Scotland

Ah, the joys of travel. I had very carefully described how we were going to the airport to get on the plane to go to Scotland... I neglected, however, to tell Isabella that Daddy was going to get out with all the stuff (and Ian) while we were going to go park the car and take the shuttle back. So Isabella nearly melted down when Dad got out of the car and she didn't, because she thought she wasn't going to go... finally managed to convince her that we were going to go, just as soon as we got back on the shuttle. Sigh.

So we sat around St. Louis for a while, long enough to miss our connection to Edinburgh in Newark. And, of course, there wasn't much to choose from for alternative flights. So we ended up flying into Manchester. Isabella and Ian passed out soon after takeoff, and Mom and Dad managed to get some sleep as well. Unfortunately, upon landing in Manchester Isabella was sick all over herself - she woke up crying and looking miserable. Fortunately, we had a spare set of clothes.

We then got on a train to Edinburgh - thought there should be plenty of space, but it turned out that everyone else was on the train, too. We did manage to get two seats, but it was challenging keeping Isabella (by now a bit tired and bored) entertained. And then she got sick again, this time on the seat (just after I'd trekked all the way to the front of the train, the only place with water, to clean up the baby poop that had leaked out of the diaper onto my pants). Some nice people chased down a pile of napkins for us, but there wasn't much we could do about the seat. At least she waited until just before the train stopped...

We went to the tourist office and they booked us a hotel room (a rather nice one, see top picture) just a few blocks from the train station. Of course, they hadn't gotten all of our luggage to Manchester, so all we had was Ian's car seat and a partial collection of clothes - and not much in the way of jackets. So it was a bit of a cold, damp hike to the hotel. But we did have a spiffy room with two beds and a handicap shower, which was great for hosing off. Breakfast was included; the nice other people having breakfast fortunately didn't seem to mind Isabella nattering on about what she wanted for breakfast and how the nice people made it for us.

We ended up buying a booster seat because Isabella's car seat (and our suitcase) went to Brechin before we did. Fortunately, we found a place that would sell one just a few miles from the airport, and just off the highway.

It was, of course, cold (around freezing) without much sunlight so we didn't get out much. And when we did, Isabella kept wanting to ride in the stroller, at which point she'd get cold, and we'd have to carry Ian. Sigh. We made a few abortive trips to the park, but couldn't stay out too long. The saving grace was an indoor "park" in Forfar that we went to with Mark and his daughter, around Isabella's age. She loved it. There was a ball pit, a blowie thing, things to climb around on, and big nerf cannons. Went three times, all in all - gave her a chance to run around and blow off some energy.

We made it to the pool once - there wasn't a children's area, or even a place that she could hang onto on the side, but she had a lot of fun being dragged around by mom in her fishie ring, spinning in circles, and lifted out of the water.

All four of us came down with something - Ian had one bad night where he just kept crying, and wouldn't go to sleep. Since we were all sleeping in the same room we couldn't just walk him there because he would wake Isabella up...

Isabella found Bill's old (threadbare) Panda. She took it and showed it to Granda, who said it wasn't a bear. So Isabella went away, dressed Panda in Ian's bear suit, then brought him back and said "see, it's a bear!". 3yr old logic, go figure.

Isabella was very fond of the biscuits, although she kept trying to split them in half to get at the creme, and they weren't quite that easy to split open. She got to eat on her very own stuffed doggie with a little table just here size. Potatoes and sausage/hotdogs were a favorite.

Flight back was uneventful, and even got in on time. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a huge help - I think she watched it a half dozen time while we were gone (Bill had burned it to the little lap top, so she could watch it any time). She wasn't so keen on the headphones, though - probably because they're too big for her. She can sing all the songs, now - she really likes the "Truly Scrumptious" one.