still a decent size town, known for it's climbing, and winter sports.

Interestingly, during World War I, prisoners of war helped build the infrastructure of the town, and were housed with the locals.

On our final day, I took a day off, and Paul went exploring with Mike and Julie..

And in the Blink of an Eye, They were Gone (12-30-12)

Well, the kids were actually here for a week, but it sure went by fast.  They’ve both gone home now, and I am keeping my spirits up with the thought that we will see them both in May.     Our visit was a combination of relaxing and just hanging out, and running around Universal Studios.  But first- there was Christmas!



Christmas Eve-the trailer was all decked out!

Jess models her new sweatshirt on Christmas morning.

The kids know us so well…they had these glasses engraved for us!

Christmas dinner!  Our traditional non-traditional Chile Rellenos and turkey enchiladas.

Our first ride at Universal was a water roller coaster.  Hmm, maybe not the best idea we’ve ever had.  We were drenched, and took hours to dry off.

We knew that we were braving Universal during one of the busiest weeks of the  year, but we didn’t have too many options.  We had to skip a few rides due to lines that were over 2 hours long.  The one really long  line we did wait in was in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We waited for over 2 and a half hours,  during which time the ride broke down twice, but in the end, we did experience The Forbidden Journey, and it was worth the wait.

It was so busy at Universal, it was literally wall to wall people, even though we were up, out the door and at the park when it opened.  We were there so long the first day that we decided to stick around and have dinner at Margaritaville,  one of our favorite places.  We sat on the Porch of Indecision, listening to live music while we ate.







 

The culinary highlight of our week was dinner at Emeril’s in Universal’s Citywalk. We’ve eaten here before and had such a great experience we decided to repeat it. It wasn’t as wonderful as our first time there, but we still had a great time.

 

Paul and Stephen both enjoyed  the 5 course Chef’s Dinner while Jess tried the Filet Mignon, and I ordered Emeril’s signature dish- Andouille Crusted Redfish. Both kids were nice enough to share their dessert with their mother!

 

After dinner it was back to Margaritaville for a drink.  We were hoping to hear more music, but they started playing extra late due to the holiday.

In our “down” time, we played Catch Phrase, a family favorite.

 

We also played Monopoly- on the ipad!  It was actually easier and more fun than playing on a regular game board.

I had a great time, especially since we hardly ever see both kids at the same time, because they live so far from each other.  They had their own cottage, here at the RV park, which worked out well, because although our day ends at about 9:30, I know that theirs does not!

The weather in Orlando is not always warm at this time of year, and I did feel bad because there were definitely no beach or pool days this past week, but both kids missed snow storms back home, and as Stephen said, anytime you can sit outside in December, the weather can’t be that bad!