Let’s Play Catch-Up Part III

Well as history shows, I have a hard time making the transition back to life in Scotland when I’ve just been exposed to the many, many loved ones we are leaving back in the States. I ache to be a part of those lives in closer proximity, but the Lord has been so good to bless us in so many unexpected ways in those times of aching. BUT, you’ll all be proud of me – get ready – I only cried once! And it was on the first night back when I was super tired. So, that was my best yet I think. And, Ian and I believe that it is in large part, due to the fact that my brother came back with us to see where we live for a week. So it was a nice, slow transition to life as normal.

We took a chill pill on Friday after a looooooong trip back and just wandered around town a bit and enjoyed each other’s company (i.e. Ian and Mitch played trial versions of Warcraft… which, surprisingly, is a higher quality way to spend time than I originally thought, while I tried to clean and organize the stuff we brought back with us.. But they did help me eventually). Saturday we took a hike from Crail to Anstruther for the infamous fish and chips and managed to almost risk our lives merely to make the hike. It was the cows! They surrounded us! We’ve never seen cows on the coastal path, ever. We hiked up over a hill and found about 6 bulls (thankfully no horns) right in our way. So we thought if we just walked slowly towards them, they’d move. Unfortunately, they just kept walking right in front of us, giving us no way to escape. So, we ended up with them making a U shape around us and we thought we could sneak out the open end of the U, when all of a sudden another one comes up behind us – we have no idea where he came from… So we were surrounded.. And then one of them, very determinedly starts coming over to us to investigate the disruption.. so we decided it was time to skedaddle. We went out as far as we could toward the ocean side of the path and ran up an overgrown hill to get in front of them. Man those things are HUGE! I really feared for my life. They could totally plow me over or squish me without even making an effort.


Anyway… So we’re about half way through the 4.5 mile hike when it starts raining (Scottish rain, so more misty than droppy) and Mitchell says, “I really like Scottish rain because you don’t really get wet.” We found out none of us like it after a few hours of it, getting colder and colder and wetter and wetter with nowhere to stop until we get to the restaurant. But we got there and had some yummy fish and chips to help dry us out.


While Mitch was here, we did something else we’ve never done – an open top bus tour of St Andrews. It was good fun and informed us of some things we didn’t know about the history here. And it rained. Boooooo! But not very much.

I had to work the rest of the days he was here, but Ian took him around St Andrews (including hitting balls at the driving range!) and Edinburgh Mon, Tues, and Wed, and then Wed night we headed up to Arbroath to see a football match. It was Arbroath verses Dundee United’s reserve team (it’s pre season so there’s not a lot of options) and it was really fun. We got to sit in front of a few Dundee fans who were extremely vocal and made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion. They were hilarious, but I did kind of want to wash my ears after we left. I learned a new phrase though that I can do a great Scottish accent with. You’ll have to hear it in person :) It was a superfun experience, and hopefully, one of these years, Mitch will be able to come back during the regular season to enjoy a nice big match.

We had a great time together and are really thankful we had the week to spend with Mitchy boy.

Just two other things to note…
1) We had to say goodbye to our faithful blue suitcase. It just couldn’t handle another trip and came back to us with to veeeeeeery busted wheels, two missing zipper pulls, a large tear in the bottom (in addition to the one I patched up on top before we left), lots of small tears all over the place, and random little pieces falling off. Yes we could probably contact the airline and make a fuss over how badly they treated the bag, but it was already on it’s way out. It has been pulled many, many, many miles… When you walk everywhere, your suitcases do too ☺

2) We got to try a crazy Scottish delicacy.. A fried Snickers bar! (yes it’s usually a fried mars bar, but we went for the snickers) We had some friends over for dinner who had a cousin in town that really wanted to try one, so that’s what we ate for dessert. It tasted like a candy bar covered with donut. So basically, it was really good, but we don’t plan on eating another ANY time soon, if ever.

Sadly, I took pictures of both our bag and the fried candy bar event, but accidentally deleted them… Sad face. But this is pretty much what it looked like


nasty.. You’ll have to just imagine what we looked like eating it :)

There are TONS more pictures in the slideshow than what I put up here, so take a look and enjoy!