Lovely. Brilliant. Gorgeous.

 

We spent the weekend in Scotland with our friends Paul & Terri McGinty and their family. The trip was perfect and homey and just what we hoped it would be. Here are the highlights:

- We rode the train ½ way to Scotland in cramped seats next to a smelly (dirty underwear smelly) guy. That made the 2nd half of the trip that much better, when we were able to move to odor-free seats with a table!

- Paul, Terri and Tracy (Paul’s sister) met us right at the train platform and we walked around downtown Glasgow a bit. The weather was gorgeous and so is the city.

- We headed to Tracy’s flat in Castlemilk, a suburb of Glasgow. Her flat is on the 11th floor and has a brilliant view of the city and mountains in the distance. Paul & Tracy’s mom lives on the 6th floor, so Tracy turned her flat over to us, Paul & Terri, and Leann, Terri’s sister who arrived that night. Daniel & I had the kingly accommodations…Paul & Terri kindly took the air mattress in the living room and Leann had a single bed in the guest room, leaving us with the queen bed in Tracy’s room. It was the most comfortable bed I’ve slept in since leaving California. Tracy has lovely taste, and her flat is so cute and cozy!

- For dinner Friday night, we ate a traditional Scottish meal of Indian take-out. It was fantastic! We spent the night visiting, relaxing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

- Saturday morning, Paul prepared a delicious, traditional Scottish breakfast, including potato scones, which I really enjoyed, and blood pudding, which I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Daniel tried it, and I couldn’t even sit at the table with him while he was eating it. It looks like half-congealed blood mixed with a sausage patty, and it just turned my stomach! (Daniel didn’t care for it, by the way.)

- After breakfast we hit the road to Stirling. We stopped at Falkirk’s Wheel along the way – a cool engineering feat for lifting boats from one canal to another that’s 100 or more feet above. I was really impressed with the design of the wheel, which makes it an amazingly energy efficient tool for moving a large amount weight. We saw Stirling Castle & the William Wallace monument, and ate lunch in a pub, which took about 100 years to deliver our food. I got to do an ad-hoc photo shoot for Leann, which was fun in such a great location!

- Saturday night we went to a family party at Paul’s mom Mary’s flat. We got to meet Paul’s brothers & their families and experience another facet of Glaswegian culture.

- Sunday morning we headed to worship with the church in East Kilbride. We heard a wonderful sermon about grace and met lots of really nice people, including Steve who went to eat lunch and spent the afternoon with us. Steve is the person who taught Paul the gospel years ago. He’s an ex-pat from Ohio, very recently retired, and a science-fiction writer. An interesting, nice person.

- Sunday afternoon found us wandering through a park not too far from the church building. It was really beautiful…everything here is so, so green. I can’t imagine Ireland being any greener…I can’t wait to see it and find out.

- Sunday night I watched the X-factor with Tracy while Paul & Terri took Steve home and brought back chips & rolls for dinner…we put the chips (thick cut fries) on the rolls with butter and malt vinegar (optional), and that was our sandwich. It was tasty. And Simon is still Simon whether in Britain or America.

- I have to mention that we had tea several times throughout the weekend, and even though I’m not a habitual hot tea drinker, I did enjoy it every time (with milk and sugar). I miss my easily accessible iced teas & green tea lemonades!!

- I should also mention that the personality of the Scottish people, as far as our experience went, was notably friendly & cheerful. It’s fun just to hear them talk, and everything, from the view out the window, to a particular favorite song or the quality of their food is “lovely”, “brilliant” or “gorgeous”.

- We woke up early(ish) this morning and Paul & Terri walked us to the #75 bus for the ride in to the train station. We had to brow-beat Paul into letting us take a bus, rather than him driving us himself.

- Now, we’re all set up at our lovely table seats on the train. It’s not crowded, and life feels just about perfect as I sit across from Daniel, watching the rain stream down the windows as the impossibly green hills and valleys roll by.