A Very Happy 4th of July!!

I had so much fun last year having a 4th of July party that I decided that I would host the 2nd Annual 4th of July party this year. The one thing I didn't like last year was that it was inside (I don't really have a "yard", and my deck is tiny!). This year, I decided to try for an outdoor BBQ. After a 20 minute call with about 6 people, I finally found out that I was unable to have the party in the park that I wanted to have it. I decided to have it in the Amsterdamse Bos, which is a really big park that I run at a lot. The biggest difficulty was that the parking area was about a 15 minute walk from where we wanted to have the picnic - we had a TON of stuff to bring in! So, we had to drop all the stuff off as close as we could, then carry it the rest of the way. What a workout!

Okay, I lied. The biggest difficulty was finding ice cubes. I think that people don't use ice cubes here - seriously. I went to two different places, and neither had ice! Now, considering I had about 75 beers that were NOT cold, I was mildly freaking out. I called a few places, and finally found a place that was open. Leslie and Erik were there by that point (and thank god for them - they were a lifesaver!), and so we drove to the place and picked up 6 bags of ice - for 18 euros. Holy smokes! Leslie couldn't hold back - she asked the guy what the heck kind of ice cubes they were for 3 euros a bag. Well, evidently, they were German distilled springwater. Well, thank GOD we had high quality ice cubes for this posh party! ;) I'm just glad we found some!

We got to the park a little later than I was hoping to (ice cube debacle, plus a not so nice encounter where KP's short fuse temper caused her to get into a fight... uh-oh), so the beginning was a little stressful with trying to get everything set up. But, we finally got everything set, and the disposible grills were lit. Ah, yes, the disposible grill. Possibly the best invention ever. Do these things exist in the US? I never had seen one... it's basicially a little tin pan with briquettes inside, some kindling, and some starter blocks. You light it, let the charcoal get hot, grill, then throw the whole thing out. It was genius for this day, because I had so much other stuff to bring home. Can't wait to do it again! :)

Last year, I had everyone bring beer from their own country - this year, I had everyone bring a side dish or dessert. Luckily, I have a bunch of great cooks for friends. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Saturday was not just Independence Day for America, but Independence Day for me as well - from my diet. ;) Never in my life has a beer tasted SO GOOD! :) (and the strawberry shortcake, rice krispie treats, potato salad, etc.)

I realized at the last minute that I had left all of my "play stuff" like frisbees, footballs, etc, back in storage in the US, so I tried to think of some other things to do. Childhood games came to mind, and, yes, all of my friends, willingly, and competitively accepted challenges to the egg race and the 3-legged race. It was SO much fun! :)

There is a Dutch word that doesn't really exist in English - "gezellig" (gutteral gha-zell-igh) It means "cozy", but with people. This day was definitely gezellig, and no one really seemed to want to leave. We stayed until the sun went down (which in N. Europe is close to 11pm right now). What a wonderful 4th of July! The only thing missing was the fireworks, but we had a red, white, and blue sunset, so I'll call it complete! :)

The cake that I made, that my mom always used to make - complete with funfetti frosting (yes, I finally found it, Al - good hiding place!)

Alex getting the disposible BBQ's going

haha - "American food" from the international store

Karyn (one of the three Americans there) & Alex

Erik (one of the other three Americans) & Leslie - without them, there is no way I could have come out of the day sane! They were great!!! :)

Get ready for the international egg race - Greg (France), Kevin (Scotland), Fabio (Italy), Alex (Italy), Claudia (Belgium) - what a mix! Oh, and Claudia won! :)

KP goes for the egg race - I lost!

Nice action shot of the "winner of winners" egg race - everyone wanted to keep doing it! :)

3-legged race with Steven & Anthony in the lead (notice KP with Belinda WAY in the back - I couldn't stop laughing long enough to run!)

A gezellig night

It's Amsterdam! Lots of people just rode their bikes here! Not an option for me with all the stuff!

Good times, good friends! So thankful I met lovely Claudia at RoPa run! She's becoming a very nice friend!

