The VDP-Jones clan do Scotland- June 19th 2008

We promised you adventures, and oh the adventures we had, although they were not at all what we were expecting. Early June brought the arrival of my brother, my nana, and my Aunt Shari down to Oxford. While I worked, and Pete studied, they practically ran my Nana ragged with all the touring and sight seeing around here. She ended up losing a leg in the process, but stated it was well worth it! The weekend brought a chaotic trip to Blenheim Palace, which is just outside Oxford. For you history buffs, it is the birthplace of Winston Churchill. kooky, heh?
Eventually we felt the call of the mother country, and all five of us headed up to bonny Scotland (Peter didn't exactly feel the call of the mother country from Scotland per se because his viking blood hails from Norway and Holland, but nevertheless he was excited to go:) . My family has a little flat in a town called Prestwick on the west coast. It's GORGEOUS! Pete and I had no idea how much we missed seeing the ocean. Oxford is literally in the middle of England surrounded mostly by pastures on all sides. It was truly healing and convalescent to be able to see the ocean, and realize that there is more than sheep beyond our borders....although to be fair, Scotland has its fair share of sheep. They even baaaaaa with a little Scottish brogue. It's adorable.
Here's where the fun starts. After settling down and exploring the beach and the 2 blocks of our tiny town, we took off to the big city. Our cousin Elizabeth joined us as we headed North to Glasgow. We promptly hopped on an open-top bus tour, and settled in for a charming ride around the cities finest sites. There isn't a ton to report here, pretty much your typical large British city. Lots of shops, a large pedestrian street running through the middle, some old churches, a few museums, a river running through the middle, a University, tons of people.......oh yeah, and pick-pockets. We made it the entire day, and literally as we headed into the train station to head home, lightning struck our merry party. Well, actually it was a thieving pick-pocket, but lightning sounds more dramatic. My Aunt Shari was the helpless victim, which totally sucks b/c she probably had more in her purse than the rest of us combined!!!! Major bummer dude. We spent the next 2 hours sitting in the train station people watching (not at ALL a boring endeavour) while Shari sorted out the particulars with the Bobbies. (That's "police" to you yanks).
Quick side note: the highlight of said people watching ensued after a cute little puppy couldn't hold it and laid track as he was dragged through a main thoroughfare. We spent a good 20 minutes watching people just barely dodge the trickily line of doodie. Finally the gods smiled on us, and we got some pretty entertaining bulls eyes! Then the stupid janitor had to come and ruin everything with his mop and bucket. Alas, we were back to normal people watching for the rest of the time.
Due to the lack of funds, photo id, and the ever-important sunglasses, we cancelled the next day's trip to Edinburgh. This was pretty kosher with everybody. Adam, Pete, and I were content to hang around the town, especially if beach combing was involved (we made up some pretty awesome rock throwing games), and my Nana was pretty worn out from the previous days events (an of course that bum leg I mentioned earlier :). However the adventures weren't over yet. We headed down to Culzean Castle (pronounced: killain), which is right on the coast, literally dangling from a cliff. Having had our fill of fancy houses and the lodgings of rich people, we decided to explore the grounds rather than go inside. We went down to the beach and spent a grand old time exploring tide pools! This was super duper fun, as we did this a lot growing up in San Diego. It also had huge boulders to climb, which were very reminiscent of Larabee State Park for all you Bellingham lovers reading this. After finding some crawdads, crabs and a couple jelly fish, Peter, Shari, and I looked up to find Adam nowhere in site. Eventually we located him climbing the cliffs up the back of the castle........awesome! Down in the depths of the castle wall, we're pretty sure we found the caves where Voldemort hid Slytherin’s locket horcrux. Sweet! See pictures below as my descriptions could never do it justice. Just as we were finishing our fun, a hunky park ranger came by and very politely told Adam to get down. I don't think Peter likes it when I refer to this particular do-gooder as hunky, so I won't anymore, but trust me ladies......he was hunky. You better believe I stealthily took his picture as we chatted about counting birds or something, I wasn't really listening. I told Shari to get his digits, but she thought I meant his fingers and toes, and just sorta looked at me funny........oh well.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Just lounging with family, watching movies we rented from the library, and hitting up a late night fish n' chips shop where the guy working there tried to relate to our "American-ness" by regaling us with stories of the one time he visited LA and tried crystal-meth....seriously. "That shi*'s one hell of a drug", he says...............................ummm, can I get a "no duh"? Needless to say, we took our chips and ran!
Sadly we're now back in the middle of our island, surrounded by pastures and sheep. We hope to update this thing more regularly during the summer, so keep checking back. We appreciate everyone who makes it to the end of our posts.............so thanks Moms and Dad! :) Enjoy the photos, and leave us love notes if you wish. We love hearing from you all!

Until next time,
Word out!


p.s. we went out and saw M. Night Shyamalan's new flick 'The Happening' while we were in Scotland,....awesome. We all made a living-room fort and slept with the lights on that night.