Edinburgh

Our last day in Scotland (sad) we went to Edinburgh. We made a couple stops on the way there. Bill took us again. First we went to the Stirling Castle and the William Wallace monument. We didn't actually go in, just a stop and look because it wasn't opened. After that we went to Hailes Castle, then to a beach at North Berwick. Our last stop was Edinburgh. We walked part of the Royal Mile, saw the castle and the crown jewels, shopped, saw the Elephant Cafe where J.K. Rowling worked and started her Harry Potter books, and just checked out the town a little. That night we left Blackford and took a sleeper train to LONDON.

The William Wallace Monument is behind me

Sitting in the back of Hailes Castle

The front entrance of Hailes Castle

Hailes Castle

Michelle and I at North Berwich

Edinburgh Castle

I love St George!!


Elephant Cafe. I bet J.K. Rowling has sat in this chair before :)


We had a lot of fun on our sleeper train! Michelle and I shared a room and there was a door between our room and Candice and Carianne's room so we obviously loved that! We laughed, had dance parties, and had so much fun!!

Even more Scotland

Scotland was definitely a favorite. Everything was BEAUTIFUL and I loved the people there. Everyone was so friendly and kind to us. I would for sure go back to Scotland!

We did a little service project on Alistar's (Kenna's husband) farm. We tubed trees. We took old tubes off and put new ones on. This prevents the deer from ruining the young tender trees. After the service project we walked around the farm land and saw the inspirational cave of Robert Louis Stevenson. We went home and got cleaned up to attend the Highland Games, which were just great:) Kinda funny too... no offense. They had races, dancers, shotputs, and other events.

Tubing trees!

Ready to work!

The finished product :)


Candice and I at the games


The big burly men in their kilts. The far left one was my fave:)

On Sunday we went to a ward in Perth. It was about a 20 minute drive. The branch was soo small! Lucky for us, the branch was having a 'bite & blether' after church and we were invited! They had tomato soup, sandwhiches, cookies, and drinks and we met some people and had fun with everyone there! We were planning on checking out the town afterwords and getting around ourselves, but luckily some guys in the ward offered to show us around:) They called a few friends and we all went to a place called Hermitage. They were all so much fun and we had a blast! There were beautiful waterfalls and it was just a very pretty place. Robbie had 2 huskies there that pulled me on his mountain board! It was sooo FUN!

Loved this!!!

Scotland continued...

WOW! I can't believe that I am home and everything is OVER! I still want to blog about where I went and what I did. I think it will take me a while though. So back to Scotland...

Bill, our awesome driver, took us from Inverness down to Blackford. We had a wonderful drive and stopped at some gorgeous places. The thing I loved about having Bill as our driver and tour guide was that he knew about EVERYTHING! He answered every question we had. He also took us to the coolest places that no one really knows about. They are not just the touristy areas, they are the small towns and the little things, and I love that. We of course did the touristy sites as well, but we got the best of both worlds!
We stayed in Blackford for a few days at Kenna's (Erin's sister). It was soo nice of her and her husband to let us come and stay. Their home used be the the bank and it's a pretty SWEET house. It is very big and such a fun place!

Our drive to Blackford...

We made a stop at a beautiful lookout point over Loch Carron

This is us with our coolest driver ever, Bill. We love him!

We stopped at a cute fisherman's town called Plockton. It was a very small town with one main street with little shops. It had many fishing boats, you can see some in this picture

Michelle and I looking out into the water :)

The main street is behind us...ya it was small!

We walked over the bridge to Isle of Skye

The bridge is behind me. It was a bit of a walk :)

ME at the top of the bridge!

We made it!!

We stopped at the Ilean Donan castle (one of the most photographed castles). There was a bagpiper out in front and it was so cool! Oh, and they had fabulous carrot cake!

Bagpiper (he is playing as we take the pic) and the Ilean Donan castle in the background

Another stop along the way was a beautiful mountainas area (that's basically all of Scotland!) called Glencoe. We didn't stop for long, just enough time to eat some dry frosted flakes and stretch from being in the car so long.


At the end of this day we arrived at Kennas to a delicious BBQ :)

On to Scotland

Inverness is such a gorgeous place and part of me really would love to live there! We stayed here for 2 nights in a bed and breakfast. We had the opportunity to tour 2 hospitals and spend a day with district nurses. A district nurse is someone who makes visits to people in the community. I was with a CPN (community psychiatric nurse). I only went on one visit with her, but it was really interesting and somehting that maybe the U.S. could adopt and could be beneficial. I loved the nurse I was with and it was a very good day. I spent the morning at the office listening to reports on patients, learned about behavioral family therapy, and listened to a drug rep and ate free lunch from him :) Tom and Anne are a couple who have helped us out so much here in Scotland. They are friends of Erin's sister who set up the clinical experiences for us in Inverness and they took us to see Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle. They have been so nice to us and made this experience such a great one!

Scottish Lingo
Inver = mouth of
Loch = Lake
Ben = Mountain
Glen = Valley

We visited a castle in Inverness, Loch Ness, and Urquart castle.

Inverness

Walkin the streets of Inverness

A wobbly bridge in Inverness

Our bed & breakfast- Pine Guest House


Inverness Castle
Inverness Castle

View from Inverness Castle


Another view of Inverness from the castle (behind me is the white wobbly bridge)

Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle- on the banks of Loch Ness

Michelle and I with Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle behind us

Urquhart Castle again

Loch Ness

Skipping rocks on Loch Ness and trying to rustle Nessie :)

Searching for Nessie (the LOCH NESS MONSTER) I may or may not have seen her...

Uniforms

These are our very flattering uniforms we had to wear to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for clinical... I don't think they look as bad as they were. The pants were very "mom jean-ish" and not the most comfortable things to wear, especially compared to scrubs.

Perfect Ending

Our very last day in Huddersfield was such a good day. We had a ward hike/walk. This is an annual ward tradition that they have. We all met at Castle Hill to begin. Carianne and I ran there to get some exercise and to see Huddersfield's beauty one last time while running. The walk was so fun with all of the kids from the ward. They are all so cute! We got to our destination, a park, and we ate lunch, played games, and had so much fun! We had gorgeous weather. The sun was shining, I even got a sunburn. It really was a perfect ending to our time in Huddersfield.

Carianne and I HAD to stop and take pictures in this field :)

I just decided to uproot this tree. No big deal.

This is our ward that I love and miss so much!

Me and Christina on the hike

Me and Bronte- she is the bishops daughter and so dang cute!

Some of the cute kids in the ward

I guess it's tradition that all the boys/men play a rugged game of football (our soccer). It was pretty entertaining to watch, the little ones are quite talented!

We played a game of rounders with the little kids. Its a very simplified baseball when the kids basically hit the ball and just run around

1...2...3... JUMP!

We played a great game of ultimate. I haven't played for a long time and it was so fun, and a good workout!

Oh, just one of the street names