Odds and the End of Skye

Our trip to Skye finished under beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the high teens - peaking at 20 C in Aviemore at lunchtime.  

Even with these warm spring temperatures we were inspired to buy a couple of knit sweaters ("jumpers" to the British) at a cool wool and knitwear specialty shop on the pier.  Fiona was in her own personal nirvana, admiring all the handiwork.

Although we had managed to avoid it all weekend we ended up on a ferry for the first part of our journey.  Actually Fiona was nice enough to cater to my love of big boats and agree to the ferry.  It was only 25 minutes, but it will tide me over for the near future.

Fiona was driving home, so if you heard a sonic boom Sunday afternoon, it was probably us.  I joke, but it was really nice not to be behind the wheel.  On some of the more winding stretches and single track lanes it was white knuckle driving for me.  I was quite tense in the shoulders at the end of each day.  But Fiona loves it.  She only wishes we had something better than the little Renault to put to the test.

We found another gorgeous scenic drive to add to the list (North Deeside, Loch Ness, etc ...) - the Spey valley in the Cairngorm Mountains.  Mountains and greenery, with a slowly meandering river alongside.  I can see why it was so busy in Aviemore.  I guess all the families on Easter break took the chance to drive through as well.  The Subway where we stopped for lunch had a line out the door and had run out of all veggie extras except pickles, cucumbers and olives.  When a Subway no longer has lettuce, you know things are bad (or good, if you own the Subway).

Casey seems to have had a good time at her kennel.  Not as nice as Waggin Tails in Houston, but she had an indoor/outdoor dog run and access to other puppies.  She's sleeping it off now, and doing a lot of dreaming, moving her paws and barking softly.  It's a dog's life.

I think we're in need of some extra sleep, too.  As a parting gift today I've cobbled together a map showing our journey over the weekend.  Blue for the way out and Skye itself, red for the trip back.  If we were to put together a similar map for all our Scottish travels, we would have a lot of the map covered.