Tuesday, December 13, 2011

First Visitors to Scotland!

We were so excited to have our first visitors come at the end of November. Tim and Katie were in the Cambridge and Leeds area for work and decided to take a train up to see us in ye old Aberdeen. We are so glad they did! It was wonderful sitting across with familiar faces over cup of coffee/tea again!



Tim and Tim catching up in Aberdeen's City Centre

We enjoyed showing them around our little town

Aberdeen houses and steeples


Local Park


Then we got to show them around Dunnator Castle. 

We were able to climb down to the sea since we had a babysitter! We had so much fun being goofy and exploring all the nooks and crannies of the area!




They are just so cute!

Climbing down to the sea


Tossing smooth rocks into the water - quite therapeutic!


After we were finished checking out the castle, we were told by the locals that we couldn't/shouldn't leave the Stonehaven area without first trying the "Best Fish and Chips in Scotland". And oh my word - The Bay Fish Shop was amazing!

The only problem is that they only had take out(the locals were lined up) and we had driven  30 minutes to get there. So even though it was about 40 degrees out, we sat outside and ate every last amazing morsel of our fish! I'm salivating thinking about it right now! It's such a good price too...yum!
Such good memories! I'm so glad we did it!
COLD!

At the end of the week, we drove with them out to Inverness (about a 3 hour drive). 
We toured Urquhart Castle together and got to see Lake Loch Ness - very cool. 
Tim and Katie on the top of the hill looking out at the lake


It was a gorgeous sunny day for it too!


After the Castle, Tim and Katie headed on to Isle of Sky and we just stayed in Inverness for the afternoon and then headed home. We had lunch at a little place called Bella Italia.
 I highly recommend it! Yummy Italian food at a good price!
Maddy got a balloon and to keep it from blowing away we tied it to her pony and it created hours of fun :)

We enjoyed poking around Inverness. It was such a nice little town. Tim checked out the used book store while the girls and I wandered the cobblestone streets popping in and out of shops. It was such a relaxing afternoon!


It was such a nice week. I'm thankful that they took the time and extra money to come and see us. What a blessing to have friends (of 10+ years) here with us when we are so far from family and friends!

3 comments:

suzanne said...

I think you are going to have a hard time when it comes time to leave Scotland! Glad you got to see good friends. And your hair is getting long! I like it!

Katie Barker said...

Super great post! I think it's the motivation I needed to finish mine! The fun we had being goofy and taking pictures and exploring at Dunnottar with you guys was one of my biggest highlights of the trip. Well - the tea and digestives was pretty fun too. - Rosie getting car sick was probably the worst. hahahah... We love you guys so much.

jeileenbaylor said...

I know Kate - those were such fun times! I figured we would both highlight different things and that would make it more fun :0) Tim and I were just talking about how Rosie got sick and how nasty that was. She has never done that again. Weird.

Suz- I know- my hair is growing like crazy! I am going to finally get it cut in a few weeks because I got a group on :0) I want to keep it long still though.