Weekend Away

Well blog readers- hold on to your hats, this is a current post! I have decided to skip over the 400+ backlogged pictures that I just downloaded off of my camera and jump ahead to current life. Maybe along the way I'll try to get back to some of those end of summer/early fall happenings but with the way things have been going on our little blog here, I was likely to never catch up. So here we are, with an update from this very weekend!...





Emerson has been on Autumn Break from school this week, and we had discussed plans to travel from the beginning of the school year. But, with Trey's recent research trip to Washington DC and all the other things we've been juggling lately, we felt like organizing a mini-vacation was too much. After a week of rainy cold days spent indoors, though, we felt the need to get out of the city. So, at the last minute, we rented a car and hit the road for two days . On day 1 of our little adventure, we headed through the country. The forcast called for rain and snow, but we had a clear, crisp autumn day. Our drive in the country was beautiful as we headed south toward the Scottish border. We spent Friday checking out the sites around Dumfries.

We took in Caerverlock Castle. The castle itself is mostly ruins but it has a huge mote which sets it apart. One of the castles we visited over the summer had a mote, but it no longer had water in it, this however, was the real deal.





Our second stop was the New Abbey Corn Mill. Of course we are in Scotland so they are not exactly milling corn. "Corn" just means the primary grain, so here that would be oats. The mill is only operational during the summer months so we did not get to see it in working order. We got to walk through all three levels of the mill and we were the only ones there, so we got the whole mill to ourselves. On the way out of town Emerson and I hit the National Museum of Costumes.









On Day 2 of our little expedition we went to the Almond Valley Heritage Center. It is a farm in Livingston, just 30 minutes outside of Edinburgh. Unfortunately our weather wasn't nearly as cooperative. Thankfully the farm had lots of indoor activities for the kids. We did get a short break in the rain to let them ride the little tractors. Ward has a tractor obsession so we'd like to go back this Spring when the weather is better and ride on the real tractor!

The City We Love

We have really grown to love this beautiful city. It was a delight to share it with our family in August. We hope to share it with many of you during our time here. For those of you that will not get to come over, I will share a few more of our photos from our vacation. Being on "vacation" here gave me a great excuse to carry a camera around town (which totally embarrasses Trey). Below is an assortment of some of our favorite sites...hiking Arthur's Seat, views from Edinburgh Castle, the great flower clock, flowers on the Mound and carousel in Princes Street Gardens.

Military Tattoo

During the month of August, in addition to the Fringe (Arts Festival) Edinburgh also has the Military Tattoo. We have heard of this famous show for many years, but have never had a chance to go. We were hoping to go with our family, but since tickets have been sold out for more than 6 months, it didn't look like it was going to happen. Luckily, a few weeks before my family was arriving, we found out about a last minute way to get tickets. They sell half price tickets for the dress rehearsal night, which just happened to be the day the fam was flying in. So rather than giving anyone time to get over their jet-lag we decided to jump right in a go to a late-night show on day one. Normally, you are not supposed to take pictures during the Tattoo, but on dress rehearsal night, we were allowed...hurrah...another benefit of half price tickets!

Hundreds of Pipers!

Emerson's favorite part of the show- the dancers.

Katie and Daniel, enjoying a rainy welcome to Scotland.

The firework finale...I loved them in person, but can't say that I am too sad that Tattoo month is over since I have been hearing these from my home every night for a month.

Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh's International Arts Festival kicked off with the arrival of the Hemphill-clan. Edinburgh will never be the same! We toured Scotland for 2 weeks...all 12 of us... Nana, Papa, both of my sisters, their hubbies, and children. We started off our holiday by vacationing right here in our own city.

It was pretty funny to be a tourist here in town. We packed our suitcases and went to stay in a great hotel less than 2 miles from our own flat. Our downtown flats gave us a great view of all of the street-performers lining the Royal Mile. So without further ado, here is a sampling of the 1200!!!! pictures that my dad and I took. (They will come in several posts....

Street Performers:

Emerson and Lois taking their chance to perform:

Julie's Visit

Well, it sort of goes without saying that I have let myself get way too far behind on posting to our blog. Now I am a little overwhelmed at the prospect of getting caught up on posts. We have had so many great adventures and travels this summer, so we are excited to share some of our memories with you. Hopefully one or two of you out there are still reading our updates and checking out our pictures.

In July, our dear friend Julie came over from Atlanta for a visit. Her husband, Marty, wasn't able to join us for this trip (working too hard) so we will look forward to showing him the sights on a future vacation. It was fun getting to show Julie some of our favorite parts of town. Emerson was in absolute heaven to have JuJu here for the week. Not only did Julie take her swimming twice in a week (a rare treat for us), and bring a suitcase full of early birthday gifts for Miss Em, but she was Emerson's personal playmate for the entire week. Julie was so patient to pal around with our dramatic little red-head and played the longest continual game of house that I have ever seen. Emerson amazingly stayed in character for days at a time!

Emerson at Greyfriar's Bobby.

Showing Julie New College (Trey's school). This is inside the courtyard.

JuJu and Emerson posing on the Leith Walk.

Julie chatting with my friend Kath and Emerson during our playdate at the park.

Ward making his way through Princes Street Gardens.

Having fun with Julie at the park.

Julie's travel plans were delayed so we got a bonus couple of days with her. We decided to make the most of our extra weekend by taking a quick train trip to North Berwick with our friends John and Erinn. Some of you may remember that we went to North Berwick in the winter with my parents, so you may recognize a few of the views. It is an adorable coastal town with a beautiful beach and cute shops. We were luck to have good timing and the tide was out so the kiddos got to search in the tidal pools. Then we took a local bus to Direlton Gardens. The Direlton Castle is in ruins, but still well worth seeing but the main attraction here is the Gardens. They are in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest herbaceous border and (if I remember correctly) the oldest continually tended garden. It really was breathtaking...unfortunately my pictures to post are pretty limited. My camera battery died about 5 minutes after we arrived at Direlton. We will have to make another trip out there soon so I can take some pictures...just sad that Julie won't be here to go along this time! We had a great visit.

John, Lauren, Trey, and Ward in North Berwick.

Beautiful girls.

Emerson exploring the coast.

Tidal pools.

Dramatic skies.

The lone shot of Direlton Gardens.