We are planners. We tend to plan way ahead so there are no surprises. This actually helps with small kids – so when things go wrong, you always have a sippy cup full of water and box of cheese crackers to keep everyone happy. But, we simply didn’t plan for this trip. We booked the cruise on a whim with minimal research. The Virgin Holidays sales guy told me the boat would sell out because we’re trying to book over term break. The cruise ports of call looked interesting, the sales guy said there were kids clubs and we were assured of babysitting.  Since Kevin was off school for 10 days, we decided to book 2 days in Rome before our 7 day cruise. We booked a hotel room and a shuttle from the airport but gave little thought to what to do and see with our 2 days in Rome. 

I flew home from a Redmond, WA business trip 12 hours before we flew 2 time-zones in the opposite direction. So, I was useless in the preparations and also too tired to be useful the first day or two as well. Dave and I were both sick (my sinus and his stomach) and the kids were so tired they behaved like little drugged zombies (which was actually helpful). Regardless, we got ourselves out the door in a cab at 4:15am to Heathrow.
Unfortunately, our hotel shuttle driver “couldn’t find no parking” and was an hour late to pick us up. Dave was doubled over our luggage at the airport holding his stomach while I had a number of frustrating calls with the hotel attendant who spoke broken English. We had a very large “quadruple” room in Rome, which was a long 87 steps to the 4th floor. Hardly ideal with a stroller, a 2 year old and 4 year old. Oh, and the place was under construction, so on one side of the stairs, behind a thin sheet of plastic and no railing, was a 20 foot drop off. Europe is not a litigious place.
Things got better though, especially after a nap. We spent the next 2 days checking out the highlights of Rome. Kevin’s highlight was buying a refrigerator magnet of “the broken building” (the Coliseum). Dave’s highlight was a solo tour of the Vatican Museums. Ryan enjoyed the strawberry gelato everywhere we went. And I was simply happy hanging out with the family with no Skype chat, work email, or product problems to think about.
All in all, we accomplished quite a bit given our lack of preparation. We saw the Vatican Museums, the Castle St. Angelo,, the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and took a double-decker bus tour of Rome. On departure day, we took a train from Rome to Civitavecchia (the cruise port). I even pushed both kids in the stroller over a mountain for 2 miles to find a bookstore to buy kids’ books in English. (In our hasty planning, we forgot to bring any books. And our kids are major bookworms.)

Anyway, we got ourselves to the cruise ship in Civitavecchia. We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. The Virgin Holiday sales guy (that pressured me to book before the boat filled up) did do something right. He talked me into the “family suite.” Our room was amazing.

It was on the 8^th deck in the very FRONT of the boat, room #8200. The room had 3 huge circular windows, and when we looked out, we could see the bow of the boat and the Helicopter landing pad. Kevin had his own tiny room, with a set of “boink beds” (he called them). Dave and I had our own room with a King bed. The living space in the middle, which a couch, coffee table, television, closets, etc is where Ryan’s pack n’ play was set up. We also had a nice bathroom and the shower was bigger than ours in London. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect room set up. We were ready to sleep and get rested up…..little did we know…..

The boat’s tour route took us to:

· Day 1 – Boarded by 5pm

· Day 2 – Palermo, Sicily

· Day 3 – At sea

· Day 4 – Athens, Greece

· Day 5 – Ephesus, Turkey

· Day 6 – Chania, Crete

· Day 7 – At sea

· Day 8 – Returned to Civitavecchia port

Day 2 was everyone’s favourite. We stopped in Palermo, Sicily. With bathing suits and sunglasses in hand, we headed for the nearest soft-sand beach. We spent several hours on the beach – Kevin made sand castles, we all went swimming and enjoyed the day. It was warm and relaxing.

Our short bus ride back to the boat was very exciting. A nice Midwestern family of 7 had a run-in with the Italian bus mafia. Their little freckled white kids were crying, the father was pleading, in English, explaining that he purchased bus tickets for everyone in the family. The Italian bus mafia guy was yelling in Italian. The poor Midwesterners got off the bus, all in a tizzy, and just started running. I’m guessing they won’t be back visiting Palermo, Sicily anytime soon.

