Dear Mom,

If you are a mom, please do not sign your comments as "mom."

We do not know who you are.

Love,
Heather & Dan

How's it gong?

So today was an adventure!

First I went to church and was the only person other than the baptism family who didn't have grey or white hair. So we'll see how that goes.Then Dan & I headed to Glencoe to do some hiking. We didn't make it to our original destination but we found a geocache and other cool things instead. So a note on Highland towns: they are named some combination of Glen, Inver, Nevis, Loch, Coe, and Kin. Like Glencoe, Inverlochy, Invercoe, Kinlocheil, or Inverroy.

We got off the bus in Glencoe and decided to look for a geocache since it was nearby. Since we don't know the trails in the area yet, we just took the first footpath that we found going in the right direction. We hiked through a beautiful forest, and up a hill covered in heather and then back down the hill into the forest again... only to find a really simple, flat, footpath that led straight to the cache. However, it was well worth the amazing views we had from the hike. We were very happy to enjoy SUNSHINE on the hills, even though it rained a few times.

After that we decided to walk to some town that we can't pronounce, Ballachulsh, because that's where the tourist information centre is. We were trying to find the trail to a place we had read about on the internet called the lost valley. The walk ended up being quite long and the tourist info centre was just brochures and gifts, no helpful people like in Fort William. There turned out to be an old, abandonded slate quarry right across the road from the centre. It was really fun to explore, there were millions of little pieces of slate everywhere and some massive rocks that had fallen from the cliffs. When we were done exploring the quarry we took an earlier bus home as we were getting hungry and it started to get cold.

Tomorrow is my first day of work - yay.

Oh, we went to the local pubs friday. We found this crazy downstairs place thats at the original historical street level, and there was this crazy door that is heather-sized.

But, grip, neck, shaft, throat, blade, tip....

Yeah, the paddle song got me a job!

Well, at the interview they asked about teaching canoeing and kayaking to kids. So I said I usually take them knee deep out in the water to practice strokes and sing the paddle song. And at the end of the interview, they told me that I am the right person for the job, and that they especially like the singing!

I am working here, at Nevisport in Fort William.

*Random Applause*

This is the Scotland I've been waiting for!!!

We haven't been in Fort William very long, but its a great place so far. The main street is just full of outdoors shops, and the hostel is full of Canadians! And lots of other awesome people. Tonight we introduced the other hostel-stayers to the joys of s'mores. And someone had a guitar so we sang songs and laughed and basically had a good time.

Our hostel overlooks the lake, with some mountains beyond it. Behind us is Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the UK. Some Australians here climbed it today - we will definetly be making it to the top while we are here.

Tomorrow I have my first job interview for a company called Nevisport, an outdoors store. We are also looking in to working at a hotel where we would also be provided with accomodations.

Anyways its bed time, we want to get up early tomorrow so we can do some exploring!

The photos of the four elements are laid in the road at the end of the pedestrian mall in the town.

I'm the Queen of the Castle!

Tomorrow morning, Dan and I are hopping on the bus and travelling north to Fort William, the 'Outdoors Capital of the UK.'

But first, what have we been up to this week?

We sent many, many emails and phone messages looking for flats or rooms. Of these we only got to see one place, the rest either ignored us entirely, told us the flat was not available to couples, or that it was already gone. The flat we saw was average, but the people there seemed really nice. We thought about taking it...

But we still didn't have any job interviews. So, we are off to Fort William! It sounds like a great town! There are lots of hotels that are hiring, who offer accomodations with the jobs. There are also many outdoors gear shops, and a really amazing place called Ice Factor. It has the world's largest indoor ice climbing wall, and many other really cool fun things. It is also close to Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the UK.

Monday evening we walked (long walk) over to Arwen's amazing flat to hang out. It was a fun walk, we went under a canal. Everyone else seems to think this is normal, I was pretty impressed. The fence around the canal was amazing, it was made into art instead of being straight bars. We passed a random playground with cool play equipment, and bought ice cream and chocolate bars on the way.

