Scotland and back!

Sorry it's been a while since the last post... dicey internet combined with hanging out with the French family has left me a bit lazy... didn't know my fans would react so strongly... so... here goes.

We woke up to a beautiful mix of sun and rain on the Isle of Skye in Portree...

After our typical breakfast of eggs and rocking Scottish sausages... we headed into town to see what kind of trouble we could get in to... Portree is a sweet little Mendocino of a town...

Here's Harmo and Hadden cruising Portree...

Here's the little Harbor right in town.

In Portree, we stopped in at the "Yes for Scotland" office to talk politics.  It seems that the Scottish people are voting for independence on September 18... so we had to check out the skinny.  Of course being the Americans we are firmly in the Yes camp... wondering why anyone would vote no... No one in Portree could answer that either!  Go Scotland!

After hangin in Portree for a bit, we decided to drive on!  We headed in a northeasterly direction towards the infamous... Loch Ness... thought we'd go see Nessie.  Here is another picture of the amazing scenery in the Highlands... you could literally take pictures like this for miles and miles and miles... quite magical.

Here we are doing a little scientific investigation of the largest body of water in the UK.  Cool little exhibit...  not too terribly touristy if you can believe it... and "SPOILER ALERT HERE"... most of the evidence they presented would indicate that Nessie has left the building... or may have been a large sturgeon... hmmmmm...

That night brought us to Aviecollie Scotland... still in the heather covered hills in the Highlands...very remote place... beautiful and quiet.

Waking up at Aviecollie was a very special morning... Hadden's birthday!!! Complete with birthday chair and cake.  We ended up sharing some birthday cake later that evening with some "neighbors" at the campground... an English family with daughter, son and friend...  Here's a (blurry) picture of the birthday boy! 15... wow!

Needing to get back south... as we had an impending appointment to return the van, we then made our way down out of Scotland through England...stopped in Essex, England to go check out some fancy ballet point shoes... and camped that night near the historic "white cliffs of Dover, England".  It is so wild to think of history of places like this... imagining all of the American GI's stationed and training there... ready for D-day...

When we crossed the Channel and got into France, we were all eager to get some family time with the Chamigny crew, so we headed east to Paris for a couple days of R&R.   There is a really cool castle that Hadden and I visited close to Uncle Ron's house in Chamigny that we decided to share with Harmony and Heather.  This chateau has an amazing and crazy story... but basically was constructed by Louis 14th's main financial advisor.  Apparently it was so nice, that the King got a bit jealous, and also fueled by lies told about the advisor, arrested and imprisoned him for life.  Seized his chateau and all of the belongings... took all of the designers and had them build Versailles.  So... this place is the inspiration for one of the most famous castles in the world.  It is super cool... relatively unknown by most tourists and very accessible.  Here are some pics of Vaux le Vicomptes.

They've got a cool museum in the old stable portion showing all of the old carriage technology... the Ferrari's of their age.

Here are some pictures from the north side of the chateau.  Notice how you can see through the central portion.  This was a design feature that allowed visitors to see through the building into the massive gardens beyond when first approaching.  Still very impressive.

Typical rooms inside... not bad.... you know.  Amazing paintings and tapestries (which were originally all taken by Louis 14th when he arrested the owner... what a bummer for that guy!

Here's the family at on the south side of the building standing next to the moat... full of big ol carp!  Mouths wide open looking for a piece of bread.

On Wednesday the 26th... Heather and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary by driving the RV back to Nantes.  Originally the kids were going to stay at Uncle Ron's, but we figured that we all started the adventure together... so we were going to finish strong... I'm glad we did.  Though we had our moments... this was truly a great trip for me to get to know my children and wife a little better.  I'm truly blessed.

While waiting for our train back from Nantes to Paris, we were able to check out a nice park just next to the Gare.  Apparently Nantes is the leader in sustainable building and wait for it... green development in France.  It was very nice... though a bit mosquito-ey.

So... we took the TGV back from Nantes into Paris... we we're going to stop at a museum in Paris, but decided just to head to Chamigny... (we'll go in another day this week)... rode from Paris out to Chamigny on the suburban train... got here... and here I sit.  Heather and Stepanie went shopping (oh god... ), Harmony and Hadden are hanging out with Juliette...

Harmo... glued to her technology and sweet little Juliette!