Scotland for Thanksgiving!

 We had a wonderful week touring Scotland!

We had a bit of a rough start, as Gracie and Charlie both got carsick within the first hour of driving!

Those windy roads are a killer when you are riding in the backseat of a van!  Fortunately, that was our only glitch, and both of them felt fine after we got things cleaned up.  Drew was traumatized though, since he received some "spray." He started gagging and we thought he may get sick as well!  So much for him being a doctor, I guess.

We began going north through Glasgow and stopped at Stirling Castle.  It was amazing, but I forgot my camera in the car, so you will just have to trust me.  We could see William Wallace's monument from the castle but it was getting late so we skipped it to make it to the hotel at a decent hour.

We purposely chose a hotel with "ammenities" in case we had nothing but bad weather, something that Scotland is known for, but fortunately we were blessed with cold but clear days.  We still enjoyed the playground, mini golf, and pool, as well as the beautiful setting we were able to hike in.  The first part of the trip was in Aviemore, Scotland where we toured Urqhuart Castle ruins on Loch Ness and walked around the city of Inverness.  Jody and I were also able to shop the quaint town of Aviemore alone one morning.  It is great to have a few built in babysitters when you travel- love those teenagers!

 No Nessie sightings but a beautiful view of the Loch.

 This is a replica of a catapult they might have used during the castle's heyday.  It was built on site and used for testing purposes.

 Found other tourists to take a family pic but pretty much had the place to ourselves!

Urqhuart Castle and Loch Ness.

I remembered my camera!  And it was my birthday so everyone had to happily pose and not complain while I took all the pictures I wanted!  As you can see, it was beautiful.  They had a wonderful gift shop, tea room, and visitors center.  We watched a film on the castle time period and all learned so much.