Travel, live, experience!
I LOVE plants, especially those of a flowering variety (just ask anyone who knows me well!). It does not much matter whether the blooms appear on commonly found plants along the roadside or in intricately maintained castle gardens; they are all lovely. And so, in the spirit of my affection for all flowering vegetation, please enjoy these flowers of Scotland in August 2020.
Our first trip to Slains Castle happened in April 2018. It was striking. A castle on the cliffs of the sea. At the time, the wind blew relentlessly and cold. One may have wondered whether the castle guarded against the sea, the land or the elements. Regardless, the castle must have been quite an impending sight in its zenith, because it was quite inspiring as ruins.
This time the weather for our visit was much more temperate, and the castle was just as striking. We didn’t explore inside the castle as much, because the site was well populated. But the nice weather allowed us to explore closer to the sea. There were some very nice green lawns around the grounds, and we sat down for a picnic lunch and enjoyed the food by the sea.
We also explored a bit down on the rocky crags by the sea. We found some flowers and scenic spots for pictures. We even found a number of very large jellyfish. Donna, Kathleen and I went in search of the sea caves that signage alluded to, but alas, we didn’t locate them. At least the hike was really beautiful anyway!
The castle inspired Bram Stoker for the setting for Dracula. Travel information can be found at https://www.visitabdn.com/listing/slains-castle. Historical information can be found at http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM3250 .
On the way back to Inverurie, we stopped at the Bullers of Buchan. What is a Buller, you ask? We asked the same question. Merriam-Webster defines buller as a whirlpool; where the sides rise and the center drops to form a low spot. This makes a bit of sense for the Bullers of Buchan, if you consider the center of the Bullers depressed to the sea. However the definition applies, the Bullers of Buchan are amazing. They are essentially cliffs that wrap around to meet (forming a land bridge), with an opening at the base towards the sea. The cliffs seem very tall (maybe 200-300 feet as a guess).
Sea gulls adorned the cliffs and the calls and echoes provide quite a cacophony. We captured several views, and fortunately the weather was very pleasant.
The Bullers of Buchan are perhaps a five minute car ride from Slains Castle, and well worth the stop.
And…Mo was kind enough to provide several self-portraits to add a more…ahem…personal touch for this post. Thanks, Mo!!
After our two weeks’ quarantine, we were excited to get out and explore the Scottish countryside (in a socially distanced sort of way). Our first adventure, on August 14, was climbing Mither Tap (part of Bennachie – a range of hills in Aberdeenshire). Mither Tap stands at 1699 feet and offers gorgeous views of the surrounding area (www.walkhighlands.co.uk/aberdeenshire/mither-tap.shtml ) . Near the top, we passed through the remains of an undated fort that may have been build n the dark ages.
The hike up to Mither Tap from the Bennachie Visitor’s Center took a little over an hour and started easily enough. We passed a lovely stone wall that ran alongside what started out as a wide packed-earth path. Gorse (sadly, not in bloom this time of year), heather and a wide variety of other plants lined our slight ascent. Gradually the path narrowed and became a bit steeper, taking us through beautiful, tall trees. The final stretch was far steeper and rocky, but offered an absolutely beautiful view of purple heather.
After arriving back in Michigan in mid-March, Kevin and I (along with pretty much the rest of the world) locked down at our home to ride out Covid-19. Kathleen’s wedding ceremony was postponed until summer 2021, along with her visit home from Scotland (with her fiance, Mo), our trip to Vegas to celebrate Morgan’s 21st birthday….and so on. You know, the stuff that drops by the wayside when a pandemic hits.
It wasn’t all bad. We played LOTS of card games with family and took the opportunity to finish up several pending home projects. Now we have a completed deck, entry patio (and walkway), concrete hot tub pad next to the deck, storage platform in the garage, a rebuilt Little Free Library….and a HUGE garden! We took a LOT of walks on the Heartland Trail (which is located alongside our property), enjoyed spring and summer flowers & critters…and Kevin tended to his bees. Donna also made a TON of masks (with occasional supervision from Pearl the Cat).