Hope everyone back at home had a fun and safe 4th of July!! All my best!! :)

A Sad Goodbye

This weekend was one long goodbye. Time is up for my dear friend and favorite travel buddy, Kristin Jones. I couldn't be more happy for her though - she's moving back to Portland to live with her fiance, whom she will marry in August. It was still super hard to say goodbye though! Good travel friends are hard to come by!

Friday night, Kristin, Karyn, Gulsun, and I went out to dinner at an amazing restaurant (and I don't say that about many in Amsterdam). The service was absolutely the best I think I have EVER had - US, Europe, Asia... anywhere! The waiter described in perfect English the taste sensations that we would have in our mouths - I could taste the food before we even ordered. We didn't have to beg for a refill of water, and were even given a bottle of water for free (a sheer miracle in a somewhat, ehem, tightwad country). The food was amazing. I'm on a vacation diet right now (South Beach, if you are curious), so I'm really limiting my carbs. Despite this, I was still able to come up with a 3 course meal that was absolutely delicious!


The second course - leg of lamb with polenta and artichoke-esque vegetables

One kind of interesting thing about the restaurant was the location - it is RIGHT in the middle of the redlight district - kind of a calm pocket surrounded by absolute chaos. As we left and wandered back into a sea of tourists trying to catch a glimpse of the girls, I took this picture so you can get an idea of what it looks like:

Pictures of a prostitute in her window are forbidden, but each red light you see has a scantily clad woman dancing in a window underneath it... kind of hard to get used to!

I went home feeling very content. I got up the next morning for my long run, which for part of I had company - my friend Dana and her son Issac. :) This was the first run we have been on since she moved here, and it was nice to have the company.

I finally made an appointment to get my hair cut, which was long over due - the last time I had it done was February! :) I felt like a new woman. I was starting to get pretty sad about KJ leaving before my haircut, so we made arrangements to meet for a drink afterwards. What was supposed to be a quick drink turned into 3 hours of laughing & remembering all of our fun experiences. I also got to be a part of KJ's last plate of bitterballen... that strange Dutch delicacy:

mmm... fried mystery meat!

Sunday morning, it was a tearful goodbye at the airport as I dropped of KJ, her cat, Moose, and 4 suitcases at the airport. I'm going to miss her so much, but the fact that we will eventually end up in the same city is reassuring. Instead of weekend trips to Istanbul or Scotland, now we'll take a quick trip up to Seattle or down to San Fran... not bad! :)

I was feeling pretty down on Sunday, and I think that my friend Leslie could hear it in my voice when we were talking on the phone. She came over to meet me for lunch, and then we had a nice bike ride to find a good location for my 4th of July picnic this weekend. Hanging out with her totally cheered me up. I am a very lucky girl! :)

A lot of exciting things are coming up: 4th of July picnic this weekend, a trip to Sicily with my colleagues next week, my last birthday that begins with a 2, and a visit from Sean! My, how this summer is flying by!

I think I have my trip to Portland confirmed - I'll be there August 21st through September 6th or 7th. I'm running Hood to Coast again (I think this makes my 7th year!), and working from our World Headquarters. Can't wait to see everyone in beautiful PDX! Order me up some good weather! :)

Another Weekend in Holland...

With all the change that is going on at work, I've been making a conscious effort to relax... Fortunately, I was able to keep my job, but it's become much bigger, so I'm finding less and less time to just chill out. Friday night, I turned down a few invitations that sounded fun, and instead, treated myself to a massage. It was fantastic! :)

Saturday, I had a great long run along the beautiful Amstel River, then met Winnie for lunch at the Bijenkorf, a nice department store with a cafe on the very top floor of the building. Winnie went back to the US on Sunday, so it was nice to get to see her one last time before she left. :) When I was walking back to the tram (or so I thought), I took a wrong turn, and ended up in the Red Light District! (I also did this on my first weekend here, but, man, I thought my sense of direction had improved since then!). I stumbled upon the Old Church, which was great, because I had been wanting to go to the photo exhibition that was there, World Press 2009. It's an amazing photo show of all of the best news photography of the past year. I really, really enjoyed it!

The organ within the church

It was fun to see the modern photography within the walls of this ancient building - a nice contrast

After the photo show, I drove to Rotterdam to hang out with my friend from work, Gulsun. I saw this as I pulled up:

This is a tradition in Holland... when the student gets passing grades at the end of the school year, they hang their bags out the window to celebrate.

