Today was a travel day with the morning being spent trying to repack our belongings and "putting to rights" the place where we stayed in Stonehaven. That was a good 3 hour project, including getting the kids fed, dressed, and ready for the day. We were able to enjoy one more round of fish-n-chips from The Bay before we left, and I will just say again, absolutely fabulous! We hopped on a train headed down to Glasgow but because we caught an earlier train, we didn't have our reserved seats. It is possible to purchase tickets that are acceptable all day while at the same time reserving a seat on a certain train at a certain time. We learned it is more important to have your reserved seat than to be a little early to your destination. All 5 of us were cramped in 4 seats with backpacks crammed underneath which made the 2 1/2 hour train ride seem a bit longer than it actually was. Again, getting on and off trains with 5 incredibly heavy rolling suitcases and three kids is stressful but thankfully we managed it without much trouble once again. All of us packed into a taxi with our luggage (sure is a good thing we aren't a very tall family) and drove 30 minutes to Loch Lomond. It is a beautiful lake resort with a number of lovely hotels situated around it. We are staying at The Cameron House and it is really great. We have some fun activities planned for the weekend (kids are signed up for archery class while I have some time at the spa) and weather appears to be pleasant enough for Scotland in June.
For today:
HIGH
1. Having a fun room with bunk beds to sleep in (Caleb, Maddie & Emily)
2. Arriving in Loch Lomond greeted by sunshine (Kerry)
3. Beauty of Loch Lomond (Tim)
4. Hot piece of deep fried breaded haddock for lunch with a glass of cider (Kerry)
5. Maddie doing the Macarena in the Glasgow train station (Kerry)
LOW
1. Not traveling on a train with enough seats for us all (Caleb)
2. It took almost 2 hours for our main course to be served at dinner (ALL OF US!)
3. The taxi ride to Loch Lomond (Kerry)
The story with dinner was simple enough but one to take all of us to the brink of sanity. We had reservations at a casual restaurant at 6 pm and when we arrived we were the first and only people in the dining area. We placed our order shortly after arriving and received our appetizers rather quickly. I have to say it was some of the yummiest homemade bread/pizza crust I have ever had. This made all of us quite excited for our main courses. As time passed, the restaurant began to fill up with customers and we continued to wait for our meal. Pretty soon, we realized that a number of tables around us, those who had arrived after us, had received their food and were almost finished eating and we still had not been served our dinners. Honestly, I think Tim and I were too preoccupied trying to entertain the kids and not have them miserable while we waited to notice just how much time had passed. We made it until 7:30pm and then the wheels started to come off. I think what made it worse was no one even came over to discuss with us what had happened. I was the one who had to say to the waiter, "Hey we ordered an hour ago. Where's our food?" He assured me it was only going to be a minute. Needless to say, it was a half hour later when our meals actually arrived. Even as I write this, I am thinking to myself, "Really? Are you truly complaining about this episode when you've had such a wonderful vacation thus far?" The answer is simply: yes, yes I am. After a long day of packing and travel, the dinner was a bit more than I could handle. I'm over it now, but in the spirit of trying to remember this adventure, I want to be able to look back and recall this episode and reminisce with the rest of the crew about how we managed to survive such a day. At least we are in it together, for better or worse!
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