Last full day in Scotland

We had some ambitious plans for what we'd do with our last full day in Scotland. Taking a train to a distant castle, or spending all day at the Edinburgh Museum. In the end, we kept it local. It got too late to do the museum justice, so we opted for a walk along the River Esk to the Invereske Lodge Gardens.

It was an incredibly warm and sunny day. Before we went on our walk, we ate lunch in the back garden.

It was Steve's mom's birthday, so we decided to play and sing Happy Birthday with the guitars, over the phone. We figured out the chords, but so we wouldn't forget them, we wrote them on the pavers with sidewalk chalk.

And here is the birthday phone call video:

We went on our walk, which was lovely.

At the Invereske Lodge Gardens, the kids ran around like little maniacs, while the adults mostly lounged.

On the way back home, we checked out a church and cemetery. Very pretty. Most of the gravestones were from the 1800's.

Back home, cooking dinner commenced. Our second BBQ. Burgers! And no rain this time.

Steve offered to make haggis for us, and tonight was our last chance. It may not look like much, but it's pretty tasty. I won't say that I love it, but I did have seconds. If you don't know what haggis is, it's Scotland's national dish. Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's "pluck" (heart, liver, and lungs). This is minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach.

The girls played with the snails in the back garden. They made a while snail village for them, with a movie theatre, hotels, cafe, swimming pool, and race track. This picture is the exciting race, which lasted throughout most of dinner.

After dinner, we sort of watched the Netherlands-Argentina game while we packed. We used the kitchen as packing central. It took a while, but Cristina and I were packed and in bed by 1 am. The taxi was picking us up at 7:30 in the morning.