Trip itinerary

  I realized that I have talked about Scotland but not what we are doing there.  Here is our itinerary.  

We leave late in the afternoon of June 29 from Cincinnati airport.  We have a stopover in Newark then overnight to Edinburgh. 

 Arrive Edinburgh in the early morning on the 1st day. Drop off our luggage at the hotel, too early to check in, hop on the hop-on, hop-off bus to tour the city.  We have the day to ourselves with no tours scheduled.  We plan on taking the entire tour on the bus and then riding it to wherever we decide to explore.  Places I have looked at include the grass market, Camera Obscura and shopping on the royal mile.  We will lunch while out exploring.  Once we can check into the hotel we will go back to rest a bit and freshen up.  Dinner is at an Italian restaurant called Contini George Street.  It is about half a mile from the hotel.  Since the Waldorf has a pool and spa we will probably take advantage of them sometime in the evening then to bed early.  I have always found it best to adjust to the new time on the first day by staying up until bedtime.  A short nap is fine but nothing too long. 

On the 2nd day we have breakfast and then take off for the day.  We have a private tour scheduled that will include the royal mile, Edinburgh castle, Holyrood castle, and St Giles cathedral.  Whew!  We have reservations at a pub for lunch and dinner at a steakhouse called Kyloe.  Maybe another visit to the spa to relax and then to bed.  

The 3rd day finds up checking out of the Waldorf and leaving Edinburgh.  We are headed north to the highlands.  Our driver will pick us up in the morning and take us to see Dunkeld and the Dunkeld cathedral.  We will also visit the Hermitage and visit a master chocolatier for samples.  Cairngorms National Park is next and a Hairy Coo Safari.  Our hotel is in Inverness for the next two nights.  Dinner reservations are at Hootenanny restaurant.  

Day 4 has us up and out to see Culloden battlefield and Clava Cairns.  The we have the rest of the day to explore Inverness.  Dinner at The Mustard Seed restaurant.  

Day 5 we check out and head southwest.  A boat tour on Loch Ness to find the monster for Rory.  A visit to Eilean Donan castle and then we take the bridge to Skye where we stay for the next two nights.  

Day 6 we set out to explore the Isle of Skye.  Visits to the Quiraing, Kilt rock, the dinosaur museum,  The Fairy Glen, lunch at the Oyster Shed, the Fairy Pools then back to the hotel.  Dinner is at Antlers Bar and Grill.  No spa in this hotel so it will be in bed early. 

Day 7 finds us on the ferry to cross back to Mallig.  We see the viaduct that was mad famous by Harry Potter movies when they head to school.  We stop at Inverlochy hotel for high tea.  We explore Fort William for a bit then heat to ride the gondola to Ben Nevis, well Rory and I will ride it, Aimee will wait.  Our hotel is in Glencoe for the next two nights and we dine in our suite. 

Day 8 we take a wildlife boat tour and head into Oban to explore.  We lunch at Eeusk, a fish restaurant for lunch.  A visit to the Oban chocolate factory and exploring Glencoe.  Dinner is in our suite tonight.  

Day 9 we head out to visit Glen Etive, Tyndrum, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.  Rory gets to experience Falconry on the grounds of our hotel, Cameron House.  Dinner is at the hotel restaurant.  

Day 10 we plan on being exhausted so will be spending the day at the hotel.  They have a really nice pool and spa so we will be relaxing.  They have things to do around the hotel so we will do whatever strikes our fancy for the day, but mostly resting up for our return.  

Day 11 we head back towards Edinburgh to prepare for our return home.  On the way we visit the Falkirk Wheel, the Kelpies, visit Stirling Castle, and Dunblane Cathedral.  One night at Cromlix hotel and dinner in their restaurant.  Then we pack and get ready to fly out the next day.  

