Hazy, lazy day of summer

Friday, 4 July 2014

"Nessie"

First off, Happy Independence Day to all American readers of this blog!  Around 6:00 tonight, when it was finally clear, we stood on the edge of Loch Ness and sang "America the Beautiful" since it is very difficult to sing our national anthem very well.   And I prefer it as a national anthem anyway.  It is one of our traditions, since we're often gone on the 4th, to take time to sing one of the two songs outside, somewhere, during the day.

Loch Ness

We awoke to rain and continued to watch the rain out the window all day.  So we read, played games, wrote postcards, and used the wifi.  When the rain stopped and we went out, walked along the edge of the loch where we are staying, then followed it into town and walked along both sides of the canal, into a few shops.  Then back to the apartment for swimming followed by a late dinner.

My children, looking well-behaved

My children, as they really are!

The locks (with a K)

This is a now defunt fountain celebrating the Queen's Jubilee back
in 1857 (I believe)

Our schoolhouse where we are staying for one more night

The history of the canals started back in 1804

The locks

The houses and shops along the western bank of the canal

The eastern bank

One of the three locks

Houses and shops

The series of locks leading to the loch!

Behind the trees is the northern part of the Abbey

Eastern bank of Loch Ness near us

Looking onto the loch

Anneliese in front of Loch Ness

Kind of a lazy day, but a relaxing one.  We have reached that point in our trip where we are beginning to think and talk about our return home--things to do, things we look forward to and don't look forward to (like the weather).   We have a few days left in Scotland, then a few days in Dublin before returning home.  We'll be back home in less than a week.  We leave for a northernmost tip of mainland Scotland tomorrow morning.