Thursday, November 20, 2008

Girl's Weekend

My friend Tish came to spend the weekend with me two weekends ago (I know, sorry I am trying to catch up).  We had a blast!  We shopped, went out to eat, watched movies, and knitted.  And look what she made me!



Matching "Knit Chick" shirts!  We wore them on Saturday when we went out shopping.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Reading and Knitting

I took Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with me on the trip.  I thought it appropriate for the area where we were traveling.  Unfortunately, I didn't do a lot of reading while on the trip, but am finishing it up now.  I have read it before and really don't mind reading it again since it is such a wonderful book.



I also finished quite a bit of knitting before we left.  I made socks for Jason, Erin, and Andrew as a thank you for letting us stay with them while we were there.

Here's Andrew's socks because baby socks are just so gosh darn cute.


United Kingdom Vacation - Part 3

While we were still in Scotland, we took a 3 hour bus trip down to Edinburgh from Aberdeen and spent two nights there in a B&B.  Edinburgh was great!  There was so much history and things to see. 

We spent a large part of one of our days at Edinburgh Castle.  It is home of the Scottish crown jewels.  This is a picture of the outside at night. 



There is a chapel inside that was built on the summit  of the castle rock in the early 12th century for Queen Margaret.  It is the oldest building in Edinburgh Castle.  Kevin wanted to shoot the cannon really bad.



The second day we did a tour of Mary King's Close.  It was a tour of abandoned houses and walkways underneath the city that have been abandoned, some since the plague hit in the 17th century.  It was extremely interesting.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take pictures, but if you want to know more about it, you can click on the link. 

I absolutely had to have a picture in one of their red phone booths.  In the background is St. Giles Cathedral.  John Knox was the minister there in the 16th century. 



In fact, he is buried under this very parking space.



This is the most awesome place we ate at in Edinburgh.  They made Scottish hog roast rolls and they were so delicious!  They pulled the meat off the pig that is sitting in the window of the shop.



Anyway, it was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed our entire trip. 

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

United Kingdom Vacation - Part 2

We left London on a Saturday and flew to Aberdeen, Scotland.  Our friend's Jason and Erin live there with their sweet little six month old son Andrew.  We were so excited to see them and spend time with them.



Here's Kevin making Andrew laugh, or is it the other way around.  He is such a cutey!  Our friend's were great hosts and fed us very well with great Scottish food.  Needless to say, we did not go hungry. 

They took us to two castles while we were there.  The first was Dunnottar Castle which was very near to Aberdeen.  Dunnottar is the castle that William Wallace (Braveheart) famously took in 1297.  The views were breathtaking! 





The other castle they took us to was Crathes Castle.  We actually went inside this castle and saw all the beautiful rooms.  We weren't aloud to take pictures inside though.





And the foliage was just beautiful all around the castle.  Erin spotted this tree, and we just had to take lots of pictures under it.



We had such a wonderful time in Scotland.  The weather was wonderful the entire time we were there.  it was quite a bit colder than we were used to, but it was great. 

Next we travel to Edinburgh...