Day 12 will be breakfast in the hotel and checking out.  Our driver will take us to Edinburgh airport to depart.  The only problem I see is that Taylor Swift has concerts in Edinburgh on the 7, 8 and 9th.  I am planning on crowds in the airport so we will plan on arriving at the airport early to avoid crowds.  I plan on using the lounge at the airport to be comfortable.  We have a stopover in Newark and go through passport control there. We arrive home around 9:00 pm and then home to bed.  

I know this crammed full of activities but I hope we don’t wear ourselves out.  Most of our lunches will be on our own and we are letting Rory choose the type of food.  There will be parts where he is bored but we think we scheduled special things for him.  We do plan on shopping a bit and enjoying different types of food.  Yes, we plan on tasting haggis.  I hope we can fit everything in our luggage for the return trip.  We didn’t schedule any whiskey tours as neither of us drink it.  We hope to visit a pub in the evening one day but that will depend on if they allow kids or we can get a babysitter.  Having our own driver means we can cut some things short or add time to others.  Neither Aimee or I wanted to drive on the wrong side of the street.  Also, if you have to concentrate on driving you miss seeing things.  We are flying business class.  Our flight to Scotland is overnight and our return trip is during the day but we should be comfortable both ways.  We all have our passports and have checked out immigration procedures at all the airports.  We can’t wait to go.  Now we just have to stay healthy.  I know there is a lot more to see in the country and maybe we can return one day.  

Feb 2024

 Wow!  Half the month is gone already.  I don’t know where the time goes.  We finally started getting work done on our house.  At least I got my kitchen put back together.  I asked the contractor to do it first.  They are supposed to finish the rest by the 19th.  We did get the drywall in,  most of the trim in and most of the painting done.  The new carpet got installed and now Bill wants to put the same in our bedroom and on the stairs to the storage room.  I will have to contact the project manager and see if we can do that as an add-on. 

Rory’s basket Team has been doing pretty good.  They had a 2 win, 2 losses record heading into the playoffs.  They won their first playoff game.  The second one was delayed due to snow and will be played on the 24th now.  

Bill and I celebrated our 45th anniversary.  We didn’t go out on the actual date as it fell on a weekend so we went out during the week.  We decided to go to Fleming’s steakhouse.  They had a really good deal going 2 for $140.  We got 2 salads, 2 sharing sides, and 2 deserts.  The entree was a tomahawk steak.  We had never had one and we shared it and still had meat to take home.  I enjoyed some wine with the meal.  We won’t go there often as it is expensive but it was nice for a celebration.  

We did go to the dinner theater and saw a play called the Marvelous Wonderettes.  It was a good show.  We also joined a financial dinner one night but didn’t join them.  I am happy with the company we have.  

We joined our camping group for lunch at Smokey Bones BBQ restaurant.  We were there for a couple of hours and enjoyed talking to everyone.  Luckily the snow had stopped the night before and the roads were clear but it was cold!  

I have been busy getting annual payments for the HOA.  It isn’t much but you would be surprised by the number of people who we have to bug to get them to pay.  

The work on the corner lot is coming along nicely.  We have talked with some of the workers and now the HOA has some questions for the city about what is going on.  We have a short street, or part of a street, right at the start of the neighborhood.  They are tearing out the asphalt and tell us they are going to put in grass but our HOA will be responsible for it.  They are also saying the property line isn’t where we think it is.  I have an appointment to talk with the city planner next week.  Hopefully we can get that taken care of.  Most of the rest of the board still work so it is easiest for me to handle this.  

It appears that we are going to be in the path of the eclipse on April 8.  We are not in the exact middle of the total eclipse but we are close enough that it will seem like a total.  I bought some glasses to use to look at it.  I will try to take pictures too.  I bet the schools are doing science plans around it.  

I paid the last payment for the trip to Scotland!  Now I just need to stay healthy enough to go.  We are all getting so excited.  I have started buying some clothes to take.  I bought some shoes that are supposed to be waterproof and they are cute.  The first style I got didn’t fit right but the second style is good.  I also got some Air Tags to put in my luggage and things.  Maybe we should attach one to Rory when we start out!  

