Today was our last day in Scotland....wahhhhhhh!!! I think all three of us would agree that we are not ready to be leaving. We decided we would have an easy day to finish up souvenir shopping and just enjoy Fort Augustus, a village we have all come to absolutely love.
Dad went out on his last morning walk to the locks and Oh Happy, Unforgettable Day!...the lock workers asked dad if he would like to run the lock and open the gate for the boat that was coming through. So of course he accepted and with a wee jig in his heart he ran the controls to let the water fill up the lock and then open the gate for the boat. What a fun experience....I said it wouldn't be long before dad would be working at the locks...I just thought it would be on his next trip!
We started out our shopping at the butcher's...I bought a hot bacon roll (delicious) for breakfast and dad bought a steak pie for us to have for dinner. Mom and I had our scottish souvenir shopping lists, so we hit all three of the gift shops in town and were able to get all of our items acquired...dad started out on the shopping trip with us, but after 1 1/2 shops he decided he had had enough. :-). After we finished shopping we went and got dad and went to the cloister garden where mom & I played a game of chess (I won, which makes me the Scotland Chess Champion). Then we decided to go for a short drive to Jenkins Park...we had seen the sign for this park every time we went in and out of Fort Augustus and we were very curious and had high expectations of a beautiful Scottish park. We went searching for the park following all the signs, and after a couple very small roads and scaring a wee lass into using her stranger danger run away tactics, we could not find it. Dad later asked one of the townspeople and found out it is not an actual park, just a name for the neighborhood area. Hahahaha!
We then returned back to the Highland club and went for swim at the pool. As a final hurrah, we warmed up the steak pie in the oven and mom cooked some turnips on the stove. It was a terrific dinner and a fitting last meal in Scotland. I can't even express what an amazing trip this has been, not only being able to finally experience Scotland, but to be doing it with mom and dad.....absolutely unforgettable!!! I will treasure this time forever.
Dad with his friend Ian.
His other friend Paul. I know they will notice his absence at the locks tomorrow.
Me and mom playing chess. She is getting quite good at remembering how all the pieces move...she only learned how to play a week ago.
One of the gargoyles in the cloister garden. Beware!!! He is watching you!
The smallest lighthouse in Great Brittain. It is located on the highland club grounds near the canal.
Yes indeed, I love this place and Scotland has been GRAND!!!
Mom getting ready to say farewell to her Scotland walking stick. We wandered out to Loch Ness tonight to get one last glimpse of the loch and we thought it would be a fitting place for mom to dispose of her stick. While we were down there in the darkness and right after I took the pictures of mom throwing her stick, I heard strange thumping coming from the forest area (that is the area in the back ground of this picture and the cemetery is only about 50 feet from this area). I heard the noise a couple times and told mom we needed to get out of there, cuz I was getting scared. I heard the thumping again and I was like, 'I am outta here!' I started to book it, and that freaked mom out a little so she started to book it (as best as she could with her leg). By the time we made it back into the abbey wee were both very spooked. So we came back and I downloaded he pictures and look at he round orb behind mom in the above picture...they say these orbs are supernatural energy (ghosts) that gets picked up by the camera. So then we looked at the picture that I took right after this one and look where the orb is in that one:
It had moved closer to her!!!! The first picture was her getting ready to throw the stick and this one was as she was throwing it (the stick is barely off the screen). The area that the orb came from is the same area that I heard the thumping. Crazy, huh?!? I absolutely promise that we did not doctor or do anything to these photos. Coolness!