About the boat – these huge cruise ships are a really impressive site. Fourteen decks in total, several swimming pools, miniature golf, arcade, rock climbing wall, huge dining halls, shops, dance clubs, etc. It is a bit overwhelming and very over the top. It’s also embarrassing in some ways. So many overweight Americans, standing in line at all-you-can eat buffets, a chocolate cookie in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. This particular boat was built in 2004, carries over 3000 passengers, 1200 crew and is over 1000 feet long.

We ate dinner in a fancy dining room with a family of 4 from the Netherlands.

Their 6 and 10 year old girls loved Kevin and Ryan. The food was delicious and had a wonderful variety. Our dinner seating was at 6pm and we could not finish before 8. When you think about the magnitude of feeding nearly 3000 people all at the same time with variety of selections, I can’t complain that it took so long. Most breakfasts and lunches we ate in the “Windjammer” cafe – buffet style piles of food which all starts to look the same after a few days. Dave and I enjoyed one dinner in a fancy steakhouse while the boys ate fish sticks in room service with two babysitters. The babysitters were part of the housecleaning crew, didn’t say more than 5 words and Kevin said they never got off the couch for the entire 2 hours. I don’t believe everything Kevin says, but I believed that.

Children in nappies (diapers) were not allowed to swim on this boat. (This is something that pushy sales guy neglected to inform us….and, it wasn’t in any of the fine print of the documents we got before the trip.) Dave and I discussed this issue at length, as newly-turned-2-Ryan was not potty trained. He loves the water and we had planned to spend a fair amount of time in the pool. So, we decided he was ready for a crash-course in potty training. He did quite well, actually! We pushed the bathroom often, and he had very few accidents over the course of the trip. So, we swam in the hot tubs everyday. The pools were not all that great. The larger swimming pools were cold and filled with salt water (directly sucked in from the ocean, perhaps?). They were also too deep to stand in, so it made it difficult to hold kids and swim with them. But we enjoyed the hot tubs.

Dave took a day tour in Athens while I stayed on the boat with both kids. I had been to Athens before with my friend Jennie and we toured the dirty, chaotic city of Athens and spent most of our time on the wonderful Greek islands. So, I knew I wasn’t missing much.

We did a tour called “Easy Ephesus” in Turkey. It was for the old, handicapped, and wheel-chair bound passengers of the boat. There was very little walking (to really see Ephesus, you have to walk 2km up a big hill which wouldn’t have worked with our stroller) and the whole tour lasted 2.5 hours. The “evil eye” necklace and bottle of water in the tour gift bag kept Kevin and Ryan busy for at least 20 minutes. Ephesus’ main claims to fame are the Virgin Mary (the last place she lived) and the Temple of Artemis. The Temple originally had hundreds of columns, but there is only one original left, and it’s in the British Museum (about 500 meters from where I work in central London). The kids enjoyed the “hunt for dead people” in the Ephesus museum, but otherwise were bored of looking out a bus window at the sites.

That evening, the trouble started. Kevin threw up all over Dave, the floor, the bed, and himself just before going to sleep. He had been suffering from mild diarrhea for several days before hand, but he has a sensitive stomach and it isn’t uncommon. He spent the night in bed with us and a metal garbage bin, throwing up every 20-30 minutes until long after midnight. This vomiting cycle continued if Kevin consumed any food. As long as he didn’t eat or drink, he didn’t throw up. Déjà vu to our Ixtapa, Mexico trip. Dave took a break and got off the boat in Chania, Crete. It was nothing to write home about, so, I won’t.

