Dunnideer Hillfort and Malone parents in Banff

After breakfast, we went for a walk with Lyn. She showed us High Street in Insch. In the distance, I saw the hill with the ruin that we had seen the day before, so I asked her what it was. She said that was where we were going. Ah! The mystery will be solved first-hand. (Man, it looked really far away though.)

The walk was beautiful, though the path to the ruins went straight up and Cristina and I were sucking wind and taking several pauses to enjoy the view along the way. The view was spectacular.

 Alex got into some stinging nettle, but Cristina found some plantain to make it all better.

Back in town, we picked up Seyi and Ope from school (and kind of got scolded from a staff member for not signing in). We went home and had lunch, then loaded up in the car to head to Banff to have dinner with Steve's parents, Arlene and Dennis (although it still feels weird to call them anything other than Mr. and Mrs. Malone).

After getting the tour of their new house, we had tea in the back garden.

We mentioned that we had the Explorer pass and meant to see the inside of Duff House, a Georgian estate house that houses a range of art treasures and superbly furnished rooms. We had gone by it 11 years ago, but didn't pay to go inside. Now with the pass, we thought we should finally do it right. They encouraged us to go see it. Duff House is fairly close to the Malone's house, so we headed over to it before dinner. We got there just as it was closing for the day, so it looked like once again our visit to Duff House would be limited to photos of the outside and a good play on the excellent playground nearby.

Dennis was a professional chef during his working days, and the meal did not disappoint. Just smelling the garlic bread cook was mouth-watering. The main course was pasta with slow-cooked chicken breast, like a cacciatore. Dessert was devastatingly rich and sinful: caramel chocolate cheesecake with caramel-ripple ice cream and fresh Scottish strawberries and blackberries. Needless to say, we were all stuffed.

After dinner, the subject of Christmas crackers came up, which we were all unfamiliar with. Arlene went to look for one, but couldn't find one. She did find some old photos of Steve, Dom, and me lip-syncing on a stage in Lecanto high school football stadium.

We headed back to Insch, returning a bit after 9. Lyn's kids go to bed pretty early, so we prepped everyone to enter quietly to not wake up her kids. But the kids had stayed up because they wanted to see us! So sweet. Lyn had dinner leftovers in case we were hungry and she'd baked a cake. She is a super generous host. I blogged a bit upstairs while the kids got ready for bed. Cristina washed clothes downstairs and chatted with Lyn until way too late.

A short diversion to Insch

Alex and I had walked to Lidl the evening before and gotten him some deodorant, and eggs and bacon (and giant sweet potatoes to go in the risotto dish that Steve made). So this morning, I did a breakfast "fry up," eggs to order, bacon, and toast.

I'll admit it: we're not the best about getting up and at 'em in a timely fashion. But hey, we're on vacation. Steve had to work today, and our plan was to drive up to Insch, stopping at a castle along the way. Laura was very sweet to pack us sandwiches and brownies for the road.We hoped to leave by noon, and we got out of the house around 11:45. Success!

Laura recommended a stop at Loch Leven castle. One of the interesting things about this castle is that it's on an island, and you have to take a ferry to get there. Since it's all included in the price of the Explorer pass, we thought a little boat ride would be a fun twist.

 The ferry, and the lady who drove it

Cristina's turn with a latrine

Once we got to the visitor center, we had to make an appointment for the ferry, but the wait was only about 30 minutes. We bought a "cone of chips" (an order of fries served in a paper cone) from the little restaurant attached to the visitor center.

The ferry ride was about ten minutes, and the castle was gorgeous, as they all seem to be. I'm struck by how immaculately groomed these ancient structures are. Even if you don't care a lick about castles, just being among the gardens and landscapes of the castles is breathtaking.

Loch Leven is a ruined castle believed to have built around 1300. Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for almost a year and forced to abdicate as queen. We spent about 30 minutes roaming through the castle and then took the ferry back.

We ate our picnic lunch and then hit the road. Steve had told us to avoid Aberdeen because of traffic, but the GPS took us through Aberdeen, which was essentially a never-ending series of roundabouts clogged with heavy rush-hour traffic. Steve told us so.

As we neared Insch, we saw a high hill with some kind of ruins at the top. It was very striking and was undoubtedly an easy landmark for people in the area, kind of like the towers on South Mountain in Phoenix.

 After dinner, the rain stopped and the sun beamed, resulting in this beauty.

We found our host's house and got settled. Lyn Ajanaku and her husband Ope, who was away for work, have two children, Tobi and Seyi, age 6 and 7.

Tobi and Seyi took to our kids immediately and played in the back yard while Lyn finished making dinner. Ope works in the oil industry. Lyn Skyped him on her iPad, so we got to see him on an oil rig in the North Sea near Denmark and say hello.

Lyn wanted to show us some of the local area, so that was the plan for the morning.

Castles and beaches

Today, our goal was not one but two castles. We decided to purchase a 7-day family Explorer pass for Historic Scotland and Steve and Laura picked a couple of castles not too far away to get us started.

The first castle, Dirleton, is a partly ruined 13th century fortress. The grounds were beautiful. Bella especially loved the baby lambs.

 Medieval latrine

Next, we picnicked at a beach.

Our second castle was a ruined 14th century courtyard castle called Tantallon. It's overlooking the coast, which gives it an amazing feel.

 All the white stuff on this island is birds

 Bella's turn on the latrine