Scotland, July 5-7

Scotland was pretty amazing since the kids and Andy met me at the ship and we got to go off for four days and explore together.  The ship docked on July 5th and the kids arrived at the ship around 1030.  It was awesome to see them.  I showed everyone their cabins, toured them around the ship and then we ate lunch before heading toward Edinburgh.  My kids who were at first nervous about being on a ship, didn't want to leave it.

Andy was our driver, he did a fantastic job driving on the left side of the road.  My job was to remind him to take wide rights and short lefts.  It's like a video game, I shout sheep, bike, car, big bus,  wide turn etc.

We spent two nights in Edinburgh where there is a large castle to explore.  We also went on a ghost tour within the city, we got to go underground by candlelight.  The kids liked it, though Shannon seemed a bit nervous when Daddy was used as part of the story of torture in the stockade.  Don't worry, it was all good fun.

From Edinburgh we drove to Stirling.  Stirling also has a beautiful castle, it had a lot of kids activities and a kids tour.  The photo of Andy and the kids is in the courtyard of the castle.  The knight with Liam is from inside it.  

On the last day on the way back to the ship, we of course had to stop by a battlefield.  The site where the Scottish actually defeated the English.  There was this very cool electronic reenactment/game we got to participate in.

Once back on the ship, we got to reconnect with friends, hear about everyone else's adventures and get the kids into their cabin for the first night.  Before the ship set sail, which the kids found fascinating, on the pier there was a full-on bagpipe band to serenade us as we pulled out, very cool!