Movin' round Maine!

This month, Mr. Brown and I took our first real vacation, a road trip to Maine!  We decided to drive (gettin' there's half the fun?), so the trip took about a week and a half.  After our share of road work, nights at the Day's Inn, and toll roads, we arrived in Bethel, ME on a Sunday afternoon.

We stayed at Riverview Resort, just up the road from the hustle and bustle of Main Street, and right next to the Androscoggin River.  It wasn't quite as bustling as it would've been come winter I guess...since it's a ski resort town and all.  But there were plenty of restaurants to check out, and we all know that eating out is one of the best parts of vacation!

We also spent 2 days on the coast (two 2 1/2 hour trips), had the celebrated Lobster Roll, and felt the very very chilly Atlantic Ocean. 

The highlights of the trip included:

Whoopie Pies
Lobster Mac & Cheese
Sparkly sidewalks
Sharpening our canoeing skills
Watching Mr. Brown plunge into the freezing Atlantic Ocean
Ice Cream everyday!
Shopping in Rockland, ME
No Tax in New Hampshire
No dishwashing all week - The resort staff came in everyday to do it!!!!

As you can see, most of the highlights are food related...  No accident there.

Wilderness & Paradise

On our awesome Kansas-Colorado road trip, my sisters and I experienced both wilderness and paradise existing side by side.  By the end of the trip we would have spent most of our time in the wilderness that is most of the state of Kansas, but honestly, it was more than worth it!

<-----  KANSAS

We saw some interesting sights...some that were interesting because of just how uninteresting they were...if you catch my drift.

So, after a day of Kansas traveling, we spent the night in Oakley, KS, then started off again crossing the border into Colorado.  It's a myth that all of Colorado is gorgeous mountains.  Eastern Colorado is even more desolate than Western Kansas, but you're just so excited to be in Colorado, that it doesn't matter!  Except if you have to go to the loo.  Then it can be a bit nerve-wracking.  There aren't even any bushes big enough to hide behind!  Strangely enough, I missed this bit of the country when I took my pictures.  So...  Here's the "paradise" section of our trip!   COLORADO ---->

I LUV Roadtrips!

I've been looking forward to our family roadtrip to Colorado all summer, and a couple weeks ago, we finally took it!  It wasn't exactly what any of us were expecting...  Instead of the whole family heading west, we (we being me, my sisters Robyn and Wendy, and Wendy's 4-year old Elena) found ourselves heading out on our own.  But oh what fun!  I had a blast!

We'd always meant to take a roadtrip on our own someday, but hadn't ever gotten round to it.  Elena ended up being an awesome traveler...even without medication of any kind!  Well...maybe there was a little medication, but it was near the end of trip and the poor dear was throwing up.  And...I didn't really mean to go into all that.

Anyway, there are a few highlights to come, but that's all for now folks!

Day 1: All the Time in the World

Today was the first full limbo day resulting from my travel woes & so far so good. No major adventures just yet, but I am venturing to Ikea tomorrow, so that should fulfil the adventure expectations of the trip.

So just how did I fill my time, you ask? Here's a quick action packed summary:

8:00am- housekeeping! Yes, that's right, at 8am I woke up to a knock on the door and a man's voice shouting "housekeeping!" Just as a key was turning in the lock of my door, I was conscious enough to yell "HELLO?" A stupid thing to yell, but what exactly is the protocol here?

10:00- the quintessential Glasgow taxi ride from the hotel to the flat. The driver had much to say about many things, but generally stuck to football, religion, woman drivers and the bloody English.

11:30- Chinese at the Buchanan Galleries food court! Nuff said.

2:30-3:30- Bookstore perusing, random window shopping, & trying on clothes I didn't intend to buy.

3:30-4:30- Starbucks, a book & an Irish Cream hot chocolate...it's been 7 years since I last had that pleasure, and I still love it!

4:30-6:30- The Chronicles of Narnia: the Dawn Treader 3D...enjoyed the experience, but definitely didn't judge it as cry-worthy film like more than one fellow audience member did (I'm not kidding!). Interestingly enough, there were no kids and quite a few other solitary movie-goers. By the way, it was my first theatre experience on my own!

6:30-8:00- Headed back to the flat, picked up a Subway sandwich with extra pickles on my way home... dinner!
Now- a Lord of the Rings marathon! I just finished reading the Fellowship of the Ring, so it was just a matter if time really.

I'm sorry if you all were expecting more detail ;)  More to come on the morrow!

To spare my island friends a bit of the intense pain of loss while I'm away,
 I left an ambassador to lend a listening ear.

Sheep Herding

These days I often say that I live a charmed life.  I said it when I was walking through the beautiful streets of Vienna.  I said it when I was shopping in an outdoor market in the Netherlands and realized that a pair of accordions were in fact following us around town.  I said it after singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music" on a green hill in Bavaria, Germany.  (I'd like to stop here and clarify that I did not sing the entire song, just that part.)

Anyway, today my charmed life moment came when we were confronted with this:

Sheep in the road is generally no big deal around here, I often see a sheep or two wandering in the road. However, an entire sheep herd, complete with 2 sheep dogs and crofter is more unusual.  These sheep were being herded by way of a major road, and the crofter couldn't have been more laid back.  I suspect that our picture taking and grins let him know that we were not feeling inconvenienced.  I'm sure he was relieved.

Now the sheep are on their way...without the sheep dogs?  

The crofter appears to be holding them back...

