Ooo...big, burly Scottish men in kilts!

Sorry for the delay on updates, but I'm finally back in the states and am playing catch-up.

So, picking up where I left off 2 posts ago in Inverness... On Friday, Bill picked us up once more and was in charge of getting us from Inverness down to Blackford (our next stop), which is near Stirling. But the awesome guy that he is, he wanted to show us more of Scotland. So here was our wonderful itinerary for the day:

1) We drove west to Loch Carron - beautiful!

2) We kept driving west and took a pit stop at a cute little fishing town called Plockton (not pictured here). The town pretty much consisted of one street along the water and one row of buildings/houses along that street. It was so quaint and beautiful with all the sailboats sitting in the bay. Candice and I walked out in the water - which was ocean water! It felt so good!

(I have to tell a quick funny story Bill told us on the drive: So there are two football teams (soccer) there named Caledonia and the Celtics. They are big rivals, and they were playing once and it was a really close game. Just in the last few seconds, Caledonia (lovingly called Cale (like Cali)) won! But the best part was the newspaper headline the next day:
"Super Cale, Go Balistic, the Celtic are Atrocious!"
(ya get it?!)

3) And even more west, we got to the Isle of Skye. He let us out and we got to walk across the bridge to the Isle of Skye. It was so beautiful! (not to mention sunny!)

(a really cool lighthouse seen from the bridge)
4) Turned back southeast and stopped at the Eilean Donan castle - one of the most photographed castles in Scotland. This castle is located on a little island on a loch, with a stone bridge to get to it. I would have been totally okay with it if someone asked me to live there. ;) When we first got there, a high-school aged boy was playing his bagpipes to earn money. Oh, how I love the sound of bagpipes! I could seriously listen to it all day! We got to eat lunch and explore the castle for a few hours before heading off again.
5) Bill took us through Fort William and down through Glencoe - one of the most beautiful places (and great hiking spots!) in all of Scotland! And everything is SO GREEN there! (because usually it rains all the time; we were just very blessed that it was sunny the whole time we were in Scotland!)
(Oh, how I love Michelle!)
(it was super windy, if you couldn't tell!)
6) We drove into Blackford, Scotland, where we would be staying for the next 3 days at our instructor's sister's house. She and her husband, Alister, and their 1-year-old daughter, Isla, live in the old bank house. It was so cool! It is really tall and skinny, has 3 levels, a grand staircase, a "posh" sitting room, a dinner room with 2 different wallpapers, double front doors, a vault room (skeleton keys and all!), and 18 chimneys (yes, one fireplace in every room!). It was amazing! We each had our own room. Mine was one of the ones on the top floor, with a beautiful view out my window. This is the sunset from my window the night we got there (it probably set around 10:30pm). They even have a pet turkey in their backyard. His name is Dinner. ;)
Saturday morning we got up and went out to Alister's parent's farm, got on welly's (boots) and gloves and spent the morning putting tubes around the little trees that were growing to protect from the deer and other animals. It was really fun! (well, at least I thought so, but I may just be weird like that)

After we finished they took us on a walk by the river,and to the cave that Robert Louis Stevenson used for the cave in one of his books.
(yes, I brought the side pony to Scotland)

We got home, ate lunch, and got cleaned up just in time to go to the Blackford Highland Games!! This was one of my favorite activities of the whole time in Scotland! It was so cool! It's a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage.


There are a ton of different events, kind of like a track & field meet. They had running races, and biking races; they had Scottish Highland Dancing (so cool! they did about 5 different dances, changing their outfit everytime, but this is the most traditional outfit);(and a video of it for your entertainment)

a tug-o-war (super intense! - they really have a technique for this, it's not just any tug-o-war); a bagpipe band that plays every once in a while;
and our favorite... the heavy weight competitions in the middle of the field:

Here you have a bunch of guys in kilts who do everything that involves picking up and throwing rediculously heavy items :)

- the "stone put" (like shot put),

-the Scottish Hammer Throw (I would explain it, but it makes more sense if you read more about these events here - it's really interesting!),

(the best part is the grunt!)

-the "weight throw" (again, read in above link)

-the "weight over the bar" (yes, I know, very creative)

-the "caber toss" (our favorite) - if you get a chance, seriously read the link above - it will give you a good explanation of the goal of each event.

Oh, what a day! We even had our 2 favorites to cheer for, Bruce Robb (doesn't that just fit?!), and Ryan Neighbors. It was so fun!

The next day was Sunday and we went to church in nearby Perth (where there was a total of 42 people there, including us! - but hey, that was pretty full compared to the 13 we heard were there the week before). After church they had a "Bite & Blether" - quite comparable to our "Munch & Mingle" or "Linger Longer." We got to meet the people and it was really fun to talk with them. We again met some of the young single adults (which just happened to be all male - hey, we're not complaining) and got to hang out with them for the afternoon. They took us to a place called the Hermitage, which was a beautiful hike (more like a walk) through the forest to a beautiful waterfall! Thanks Steven, Joe, Daniel, Robbie, and others for the fun and friendship!