Spring Break in Scotland

This year we went to Scotland for spring break. I will give everyone ONE guess who had this brilliant idea! Nonetheless, the boys and I decided to make the best of our time and had a pretty good time in a really beautiful country. Day 1: Drive to Scotland and get settled in our ENORMOUS beach house in Elie Scotland. We rented this house with 10 other adults. We took turns cooking and so every night was a new culinary treat! What was even better was this view of the beach every evening from our room.

Day 2: St. Andrews: After a bit of geo caching, we basically hiked through the old town of St. Andrews. It is a really gorgeous town right on the water and there is even a beach. For some reason I didn't picture this as a costal town. We hiked out all the way on the pier and ran into a young man who bore a striking resemblence to Harry Potter in his robes doing the same. He was a student at St. Andrews University and this is apparently a tradition to walk the pier on Sunday after their lunch. The boys had a fun time running all about.

We finally met up with Jeff later in the afternoon for lunch and hanging out on the old course. I was incredibly surprised to learn the old course is a public course, is closed on Sunday, and is open to the public on Sunday. There were folks having picnics right on the course, dogs and all. So we spent a bit of time putting around and letting the kids have the experience of playing golf on the old course for free! We even took pictures on the famous bridge which has a name which completely escapes me as I write this. I'll have to have Jeff remind me.

Day 3: The ONLY day Jeff didn't play golf we decided to head into Edinburgh. I love this city, it has truly become one of my favorites. As we've been here before we decided to just shop on the high street and on the royal mile. I wanted to have the cheesy Scottish dress photo taken as well. Just too much fun to pass up the opportunity this time. We had a good day and headed back to hang out with the folks back at the house.

Day 4: Stirling Castle: We went with all the ladies to visit Sterling Castle. It is involved with the Braveheart legend. There was an amazing statue of William the Bruce. The castle itself was pretty cool. The old town was really lovely as well. Jackson and Colton werent' really keen on the tour so mommy took them out for some ice cream. As you can tell it was the best part of the day! After the castle tour we looked around the old town and went as far as the prison. Fun day with the ladies.

Day 5: St. Andrews again and rest!

Day 6: Balmoral and the Highlands:

On the way home we decided to pass by Menwith Hill which is near the lovely old town of Harrogate. It was a fun visit actually. Jeff called a buddy who hooked us up with a room and met us with his family for dinner. Turns out he used to work at Double Daves and so he sent us home the next day with pepperoni rolls

Girls Weekend in Italy

Our OCSC tours coordinator has done a great job of creating some really great adventures for us this year. This past month we went to Italy for a girls fun weekend of pottery, wine and pasta! After a dicey start with one of our rental cars overheating and hours spent in the airport with the local police helping us out, we had the first of many amazing late dinners. Day one we headed to Nove, Italy for pottery shopping. I loved Nove as everything was already marked for places like Tiffany's and Williams Sonoma and you can buy it for tons less than you would get it in the states. We shopped all morning then had a great lunch, as if there would be any other in Italy, shopped a bit more in the afternoon and collected our packages before heading to the Vicenza post office to MPS it all home. I kind of felt sorry for the post folks as 18 women descended upon them with 50+ huge boxes. I found some real treasurers including my ginormous rooster for my eventual large kitchen. I got a ton of great pieces and it was really fun when my two enormous boxes arrived at home!

On Day 2 we went to Venice. I adore Venice. I can't understand how anyone cannot like this incredible city. We started the day along the grand canal and San Marcos square. This time around we decided to head into the cathedral as I had not done this on a previous trip. We saw the tomb of St. Mark and enjoyed the view before heading down the many side streets shopping all the way to the Rialto bridge. Of course, we took a gondola ride along the way and our gondalier was named....wait for it....Fabio! And Fabio was Fabulous!

After another amazing dinner we had to head home.

The final day we visited Verona. I had not previously been to Verona and was pleasantly surprised to find almost everything open on a Sunday. We had tons of fun sightseeing at Juliet's balcony, shopping and eating gelato not once but twice, and had an amazing lunch of gnocci gorgonzola and wine. I love Italy!

The AMAZING Race - London

I am a HUGE fan of the television program the Amazing Race. People race all over the world, and Jeff and I constantly think that we could win it! So when our tour's chair in the OCSC decided to put together an Amazing Race in London, I was IN! In it to WIN it was my motto and I actually won the most dedicated player award. My team came in 1st place in all legs of the race but one. Here are some of the pictures of us being CRAZY around London. It was such a GREAT time. My team mates were Kathy Higgins and Mandy Ross.

Task #1. We had to meet at the BX, race to get a snack, take a picture with the wing commander's wife after making and raising our team flag and race to London by plane, train, or auto. We choose the tube.

Task #2: After meeting at the marble arch and doing some pictures and fun stuff, we had to race to Abby road and re-create the Beatles Abby Road album cover. We used our scarves as tube tops. After taking the picture we were to race to Portobello Road. Again, we came in 1st!

Task #3: We went to the Wellington Arch and had to take a creative picture after visiting the top and enjoying the views. Mandy's husband is security forces so her as the bobby made sense!

Task #4: Race to Buckingham Palace gift shop and make a purchase, make a palace guard laugh and head to Liberty to take a picture of ourselves with fabric. Again, we were first on the mat!

Task #5: The next morning we met again at the Marble Arch and had to head to an art museum for a picture of Henry VIII. We took a cab and on the way Mandy pulled her wallet out of her purse and dropped it. We didn't notice this until we went to purchase postcards at the museum. We stopped racing and spent about 30 minutes trying to call home to get credit cards cancelled. When we got to our next stop, speakers corner, our cab driver was there waiting for us with Mandy's wallet. He remembered where we said we were headed next and waited for us.

So the next task of that run was who has the gift of gab and my teammates voted me so I had to speak for 5 minutes on a Sunday morning in Hyde Park on speaker's corner on the topic of why OCSC tours is the best position on the OCSC board. After finishing up, we had to find the statue of peter pan, take a fun picture and race to Harrods.

After shopping we headed to Fortnum and Mason, the Queen's grocery store and we had tea after a bit more shopping. From there it was race home and check in at the wing commander's house. Again, we were there first! We put all our props on Virginia for this last picture.