Planning Our Vacation

Spent most of the day planning more of our Scotland vacation and booking tickets, etc. We want to see so much that I wonder if it's going to be more of a whirlwind than a vacation. I'm trying to make it so it isn't a whirlwind, but we will be covering a lot of ground. We have decided to visit the Inner & Outer Hebrides, which are small islands off the southern and western coasts of Scotland. Apparently, they are beautiful. We are more interested in visiting the less touristy places, than seeing the big cities, etc. One of the ferry companies offers what they call "Hopscotch Tours", which are itineraries to visit islands of your choice and includes the ferry tickets. I've decided to go with the tour that covers the Oban, Isle of Skye, Isle of Harris, Isle of Uig and Isle of Barra. Booking these ferry times and the order of how to go about it, was tricky. Trying to ensure we had enough time to spend in each place before jumping on a ferry to go to the next. Because we have a car and are traveling in the peak season of August, Caledonian MacBrayne (the ferry company) recommend booking all the sailing times now. It would have been nice to not have to book and grab a ferry at our leisure while we're there, but traveling in August is forcing us to book a lot more than we'd like. Anyway, eventually figured it all out and this is where we'll be traveling:

We'll be spending the weekend of August 3-6 with Dale & Lauren as they are on the way. We'll leave their place Monday morning and head out on a 6.5 hour drive to Scotland. We'll stay on a farm in Lockerbie that offers B&B accommodation the first night and is just off the highway not long after we enter Scotland. I have been tyring to book somewhat cheap accommodation as two weeks we'll be expensive and we don't need anything fancy. I'm excited to stay on a farm where we can do the rounds with the farmer in the morning (they have cattle and sheep).

Aug 6 - Lockerbie
Aug 7 - Stirling, Saint Andrews, etc
Aug 8 & 9 - Inverness, Nairn, etc and the Whisky Trail!
Aug 10 & 11 - Glasgow for the Piping Championships
Aug 12 & 13 - Oban where we'll do a day boat tour to some of the Inner Hebrides (Isles of Mull, Iona, and Staffa)
Aug 14 - The Outer Hebrides
Aug 17 - Isle of Skye (Inner Hebrides)
Aug 18 - Edinburgh for the Tattoo
Aug 19 - Very long drive back home!

I think the Hebrides will be the most amazing part of our trip. I'm excited to visit the Isle of Barra as that's where the MacNeil clan comes from (my mom's a MacNeil). I think it will be neat. We'll be staying in a hostel there and I think we'll attempt camping on the Isles for the other nights we're there. However, the Hebridean weather can be quite particular and may not be condusive to camping. I see us spending a night in the car! Haha. Over the two weeks we'll do some hiking and of course lots of touring and whatever else may come along.

I received a call from Aukett Brockliss Guy today. Siobhan, the lady I'm replacing, spent yesterday in the hospital and they're worried her baby may try to arrive early (she's only 26 weeks). They've asked me if needed, can I start next week. They'll call me on Monday and let me know and it's a good chance will ask me to start on Tuesday. Woohoo! Works for me!

Tonight is movie night at Speedy & Rachel's this week. Keith & I and Dave gathered at their place and Rachel whipped us up some great nachos. We watched the movie Dodgeball with Ben Stiller. It was a dumb comedy - very funny. We had some good laughs. The guys were given Friday off so we hung out until late while Speedy enjoyed some Crown Royal with Keith. Keith wanted him to check out some Canadian rye. Off to Dale & Lauren's tomorrow to meet Jack!