Barefoot in the Highlands, Drinking a Beer and Playing Football

Today started the same way that the previous day ended.  When we got ready to go outside, Sammie was there waiting to play ball.

The morning didn't exactly start the same.  Neil was up at 5:30 and Malcolm was up a 6:30.  I woke a little after seven and Duncs just after that.  I was greeted with Jess telling me that the largest spider she had ever seen was in the sink and covered by a mug.  When I finally checked it out, it was pretty large.  So large that I didn't really feel like picking it up to get it out the window, so, he met his demise.  When I pulled him out of the sink to toss him in the garbage, I could see his legs were hairy.  That's a sign not to mess with a spider.

Since everyone had eaten, when we were ready, we sent the boys out to play with the dog so that we could pack.  We were headed out to our new spot in Gartly.  The boys requested that the owner send Cody down and she did, for a wee bit while we packed the car.

Our goal was to be out by 9 - it was closer to 9:35 - not too bad by our standards and so we hit the road with three spots to hit on our plan on the way to Gartly:  Balvenie Castle, Auchindoun Castle and Leith Hall.

The internet is not the best here.  It just took forever to upload these six pictures so you better enjoy them.  We walked around the castle and up into the towers, there were a number of sets of stairs that had been repaired.  We came back down and it started to rain a bit heavier.  We were able to get a picture or two from some women who were headed in and then we were on to the next spot.   

When you pull up to the parking area for Auchindoun Castle, you think you have made a wrong turn.  But up the dirt road, near a quarry and some farms is the ruin that is Auchindoun.  It looks like nothing from the distance, just some rock sticking up over some trees.  The boys had to pee which they did.  I threw Duncan on my back.

We took the walk up the driveway to find the easement to get to the castle.  There were sheep fields everywhere.  As we were walking the wind really started to kick in off the hills.  It was crazy.  The wind was so strong.  We made it to the area that the castle was in and headed up.

The castle is old and has connections to some bad events in Clan warfare during that time.  Unfortunately, you couldn't walk up much of it, you could only stay on the ground level.  The views of the countryside from the castle were awesome and I wish we could have spent some time to walk in it - though I am not sure we would have been able to make our way up to the top of any of the hills. 

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It's always a crap shoot trying to get them to look at the same time.

It was so windy that we really couldn't stay for too long - we also didn't know if the rain was coming (which it seems it usually is), you could feel the pressure drop and the change in the temperature, so we thought it best to head back to the car and get our lunches and head to the last spot for the day, Leith Hall.

You had to take the official tour at Leith - which, is really not a good thing for us.  I remind you, 6, 4 and almost two.  It's tough on the tours sometimes but it is really difficult with people who want to touch everything.  Leith was a cool castle.  

It had many modern connections to it and like most of the properties, it was left to the trust to take care of.  At some point they had run out of money to keep it in good repair and open and a woman left them money for this section of the country and they spend 250k on Leith.  One of the lairds was 7' 2''.  That's right, you heard me correctly - seven-two.  They had a life size cut-out of him.  Here is is with the two hooligans:

The tour was typical - nothing crazy, the young man who was doing it knew his stuff.  We of course got on the tour with a family from Tennessee - then there were the older women who Malcolm spend the afternoon showing all the hidden turtles on the scavenger hunt to.  There was once cool painting that looked like there was a devil or something in the corner.  After they spent time and money to examine it, they found out that they had painted over another painting and that it was the face from that painting coming through the new one.  Jess and Duncs left the tour when we had one floor left because he was pretty done.  When we found them, we joined them for afternoon tea.  Fancy!

We then headed over to the new place, The Steading - and it does look brand new.  It looks like this was part of an old farm complex of buildings and that this was probably barns of some kind - everything is brand new though.  It's quite nice.  

There is a courtyard in between the buildings so after dinner (fish and chips - of course these yanks got a burger and dogs) we went out to the courtyard and kicked the footballs around.  That's right, football.  The weather had cleared and the sun was out.  All in all, it was a pretty mellow evening - we played some cards and watched a tiny bit of tv -in the courtyard, the grass was wet and the boys kept slipping and falling on their asses, so I took my flip flops off,  but, the fact is, it couldn't have been any better, I was barefoot, in the highlands, drinking a beer and playing football with my boys.

Strategizing and time out - guess which one was in time out?