Kevin was a tough trooper. He complained little, given how he must have felt. But he continued to throw up throughout the day. And he was on day 5 of diarrhea. The next day, I took Kevin to the ship doctor. They gave him a shot (of what? I don’t know) to stop him from throwing up since he was starting to get dehydrated. They also quarantined him to his room for 24 hours, plus another 24 hours after that of avoiding the buffet eating areas. That basically meant Kevin had to spend the remainder of our cruise in our room. Dave and I took turns carrying trays of Windjammer buffet food back to the other members of the family.

Our room’s housecleaner was Marvin. Marvin was a very nice man with a wife and 8 year old son back in Honduras. He was very good to the boys and very talented with towels. He made a different towel animal every day. If I wasn’t quarantined to our room, I would have gone to the animal-towel-folding-class.

We returned to London in one piece, but exhausted. We left the boat on Sunday at 9am, wandered for an hour trying to figure out what we were supposed to do, waited around Civitivecchia 3 hours for a train to the Rome airport, waited in the Rome airport for 3 hours, took a 2. 5 hour flight to Heathrow, then an hour taxi ride home.

This is a picture of Ryan guarding the luggage (while playing with Dave’s iPhone) and Kevin sleeping in the bottom of the stroller.  Everyone was so delighted to get home. Kevin and Ryan were hugging their animals and running around the house like madmen.

The next day was Halloween. Kevin was feeling pretty good by this point, though weak and still tired from the trip. He was VERY excited about dressing up as a superhero and getting lightning bolts painted on his face. He went to school for half the day, so he could enjoy the parties and still have a nap in the afternoon.

Stockholm is an amazingly beautiful city. Once again, we hit it right with the weather, just like in Sunny Scotland. It reminded me quite a bit of Amsterdam, but without the trashiness. It was clean, a great walking city, interesting architecture, lots of waterways, and fantastic restaurants. It was also the most expensive city I’ve ever visited. I’m thanking Skype for the opportunity to visit, as well as have it paid for.

I had to be in the office for work Monday through the following Tuesday. Because that was such a long time away from Dave and the boys, we decided to have the whole family visit Stockholm together for the weekend in between.

The first workweek I was there, I put in seriously long hours. I was in the office by 9am and didn’t leave before 10pm. Pizza was delivered to the office or we grabbed dinner and returned to work. That said, my team had a great time together and got a ton done. We are normally located in 4 geographic locations spanning 10 hour time zone differences (not the most efficient of working conditions). We were extremely productive once all in the same spot.

The Skype office is situated in a massive red-brick building that was once the home of the Munchen Brewery. Right next door was a ballet dance school for young women. And next door to that was a “kitchen” that served awesome chicken Caesar salads (I had one every day for lunch).

Dave and the boys flew in on Friday about noon. They had to leave Heathrow airport at 7:15am, which required a 4:30am taxi ride. Dave is a hero for getting both boys (likely very grumpy at that hour) dressed and out the door, to the airport, luggage checked, through security, and onto a plane. Ryan is 20 months, so he’s still a lap child (we’re too cheap to buy him a real ticket) so the flight was uncomfortable, but thankfully just 2.5 hours. He squirmed and cried and whined. Kevin was a stellar traveler and a trooper. Kevin pooped once during the flight; and since he still requires “help” wiping, all three of them were crammed in an airplane bathroom. Imagine that, will you? Again, Dave = hero.

We stayed at the Hotel Diplomat, one of the nicest hotels in the city. The hotel staff mismanaged my reservation, so they gave us the Executive Suite for 3 nights at a standard room rate. It had two rooms – perfect when accompanied by 2 children. Ryan had a real crib and Kevin had a lumpy and bumpy sofa bed (which, by day, was an outstanding trampoline). The hotel celebrates its 100^th year of service in July. The elevator was an original. A brass door on the outside, and a sliding door on the inside. Kevin quickly got the hang of the doors and became the “elevator door man” for the building. He’d stand outside and say, “Everyone in please.” Then he’d close both doors and nod his head like he approved.

