Hello Ireland and HELLO Scotland

 (Along the route to the castle)

On Sunday evening, my sister Becca and I started - what turned out to be a long quest to Scotland! For those of you surprised this was a last minute trip. Justin and Uncle Milton decided this trip to Scotland several months ago to play golf where it was started. Since I was sitting in the office with work without a trip planned until the beginning of June, my sister and I decided to go.

When we were flying out on Sunday night the volcanic ash was being a pain in Europe again. Our first flight that was supposed to fly through Dublin got re-routed to the Shannon airport. We were then bused through the Irish countryside to the Dublin airport. We saw the Ireland Durty Nellies right before Limerick. When we got there the airport was a madhouse. We were told at least twice that our connecting flight was canceled, to get into 3 - 5 different lines, to relax to get coffee, that we had no tickets, that our flight was delayed, but FINALLY at about 530pm (we landed in Shannon at 730am) we were on our final leg to Glasgow where we were greeted by Uncle Milton and Justin!

Today we started our adventure with Justin the crazy driver. We visted the Scotland royal castle - Balmoral Castle. It is open to the public April - July and then the royal family stays here from July - October. It was really beautiful. Here is us on the lawn in front of the castle.

We also got a chance to visit The Glenlivet distillery and got some awesome souvenirs. We also got a free taste of the Scotch. Scotch is not considered Scotch unless it is made on Scotland soil and aged for at least 3 years. Thats all for now -- off to find the Lochness monster tomorrow!