Our house is finally finished!  They installed the toilet and sink today and every else is done.  Of course now that those rooms look so good we are making one more change.  We really like the carpet we installed in the two bedrooms so we are having it installed on the staircase and in the master bedroom.  Hopefully that will be in the next week or so.  The same company is doing it.  We got an install date of March 5, can’t wait.  

Rory and Nick had their last basketball game on Saturday.  They didn’t win but they played a really good game.  The team they played was in 1st place aspens they stayed right with them until the last buzzer.  They played this team early in the season and lost badly.  This time they had them on the run and kept the score close.  Good job boys!  

We had a tiny bit of snow on Saturday morning but it melted quickly.  The weather here can’t make up its mind.  Snow over the weekend, 70 degrees on Monday!  It did this off and on for the last week of the month.  

So that was Feb.  

Jan 2024

 So we went to bed at our regular time on New Year’s Eve.  We did wake up at midnight when someone shot off fireworks.  New Year’s Day was cold.  It had snowed before we got up but just a tiny bit.  We had a couple of flakes throughout the day but it turned to rain and melted the snow.  Many things were closed today so we didn’t leave the house.  It was a nice quiet day.  

The quiet didn’t last long.  The morning of the 3rd Bill woke up and heard s noise while in the living room.  He walked down the hallway to the office and walked into water.  In the guest bathroom there was a lot of standing water.  He opened up the door on the vanity and got a shower.  One of the water lines had broken and had been spraying water for hours.  The bathroom was flooded, the guest bedrooms carpet was wet about a foot in, the office had standing water throughout.  We started mopping up and called Nick.  He brought over his big wet vac and they got out over 10 gallons of water.  I called Servpro, they came and looked and said I should call the insurance company as the water had seeped up the walls.  They also found the wall behind the office, which is my kitchen, was wet.  So they started the cleanup and we now have these big, noisy fans blowing and a big dehumidifier going.  The insurance company called a construction company to come check things out.  They will be back on Monday or Tuesday to give an estimate.  The fans are so loud we are wearing earplugs and headphones.  They ran all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Thursday night.   We can only talk to each other if we go in the bedroom and close the door.  On top of this, I woke up Thursday morning with a winter head cold.  All of the baseboards have been removed, the vinyl flooring in the bathroom, and about 2 feet of the drywall in the rooms.  There is stuff all over the house as we had to empty those rooms.  Fortunately I still have my refrigerator and my stove so I can cook.  

We had some snow Friday night so when we went out to go to Rory’s basketball game on Saturday morning the car slid a bit on the driveway.  Our street hadn’t been plowed yet so we took the Suzuki and put it in 4 wheel drive.  The kids did win the game.  Yeah!  

Monday, Jan 8, Servpro came out and removed all the fans and stuff.  They say the floor under the coat closet in the hallway is still a bit damp but it will dry by itself.  The construction people also came and took pictures and notes so they can send the estimate to the insurance company.  We now wait for approval from insurance before work can start.  We will be doing a bit of upgrades and paying for those ourselves.  The bathroom floor was vinyl and I want to put tile in.  I will also upgrade the vanity and toilet.  

In a weak moment I agreed to take over the treasurers position for the HOA.  The only real work is once a year to do the annual billing.  Other than that it is regular bills that I can probably automate.  The current treasurer is coming over this afternoon to give me the paperwork and software.  We still need to go to the bank and transfer everything.  I reviewed the paperwork and was not impressed.  There is a lot missing and no standard reports.  I will be organizing everything and producing all the appropriate reports.  Time to dust off my Excel training.  I also got put on the bank account  now I need to get the mailing addresses changed on the bills.  

We have had a lot of rain, no big snow yet.  Next week our temps are supposed to dip down into the teens.  Not looking forward to that.  I wonder if we will get snow at all this year as it has been warmer than normal.  