And here's where we take over!  Yes, we herded these sheep with our Ford (The Green Machine) for about 5 minutes.  I'm sure the crofter was impressed with our skill and technique.  Calmly and confidently we pushed the herd towards their destination.  When the crofter obviously decided that we must be free to go about our business, he sent the dogs back in to give us a way around.

I know it's too blurry to tell for sure, but there was sadness in their eyes as we left them.  

Take my word for it.

Fast cars and duct tape

Living in small towns and adorning cars with duct tape seems to be my lot in life.

Last weekend while my housemate and I were driving through the Barvas machair (common grazing land by the sea), a cow decided to straddle the very handy driving path that we were on. In response, I did what anyone would do, I rolled down the window and shouted at it. The cow did what any cow in its situation would do, it moved.

As I smugly pushed the button to roll the window back up, my moment of victory was completely ruined. The window got stuck halfway up! Ugh. And this is Scotland we're talking about! It rains all the time!

After a bit of elbow grease generously donated by a stranger, we got the window almost closed, but not quite. There's still about 4 inches of open space, and that's no good. So here's our new and improved vehicle looking more like one of my cars than usual.

And here's a blast from the past! My beloved Ford Aspire...

A qualified driver's thoughts...

I passed my driving test!!! And those of you who know me know that I didn't predict that outcome...especially after my test! Within the first 5 minutes of the drive, I made a huge mistake turning into a little packed side street. It was terrible! I was waiting for an oncoming vehicle to come through past the parked cars blocking my side of the street when she came to a halt and sat there for a minute. Being the airhead that I can be under pressure, I thought she was giving way for me and started up. Seconds after I emerged from my waiting spot, I realized that she was not waiting for me, she was talking to someone in one of the parked cars...AAAHH!!! My mistake resulted in her having to back up to let me by, and me accepting that I'd completely screwed up almost before the test had begun.

I was gutted as I was flawlessly backing up around a corner yards away from the scene of my mistake, but knew that I had to keep going and just finish up the test. The examiner was really nice, so I was even asking him when he'd be back up! I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to schedule my next test when he was the examiner... He said he'd be back up at the beginning of May, so I spent the rest of the test making small talk hoping to get him in my corner for next time.

Turns out my HUGE mistake was characterized as a minor fault, and the rest of the test was uneventful enough to get me by! When he said "I'm pleased to tell you that you passed your test," I had to restrain myself from jumping over the gear shift to hug the poor man. I think he saw it coming... At least that's the only explanation I can think of for him scooting deep into the corner of the car door right before he broke the news. But, even with his involuntary defense mechanism kicking in...I must say that he was my favorite person yesterday! When I woke up this morning I breathed yet another sigh of relief :) Sigh....

aN oFF DaY...

Today was the very definition of an off day. Woke up early and still managed to be scrambling for the bus that turned out to be late. It was sunny as I scrambled and started snowing just as I crossed the street to wait. I got carsick on the bus (amazingly this has never happened before). Once in town I headed to the Lanntair (the local arts center) to get some lunch and hang out before my dreaded driving lesson. I choose to go here because they have nice tables and free wi-fi. Today it was drafty and the internet was down, but since it was cold and I was lazy, I stayed put until my driving lesson...which turned out to be canceled. Although most of me was ready to jump for joy, the reasonable part of me reminded the rest that I only have 5 more weeks until my driving test...doom.

Since I was free now until 3:30 I decided to head to HS1 (another restaurant) to have a hot chocolate served with some of their free wi-fi...which was indeed working, yay! However, it wasn't long before my computer ran out of juice :( Apparently I'd spent too much of it's power waiting for the wi-fi to work at the Lanntair.

With more free time on my hands, I decided to give myself a driving lesson. I ended up in 3 culdesacs and ran a red light.

Next up, my Gaelic conversation class! I LOVE my Gaelic conversation class. Today I HATED my conversation class, and was watching the clock the whole time. When I finally got to leave for my Ulpan class, I was out like a shot. I ended up at the college a little early...just in time to eat my dinner, perfect. Until I headed inside and found that not only was my class in a different room, but everyone was early that day. Overachievers...

After class I had a few spare minutes before I had to pick up my roomie, so I headed to the grocery store. I grabbed a few non-necessities and found my check-out line. The man in front of me had a cart full of bags of flour and breakfast cereal. Like, those were the only two items he had chosen and the cart was FULL. Needless to say, I had a bit more time to mull over my day.

On my way to pick up my roomie, I decided to try once again at a bit of driving and...can you guess? Yes, I ended up in another dead end...I really seem to have a nose for those culdesacs.

Once I was finally home, I breathed a sigh of relief, looked in the mirror and realized that my shirt was inside out. Oh dear...

Finally settled in...

So, I guess it's been almost 2 months since I arrived in Scotland, and I believe now I finally feel settled in. Until now we've been working on getting bank accounts, meeting neighbors, and making this house look a little less...well...I won't get into that. Another item of business that we've been working on and waiting for is our phone and internet service, this being in my mind the highest on the list of "things I need to feel at home." It may sound trivial to some of you, but after more thought, I'm sure most would agree that having internet (aka communication with the outside world) on an island far far away from home is very close to a necessity.

All that to say that this week, we got our internet installed! Yay!!! There was much rejoicing, and then silence as we spent the next hour on our computers... So hopefully, now I will be posting a bit more often.

And since I enjoy posting pictures on this blog, here's the view from my window...


In other news...I have been spending a significant amount of time behind the wheel of our MANUAL Ford Fiesta...and I'm doing alright if I do say so myself. I have yet to kick it into 5th gear, but it may be a long time before that is necessary...these island roads make 50 mph feel reckless!