For dinner, we went to Ciao Ciao Grande, a pizza/pasta place near the hotel. The hotel staff said it was kid-friendly. [Side note: most restaurants in Stockholm are not kid-friendly. The wait staff are generally, um, how shall we say this? Unfriendly? Snobbish? They seem to sneer at children. Sometimes the boys can be a bit loud, dirty, and messy.] The boys got quiet when the pizza arrived. As you can see below, Ryan approved.

After dinner we ran around a church cemetery. Funny, cuz that’s what we do all the time in London too!

Hotel Diplomat is in a perfect location. It isn’t far from Gamla Stan, which was mentioned often in the Girl with the Dragan Tatoo series.

View Stockholm in a larger map

 Djurgarden, which is an island mostly made up of green parks and running paths, is also a stone’s throw away. Dave and I took turns running in the mornings along these fantastic paths through the park.

Breakfast in the hotel was included (and at a price tag of $30/person, we were glad). Kevin and Ryan ate 1 pound of bacon each morning between them, and drank 10 “shotglasses” of smoothies. They also ate eggs, pastries, fruit, and cereal. They offered hard boiled eggs. As it turns out, that is time-consuming for children – perfect activity to allow a parent to actually eat.

Saturday was our first full day of site seeing. We went to Skansen “the world’s oldest outdoor museum.” It was an awesome place for kids. Lots of animals to see (some to pet), a funicular train car (although, a very short ride), old Swedish houses up on stilts, men and women in traditional Swedish garb, and bumper cars! Kevin and Ryan played hard and wore themselves out. You could spend a few days there and never see it all. The views from the top were fantastic. Kevin had some trouble reconciling the live reindeer we saw. There’s Santa’s reindeer, then Daddy ate reindeer for dinner, then there’s these reindeer? Hmm….how does this all work?

On Sunday, we went to the Vasa Museum. A co-worker of mine told me the story of the Vasa. The Swedes are a proud bunch, and wanted to show the world of their riches. So, King Gustaf II Adolf demanded that the Vasa (a ship) be built with two rows of cannons on each side instead of one. In addition, every inch of the boat was decorated with fancy wood carvings. In 1628, the Vasa made her maiden voyage. 1300 meters into the Stockholm harbour, it sank. The Swedes were so embarrassed, they pretended it didn’t happen. They ignored it for 333 years. Finally, in 1961 the Vasa lifted out of the water, excavated, and restored. It is a beautiful site to see. (Unfortunately it’s very dark in the museum and hard to capture properly)

We packed in the activities. Some other highlights from the weekend included a boat ride around Djurgarden, a trip on the Tunnelbana (Stockholm’s subway), a trip up the external elevator on the Globe  (which is affectionately called “the boob” by the locals), and an unexpected glimpse of the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace.

Monday morning came early after all the fun we’d been having. I had to go to a full day of meetings at work, so Dave and the boys headed to the Science and Technology Museum. The museum featured a travelling NASA exhibition – Saturn V rocket, lunar lander, shuttle cockpit, etc. Kevin’s obsession with astronauts continues, so he really enjoyed this. They also had a hands-on kids’ area and a place to sit in.

Outside the museum, the boys found lots of things to play on. Here they are on a cannon at the Maritime museum next door. Ryan also found these cool police motorcycles on a playground outside the neighboring police (Polis in Sweden) museum. He loves motorcycles at the moment and yells “cycle” everytime he sees on go by.

We all headed home together on Tuesday morning. We took a cab to the airport, breezed through security, and got on the plane. I had a business class ticket with Ryan on my lap. [Side note: only stuffy old men fly business class. And none of them will make eye contact with a baby. They fear responsibility to entertain my son or something if they smile. It’s funny to observe.] Dave and Kevin were in the rear of the plane. The flight home was uneventful and everybody was tuckered out when we got home to London.

I’m starting a new role at Skype  and will be working with the Stockholm team more often. I’ll be returning there every other week for 1.5 days. I look forward to going back again – there is more to see (if I can ever get out of the office) and explore.

For my Dad’s birthday, Mom suggested the family take a day trip to Brighton to check it out. All I heard was “there’s a beach”. 

