Edinburgh preview. The city awaits.

EDINBURGH

80 Great King Street

We will be staying here the first few nights.

Old Town Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

Banner Credit

I must give special credit to Miss Sparrow for her lovely banner she created just for my Blog.  Don't you just love the Flag of Scotland and the beasty?  Very nice touch.  Thank you Miss Sparrow.

First stop - Edinburgh, Scotland

This is the Edinburgh Castle

This is just a little picture to get you excited about what is to come.

Puddy Cat

My Puddy Cat is thinking about a breakfast  bird.  Pretty soon she will be looking out the window and waiting for my return. Poor Lonesome Puddy.

May 20 and that much closer

Yikes! Only 10 more days before we leave for Scotland. Today, I picked up the foreign currency I ordered from Bank of America. 100 Euros and 100 pounds. It is so cool to see how different it is from the U.S. dollar.

Yesterday, Grace and I shopped for our travel toiletries. We got all the little travel packs of the essentials. Clorox wipes for getting rid of cooties. Deoderant, lotion, and baby wipes.

This weekend, Grace is going to do a pre-pack of her suitcase to see what she plans to take and how much it is going to weigh.

I am going to start the "list", which will help me not forget those all important little things, but more importantly to help me from going crazy thinking that I have left something behind.

Getting ready to get ready

May 14 ~ I thought it would be a great idea to have a place where my friends and family could follow along as we get ready to leave for Scotland and then later as we travel through the country of our people. So here I am....signed, sealed and delivered. A blogger or bloggette if there is a feminine term. Dude, dudette. Blog, bloggette.

Way back in February, when I booked the flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, June 1st seemed so far way. Now, it is 17 days and counting. Or, at least the way I count on the calendar. I don't count the day we head to LAX because that is an actual travel day. Just the thought of closing my suitcase and heading to LAX makes my stomach flip. But, I'm good with it.

Hotels and B&Bs, 5-day mini-tour, Edinburgh to Inverness (and back) train fare, rental car in Inverness, and round trip flight are all booked. The itinerary is all scheduled, except for about 4 days in Inverness. I like a little loosey-goosey time in there.

In fact, if it weren't for Grace coming along, I would not have booked much at all and just showed up. I like to travel on the wing, but with a young lady (who is traveling for the first time out of the good ol' U. S. of A.) in tow, it might be best to have some concrete frame work. Just for that certain peace of mind thing, ya know?

I love to travel on vacation. I dislike traveling for work, which I do frequently. Somewhere in my family history was a gypsy or nomad. My grandmother, Elizabeth Grace traveled from Scotland (where she was born) to Canada (where she met and married her first husband, who later in 1918 died in France during the influenza pandemic) to Australia (where she met my grandfather) to Wyoming (where my Dad was born) to Detroit to California. I suppose you could say she was the nomad. I must take after her.