Caitlin Story

Don't panic.  I know that title instills fear into the bravest of souls, but rest assured we are well and whole.  And Caitlin, before you get any ideas, we may end up with more of these stories than you have after this trip, but we'll end up with less than we would have if you were on this trip with us.  So this doesn't prove your point.  That's my disclaimer.  And now for the juicy news.

The plan was to take the train to Glasgow for the morning and early afternoon.  Although we've been enjoying Edinburgh, we were excited to get to see another town.  We've been in to Edinburgh three times now and didn't want that to be the extent of our experience.  A few days ago, Suzanne showed us how the keys work to the house.  There are two doors from the inside to the outside, and between them is a small, glassed-in porch where they keep their shoes.  None of these doors can be unlocked inside or out without a key.  The inside door has two locks, one which latches automatically when you close it.  This morning, the plan was for only the automatic lock to be done when we left, since we didn't have keys to take with us to lock everything up.  Assuming then that Andy left the doors unlocked, we headed out to our Galway adventure.  We stepped into the porch area, closed the door to the inside, and put our shoes on.  Then we went to unlock the outside door...eeeerrrrr...yeah, locked.  The door to the outside was locked.  The door to the inside was locked.  We were keyless, sitting in a small, glassed-in porch with the sun beating down.  The phone had not been working on local calls.  Panic sets in.  And we're going to be stuck in a porch until four o'clock when the girls get home.  It was almost funny.  Almost.  (Well, later it was hilarious, but I'm getting there.)  So I start pounding on the door and the windows yelling "Somebody help us!  Hello?" at the top of my lungs (which was honestly a phrase I never expected and never really wanted to be using).  Finally, across the street and a little bit down the road, there was a man walking into his house.  He obviously heard my pounding, and turned and looked around confusedly.  Finally he saw me and started walking towards us.  Now of course it should have been a bit embarrassing, but we were just too desperate to get out.  But by the time we were about to ask him to call Andy for us, Elizabeth had figured out what was wrong with the phone call, and she got through to him herself.  It took him a minute to understand our problem, but I think "Oh dear..." would be a decent translation of his response.  Sadly, he had taken the bus to work and not his car, and he had to turn around and come back.  We felt really bad, but on the other hand, we really didn't

 want to stay in there for seven hours.  So we thanked the man who had helped us, and then sat there.  For about an hour.  We listened to music.  The mailman came (at this point we were seeing the hilarity in the situation, and possibly the humiliation as well), and he just sort of...waved.  A white kitty came up to the glass, I'm positive just to torment me since I couldn't exactly reach out and pet it.  That's a picture of us cheerfully waiting.  And finally Andy got back and graciously offered us a ride in his car (the bus would have taken him another hour to get to work, and since, thanks to us, he was already late...) to the train station.

So, that aside now, we did go to Galway.  We had less time than we had planned, but we had enough to do a few things, and we felt pretty good about it.  The most important part was a sweetie shop that Amy and Elizabeth had found online called Glickman's.  Yeah, you laugh, but we did go there.  And it was really really cute... just like those sweet shops you see in old movies.  The shop was close to the city centre, but a little bit farther out, so we saw several locals come in and few tourists.  We got some fudge and chocolates, but the best part was how friendly she was.  And very Scottish!  We actually chatted for a little while.  She got some Utah history, and we got some Scottish history.  Other than that, we walked through Prince's Square, saw the St. Mungo Museum and Cathedral, the Necropolis (a cemetery that used to be where people lived in Glasgow), and a really fun museum with lots of history about Scotland (kind of geared towards kids, so very interactive).

And now, just for a teeny bit of older k-news, I realize I never told you about Loch Ness.  The drive through the Highlands was very beautiful, and rest assured, we will get a picture up when we get the chance.  We got to feed Hamish, the Highland cow, and he was really cute.  It's brilliant too because you pay for

little bags of food so you can go out and feed him.  So basically, you're paying them to feed their cow.  Genius.  Urquhart castle is on the edge of Loch Ness, and was pretty much in ruins.  It was really cool to walk around and explore though.  That's me reading the braille on one of the signs, and yes, I really was reading it with my eyes closed.  The Loch Ness itself was lovely.  I'm afraid we didn't take any pictures of Nessie, because she likes messing with people and doesn't want anyone else to know exactly what she looks like.  But she was very friendly and we chatted for a few minutes before we had to go.  She offered us a place to stay if we're ever staying in the Loch.  

Once back in Bolerno, we enjoyed some time with Amy and Julia.  To the left we're enjoying Innocent Smoothies, which they had recommended.  They were pretty good, unlike the Iron Brew.  The girls like it...the parents don't...we think it tastes like carbonated, bubble-gum flavoured cough syrup.  But the Innocent was good.  So, that's pretty much caught up then.  

So just to answer Caitlin's question...I'm going to assume you mean the socks.  Nice thick white socks and black shoes.  'Cuz otherwise...well, I didn't exactly ask.  Sorry.   ;-)=

And Sara...yes, I did think of our dear friend Haggis McMutton.  Glad you did too. ;-)=

Did ew know...?

Elephants can swim twenty miles a day.  They use their trunks as natural snorkels.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.