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We are back from our 2 week trip to Scotland and Wales!  Given that a week before we left we were in Clifton Springs NY for several days, it feels like we’ve been gone for ages.  Long enough to miss the last snow of the season, which is long enough for me.

Had I had time to blog about our trip to Clifton properly before leaving for the UK, I would have titled my entry: “Colonial Houses: Another Reason I Hate Kemstone.”  OK, so hate is a strong word, they are a Canadian company and I give them props for that.  They specialize in man-made “natural” stone, which I thought looked terrific the first few times I saw it around a fireplace or covering an entire house.  It was new to me, the wool was pulled over my eyes, I thought “what beautiful stone work”.  But now when you can drive past any house build or remodel in progress and see them sticking on these half “stones”, there’s no fooling anyone.  And the stuff is everywhere now.

SO.  Houses in Clifton and Canandaigua are really beautiful: a rainbow of painted wood, with all the trimmings.  Very nice.  Our hosts were incredible, as we pretty much took over their entire house with our two children and pigdog.  Had terrific sushi with friends and had uneventful border crossings.  Hoorah.  Looking forward to doing it all again next year.

I started packing for our UK trip as soon as we returned for Clifton.  I had the kids travel outfits all picked out well in advance, everything laid out and lists checked twice.  We had loaded all the suitcases into the car, and were about to load the children in when we came upon Meeps, with her travel-outfit pants around her ankles, trying to pee standing up like her brother.  The first of many outfit changes!

The flight over went way better than I expected.  I had read a really long blog article written by a stewardess (and mother), which was really helpful.  Our flight departed at 11pm.  Take off was great, Bob was excited and interested, and Meeps fell asleep.  The lights were off, all appeared to be going smoothly.  And then they turned all the bright lights back on.  And proceeded to serve dinner, at midnight.  Who the heck needs dinner at midnight?! Meeps was roused everytime a single serving plastic bag rustled (a roar of them is produced with the meal carts) or the snap of a pop can erupted.  Bob managed to fall asleep and stayed asleep for practically the entire flight.  On one side of him was a Scottish Gran, who had 5 children and 12 grandchildren, so things really couldn’t have been better there, as he slept practically half on top of her.  Meeps nursed for the vast majority of the flight, which is preferable to hysterical screaming, even if only marginally. I would absolutely take a night flight again, but I would aim to leave around 9pm, to avoid overtired children and meal carts at midnight.

I had never been to Scotland.  It had been a decade since Scott had been.  It was beautiful. We stayed with Scott’s Aunt, who may have well been his mother’s twin to our children.  They embraced her instantly, which made our trip so much easier.  We were surrounded with cousins, and children of cousins.  Seeing some of the Duncan genetics at play in these children, as they are in our own, was surreal and wonderful.  We also met up with some friends of Scott’s, who coordinated their vacation with ours.  They also have a toddler, and it was play galore for all.  Scott went to two Whiskey distilleries and made some purchases which he is overjoyed with.  Our entire travel shopping budget was spent on Scotch, and that’s A-OK.

We opted to drive from Tillicoutry, Scotland to Porthcawl, Wales (and then to Gatwick airport, England).  Our Ford Mondeo, which had a trunk so large our first response was “we could fit all of our goats in there!” got an incredible 1,000 kilometers on a single tank of diesel.  It took us through three countries on one fill up.  Beat that, North America.  Scott had a terrific time driving; the winding roads, the driver etiquette (which is non-existant here), the speed.  (We’ve been joking we are waiting for the tickets to come in the mail, in a binder, which one could flip through like animation…documenting our journey).  It took about 7.5 hours, and Meeps screamed for all of England, but we pounded BBC Radio crazy dance music and it helped pass the time, and mask the hysterics.  Thank you, Pete Tong.

Scott had never been to Wales.  It had been a decade since I had been.  It was beautiful.  We stayed with relatives I had never met before.  (This despite the fact I have been to Wales many times, and stayed always a 10 minute drive away from them).  Scott and I both agreed we could have sent home for a box of our belongings and moved in, instantly.  Castles, cousins, kin, and even a visit to Bob and Meeps Great Great Great Great Grandfather’s grave.  Top that!

The kids handled the entire trip beautifully.  There were of course “moments”, but considering we did nothing but yank them everywhich way, jetlagged and unrested for two weeks, while asking them to smile and say cheese for yet another photo… they were champions.

The flight home went way better than I expected.  This time it left at 11am.  Which meant entertaining the children for nearly 8 hours, instead of trying to get them to sleep.  Thankfully the bag of new toys and crayons and snacks I had packed remained unopen on the flight over, so we got to pull out all our tricks on the journey home.  It was long, uncomfortable and very draining.  But there was no mass hysteria, only severe boredom.  So we can mark it a raging success.

The drive home from Toronto (3 hours) was pretty brutal.  Both children were berserk for the duration, screaming to be out of their seats and home again.  Bob vomited on himself, Mags cried so hard her eyes were swollen shut.They were shattered, having been traveling for nearly 24 hours.   When we came home, Bob attempted to climb onto the couch, and fell asleep in the process of doing so, with his feet dangling, not touching the floor.  (See picture below).

We are happy to be home, but sad to leave so much incredible family so far away.  We loved everyone, through to the DNA and back again.  I gained a cousin, who is my age.  I loved him from the first moment he emailed me (on SuicideGirls of all places a couple of years ago, saying “Hi, you don’t know me, but your parents are standing in my kitchen, and I am your cousin”) and I love him even more now.  Don’t know if it’s the lonely-only child in me coming out, but it feels incredibly special to be up a relative, with similar age and interests.  We will be making the Scotland/Wales tour a regular occurance.

The kids have brought some new virus home with them, and are pretty gross.  But the weather here is incredible (as it was on our journey) and we picked up our 4 laying hens from our neighbours barn today (where they stay for the winter).  Covered the the garlic with straw.  Did chores in the sunshine.  Relished the wide open.  Couldn’t have been happier.

I feel like I have so much more I could write, but it would be a book.  I have so many more pictures to show, but no time to prep them as I have a mountain of laundry.  Ordered heaps of mulch today, starting seeds tomorrow, 100 day old meat chicks will come soon, followed by 24 started turkeys.  Soap making next week, first cheese of the season the horizon.  Here we go!

I can’t believe winter is over and I get to play in the dirt for the next six months.  Lucky, lucky me.