Portabello Beach, FHE, etc.

For our outing yesterday, we rode the bus (did I mention that I like riding the bus?) to Portabello Beach. We came to this dike-type thing that looked like we could walk around it pretty easily. but it was farther than it looked. The walk way was on the outside of a cement barrier. On the other side was a trail, then a fence with barbed wire at the top and things inside resembling a nuclear power plant. Once we got around to the front of it, we discovered it was a waste water treatment plant! 

The walk was a little farther than expected, but we eventually found a bus stop at the other end. We ended up taking three buses, but we made it home! 

On the beach, we saw these weird mounds of sand in the shape of worms or coils. There was nothing in them or under them, but I was intrigued, so I googled it, and found they are from lugworms, which are large worms that live deep down in the sand. They dig tunnels and somehow leave these "casings" behind.

As we looked for a bus stop to get home, we rested on a bench at this park called Leith Links. The sky was amazing, as usual.

The bus took us up the Royal Mile on the way to Princes Street, so I took a couple of pictures.

For FHE Monday with the Young Adults, we played Murder in the Dark. We didn't start out with a lot of people, so played Sardines first. It was funny seeing how people scrunched in together to hide.

Here is a picture of our great-grandson, Lincoln, sitting on his big dog. Ethan sent me some new photos. It's sweet of him to keep us updated.

Kelsey sent this painting she did of Madelyn, based on the photo of Jake holding her. I think it's really good.

She said it was her first attempt at painting with acrylics.

 

Lunch, Blackford Hill, Institute graduation

We went on a little hike yesterday up Blackford Hill. It's very close by, yet feels farther away. There is an amazing view from the top of the hills. You can see the castle, Calton Hill, the whole city, and the sea.

                                      

The planetarium at the base of the hill.

Blackford Pond is very pretty. I especially liked the swans with their babies.

Institute graduation. This is less than half of our students, but the ones who made it to the ceremony.

We took Yvonne, Ly, and Ly's friend from India to lunch yesterday. They chose an Italian place, but they all had some type of seafood. It was really interesting talking to them and learning about their homelands and traditions. Yvonne is Chinese and Ly is Vietnamese. 

 

Leith Walk, Charity Shops, Dumfries

Yesterday, we rode the bus to Leith for our outing. I thought I'd take some pictures from the bus to show what it looks like from the front seat on the upper level.

You can't really tell from this photo, but the buses pull up within about a foot of the bus in front of them.

This was an interesting, but not totally unusual sighting of a man in a kilt.

These are some sights we saw along the trail on our walk along the Waters of Leith.

There are a group of charity shops in Stockbridge, where we got off of the trail. It's fun to poke around in them, even though we don't usually buy much. They are much nicer than thrift stores in the U.S.. They set them up more like boutiques and only sell reasonably nice stuff.

Here is a view of a charity shop from across the street.

These are some pictures of an area near the Old Garvald Church, where Charles has some Scottish ancestors. 

We stopped on our way back from church in Dumfries this morning, where we went to visit the Young Adults there. Our two stake reps, Haley and Jason went with us, and Jason was familiar enough with the area to help us find this place. Haley loves family history, so she was quite excited to be involved in the discovery.

 

Dundee, Festival and Dreghorn Woods

Last weekend, we went to Dundee for a YA ceilidh being held there. We got permission from the mission president to go a day early and stay overnight so we could see some sights first, so that was fun. This is Bronte and Alicia, who rode the train to Dundee.

Marah and Julia

There was only one guy in a kilt, but I got his picture!

John, Marah and Julia

Glamis Castle in Dundee

There was a herd of cows at the castle- just across from it. They were quite friendly and curious!

We rode the bus most of the way to the top of Dundee Law, then walked the rest. It was beautiful up there and we could see the whole city and surroundings. I am kind of obsessed with the beautiful sky here. We thought we would ride the bus back too, but ended up walking all the way. It wasn't too bad, since it was downhill, but a lot farther than we'd planned on.

The HMS Unicorn

Pithlochery river. This is just about the most beautiful place we've seen yet. There is a dam a bit further up.

This is a famous bridge on the 18th hole of the Old St. Andrews Golf Course.

The ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral Just look at the sky!

This is from yesterday morning's walk. We went to Dreghorn Woods, which is only a mile and a half away, but felt like we were way out of the city. It's next to Dreghorn Barracks, which is enclosed by a fence with razor wire and guard dogs. The trail was really pretty.

Charles standing by a very large tree on the trail.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the Edinburgh Festival at The Meadows. This is a very large area of grass and a public golf course. There were thousands of people there.

Since the sun was out, a lot of people were out just ejoying  it. We went to see one of our Young Adults who was playing the guitar with his band. They were supposed to be on at 2:30, so we arrived by then, only to discover that they were way behind schedule. He didn't end up going on until after 5:00, and then they only played one song because of technical problems. I hope he felt supported!

During our wait, we had time to check out booths and flea market places. I was tempted to bring home this stuffed badger, but all I bought was another leather purse.