Gulsun and I had a great time hanging out, and then I spent the night there. We got up on the early side to go to a bikram yoga class. Now, if you have never been to one before, let me describe - it's yoga in a really, really hot room, probably 100 degrees. You sweat out all the "toxins" in your body during the course of a one and 1/2 hour class. I kind of enjoyed it, and kind of couldn't wait for it to be over... not sure if I will do it again or not! :)

Had some nice time to relax and work on my scrapbooks on Sunday, and then met an out-of-town guest for dinner. Ended the weekend feeling rested and caught up... only to start work again today and feel totally overwhelmed again. :( I think it will be better within a few weeks, but for now, I barely have a minute to think, let alone chat by the water cooler. :(

A weekend full of fun and friends!

Something happened this weekend that hasn't happened for a while... I was actually in Amsterdam! This was the first weekend in a month that I was actually sleeping in my own bed, so I was pretty excited to have the weekend to spend with the great friends that I've made here.

Friday night was a girls night out and a low-key celebration for the engagement of my dear friend Kristin. We wanted to celebrate before she moves (sniff!) back to Portland at the end of this month. We had a lot of good laughs and a lot of (ridiculously priced) gin & tonics before the end of the night. I'm going to miss that girl!


Ladies Night out - Leslie, Winnie, Ditte, KP, KJ - look out!

Saturday, it was a beautiful day in Amsterdam, and, guess what? I spent nearly the entire day inside! :( With being out of town so many times in the past month, I needed to get some things sorted out - including all of my winter/summer clothes. I'm happy to say that four trash bags of clothes and three trash bags of shoes to the donation bin later, my closet is happily converted from winter to summer (although I'm concerned that summer hasn't really made much of an appearance yet...). That night, I celebrated the birthday of my friend Dao and called it a somewhat early night (early is midnight here... still getting used to that). :)

Sunday was the best day by far. Kristin and Winnie (who is on her "design immersion" drip from Portland) drove with me to Hoge Veluwe, which is a huge nature preserve and art museum about an hour away from Amsterdam. At the entrance, you can borrow a free white bicycle and pedal all over the beautiful park.


Some of the 1700 free bikes at the park

Of course, it was pouring down rain when we got there, but KJ came prepared with three rain jackets (I think that she learned that I'm a bad raingear girl when we went to Scotland).


KJ models her lovely rain cape - not sure what happened to ther other leg!

We pedalled to the art museum, filled our bellies with some yummy food, and then, the sun came out. We spent a few hours touring the beautiful sculpture museum (which, if you read this on a regular basis, you know is my favorite form of art!).


KJ and I at the entrance to the museum

Rodin's "Squatting Woman"

A sculpture called Marta Pan - it floated on the water - gorgeous!

This one looked like a stairway to heaven, but was closed to visitors because of "an accident"... hmmm...

This was the way the sculpture garden was set up... totally out in nature... part of it was pine trees, and it just smelled SO GOOD!

Next, we realized that we only had 20 minutes left before the art museum closed. We were totally bummed! We quickly browsed through the great collection of Van Gogh's, Picasso's, and Renoir's... definitely a place I need to come back to! Because there had been a mass exodus near closing time, we got outside and there were only 4 bikes left. Two worked, one was a kid's bike, and one had a flat tire. Winnie and KJ took the good ones, and I was left with three options: 1. Be totally uncomfortable and try not to bang my knees on the handlebars of the kid's bike, 2. ride with a flat tire and hope not to bend the frame of the tire, or 3. ride Dutch-style on the back of one of the girls' bikes. I chose option #3. I'm getting pretty comfortable with this, and it was a fun way to see the park.

It was a fantastic weekends filled with great friends!! :)

Barcelona

So... where to begin? While I was in Portland, Sean and I saw each other, and, a few weeks later, we decided that, while we've had some hard times, we want to try to make it work. He came to visit last week, and we spent a few days in Amsterdam, then took a trip to Barcelona to see this great European city together. We had a really nice time together, and it's great to have him back in my life.