Rory has had two basketball games so far  the team has one win and one loss.  Nick is the coach again this year.  

We went out to lunch at Outback for Aimee’s birthday.  We had a good meal and a nice converstation.  We gave her the gifts we got her.  

I heard from the insurance company late on Friday.  It looks like they approved everything the construction company said needs to be done.  I am now waiting on the construction company to come over and go over the choices on carpet, flooring, etc with us.  Hopefully that will be early next week and we can get things moving.  

The weather has turned cold and windy.  It has also snowed a bit off and on.  We are in for a week of really low temperatures.  Some will be in the single digits.  Good thing we don’t have to go out if we don’t want to.  There will also be snow and rain off and on, mostly at night.  Some days will be too cold to snow.  

I got the invoices for the HOA dues printed and the temperatures got up to 18 today so Bill and I bundled up and delivered them to each house.  We walked very quickly around the neighborhood but our finger still got really cold.  We couldn’t wear gloves and handle the paper.  At least that chore is done.  I have also created new accounting forms for tracking expenses and deposits and a budget form.  

We are going to exercise class still and since it is the first of the year the classes are very full.  I wonder how long that will continue.  Because of the cold we are currently experiencing we have been walking there too.  We are thinking about walking in the mall since we are tired of walking in circles around the track.  

The contractor came over and we signed contracts with them.  Now they just need to get us on the schedule.  We did pick out the carpet for the bedrooms.  We decided carpet was best for those rooms.  Our bathroom will have tile.  We have a bunch leftover from the kitchen remodel and will use that.  We ordered a vanity.  The room is really small and you have to be careful of the type of doors and drawers to get as they could interfere with the bathroom door.  I found one on Wayfair that had a barn door on it so I got that.  I don’t particularly like the lights, towel bar, and toilet either so we got those too.  I will get paid back from the construction company on part of it but not all of it since it is my decision.  

We had our first real snow on the 19th.  It was a fluffy snow so it wasn’t hard to remove.  It was just cold!  We had about a week of freezing and single digit temps.  Bill was able to use the leaf blower to remove most of the snow.  I helped with the shovel on part.  I don’t mind the snow but really don’t like the temps to be in the single digits and then have wind on top of it.  

One day we went to the gas station and had trouble opening the door to the gas take due to ice.  We had been at Rory’s basketball game when that happened.  We didn’t go out a lot but did go to exercise and walked at the gym and the mall.  Bill isn’t sure walking the mall is a good idea.  When we went there for the first time I found a bracelet at Kay’s that I liked and we bought it.  We did get a good sale price and a military discount.  Hmm, I wonder what else I can get.  

We went to lunch with our camping group at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  I love their mizithra  cheese.  I am in charge of the lunch in February and we are going to Smokey Bones.  

I got the books for the HOA straightened out and the bills for this year printed and distributed.  Now to see  how long it takes people to pay up.  Little do they know I will be sending pass due notices if they don’t pay by the due date and adding late fees.  I am such a witch.  We did get to the bank and got everything changed over to me.  I have to change the password to the account as it is too simple and I don’t want others to have it.  

We have a new place in town for fast food.  It is called Teriyaki Madness.  It is similar to the Flame Broiler in Calif.  Yeah, something that isn’t wings, pizza and burgers!  We went for lunch and enjoyed it.  

We are going with the kids to brunch on the 28th  we invited Aimee’s parents to join us this time.  John made each of the girls a custom cutting board for Christmas and mine is beautiful. He works with wood and does a very good job.  He used to do it as a business and made custom staircases and stuff.  

So the month ended with our house still a mess.  We are waiting on the contractor.  At least it gives me time to do some reorganizing.  

The lot behind our development is finally getting worked on.  They are putting in homes, about 35.  They have been moving dirt around for the last week.  We did have about 9:days of rain in a row so nothing was done then.  It wasn’t heavy rain, just kind of drizzly.  

