Dundee day 4

Mike had his car being worked on in a place called Dunkheld. So Tom, Sam, Mike, Linda, Andy and I all piled in a car and made the car ride to a touristy village that looks exactly like the town out of Hot Fuzz!!!

It was so funny walking around the place. The whole place is filled with knitting shops, flower shops, some antique shops, and a few quite posh clothing shops. There was also a cathedral that was quite cool.

We walked into the cathedral and there was an organ player practicing for Christmas eve :) It was so beautiful with the river running next to the green grass covered in frost.

We all went to a coffee shop for a cinnamon latte and some chocolate icecream. Had a nap on the drive back, had some dinner, and then read a bit followed by a few scrubs episodes! It was a lovely Saturday with great weather and lots of fun. Only 3 days until we fly to Alaska!!!!!

Dundee day 3

Today was great fun. It was so sunny outside, beautiful weather! We slept in quite a while, cleaned up a bit to get ready for the Watercress Line playing later that night at the Hayes's house. Andy, Mike, Linda, Sam, and I went for a

walk at a place called Combrie. It is a lake with a playground next to it and lots of trees. The lake was almost totally frozen. We talked a bit about tossing Sam onto it to see how thick the ice actually was :P

So we got some coffee in us and went back to the house, cleaned up, got food on the table, and started welcoming people over. There were probably about 50 people in the Hayes's downstairs!

We put logs out on the porch and lit them on fire so the kids jumping on the frosty trampoline would have some light.

It was such a good time with the food, banter, and music. I got tired and went to bed about 11pm but I heard the fun didn't stop until about 2am! So good time, it's the weekend and tomorrow is looking like a very relaxed day with really great weather once again :)

Dundee day 2

Today was loads of fun! Since Andy was studying and Mike (Andy's dad) only worked a morning shift he took me over to St. Andrews to take Sam for a walk along the beach. The weather was beautiful with a pretty sunset and slightly chilly.

We went into St. Andrews city center and had a walk around the shops looking at all sorts of girlie things. I think Mike is enjoying having a daughter eh gets to spend some time with (after raising three rowdy boys:P) We ended with a coffee and icecream in an Italian shop. It was so much fun just hanging out. Imiss my dad so much and it just so happens that my dad and Mike are all too similar that when they meet it is going to be a major "dad fest". So it was so much fun to hang out with my '2nd dad' for an afternoon :)

That was about it. We went home, I made some homemade marshmallows in preparation for a gig night friday at the Hayes's house. Thought I would add a treat to the incredible spread that Linda (Andy's mom) had already made. Had some tea then watched some scrubs as a family. Good day!

Dundee day 1

Got to go on a walk with Linda and Sam (the dog) along a frozen lake. It was quite muddy so the bright orange wellies helped with the calf deep mud holes :P We opened some Christmas gifts and had a lovely night sitting around drinking tea. It was a really relaxed day. Definitely a good start to Christmas vacation!

Malta Day 4

Early early early again! We decided to spend our last day enjoying the crazy wind that was blowing malta across the Mediterranean sea. It was really exciting! We went up to the gardens and watched across the bay at the fortified walls getting beat down by the huge waves.

We walked around the city a bit more enjoying the random British sentiments and the Italian and African influence along with a bit of pure Maltese tradition. We also got to tour the official house for their rulers. It was HUGE!

It was really fun just to sit around relaxing. oh, and we found cats....lots and lots of them. They were very cute and we took many many pictures of them. I have one of me chasing Charlie around. We used to be friends but he doesn't like me anymore :(

We got some pictures of Dunkas pool that I'm fairly certain that it was harboring rare disease.

So the last day was lovely enjoyable time together undistracted then we hopped on the plane and flew back to Glasgow. What a good holiday!!!

Malta Day 3

We slept in until 8am...I cannot believe I can say that! We packed up our swim suits, some lunch, and loads of water. All prepared, we hopped on the bus up to the top of the island where we could catch a ferry over to the island of Comino. We arrived at the blue lagoon just in time for lunch. We walked around the entire island in close to an hour.

We stopped off at a gunning tower. Each level was quite tall and they used to use rope ladders rather than the very steep stairs that are there now.

We walked along the cliffs back to the blue lagoon and completed our walk around the island.

We found the water absolutely amazing and played in the waves in the Blue Lagoon for a couple of hours before the boat came to give us a lift back to Malta.

On the bus ride from the top of Malta to the bottom I got to sit down next to an old Malteeser :P Lol, She grew up in Malta and was 80-something. So she has gone through a ton of history complete with the bombing raids that went on almost daily for years. She was really interesting to talk to and every time we went past some of her favorite spots or historical places she would tell me all about them :) What a nice lady. By the time that we were done with our bus ride the waves have gotten so big and the storm so strong that the waves were coming up onto the road! The lady we met said it rarely is that drastic. The entire night we listened to the thunder and watched the lightning. It was really exciting. I love tropical storms!!!

Malta Day 2

We started our morning at 7am!!! We thought it was 8am which is still terribly early but with the time change we started far too early. BEFORE THE SUN ROSE!!! We walked all along the port for about an hour making our way back to Valetta which is the capital city/oldest city.

We meandered around until we found the city gates where we could enter into the old city. It was incredible with the fortified walls and everything. It was quite odd with all the British influence. We got to see a video about the history of Malta about various countries attempting to takeover the island. So when we were walking around the city seeing the cannons

and the gardens we could envision everything happening right before our eyes. We even got to experience the Maltese horse drawn carriages

which are quite popular there. While we were walking through the city center we wandered across the changing of the guard and so we got to hear an incredible marching band and see all the military guys marching around with swords and bayonets

After we had seen most of the city we chilled out on benches enjoying the incredible sun. We finished our day about 8pm when we were completely exhausted from a full day in the sun :)