So, without further ado, I present to you... Barcelona!! :)

To start, why did we pick this city? Well, when we finally figured out a time for Sean to come, I started looking for flights to all the big cities that are still on my list... Transavia had round trip tickets to Barcelona for 80 euros, so that was a winner! I love discount air carriers! :)

The trip from the airport to our hotel (which was actually an apartment) was a little over an hour... and, even though I speak Spanish, everything was in Catalan, so I was having a hard time figuring out if we were going the right way! We eventually found our apartment, which was in an absolutely PERFECT location! My manager owns an apartment in the same building, so his recommendation was spot on. It was nearly 10pm at that point, but, in Barcelona (and Spain in general), that is about the time that dinner begins. So, Sean and I headed out and found a tapas place. One word: yum!! :)


Our first found of tapas and first pitcher of sangria!

We hit the hay pretty shortly thereafter, and started the next day with a guided walking tour of the gothic part of the town. While our tour guide was super nice and perky, what she had to say was not so interesting... and we were pretty glad when it was over!

Next on our list... a stroll down La Ramblas, which is the main drag of Barcelona. It's amazing - you can buy pretty much anything you want... food, paintings, birds! :) There are also tons of strett performers just waiting to snap into action as soon as a euro or two is placed in their buckets.

View of La Ramblas

During our stroll, we stopped in at a market, and really enjoyed checking out all the fresh fish, fruit, and meat... these are always fun places to observe people and pick up on a local slice of life. We had a big lunch at the market (this is the biggest meal of the day, since dinner is eaten so late). Although... I always try to order things that I've never had before, and the cold melon soup, I have to say, just didn't do it for me. ICK!

Fresh Seafood!

We next just walked along the harbor and beach, which only recently became nice - before the Olympics in 1992, this was basically an industrial wasteland. They did a great job making this space useful.

Silly Kids...

After a short nap (I'm getting more and more laid back on these trips... it is, after all, a mini-vacation!), we went to the Picasso Musuem, which was really well-done. It was amazing to see the progression of his art from childhood (which looked "normal" to me) to adulthood (as he got more and more into his own interpretive style - this is the art that I "don't get"). We had an amazing dinner that evening at a restaurant that my manager booked for us... I spoke Spanish the whole time (think I was feeling confident after all the Sangria we had been drinking that day), so that felt good. :)

The next day, we got up and headed out to La Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's masterpiece. It's been under construction since about 1870, and there is pretty much no end in sight. The church is free to the public one day a year, and, guess what? This was the day! It wasn't too packed, thankfully, but there were no tours being offered, which I was kind of bummed about. The church was beautiful, and it was really cool to check out all of the symbolic pieces that make up the building.

The original exterior, portraying the birth of Christ, that was finished during Gaudi's lifetime

The ceiling of the church - beautifully done

This was kind of our "Gaudi Day"... our next stop was one of the houses that Gaudi designed in the town, Casa Mila. His style is "modernist", and some people describe his work as "a cake left out in the rain". It was fun and whimsical to look at for me... I feel like I learn so many new things every time I travel. :)

The exterior of the house

Some of the interesting chimneys on the rooftop - 30 in all

Our lunch that day was somewhat interesting... we went to a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves, but all of the menu was in Catalan... Sean and I just picked a few things and crossed our fingers. I lucked out with a chicken leg (still on the bone), but Sean got basically a whole grilled fish - skeleton still included. We shared everything, including the dissection. :)

We walked around that neighborhood a bit more, and stopped into Mango, which is one of the accounts that I work on... I was so excited to see some of the shoes that I worked on:

SP09 Mango - Nike Scandal Mid

Next stop... the park that Gaudi designed, Park Guell. Sean and I just enjoyed some time in the sun, walking around this beautiful park. The benches were all done in mosaic, which is something that I've always loved.

Park Guell sitting on the famous benches

We had to hurry back home, because we had tickets to see the symphony at the Palau Musica de Catalan that evening... I wanted to go just because the interior was so beautiful... it certainly didn't disappoint:

Amazingly beautiful stained glass skylight

Sunday was our last full day in Barcelona... we'd had a pretty relaxing time so far, but this was by far our most relaxing day. We spent the morning walking through parks, and eventually made our way to the beach, where I found a great patch of sand... um, yeah, right behind 5 Spanish girls with their tops off. I am not sure who was more uncomfortable - Sean or me! :) I'm still a topless sunbathing virgin - I just can't do it!

