Cloudy days . . .

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Today was cloudy, but as of 9:00, no rain.  We had some sprinkles around 6 while we were driving in the car, but no rain yet.  So we decided to drive around the east side of Loch Ness (we've been south and west so far).  We drove in a loop through the Cairngorms National Park.  It was pretty, but nothing new.  Mountains, plains covered in gorse and bracken, lochs.  We stopped at Laggan Dam which provides water to Fort William through a series of pipes) (Fort William is quite a distance away!) and a small town, Aviemore, along the way.  It seemed quite the tourist town, with people thronging the sidewalks on the main street on a Thursday.  We stopped and walked down the main street.  We stopped in a candy store--Mr. Simms' Old Fashioned Candy Shop, I think.  Well, floor, to ceiling, all candy!  Yum.  They have a glass counter mostly filled with containers of gummi candies and a deal that you can get any mixture of those candies--100 grams for £1.09.  So the children went crazy, Randy and I each picked out a 50p candy from the jars at the cash register.  By the way, 100 grams is not very much.  Maybe about 1/2 cup of candy.  But they had fun and even shared a few pieces with mom.  The town seems to be a gateway town for activities in the park--biking, hiking, skiing, fishing, etc., etc.  So, not a great variety of stores.

Laggan Dam

A signpost in Aviemore--looks like a lot of places to go!

Then, since we were near Inverness, we went to our favorite store, Tesco's Extra.  We were out of toilet paper (when you rent self-catering you are responsible for that) and only had food left for dinner.  Then we drove home with some refrigerated and frozen food in the boot (that's a trunk). We took the scenic smaller road back, but we couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos of Loch Ness along the way (Inverness is at the north end of Loch Ness, and Fort Augustus--where we're staying--is at the south end).   Also, we passed a sign for the Falls of Foyers, so we had to stop to see that too!  Along the way, we saw an Attention sign--a big exclamation mark and the words "Red Squirrel".  Hmmmm.  I wasn't sure if that meant that Red Squirrels were going to be flying at our car, attacking (a la Monty Python) or if we should avoid hitting them.  Then we saw a sign by the falls (see below) that said that they had video cameras set up tracking them.  They must be rare.

Loch Ness

The sun is coming out!

There were two benches by the rocky beach as memorials to
people that have died.  This was for someone's mom/grandma.

This was for an 18 year old that died a few years ago--it had fresh flowers.

The path to the Falls of Foyers

Along the path, were stones with a poem about the Falls; #1

#2

#3--After this we were expecting a great falls!

This is what we got.

No cauldron here--maybe the poem was written after
a large rainfall.

the scenery

Beware the Red Squirrels!

When we got back, we had dinner and the children and Randy went swimming while I took the garbage and recycling out to the main road running by our complex where the rubbish and recycling bins are.  Then a family movie.  Our excitement of the evening--Anneliese put a bag of microwave popcorn that we bought today in the microwave and within 10 seconds it caught on fire!  Luckily no injuries and no smoke alarm set off.   We don't know why that happened.  We'll save the rest of the bags for the next place we stay.  At Tesco's, we also bought dinner for tomorrow (as well as tonight's) and breakfast stuff, but then also bought dinner for our next night's stay at a youth hostel in Durness (way at the northern tip of Scotland) so that we don't have to worry about running out to find a grocery store before being able to eat.