Scottish Ambulance in Inverness.

Scottish Ambulance in Inverness.

I thought maybe Herker and Dad would get a kick out of a quick shot of what their emergency vehicles look like. This is a pretty typical color scheme.

-Ryan

Inbhir Nis on Abhainn Nis (Inverness on the River Ness)

We went up to Inverness by train today.

This video was taken from the foot bridge over the River Ness near the City Centre. The river runs between Loch Ness / Caledonian Canal and the Moray Firth.


Interesting side note- when we picked up a city map at the information center it was not in English. Inverness is a bit of a Gaelic stronghold (hence the title of this entry). Obviously we managed, but it was interesting.

Info on Gaelic in Inverness: http://www.invernessgaelic.org/

Info on the "Free Church of Scotland" http://www.freechurch.org/about.htm

So far we have seen a Free Church of Scotland in Kingussie, Ft. William and Inverness.

The First World War, the Great War and the War to End All Wars.

This is the WW1 monument in Kingussie. For such a small town, it has a LOT of names on it.

It is a sobering reminder that over 800 thousand UK troops died in the first World War, and it is about half a block from our BnB.

-Ryan

Ft. William

We made the trip to Ft. William today, they have an interesting city centre and as you can see below a nice central square. We also got to enjoy some bagpipe music while in Ft. William.

We also did a little road trip up the wrong road for about 20 miles, but on the plus side we got to see some great highland views and the Southern tip of Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Kingussie Fire Station

I had to find the Fire Station, it took a little looking, but here it is. (Not pictured is the city's ambulance, they park it out on the street as, I assume, they have no room to park it in the station.)

-Ryan

Some Great pics

Meg and I at Edinbrugh Castle (yes it is raining).

Edinbrugh Castle from 31 July 2009. Amazing castle, hard to believe men built this without modern equipment.

Highland View

A GREAT view we got of the highlands when we pulled onto a layby between Ft. William and the South end of Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Farmer leaving farm as we pull into a layby

Thought a few of the folks back home would enjoy seeing a Scottish farmer at work.

-Ryan

Ft. William, Scotland

One side note: the white statue in the background, near the center of the lawn is another WW1 monument.

UK Car

Here is a quick video of our rental car.

-Ryan

Beautiful view from an A82 latby

This video is one I shot while Meg was getting regular pictures, it is the view from a layby on the A82 between Ft. William and Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Scottish Roads

This is a quick clip of us driving down a Scottish Road between Kingussie and Ft. William. While it is very pretty, most Americans will notice how narrow it is too...... (Not to mention driving on the left side of the road takes a totally different eye to guage)

-Ryan

Swing Bridge on A82

B & B

Our BnB is Great, we are in the Johnstone Clan room (see attached picture of their tartan).

This morning we had a GREAT Scottish breakfast of:

Toast

Coffee

Tea

Orange Juice

Fried Eggs

Bacon

Sausage

Black Pudding

Haggis

Boiled (?) Tomato

Mushrooms

Potato Scone

Coming soon will be video of today's trip to Ft. William and the South end of Loch Ness (oops).

Main Street Kingussie!

This is a quick shot of the main street in Kingussie, Scotland.

Meg is running the camera.

FYI - "right" is South and "left" is North.

Train Ride!

First Post by Ryan

Hi, doing my first post ever on a blog now. Don't have much to say other then I am excited to go and excited to have a couple of weeks off of work.

We are taking the Amtrak train to the windy city bright and early on Thursday to catch our plane, should be fun.

Blog education

I learned something new today about blogging! I originally set up this blog with an email address I figured Ryan and I could share, thinking we'd just have to write our names at the end of each post to specify who had written it. But apparently we can post separately, with our own names, linked to our own email addresses. I'm not sure how that will work for Ryan, since he uses yahoo and not gmail (and blogspot is in cahoots with gmail and google), but we'll figure it out. I'm curious as to whether this links to my other blog...

Anyhow, I really don't have anything interesting to say today. I just thought I should write something. :)

My grandpa McGuire sent me this video today, and while I'm not sure it's real, I find it hilarious:

http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=17075685001

Unfortunately I forgot to take a video this weekend with our new video camera! Oops!

Have a great day! :)

"What's in a name?...

...that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet..."

Well. I'm not sure quoting a Shakespearan tragedy about two "star-crossed lovers" is the proper way to start a blog in the countdown to my marriage, but I couldn't think of any better titles for this post. Hopefully this isn't bad luck...

I'm not quite sure why I picked this line from JRR Tolkein's prophetic poem in The Lord of the Rings for out blog title (oh, yes, our blog. did I forget to mention that I will be sharing this blog with Sweet Ryan? well, more on that later. I ought to tell him first). I'm certainly not one of those weird LOTR fans who has read the books multiple times or insisted upon dressing like Gandalf or Frodo for the movie premieres (Harry Potter is a whole 'nother story), but I do appreciate the themes of adventure, friendship, loyalty and love that give the story depth.

The wikipedia explanation of the poem, All that is gold does not glitter is somewhat unrelated to my favorite line of the poem, and the inspiration for the title of our blog : "Not all those who wander are lost." I could probably make a lovely analogy to the crazy paths that life takes us down on the way to finding our destination, or our calling, or love. I could speak on how we often feel lost, or like we're wandering along a road that has no end and no cool rest stops along the way... and I think that would accurately describe the appeal of Tolkein's words (though that is perhaps not how he intended them). But... I'll refrain from trying to put words to the philosophical confusion now rolling around in my head and get on with this post! :)

Here is the entire poem, as reproduced by (and hyperlinked to) wikipedia.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

The purpose of our blog (again, must remember to tell Ryan) is not to discuss JRR Tolkien or my very strong desire to wear my Harry Potter costume to our 31 October wedding (see picture... my little-big brother and I), but to give frequent updates as we travel to Scotland next week and as we start our life together.* Ryan's parents, Kari and Jim, very generously gave us a video camera for our engagement. We can connect it to our laptops and up(down?)load videos with the touch of a touch-screen button! It is such an awesome gift, and Kari had the great idea that we could share Scotland with them using the video camera and a (this) blog. The only videos I've taken so far are of Ryan waving at the camera. I will try to get him to do something a little more blog-worthy this weekend and upload it as a test video.

If you've made it this far, thank you for listening to my rambling! :) I will try to include more pictures and less words in the future! :)

~meg

*This is NOT a wedding blog. If I start rambling on about the pros and cons of burgandy versus white napkins, or taking a poll on whether we should hire circus animals to entertain our guests while we take wedding photos, kindly leave me mean, nasty messages in the "comments" field!