Up at 4AM

Wine Gums?!

It's Kathy here.  I'm wide awake at 4AM.  I'm trying to be quiet so Kirk and the kids can keep sleeping so I'll write a few lines about my impressions of our day yesterday.  The trip went very smoothly without a single hitch.  You all must have been praying for us!  One amazing small world thing that happened is that the only other people on our shuttle from the Edinburgh airport to our hotel were a couple from San Luis Obispo named Dr. and Mrs. McAdams.  They had just come from visiting South Africa and will be spending a few days in Europe.  Amazing!  

Mary and Sean have been awestruck about everything and Kirk and I have been enjoying seeing their reactions to things.  Sean likes how from the air, England looks like a patchwork quilt with trees at the borders of the fields instead of walls and fences.  He also enjoys hearing the people speak English with a Scottish accent.  He is very concerned that we don't come across as "loud Americans."  Mary found the shopping interesting and she decided that she will collect buttons from the different places we visit.  She bought 4 Beatles buttons in the Heathrow Airport gift shop.  She will be looking for a tote to pin them on.  She was also amazed at the Royal Botanical Garden and the variety of unusual plants that we saw.  We had a very pleasant dinner there last night at the cafe there.  Mary and I just had to have our first tea and scones in Britain for dessert!

Some things about the Scottish people that we notice and admire are that they are very friendly and polite, they love their children (never saw so many beautiful babies and toddlers in one place like in the Gardens yesterday), they don't care if it rains (just put the rain hood on that stroller and have fun), they are environmentally conscious (recycling everywhere), they like healthy food (many organic options).  

Today is Sunday and we will most likely go to the Gardens again (the picture of the orchids was taken by me there) and either visit the Britannia or Edinburgh castle and possibly the Scottish National museum.