We Made it - All the Things I Missed Before

Considering the state of my brain on very little sleep and the depressing number of times I "lost" my camera or map in my pocket on Saturday, I'm pretty surprised that I kept it together enough to post anything but jibberish at 10 pm that night. (Moms-that one was for you, so you'd know that we didn't die!) Now that I'm a little more put together, here's a few of the more interesting highlights that we somehow stayed awake for that day.

We'd read that to get a great view of the city, you should climb a hill called Arthur's seat, which overlooks all of Old Town. At the time we arrived at our hotel, I had completely forgotten about this (as well as where the map and my cardigan had gone - for those of you who think I'm discombobulated and entertaining at 7 am, you should see me on hour 26 of not sleeping). When the concierge recommended that we go to a park a few miles away with a great view (and gave us a new map, which only Patrick was allowed to hold by now), we thought it was a great idea and took off.

It WAS a great walk, and we wandered by some fun things on the way.

The last bit was a little steep, but it felt great after so much sitting down.

And at the top, looking out over the scenery in 360 degrees, I noticed Arthur's Seat, dead ahead. Also-and I realize this may be difficult to see from the photos-WAY steeper, further away and more intimidating than the short little path lined with fun monuments and gardens that we had just climbed up. Coming from Minnesota where things are pretty much flat, this counts as a bit more than just a "hill" for me! We happily skipped it and instead enjoyed our easy view before heading off for a bit more exploring.

I'm pretty certain that its a "only in Scotland" moment to wander into a free concert by a band consisting of a drummer, electric guitarist and bagpiper. (Perhaps even more unusual, they were pretty good, with as unique a sound as I think you could expect from that combination!)

And finally, after about 5 miles of walking, a lot of glasses of wine (did I mention that we somehow ended up on a flight where all the liquor was complimentary? Too bad it didn't help us sleep like we hoped for), and eventually finding almost everything I lost, we got to fall asleep to get ready for the long list of things we'd found to do the next day.