So that was the month of Jan.  

Wow! Time flies

 Somehow I let all this time pass without updating.  We did do a few things over this time period.  We went camping with our group four times and had a good time at each campout.  We have continued our exercise classes and our walking.  We mostly walk around the neighborhood but have gone on some trails at the local parks.  One trail we took was listed as 1.3 miles but my pedometer said it was over 2 miles!  Doing the same walk everyday gets boring so we like to change it up once in a while.  

We celebrated Halloween at the kids house.  We don’t have many kids that come in our nei So we go hang with them.  Aimee makes a soup or stew and I bring some goodies.  We have a fire on the driveway and fun is had by all.  This year we have a small snow squall come through and it was cold but we enjoyed it.  Rory got a lot of candy.  

Thanksgiving was different this year.  Instead of having the kids over to our house we went to the local golf course to their buffet dinner.  It was really good and ever enjoyed the food.  They served turkey, lamb, salmon, prime rib and pork.  Plus all the sides and desserts.  I didn’t have to cook and clean.  We pretty much did all the things we normally do like sit and talk.   The only bad thing was no leftovers.  I am trying to decide if we will do it next year.  This place is where we go for our monthly brunches.  

I did book a trip for next year for myself, Aimee and Rory.  We are going to Scotland at the end of May, after school ends, for 12 days!  Bill doesn’t want to go and Nick can’t leave the company for that long so it is just the three of us.  We have a tour set up that has been personalized to our desires.  We aren’t interested in whisky tours and want to do things that Rory will be interested in.  Neither of us wanted to drive on the left side of the road so we have a car and driver.  The tour company set up our hotels, made dinner reservations for us, and booked our tickets and excursions.  We are all so excited.  

Our health has been pretty good this year.  We have had a few ailments, as people our age are prone to, but overall we are good.  

The weather has been pretty good but December has finally turned cold.  We have had rain but only one day with a tiny bit of snow.  It looks like we won’t have a white Christmas this year.  

We are spending Christmas at the kids house. Aimee is cooking but I am bringing dessert, Death by Chocolate.  It is a trifle with brownie chunks, pudding, chocolate pieces and cool whip layered.  Nick asked for it. I will also bring deviled eggs.  Nick came over the other day and helped Bill load one of the gifts in the car.  It isn’t heavy but bulky.  We had to figure out how to remove the cover for the luggage area as it had never been removed before!  

We don’t have any plans for New Years.  We will probably stay home and go to bed before midnight.  

I don’t have any plans to post in this blog everyday.  I will try to remember to post once a month unless something exciting happens.  Have a good 2024.  

Aug 7 - Aug 13

 Monday Aug 7 - I had to get up and get ready to go this morning as I had to go to the hospital to have injections in my lower back.  This is my second set of shots before they finally get to laser the nerves in my lower back.  My arthritis is finally hitting my bones hard.  We didn’t do much the rest of the day as I just rested.  The biggest problem is that about a day after the shots the spots start itching really bad and that lasts a couple of days.  

Tuesday Aug 8 - Busy, busy day today.  First up - La Comedia opens up sales for next years shows to season ticket holders today. I started calling as soon as the lines opened at 8:00.  I got up early so that I could get dressed before then.  So busy signal after busy signal.  When it got close to the time we needed to leave for exercise class Bill suggests we just head over there instead of class.  So we did.  We were handed a number - 103.  I asked what number they were on -54!  They said we could wait or come back in about 3 hours.  We sat around for a bit and I continued trying to get them on the phone.  After about 30 minutes we headed home, where I kept dialing.  I finally got through, well I got through enough to be 17 in line.  A bit before 2:00 we headed back to see what number they were at - 94!  I had an appointment with my hearing aid place since one had died on me.  It was only 5 minutes down the road.  I was still in the queue on the phone at this time.  I handed Bill my phone, he had our number (they were up to 96 at this point) and I left to go to my appointment.  While I was there he called and said he was done.  After I finished and for my repaired hearing aid I drove back to pick him up.  He said they suddenly went from 96 to 103, without him hearing the numbers in between about 10 minutes after I left.  He hung up the phone and met with the person, which took about 10 minutes.  He got tickets on the dates I gave him and the seats are two-tops close to center.  Next year I will get up early and drive over before they open to get a low number and wait and get my seats.  After we finished that we headed home for a few minutes as I had a 4:00 appointment to pick up my glasses.  We did that and got them adjusted. Soon we were heading over to a local restaurant for dinner, Tuesday is they special. Igor for liver & onions.  After dinner we headed home and we’re in for the night.  

