We love Scotland! The first summer we were in the UK we travelled to Edinburgh and the Highlands with our friends, the Alleys, and that turned out to be one of the "most epic" vacations, as the kids would say. We knew we just scratched the surface by that week spent in Scotland, so we had to go back for more. This summer was the perfect summer to do it since our passports were sent in to the UK's Home Office to get our visas extended, so we had to stay on the island. It worked out great! We had a four day weekend made out of Fourth of July days off and a Family Day, so we headed north.
We left on Thursday afternoon as soon as Robert came home. Mark had been sick all night and not feeling well during the day, so I was very worried about how he'd handle our long drive that evening. I baked a couple of pizzas from Sainsbury's and packed veggies for our dinner on the go. Mark was doing quite well by then, but still had his pillow and his bowl next to him:).
Our main long drive was 5.5 hrs all the way to Glasgow area. We stayed in a nice town called Paisley, just on the outskirts of the big city, this time I found an actual hotel with breakfast and everything. We pulled in there around midnight after having to call the hotel to find a way to get to it-as our GPS was taking us on a smaller street with no car entrance. The cool thing was that since it was beginning of July, the sky was still partially light. It was incredible!
The kids thought this places was so posh-hahaha. And it was very-very nice inside, beds were comfortable, the shower was one of the best ones we've ever had in England (it's always an issue) and breakfast was fantastic. Too bad we basically stayed there for nine hours and had to be on the road again.
Doesn't even look like a proper hotel, right?
Mark was feeling much better that morning. He was borrowing my iPod and chilling to the beat in his fancy Scotland t-shirt.
That morning we drove through Glencoe Valley towards Oban. Glencoe is one of my favorite places in Scotland. We wish we could have stopped and hiked around more. Alex was asking for a stop with a creek, but we kept passing all these perfect pull out spots and not stopping thinking there might be something better ahead. It's just like living life the wrong way, you know? "I'll be happy when I see something better ahead". Anyway. We stopped in a beautiful spot, but it was not as great as some of the ones we had passed after all.
Very different kind of nature here. We have nothing like this where we live.
Katya did an impromptu photo session with Mark and the flower.
We drove for about two hours when we passed Oban and made our way to Highland Titles Nature Reserve. Why?
A couple of years ago, I bought Robert a piece of Scotland. I mean, a tiny piece. But owning that land earned him officially a title of Lord Watson! For a long time we'd been hoping to go see our "land" since part of the deal when you buy this land is that you can get a free tour of the nature reserve where it's situated. In case you are interested, here is a LINK to Highlands Titles website.
We were greeted by a very friendly man who was going to be our guide in this....
The tour took about an hour. Basically, this is a good chunk of land that they are trying to preserve as well as take care of its inhabitants and plants. So they use the money from these "titles" for different projects, such as these beehives, planting more trees or researching animal population with hidden cameras throughout the forest.
The boys were allowed to go sit in the back. No seat belts--nothing. Just hold on tight:)
No one, thankfully, fell out.
We finally reached the part of the reserve where our plot of 10 square feet was located, overlooking the loch.
Our guide used recorded GPS coordinates to find our place.
And he brought a tree for us to plan on our land.
Here is Lord Watson, his family and the tree.
The kids brought their cozy British house to take a picture with.
Okay...seriously...it was just a lot of fun to think about the fact that Robert owns land in Scotland-haha.
We also visited Robert's cousin's piece of land! He is the reason, actually, that I found this Highland Titles deal to begin with, as he'd received it as a gift as well.
Kids liked this area as well--they have pigs living in a gated area to naturally fight weeds. These pigs just trample them under their feet, dig into the ground and move on.
The tour wouldn't have been so exciting without an awesome ride and our guide. He said that visitors from all over the world come to see their land and visit this nature reserve.
We had to drive to the place where we were staying--Ardbrecknish house--a beautiful place with a picturesque view in the middle of nowhere. We were staying in the LOWER part of the tower that had a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms.
We dropped off our stuff and found the path to the loch next door (Loch Awe).
The water was definitely still chilly although it was beautiful outside.
Although Alex is all smiles here, pretty soon the bugs were all over us and we had to return home.
These sort of vacations are the best for our family--relaxing, wondering around the fields, lochs and villages:)
And climbing the fence to get to our house faster.
We ate at the restaurant that was AT the house. It's not a place solely for the people staying at the house--it's a very popular local hang out. Food was good, eating outside was brilliant, and kids could play till it was very-very late as it was light outside.
Finally, we got everyone inside and ready for bed (as the sun was still shining). Mark looks so excited to go to bed. Or maybe he is scared at what Robert is reading (which is Book 4 of Harry Potter).
We had huge plans for the following day (Saturday) and we knew that the weather was changing for the worse...
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