Throughout lockdown, we anxiously watched the news to see if we would be able to travel to Scotland for the month of August. (Even though the wedding celebration was postponed, we had already booked airline tickets for 5 weeks in Scotland). We were in luck!! Stay tuned for highlights from our 2-week quarantine with Kathleen & Mo, as well as our post-quarantine, socially-distanced exploration of the Scottish countryside.
2020 has been a wild ride…and it isn’t over yet!!
When it was time to head home, we decided to stop by one last sight – the Grand Canyon. Kevin saw this National Park when he was young, and Donna had never been. The park was pretty packed, but we were able to find parking, and our way to the south rim of the canyon.
To say that the canyon was enormous is a bit of an understatement. We walked a few miles along the rim, and found several places to take in the unique scenery of the canyon. There was a museum display along the path that provided examples of different rocks and the time when that particular rock formed. It was quite interesting.
The stop was well worth it, and as always, we could have spent more time, and even descended into the canyon. But with Coronavirus starting to loom closer, we decided we should probably head home.
Our final destination for our grand tour was Las Vegas, NV. We have visited this great vacation location numerous times since Erika and Jeff introduced us in 2006. But we’ve never stayed in an RV there, so here’s to new adventures!
We stayed at the KOA at Sam’s Town. The park was fine. The close proximity to Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall made a daily walk to visit our favorite slots and tables a must! My favorite machine was one of the Wonder Woman machines. In addition to looking at old pics and video from the classic 1970’s TV show, starring Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman paid me the most in jackpot winnings! Of course I dutifully lost all the winnings and ended ‘down’ for the trip.
If Sam’s Town leaves you wanting more Vegas, you can catch the shuttle from the hotel to the strip or to down town. The shuttle schedule was published in our campsite documentation, and the shuttle was free to and from.
We decided to go for a run one morning on the Flamingo Arroyo Trail that took us down by the canal. The trail has great potential, and it was marked as a Neon to Nature Trail. Aside from getting our exercise, we were saddened by the homeless we jogged past.
Donna flew to Florida for a few days for a business trip, so Kevin suffered through a few days solo in Vegas (poor guy!). Not to worry, he did have his favorite Wonder Woman slot machine for company…
As we were getting ready to leave, Erika told us that she, Jeff and Brooks were coming through Vegas, so we stayed a couple extra days. Kevin went to the UFC championship fights with Jeff and Brooks, and later we all played blackjack. It was super fun to visit.
We also made a day trip up to Mesquite, NV to play bingo with Mary and Bob. Donna even won $200! We had a great time visiting friends and family in Vegas!
Alas, all things come to a close, and after Vegas, it was time to head home – by way of the Grand Canyon.
After braving the cold in Huntington, we were looking forward to the 80F and sunshine every day in Hurricane, promised by Lyle. Well, it rained all day and was cold! Okay, it wasn’t too bad after that one day of rain.
We spent time with Mary and Lyle (Bob), Donna’s sister and brother in law. Visiting was fun, and Kevin got to return a favor by helping Bob install a range hood. This doesn’t come close to covering all the assistance Bob provided over the last two years building our house… We also played many rounds of golf (the card game, since Bob was still recovering from surgery), and just enjoyed hanging out.
We took one day to travel to nearby Mesquite, NV to play Bingo. Bob was the big winner of the day, which will surprise very few who know him. Mequite was nice, and the Virgin River Casino looked like a fun place to stay and gamble.
Hurricane is in Southwest Utah, very close to Zion National Park which we visited and you can read about in another blog. We stayed at the Sand Hollow State Park, which was lovely. Sand Hollow is on the site of a reservoir creating a great spot for fishing, sunning on the red rocks, or cruising the surrounding dunes and desert on a ATV/UTV – or on foot, as we did. There was a curfew for those staying at the park because of the concern of invasive mollusks coming into the reservoir on boats. So we had to finish out visit every day by about 8:30 to be back in the park by 9:00 so they didn’t lock us out. But the park was clean, the camping spots were ample, and the park was beautiful.