Wednesday, Aug 9 - not much happening today.  After class we got our hair cut.  I did have a phone appointment with my financial planner.  I am trying to decide if I should convert some of my IRA to a Roth IRA.  She gave me some numbers and I am still deciding.  I did finally get hold of my pain doctors office and got an appointment next week to review the shots I had on Monday.  Aimee called me to let me know they were taking Rory to urgent care to get an X-ray of his arm.  He fell and it is really sore.  Later they called to let me know he broke it.  Urgent care put it in a temporary cast and he will get his permanent one on Monday.  

Thursday, Aug 10 - another quiet day.  We did get a walk in but it has been hot and muggy again and exercise class.  We decided to go to Costco to have one of their great hot dogs for lunch.  We like to people watch and guess why they bought what they bought.  We also stopped at customer service to get Bill’s picture on his Costco credit card.  When you use the self checkout lanes they are now checking your card and picture to make sure you aren’t giving your card to other to use.  My card has had my picture on it for a long time but Bill never got his taken so we got that done.  Since gas was cheaper there than anywhere else we filled up my car.  On the way home we stopped and washed the car. 

Friday, Aug 11 - we got both our walks in today.  We went to breakfast at a place called Mom’s.  We went there once a few years ago so we decided to try it again.  It is ok but we like the Track ether.  Aimee called and asked if I wanted to go with her to see Barbie.  Since we didn’t have any plans for the rest of the Dayi said sure.  I happened to have two free tickets to the theater so that is where we went.  The movie was better than I thought it would be.  Friday nights the city holds their outdoor concerts so we went over there for a couple of hours.  They had a drawing for some camp chairs and I won one!  

Saturday, Aug 12 - we went to lunch with the kids today at Tokyo Grill & Sushi.  It was pretty good.  Afterward we stopped by the grocery store.  Now I remember why we go during the week, it was crowded and the shelves empty of the items we buy.  Afterward we didn’t do anything.  About 4:30 Nick called and asked if I could come over and babysit for a couple of hours.  Aimee wanted to go to a craft fair that opened at 5:00.  They don’t like to leave Rory home by himself, especially after breaking his arm.  All I really do is be in the house.  I took my Kindle and read while they were gone. 

Sunday, Aug 13 - we took a ride to Wright-Patterson AFB to check out jewelry at the PX.  I am thinking about buying a tennis bracelet and I wanted to check their prices.  I would save taxes if I bought there.  I still think my jewelry store is cheaper.  We checked out the liquor store on base but they didn’t have the wine I wanted.  They had my second choice but it is the same price as the grocery store.  Since we didn’t have anything else to do we took a drive out to the campground on base.  There was talk a couple of years ago about some upgrades there but we didn’t see anything different yet.  On the way home we stopped by my favorite fruit stand and got a watermelon, corn, tomatoes and peaches.  I made potato salad for dinner tonight along with a steak and fresh tomatoes.  We went to the city’s music thing again tonight.  Bill put in for the chair drawing but he didn’t win.  The singer tonight was pretty good.  As Bill put it - he wasn’t yelling, the music didn’t overpower the voice, we could understand him and he did songs we knew so it was good.