Lost our minds

Question...What do you do when you lose your mind with less than two weeks till your dissertation is do? Well the answer of course is rent a car! Caryn and I decided that we wanted something fun to do this saturday since we are very nearly done with our disertations and going to be leaving Scotland soon. We got the car for the whole weekend cause it is a better deal that way. Friday afternoon after spending the morning staring at my work trying to think how to add a few more words we went on a drive down the coast a wee bit. We ended up finding this amazing beach in Catterline. The waves were great! Saturday we drove down south to the Scottish boarders and went to the four boarder abby ruins. They were incredible. The first was in Melrose. The architecture was absolutly amazing. Unfortunatly my camera stopped working so I didn't get any photos, but will be getting loads from Caryn. Here the heart of Robert the Bruce is burried. Bought some batteries and the camera started working again, lucky for me. Next stop was Drybrugh Abby. This abby was smaller but just as beautiful. This one is smaller but a bit further off the road so very peacefull. Here Sir Walter Scott is burried. Next we drove up to a view point called Scott's View, it is where Sir Walter Scott loved to look out at the hills rising out of the Tweed valley, and I can say that it was beautiful. Very easy to see why this was his favorite spot. The next abby was my favorite, Jedburgh Abby. The archs on this abby were my favorite. The whole abby was beautiful, there was a bit of construction on part of it but it was still great to see. Also in Jedburgh we went to Mary Queen of Scots house, it was a very nice moderate sized stone cottage. I am sure back in her day is was a very large house. There was tons of information about her there but we didn't really have much time to sit and read through it all so we just had a short tour of the house. The last abby was the Kelo Abby. Although all that is left of this abby is just a small portion, in it's day it was the largest of the four boarder abby's. Just by looking at what is left you can tell it was huge. This abby was very beautiful too even though just a small part is left. Before coming home we stoped at Smailholm Tower, since we had gotten a student pass that got us entrance into it. This is a 15th century boarder home that once belonged to the Pringle's. As a boy Sir Walter Scott went to this home because his grandfather owned it. It has lots of history, google it if you want to know more. Anyway it was a really great day, the weather was warm and sunny, warm for the last day of october. Sunday we after church we drove to Glen Esk, which was wonderful. However the rains were pouring down torentually and so we were a bit worried about flooding so we were not out for long. Over all it was a very good weekend. Best part was the no work, but monday back to it.

~Meagan

The Night Before Halloween

Twas the night before Halloween,

When all though the house,

Every creature was stirring,

Even the mouse (not really we're mice free).

The cobwebs were hung by the chimney with care,

In the hopes that trick or treaters would soon be there.

The cookies were nestled all snug in their tupperware,

While visions of witch fingers danced in our heads.

As Annie (my roommate) in her apron, and I in my hat,

Had just settled our pumpkin curry for a long simmering bath.

When out in the library there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the kitchen to see what was the matter.

Away to the hall I flew like a flash,

Tore open the curtain and threw on the lights. . . .

Well, you get the picture. At my house we are getting ready for our annual Halloween party. I will have more pictures up soon. But for now here is a picture of my fun cookies that I made tonight.

Tiah

Baby Shower

This past weekend was one of my best friends baby shower, so I made the long drive from Cheney to Vancouver to attend. It was great getting to see Britnee again, she is getting so big!!! I loved getting to buy cute little girl clothes and lots of books! Also on my trip I stayed with Tiah and go to see my parents, which was very nice. Portland was so beautiful with the leaves changing! But overall it was a wonderful weekend! I hadnt seen Britnee in over four months so it was great getting to see her again, and it was wonderful to get out of cheney. Now I am looking forward to Homecoming weekend and Thanksgiving!

KelliJean

Nessie Hunting!

Well I travel back to Inverness for a fifth time to go to Loch Ness with Alley to go Nessie hunting yet again. Sadly I did not find her still, but have decided that the boats that we go on are just too loud so Alley and I are planning to get some practice kayaking and then come back and kayak the Loch and that will give us a much better chance of spotting Nessie. We just went up for the day so after the tour of the Loch and Uruquhart Castle we had lunch at Bella Itiala and then went shopping for souvenirs for her family. We had lots of fun.
~Meagan

Edinburgh

I finally made it to Edinburgh, I know kinda lame that it took me nearly two years to get there but what can I say, I have gotten to see a lot of Scotland and have loved it. Edinburgh was not too bad, well the very small area that Alley and I toured. We stuck close to the royal mile cause we didn't have a map and did not want to get lost. We went to the castle which was pretty cool and had great views. We went to lots of souvenir shops but did not buy anything besides some shortbread for Alley's soilders and family and a small box of Edinburgh Castle Rock, which is a really strange candy that is kinda like tums, very weird. We also went on a ghost tour of the south bridge vaults. It was a bit scary being in there but nothing happen, besides me having nightmears for the next few days. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable day. Oh and we got our photos with William Wallace!

~Meagan

Road Trip!!

While Alley is here Caryn, Safina and I decided to rent a car to show her some different parts of Scotland. Day one we drove the four hours to Glencoe. Since fall has hit here the colors along the way were amazing and in Glencoe everything looked brilliant shades of organge, it was great. We drove through several glens and saw some great sites and stoped in a few towns along the way. Day two we took a drive up the coast along the coastal road. We went to three fishing villages that are down the cliffs one of which you cannot drive to you have to walk because there is no room in the village for cars. We went along all the way to Cullen and then turned around and drove back via a small village with a tall slender church. Day three we drove to Lochnagar and hiked up most of it, all the way to the Loch. It was a long hike, took four hours round trip but it was lots of fun and very exhasting. We did see a man hiking up that was wearing a kilt and that pretty much made all our days. The view from the top would have been great except for the gail force winds trying to knock us off the mountian so not many photos were taken up there. We took the scenic trip back to stonehaven and saw some more great sites.
~Meagan

Ireland

Alley and I took three days in Ireland and discovered that Ireland is a country where you should avoid the big cities and get a car and explore the contryside. Unfortunately we did not do that and was in the city for most of the time. We flew to Dublin and spent a day and half there, the first day was sunny for our half day of walking around and then the second day it was pouring rain all day. We went to a church that was built in the 8th century but it had not been kept up so not exciting. We went to the Guinness store house and walked up and had our free pint in the top of the world's largest pint glass. I ate Irish stew which was really tasty, was not sure if I was going to like the lamb but it was really good. We then headed down to Cork and spent a day there and took a trip out to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone. Blarney was the best part of the trip, we loved the grounds and wished that we could have spent several hours out there instead of just an hour. Cork itself was not a very nice city but we did a lot of walking around. We are planning for the next trip to Ireland going to Galway and the west coast.
~Meagan