We took a day to visit Zion National Park. Donna and I hiked three trails at the Park, The Upper Emerald Pool trail, The Riverside Walk Trail and the Canyon Overlook Trail. Each trail was brimming with spectacular scenes. On more than one occasion, we grabbed the camera to snap a picture, only to look through the viewfinder and realize there was no way to truly capture the experience. The colors, expanse, depth and magnificence just escapes the frame’s edge, and honestly, description. But we tried.
The Emerald Pools trail begins with a steep stair case, and continued to climb over the next half-mile to a pool fed by a misting fall from the mountain above. The pool was surrounded by mountain, and large boulders, and is only apparent from close proximity. It’s hidden nature adds to the quality of the experience and the aura surrounding the pool. As we descended, we took a trail that led to another pool fed from the pool above. This pool opened to the draw of the mountain, and you could see the valley below. There was quite a cliff at the edge, and we heeded the warnings to not get too close. The trail presented many views of the river valley below.
We drove out to the Riverside Walk trail head and hiked up the Virgin River. As we progressed the cliffs on either side diverged. This natural occurrence from the years of erosion was breathtaking. There were many places along the paved trail to step off and get right down on the river. There were a ton of photographers (apparently there was a workshop going on) trying to capture the essence of nature in this wonderful place.
The final trail for the day was the Canyon View Trail. We had to drive out top the trail head which involved a tunnel through the mountain that was completed in 1930. The tunnel had several windows carved out of the mountain. These windows provided the only light to the tunnel and also great views as you passed. This trail caused the most trepidation of the day. Donna was a good sport and posed for a couple pictures by the most uncomfortable of places on the trail. (Editorial comment (from Donna): Kevin is being far too kind. This trail scared the crap out of me!!! ).
We visited on a Monday, which Mary advised would be good because we were off-season, and we would miss the weekend crowd. Of all the National Parks and Recreation Areas visited on this trip to date, this was the most crowded. We would recommend visiting off season. The trails are quite narrow, and passing other hikers could present a challenge if the trails were more populated than we experienced. And finding a parking place was a significant challenge. All in all, this park was amazing.
From Spokane we backtracked just a little in Washington and Oregon and headed down through Idaho and far-eastern Nevada on our way to Huntington, Utah. Where is Huntington…and why on earth would we go there, you ask?? Well, Huntington is a tiny town situated in central Utah, and it is the home of Donna’s brother Clair and his wife, Lee (and their super-cute dog, Maggie). Donna has been to Huntington in the past, but this was Kevin’s first visit. The weather was a little colder than we would have liked, but totally worth it to hang out with family for a little while.
While in Huntington we toured a really awesome old cabin that Clair is rebuilding. One of Lee’s ancestors once lived in the cabin but it has been uninhabited for 70+ years. So cool! Donna is a major family history geek, and Kevin has certainly done his share of home renovations over the years, so this was right up our ally. We can’t wait to come back and see the cabin once the project is complete!
Huntington State Park and Huntington Canyon are nearby scenic attractions (as you could likely surmise given their names…). We took a day to hike around the park and drive up the canyon. Midway through our drive up the canyon it started to snow (really lightly). From that point until we descended into town, Kevin refused to get out of the car.
We were also fortunate enough to catch up with Donna’s nephew Caleb and her niece Ora while in Huntington. AND we made a trip to Arches National Park in Moab (but that’s another post).
While visiting Donna’s brother in Huntington, we took the opportunity to drive a couple of hours down to Moab to see one of Donna’s nieces. As it so happens, there are a TON of amazing parks near Moab…so we stopped at one of them on our drive. We chose Arches National Park because, frankly, the scenery was positively stunning!!
Since we only had one afternoon, we chose to hike a couple of the shorter trails in different areas of the park (rather than just one longer hike). We chose Windows Trail, Landscape Arch and Wolfe Ranch (with view of Delicate Arch). Driving between our hikes we saw so, so many breathtaking sights….too many to mention. If you have a chance to visit Arches, do it!!
A little Arches trivia for you: In 1991 part of the underside of Landscape Arch (the widest of the arches in the park) fell. The part that fell was 60 feet long, 11 feet wide and weighed somewhere around 180 tons. You used to be able to hike underneath Landscape Arch…but…not anymore! Find out more about Arches National Park at https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm .
