Inverness to Gairloch

After we left Edinburgh, we took a quick stop at Culloden's Field (sort of like Gettysburg - equally depressing), and then followed the route past Loch Ness to Gairloch.

Lane eating hula hoops at Culloden Visitors Centre. Shorly after this, we dragged her screaming through the exhibit and across Culloden's field.

The monument at Culloden.

Andrew (with the help of a local shopkeeper) traced his Simpson family line back to the Clan Fraser.

Dad, Hana, Lane, and the Loch Ness monster.


We stopped in at Urquart Castle, which is on the banks of Loch Ness.

Loch Ness in the background - see anything in the water?

Loch Maree in the distance, the prettiest loch we saw in all of Scotland.



Views around Gairloch - the home of the best bacon and porridge oats in the world.

After days of tent camping in the rain, we were relieved to have a hut to call our own.

Crossing the dunes between our wigwam and the beach.



We need to live closer to the beach. It took us a while to convince Hana that it was okay to sit on the sand.


Andrew cooking some very fresh Langoustines we bought of the back of a local fisherman's truck. Are you supposed to eat that kind of food when you're pregnant?

Skye and the Trossachs

When Andrew was little, his dad used to sing him "Speed Bonny Boat", a song about Bonny Prince Charlie's escape to the Isle of Skye (ask Andrew about the Scots and their brilliant marketing acumen). Now, Andrew sings it to the girls. So, of course, we had to take them to Skye.

Andrew and Hana in Portree on Skye. What we thought would be a quick day trip turned into a three-hour one way adventure over single track roads through the most remote part of the highlands.

And they mean single track - only room enough for one car. If you meet oncoming traffic, one of you is supposed to pull off the road to let the other pass. These aren't just back country tracks, either. In most cases, they are the main and only way into a town, which means more often than not you're meeting semi trucks and the like. Oh, and the speed limit on them is 70 MPH.


Hana and Lane got very cozy with each other during our long driving days.


Andrew said he wouldn't be satisfied with his trip to Scotland unless we found a lone piper standing on a hill. I thought he was crazy. But lo and behold, as we came over a rise on our way to the Trossachs, he found his lone piper - who was even a member of the famous Black Watch.

Stirling Highland Games

All Hana wanted to see the whole time we were in Scotland were the Highland Dancers. We drove the length and breadth of Scotland - from the borders, past Glasgow, to Edinburgh, Falkirk, Stirling, across the Firth of Forth, to Kingussie, Inverness, Loch Ness, over the Highlands to Gairloch, Shieldaig, over to the Isle of Skye, down through Kyle of Lochalsh, along Loch Linnhe, and around Loch Lomond - and do you think there were any Highland Dancers to be found?? Not a one! Until on the absolute, very last day we were in Scotland, we got an inside tip about Highland Games being held at the Battle of Bannockburn in Stirling, where we had been the week before.

So Andrew, the good dad that he his, got a map from the visitors' centre and we headed off in search of dancers. It was a lucky break - one of the best days of our whole trip!



What a relief - Highland Dancers!

Not only did we find dancers, but we got to see true Scottish Highland games (even better than the World's Strongest Man competition).

The famous caber toss.

Tug of war - surprisingly exciting.

Bale toss - this hardly looks safe.



And here is Lane's favorite - the marching soldiers.

Carly Rose

Carly was born 1 July at 9:47am weighing 3.39 kilograms and 50cm long. We are all doing fine.

London, Cotswolds with Grandma, Bath, London (again)

Katrina in London for the first time. We decided to just take the train into Waterloo and catch one of the big red tour buses so that they could get an overview of the city.
Of course, we hopped off the bus at Harrods, where we spent about 4 hours.

Grandma Michiko in Bibury. Right before she came, she saw a show about the Cotswolds on Japanese TV, and she really wanted to go. So we took her and Katrina through Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Burford.

We all took a weekend trip out to Bath. At the Roman Baths (or the giant's bathtub, as Hana calls it).
View of the Pulteney Bridge on the River Avon in Bath. This isn't the same River Avon as Stratford-upon-Avon. When the Romans began to settle Britain, they would ask the name of the local rivers, and the inhabitants would reply "avon". Since the Romans had individual names for all of their rivers, they assumed the Britons did, too. But "avon" was just the word for river, which is why now there are so many rivers on Great Britain named "River Avon", which really just means "River River".
Katrina at the Pulteney Bridge.
I think Lane is sleeping in her stroller. Or having a tantrum.
We took a detour to Stonehenge on the way back from Bath.
This time, Andrew and I managed a picture together.

Look quickly - is that Katrina or is that me in high school? Spooky.
Since we didn't see much of London on foot the first time we went, we all went back into the city the day before Katrina and Grandma left. We took the train to Waterloo, then caught the Underground to the DLR and headed across the river to Greenwich (i.e. Greenwich Mean Time). Here we are on the Prime Meridian. It was a bit of a climb to the Royal Observatory, but everybody made it up in the end.
East meets West.
View of the Old Royal Naval College.
From Greenwhich, we took about 6 different trains back into the city to Picadilly Circus. Here's Katrina by Eros at Picadilly Circus...
...and in Regent Street. We walked from Eros up Regent Street for a few blocks, and then down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square.