Dad went and picked up City Car after breakfast and after getting the car seats, snacks, double jogger and sand toys into the car we were off to Brighton. At least it seemed like it should be that easy, but I was listening from the back seat and kept hearing things like “Gosh darnit, that’s a one way street” or “Are you kidding me, no left turn!”  Neither of those sounded good. It turns out Mom and Dad were trying to take a shortcut through the city to get there faster and that didn’t seem to be working out well.

Finally, we hit the highway and were on our way. I spent most of the trip reading my “Roaring Rockets” book. I’ve only had it for a week but I already have all the words memorized, so now I can read it myself!

Once we arrived in Brighton I said “let’s go play in the sand”. That’s when I learned the harsh reality that the beach was made of rocks.  No worries, once we got to the beach, I made the best of it and proceeded to start throwing as many rocks into the English Channel as I could.  My little brother, affectionately known as “Baby Ryan” didn’t want to be left out, so he tries to throw rocks as well.  He wasn’t nearly as good as me.

After a little time on the beach, we walked down the boardwalk toward the pier. On the way Ryan and I spotted a small merry-go-round and both asked if we could get on. I drove a cool double-decker bus and my brother sat in the back of Thomas the Train (I guess he’s not old enough to drive the train yet.)

After the merry-go-round, we continued our stroll down the boardwalk. The next thing I saw were these kids jumping on a trampoline and hooked to some ropes. I asked my Mom if I could do it. She said if I was big enough that it was OK. Dad took me down and asked and they said that I was. Mom says people aren’t sue-happy in London, so no one cares about safety.  It was very cool!  I went really high and was hooked up to this big harness, just like the astronauts use to do their weightless training.

We finally made it to the pier and it was lunch time.  Dad took a picture from the pier (below).  We had fish and chips for lunch….Dad decided to try some local seafood for lunch and had some crazy things called cockles and whelks. He said they were OK, but not something he was planning on eating often.

Nothing goes better with fish and chips than a big ice cream cone for dessert. At least somehow I convinced Mom and Dad that was the case. I REALLY enjoyed my ice cream cone on the Brighton Pier.

After lunch we went to the Brighton Aquarium. It was really fun, lots of fish tanks with eels, sting rays, sharks, and turtles. Baby Ryan and I had a great time looking at all the displays.

Finally it was time to leave the aquarium. Ryan was really tired, so while he and Mom walked along the boardwalk (and Baby Ryan slept) Dad and I climbed on some cool old boats outside the Brighton fishing museum.

I had a terrific time on Dad’s birthday! On the way home I asked if we could go back to Brighton sometime. Mom and Dad said something about going to another beach next time and that we’d probably check Brighton off our list…whatever that means.

Day 1

On Wednesday morning, a car picked us up at 8am and took us to a nearby train station. We caught a 9am train headed to Edinburgh. It was nearly empty, which was great for the kids – they got to try out every seat on the train, watched some iPad movies, ate a lot of snacks, and stood in the rumbling and bumpy parts in between the train cars (that was their favourite). Four hours later, we arrived in Edinburgh and took a short 15 minute cab ride to the Apex International Hotel.

The hotel was not terribly expensive, catered very well to kids (all kids meals were free), and was in an excellent location. Out the dining room window was a stunning view of the Edinburgh Castle. There was a short cut pathway between the castle and our hotel which made the visit a snap.

My only complaint – dirty. It took several tries on the plate stack at the breakfast buffet before finding a clean one. We moved Kevin’s bed up against the wall so he wouldn’t fall out, and underneath was the most disgusting dust, dirt, and stale food you could imagine. The trays on the highchairs were sticky with food that must have been weeks old. You get the idea. But, the sheets were clean (we think) and the staff was incredibly helpful and nice and accommodating to the kids. They also had a pool, which I’ll get to later.

While we waited for our hotel room to be ready, we wandered down the hill a short walk to Princes Street Gardens. Within minutes, we were listening to bagpipes from a chap standing on a street corner. Interestingly enough, that was the only bagpipe player we heard on our entire trip!