Today was our last day in Glasgow for a while, so we decided to do the tourest thing and see all the sights at once, so we went on a bus tour! It was actually pretty interesting and a good way to see everything (you can get on and off the bus at 21 stops, as many times as you want). We started at St. George's Square, a main square in the old part of town. We saw Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow Green, and some thing nicknamed Armadillo, its a concert hall that looks like the Sydney Opera House.

We got off the bus to explore the Museum of Transport, and the University of Glasgow which is beautiful! Sorry but Tabaret is nothing special anymore, U of Glasgow looks like Parliament!

Dan tried to go to a pool session to go kayaking tonight and unfortunately that didn't work out. He contacted them a few days ago to ask about the night, and they told him where and when. He got there and found out there currently are no pool sessions as they do not have a qualified lifeguard. Very, very annoying.

Bed time now, as we leave in 10 hours!

I <3 Photosynthesis (More Botanic Gardens)

Photo Slideshow

Caption Contest

From the Botanic Gardens today.

What is Dan thinking? What is Arwen saying?

(Other than the obvious fact that they are both going to kill me for posting this, but they can delete it themselves if they hate it enough)

Because it's cheaper to call home than a house down the street, that's why.

Okay here we are in Scotland!!!

The flight over was nothing special, but that's a good thing when it comes to flying. We were early arriving in Glasgow, the flight was only 5 1/2 hours because the winds were in our favour. Kenneth picked us up from the airport and brought us home where Valerie had a wonderful breakfast waiting!

Today was our first "full" day in Glasgow (but not quite because we slept in rather late). We exerienced the glasgow underground which is nothing at all like the Toronto subway! First of all its tiny. The cars are very short (length and height, they are around 6' tall inside) and the route just goes in a circle.

We met up with Arwen downtown at Buchanan street and started randomly wandering... and randomly wandered right back home! Well, to the neighbourhood anyways.

The shortcut from Kenneth's house goes through the Botanic Gardens which are absolutely beautiful. The trees all have name tags which is helpful. There are some glasshouses (greenhouses) that we haven't explored yet but they should be filled with cool things.

"...my flashlight makes phone calls."

In 24 hours I'll be over the Atlantic...

...and well on my way to being in Scotland!!!!

This week has been great.

Thursday was "thanksgiving" dinner at my house, since we won't be home for the event and it was nice to have a get-together before we left. Heather's family (Mom, Dad, Kyra) were there of course, with both grandma Marion AND grandma Bonnie, too! From Dan's family there was Tricia, John, uncle Mark and aunt Naureen, and Grandy and Gramps interrupted their busy square dancing and camping schedule to have dinner with us.

The turkey was amazing, so was the team-effort gravy, Kyra made her newly famous sweet potatoes but the best thing was Tricia's home-made ice cream cake!

Friday was a fun night at Dan's including friends, Zombies, and Fire Poi... what more can anyone ask for?

Today I PACKED!! All ready to go now, can't wait. Also dinner at Dan's and when I got back to weigh my bags I realized that I gained FOUR POUNDS eating those ribs and potatoes! Very, VERY good dinner.

So I will write again from Scotland. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

As of wednesday night...

To Do:

• Shopping
• Packing
• Cleaning room at home
• Bye-bye parties

Done:

• Visa!
• Insurance
• Plane Tickets
• Job Application
• Daydreaming all day about Scotland

The Genius Logic Behind Heather and Arwen's Travel Plans ®

The following story does not explain why we decided to go to Scotland in the first place, but its just some fun.

The Genius Logic Behind Heather and Arwen's Travel Plans ®
Or, How Scotland is Close to Brazil

Once we're in Scotland, we're practically in England.
Once we're in England, we're pretty much in France.
Once we're in France, we might as well visit Italy.Once we're in Italy we're just a hop, skip and a jump from Sicily.
Once we're in Sicily, we're as close as you can get to Malta and we can't turn that down!
Once we're in Malta we'd be foolish not to go to Morocco.
Once we're in Morocco... Mexico starts with an M, too!
Once we're in Mexico, we're not far from Brazil.
Once we're in Brazil... we might contemplate going home, but probably not.