Barcelona Beach

Feeling really relaxed and content

Last stop... the magic fountains... these fountains were at the top of a big hill, and, on certain days, have music and light shows in the evening. This was one of my absolute favorite things. One of the songs was even from the Disney movie "Sleeping Beauty", which was my favorite as a child and made me really happy! :) A very relaxing end to a really great trip.

The beautiful fountains

The next day, we had an early flight, and made our way back to Amsterdam. We decided to be tourists in Amsterdam, and rode bikes through the city and out to a cute little town called Ouderkerk. We had such a fun time just chatting and enjoying ourselves. I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip.

A windmill we passed during our bike trip

All in all, it was a nice visit, and I'm excited about the future. Thanks to friends and family both near and far for all of the support. I love and miss you!

Two Days, Three Countries... on Foot!

This past weekend was the event that I've been training for since February - the RoPa Run, a relay race that is 530K from Paris, France to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was a great weekend consisting of many miles run, many calories consumed, and many new friends made. Nike sponsored two teams, Courage and Lowlands Express. Being a sports company, let's just say there was a little friendly competition involved. ;)

Here's how it went:

We all met at the Nike campus at 7:30am, packed up the vans we'd be living out of for the next two days with clothes, and packed up the campers we'd be eating out of for the next two days with food. I was amazed at how this works, because it was so different than the other relays that I have run. Each team actually had a CAMPER with a catering staff to make hot meals for us during our breaks. Each team also had two masseurs that rode in the campers to massage our poor muscles... it was fantastic! :)


The start of the race - go Lowlands Express!

We got to Paris (which wasn't exactly Paris... the Eiffel Tower was no where in sight - I'm pretty sure we were somewhere on the backside of Charles de Gaulle Airport... but I guess it is technically Paris), and our team started the race at 5:00 pm. This is the cadence of how things worked: Van #1 (which I was in), sends out their bikers and Runner #1. Biker #1 rides in front of the runner and reads a map, while Biker #2 stays behind the runner for protection. Runner #1 runs about 2K (or more or less depending on how the runner is feeling, the weather, bathroom necessity, etc...hehe). When Runner #1 is done, he/she tags Runner #2 and jumps back into the van. This process gets repeated for Runners #3 & 4, and keeps on going until the checkpoint with Van #2, which was usually between 3 or 4 hours. Once we got done with our first set of legs, a hot meal was waiting for us, along with a massage, and about 1 or 2 hours of sleep. My highlight of the first leg was a part of the race where the van couldn't access the runners. So, what we had to do was have 3 runners go out, and two would ride bikes while the other would run. We did this for about an hour. It went through the French countryside, which was just beautiful with lots of wheat fields and old French farms made of the traditional greyish brown brick. It felt so relaxing... the running came easy.


Beautiful church in the French countryside


Running through the French Countryside

After our break, it was about 1:00 am and time to start again... most people would think running at this hour is awful, but it was again just so peaceful. The stars were so vivid in the sky, and it was fun to pick out constellations with the bikers to pass the time. This leg again went by very quickly, and we got to rest again.

To be honest, I was getting pretty mentally exhausted, so I don't really remember the 3rd leg, except that it was hot! I did get a pretty nice tan last weekend... :)

The 4th leg again went through the night, and it was so fun... we were running through towns in Belgium, and each town had a huge party to celebrate the RoPa teams. It was great! :) The only problem was that people were getting really drunk and wandering through the narrow streets, so it was kind of dangerous for our driver. This was the leg where our team finally passed Courage, which was kind of fun. We had to keep trying to maintain our lead, because we had runners of all abilities in both vans. We ended up neck and neck at the end, and ended up saying "screw it"... all of the runners got out of both vans and we all ran into the checkpoint together as one big team. It was a powerful moment...


A bit of entertainment in a small Belgian town - everyone was Dutch for the day!

After we all ran in, I had the best 5 minutes of the whole race... a shower! Oh, did I forget to mention that we didn't have a shower in all of this run? Oh yes, we were all smelling oh-so-sweet by this point. It was great to feel clean, and then get another hour or two of sleep.

The 5th leg was a challenge... the whole leg had no van access, so we got two bikes from our Van #2, and then had 5 runners in the course the whole time - 4 biking, and one running. We alternated as much as we needed to, which was often by this point. We ran through the Dutch town this time, and it was amazing - they were up at 5am to cheer us on. I have to say, a tear came to my eye more than once (I know, I know... sappy dork, but, proud of it!). I've just never experienced such great community support in any race. One town even had dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz, and made us a yellow brick road to run over - it was so fun! :) It felt so good to get to the last checkpoint and hand over to Van #2 so they could bring us home to Rotterdam!

We finished all together in Rotterdam. I have no idea how many hours it took, and I really don't even care to be honest... for me, it wasn't about the time... it was about the physical and mental ability to do something like this. We had a great team, and that was made it possible and pleasant. I will definitely do this event again! :)

Crossing the finish line with the whole team - caterers, runners, drivers - everyone who made this event a success. It was such an emotional moment for all of us.

Nike Lowlands Express Van #1:

L-R: KP, Belinda (biker, S. Africa), Roman (biker, Kazakhstan), Arnold (driver, Netherlands), Lan-Lan (runner, Netherlands), Karen (runner, England), Claudia (coach - Belgium), Anthony (runner, Netherlands), Eduardo (runner, Italy)

Thank you, Nike!

PS - I woke up this morning after running the equivalent of a marathon and a half with NO PAIN in my legs. There is something to be said for having masseurs in your group... wow!

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties - oh my!

Wondering what that means? Yep - so was I, as I stared perplexedly at the menu at The Witchery, an amazingly good restaurant in Scotland this past weekend. We had Thursday and Friday off for Dutch holidays, so Kristin and I ventured off to beautiful Scotland for the 4-day weekend. :) We flew into Edinburgh on Wednesday night, spent Thursday there, and then on Friday took the ferry over to the Isle of Arran. This was my favorite trip yet... I think it had something to do with getting off the beaten path. I live in a very busy city, and most of the time when I travel, I go to really busy cities. This trip was way more relaxing - the Isle of Arran was small and relaxing. I had pegged myself as a city girl, but I guess as they say, "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." :) (Oh - and, if you were wondering, haggis is a Scottish dish that is made up of sheep's intestines, which is actually quite tasty, neeps are turnips that are pureed, and tatties are potatoes - yikes! And that is in English!)

Edinburgh was a cute city. Kristin and I decided to stay in a youth hostel to save on money a bit, and, after checking in, immediately decided that we are too old for youth hostels. The fact that we forgot to bring towels should have clued us in... oh boy! We got in pretty late, so that night, we had our first sampler of whisky (Kristin is quite the afficionado) and haggis (and, yes, as I mentioned above, it was delicious!). After dinner, we went to a cute bar called Sandy Bell's and listened to some live Scottish music... this is one of my favorite things to do in any city, so it was a treat. The kindness of the Scottish people was apparent as soon as we got there, and it lasted for our entire trip. :)

Thursday morning, we first ventured off to Edinburgh Castle, which is high on a hill and has been built and re-built many times (common story in Europe). We took a guided tour of the castle, which included a few chapels, a moving memorial to those lost in WWI & WWII (1/3 of the male population died in WWI - staggering!), the royal jewels, and the prisons.


KP & KJ with the guard at the Castle - poor guy must HATE his job!


St. Margaret's Chapel at the Castle - the oldest building on the site

After the castle, we stopped into a factory to see how the traditional Scottish tartans are made... that was cool! Each of the original families of Scotland has their own pattern... wish I was Scottish! :) There was also a good exhibit of how kilts have been worn over the years - this was especially interesting to me as I have been reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which takes place in Scotland. The characters just came to life in my mind when I saw this. :)


Fabric ready to be made into kilts...

We also took a "ghost tour" of the vaults that were built under one of the bridges. It gave me the eebie-jeebies, but I'm still not sure I believe in ghosts. KJ's camera did stop working during the tour, but I'm not quite sure if it really was broken or if it was just user error. ;)

After our tour, we had to pick up our rental car... which is usually not a big deal. Except it was a manual... and you drive on the other side of the road. Yep, which pretty much ruled me out from doing ANY driving. I'm lame... what can I say? ;) I was a good navigator though, KJ told me so! :)

The next morning, we got up with the sun, as we had a 2 hour drive to get to the ferry that was leaving at 9 for the Isle of Arran. KJ drove like a superstar, and we made it there with plenty of time to spare.


Entering the ferry... and feeling like we were getting swallowed by a whale!

After about an hour ferry ride, KJ, Elmo (our little car), and I made it to the beautiful island. I was instantly relieved. The week prior had been extremely stressful, as the layoff announcements at Nike were finally announced. I am lucky to have a job, but did lose a few friends. It's not easy to stay or to leave. :( So, this was a great break to get my mind off of things.

Here are some words to describe the island: tranquil. green. peaceful. breathtaking. full of free-range sheep. mysterious. mountainous. welcoming. I could go on... I think you can tell how I felt about this place.

After checking in to our cute little hotel (which actually had forgotten to write down our reservation!), we took a tour around the island. We stopped at the local brewery, which uses the strain of hops from Mount Hood! (small world!) Next stop: the Isle of Arran Distillery, which makes the best whiskey in Scotland. I'm not really a huge fan of whiskey, but the location was amazing!

Isle of Arran Distillery

As we were leaving, some of the free-range sheep invaded the front yard! Unbelievable! :)

We continued North up the island, and our next stop was to the ruins of the Lochranza Castle. It was magestic:

Next, we did our first hike, which was just a short 1.5 mile out and back through 6 stone circles. These were used as burial sites during the Bronze age.

The biggest of the 6 stone circles

And, alright, loyal readers, you know I can't go on a trip without taking pictures of my food. :) Here is a collage:

Top: Our whiskey the first night and haggis
Bottom: Fish 'n' chips and mushy peas, meat pie with chips and steamed carrots (um, I didn't eat the carrots!)

After all of our adventures, we stopped for dinner at a cute seafood restaurant. You know how cute we think it is when we hear British people talking? Well, I think that Americans on the Isle of Arran are just as rare, so when we ordered our food, the waiter kind of giggled at us... we were not sure what was going on, and when we asked, he said, "it's your American accents". hehe. Cute.

We got a good night's rest (as we had pretty much every night, with the exception of the day we had to catch the ferry), and the next morning, had a hearty Scottish breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, potato scone, tomatoes, and mushrooms), and then hit the road for the hardest hike on the island: Goatfell Mountain - 2800 feet of climbing fun! The only problem was that it was raining and windy!!! Okay, now, I had brought water RESISTANT clothes, but they were no match for this weather. I was soaked before we even got to the trailhead. But, not wanting to be a whiny baby, I sucked it up and hiked for 4 hours. We didn't quite make it to the very top, but it was so foggy that we really didn't miss much in terms of view... just lost a little pride when we turned around. It was a real butt-kicker.


The trail on the way up Goatfell Mountain


KJ and I about 1/4 of the way up - already totally soaked, but still smiling! :)

We spent the afternoon at a Scottish pub (no, I am NOT an alcoholic!), talking with the locals, who again were entralled with the fact that we were Americans (it's kind of nice for people to think that it's cool to have Americans around - usually I feel like people think we are idiots.) We had our last dinner at a cute little pub, and I had my most pleasant customer service experience yet. I collect pub glasses, and there was one at this pub that said "Isle of Arran Brewery". I really wanted it, so I asked the guy at the bar if I could buy one. He just smiled at me and said, "Aw, just stick it in your purse when I'm not looking. It's no problem." Wow!

The next day, we had to catch the ferry back to the bigger island, and then we drove to some amazingly beautiful abbeys along the coast of Britain and Scotland. These were abbeys built for the monks around 1100, and they were destroyed by fighting between the Brits and the Scots around 1500. The shells remain, and, though they are not what they once were, they were beautiful. We stopped at only 2, but there are several more. I would love to come back and have more time to spend.

Melrose Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey

We got back late on Sunday night. I didn't want to leave. Scotland will definitely be a place I go again! :)