Dave and Kevin climbed 287 steps up a narrow, winding, cement stairway to the top of Sir Walter Scott monument. Kevin was quite proud of his stair ascent and descent – “I did it all by myself, Mom!”

After hotel check in, we walked less than ½ mile to the Museum of Scotland. This was a free museum with a great kids’ section, which featured a race car (we could test drive), an astronaut suit, a rocket ship, lots of buttons to push to make lights flash or fans spin, and a real stuffed sheep (Ryan spent most of that visit wandering around saying “baaa baaa”). A great place – which we visited two times during our stay.

Gray Friars Bobby is most commonly known as a kids’ story (and movie?) about a loyal terrier. It is a true story and we visited the graveyard of that devoted dog. We probably need to get the book for it to mean much to us, but the kids loved running wildly around the graveyard, leaping from tombstone to tombstone talking about the dead people buried underneath. It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of green grass on which to roam – doesn’t get much better than that for a 1.5 and 3.5 year old.

We tried out the swimming pool at the hotel just before dinner. Kevin has been taking swimming lessons once per week for the past 5 weeks, so he’s getting more comfortable with the water. As a former swim instructor, I’m afraid he isn’t where he should be at the age of 3 1/2. Nonetheless, he’s currently in a good state of mind about it, and in the matter of 3 days at this hotel pool in Edinburgh, he has improved his skill, confidence, and boldness greatly. This is the kind of home video only a parent can like, but if you wish to watch, here’s Kevin at his bravest point.

Day 2

All four of us sleeping in one room was not ideal. Kevin coughed all night. Ryan woke up with the loudest humanly possible hiccups before 6am. Needless to say, we were tired. Dave had a traditional Scottish breakfast at the hotel (including haggis and blood pudding). The rest of us ate cheese, salami, and fruit – relatively unsatisfying, but not scary at least!

We took a cab to Calton Hill – a cold and windy hilltop with a great view of the city and a 15^th century Portuguese cannon. It was hard to get the boys off the cannon.

We walked across town to the Edinburgh Castle – the highlight of the trip! More cannons! And thankfully, there were dozens so every kid there could have his own. Three young Japanese girls thought Kevin was so cute, they insisted on getting a picture with him. He wasn’t sure what to think. We saw the Scottish crown jewels (and, sorry to say, they are nothing compared to the British ones), the great hall with armor, and the old prison.

By lunch time, we were all tired and a bit on edge. We ate at the cafeteria at the Castle, while waiting for the 1pm cannon shoot. While standing in line, Ryan stuck his fist into an entire chocolate cake, then spilled half of my lunch on the floor, then proceeded not to eat anything for lunch. Kevin whined. Fun times. We watched the military dudes shoot a huge cannon precisely at 1pm. It was loud, as expected. We went back to the hotel and all took a 2 hour nap.

We tried the fancy restaurant at the hotel for dinner. We were alone (since we ate at 5:30pm) and the boys had a great time making friends with the wait staff. Even with a 2 hour nap, the boys went to bed at 8 and slept hard.

Day 3

The hotel fire alarm went off at 7am, forcing everyone outside. Thankfully(?), we’d been up for over an hour already, so it wasn’t terribly inconvenient for us. I went for a run in Holyrood Park (big hills on a lovely trail).  After I got back, Dave went for the same run.  Teamwork fitness.

We spent the morning at the Dynamic Earth Museum – about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. It was an awesome place for parents and kids. Tickets are pricey, but it is a treat in every way. For about 1 hour, you are taken from room to room by friendly guides. There’s the ice age room (it was very cold in there with 10’ square glacier in the middle of the room), jungle room (humid with snakes), time travel room (the platform shook beneath your feet), volcano room (fake hot lava flowing toward your feet), dinosaur room, etc. Each one was very different and very educational/entertaining. The highlight of the museum visit was a dome movie called “Astronaut.” Kevin asked about the movie 5000 times that morning. It was a 20 minute film on astronaut training and what life is like in space. We all thought it was great, especially our future astronaut (Kevin).

All in all, it was a fantastic place. The staff went out of their way to make the boys feel special. It is a must-see for visiting kids. Ryan was tuckered out and couldn’t even hold his head up by the end.

After a yummy pizza dinner, Dave took off with his tripod and camera equipment and hiked to the top of Calton Hill to get a nighttime Castle picture.

Day 4

Today we rented a car and drove 3 hours toward Lochness. Dave picked up the rental car from the nearby train station. It was a manual diesel station wagon. And they drive on the left in Scotland. A challenge, but Dave handled it well.

After several missed turns, wrong turns, and panics, we got out of the city and on the highway to Lochness. The Scottish countryside is beautiful – lots of rock walls, sheep, and greenery. Our first stop was Fort William. We ate lunch in a small downtown pub (I think this may have been Kevin’s 4^th consecutive meal with fish and chips). Fort William is the outdoor capital of the UK. While it is nothing like Queenstown (the outdoor adventure capital of New Zealand), it is mountainous and has a lot of offer in the way of biking, skiing, and mountain climbing. We rode in a Gondola to the top of Aonach Mor, the 8th tallest mountain in Great Britain. Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain is close by Fort William. The boys loved being up so high – and no seatbelts required! The peak of Aonach Mor was even better – they had a kids play area, which consisted of a ropes and balance obstacle course which Kevin completed a dozen times. Once we told him I brought an extra pair of shoes, he was immediately traipsing through the creek, up to his knees in freezing cold water. He had a blast – probably the highlight of his trip.

Next we made our way to Glengarry Castle, our home for the following two nights. The grounds were manicured to perfection. The castle/hotel had 26 rooms, several fire places, a fancy dining room, and old creaky doors and stairways. It was not kid friendly, which caused a bit of stress for Dave and I – trying to keep the boys quiet and out of trouble. Ryan simply couldn’t pass up the big bucket of black coal near the fireplace – he wanted to touch it every time! He also yelled “Hot! Hot!” every time we walked by. We spent a lot of time outdoors running on various paths around the castle and through the woods.

Day 5

I went for a run in the morning and it was one of the best running trails I’ve ever been on. Leaving the castle, I ran on a single track path through the woods with a river on one side and a forest on the other. It was invigorating.

Our plan for the day was to take a boat trip on Lochness to look for “Nessie.” The boat required 12 people to head out, thus the 10am, 11am, and 12pm boats didn’t fill up. Major disappointment for us. In between pleading for a boat trip, we visited nearby Urquhart Castle. It was mostly ruins, but a beautiful place with plenty of stairways to climb and nooks and crannies to hide in.

During the boys’ naps, Dave went for a run and then we sat on the back porch reading books. It was warm and sunny – for the first time since we’ve moved to the UK, sunblock crossed my mind.

Since our boat trip didn’t work out, we rented a row boat for £4 and Dave and Kevin went out on Loch Oich for an hour. Kevin was very proud in his lifejacket and enjoyed his adventure to see a half-sunken sailboat, castle ruins, and big buoys.

Before dinner, the boys spent an hour playing in the rental car (what they miss most about home in California). Kevin had fish and chips for dinner. Surprise.

Day 6

Today was a big travel day for us. We left the Glengarry Castle at 7:30am for the 3 hour drive back to Edinburgh. Then we returned our rental car at the Edinburgh train station and caught the 4 hour train back to London. Kevin and Ryan were very good kids in the car and both slept hard on the train.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. Dave did all the planning and made all the reservations. We fit in a lot of activities, but didn’t overdo it.

I’ll leave you with the only family photo we have from the vacation. This was taken by some jogger and her dog. The dog was peeing behind us in the picture, so Dave erased him. Can you see where he was?

Keeping with the tradition, here is an 18 month comparison picture. I’m not sure they look that much alike, but they definitely are brothers and Dad is definitely 2 years older!