Carey Anne
I have anxiety problem about travel; forgetting things, going through security, my bags being too heavy, --all these things, and more, freak me out. But the actual flying part is no problem. I love the feeling of taking off, I love seeing little towns below, I love flying through the clouds. The towns over France were beautiful and the hills of Scotland were magnificent. The funny thing about flying, though, is the landing. Every time we landed, the plane went higher and then got lower to the ground. Isn't that funny? When you actually hit the ground, it's always very bumpy.

Maggie
I thought it was cool when we were going through security in the Philadelphia airport how many different cultures there were. And on the airport shuttle bus in Paris there was four different families: one was French, one was Chinese ,one was Russian, and one was Scottish. Then again on the plane when we flew from Paris to Edinburgh I was sitting in between a French family and a Scottish person.

Ellie
When we were in the airport I saw tons of people rushing around to get to their planes. We walked a long way to get to our flight. I was scared to go on the airplane to Scotland. I thought we were going to fall into the ocean. Before we took off, the stewardess showed us how to work the life preservers under our seats. And there was an air mask we would need to put over our mouth and nose. I stopped being scared as soon as the plane started down the runway. It was fun to take off and look around at the small trees and houses below us. It was so pretty to fly through the clouds.

Carey Anne
The portions when shopping for food at the market are much smaller than at home. And when you look around at the people, you can tell that they are eating less. There are less overweight people here. But when you go out to eat the portions are as big as in the States. There are many of the same restaurants here as we have as home: McDonalds ("MacDs"), Burger King, Subway (tastes and smells the same here as at home), Pizza Hut, Dominos, Starbucks, TGIFridays, and more. Even though it is weird to have them here, it is also comforting to see a "familiar" face.

Maggie
We ate at a pub near Edinburgh Castle called The Castle Arms. I just had a bacon cheeseburger. But the bacon was very thick, fatty and rubbery. eeeew. My family had Scottish food. Carey had fish and chips. Mommy and Ellie had sausage, mash and Yorkshire pudding which was bready with meat -- not like the Jello pudding cups. And my Daddy had Haggis, Neets, and Taties. "Haggis" is ground up sheep bits, "Neets" are turnips mashed up and "Taties" are potatoes.

Ellie
When we got here, we hung out at the house for a little then went to the grocery store. It is kind of like the supermarket we have at home, except they sell clothes, school supplies, and toys too! They had lots of food in cans. It was very cold. Vegetables were out in crates like at Central Market in Lancaster. The boxes of food are smaller. Food from our country were in packages that look different from ours. They don't have frozen waffles. We bought Kelloggs corn flakes, Hartley's jam, Macaroni and cheese, Heinz baked beans, and spaghetti. The kid's yogurt is called Frubes. My favorite thing to eat here has been pancakes with the yummy raspberry jam.

Carey Anne, Maggie, Ellie, and their parents on Iona in front of the Abbey.

Carey
Here in Edinburgh, and Stirling too, there are so many different cultures. It's crazy. You'll be walking down the sidewalk and in less then 10 seconds you've heard at least two different languages and accents. It's like a huge Kids and Cultures Camp! :D Many English campers are here from different countries. We've passed groups of Italian teenagers, French teenagers, Spanish teenagers, German teenagers, Asian teenagers, and probably other countries too (all of their languages kind of sound the same to me:) It's so cool though. I love walking down the side walk with kids who look like me, act like me, are having fun with their friends, and are probably having the same kinds of conversations I have with mine, but in a totally different language.

Maggie
After visiting Stirling Castle this week, we drove west to visit Iona. On the way we went to a cafe that our new friend Antonia told us to go to. It is called the Real Food Cafe. I had a burger, Ellie had chicken nuggets, Mom had a salad, and Dad and Carey had fish-n-chips. It is a long drive to where we were headed and we missed the second ferry to get over to the Isle of Mull. We had missed our ferry by two hours! Everything closes here so early. A friendly man at a full hotel in Lochaline told us the only place we could stay was a bunkhouse an hour away. To get there we had to go down a long, windy, single-lane road. The road had lovely scenery on either side like green hills with shadows from the clouds floating over them, and white little specks that were sheep.

Ellie
My middle name is Iona. I was named after an island we visited here in Scotland. You can only get there by a ferry from the Isle of Mull. It is an old place where an ancient, broken down nunnery is. There are lots of sheep on the island. Mom and Dad found a small museum there next to a rebuilt church (where people still worship) with a lot of old carved stones in it. I have a cross that I wear that was made a long time ago in Iona that my aunt Lisa and uncle Steve gave to me. In that little museum I found a carved stone that matched my cross.

Carey
There are sheep everywhere, and they aren't fenced in either.
They walk around Mull like they own the place.
Many Indian people run the Edinburgh tourist shops.
Buses are all different colors.

Maggie
Stirling Castle is very big with lots of passages
A dog on Iona wanted to play fetch with me
Lovely mountains

Ellie
The palace at Stirling Castle is being remodelled
The hike up Alva Glen was hard and easy
The road to Iona made me sick

Maggie
A few days ago we went to Alva Glen. It is a very, very, very big wooded hill/mountain. We went there because friends of ours, the Nyguists, told us we had to climb it. And Mommy was eager to climb something after our winding drive across the Isle of Mull. Alva Glen was STEEP. The pathway up had some stairs and handrails here and there. We saw many beautiful waterfalls as we went up. When we got to the top, we saw three baby deers and lots of sheep. While we were climbing down, I imagined a scary story in which I twisted my ankle on the narrow and crumbly path. As I pictured it in my mind, Daddy would have to carry me and then we would fall down the mountain and all die. But Daddy said that instead we should imagine that there were two "rescue sheep" called Alva and Glen. They'd carry me instead. This cheered me up and we all started singing songs from the movie "The Sound of Music." We made it safely to the bottom and got back to our car by cutting through a golf course.

Carey
One of my favorite places we went to this trip was the Edinburgh Zoo. I really like zoos. This one had animals like we would have in the States-- lions, zebras, penguins, flamingos, and monkeys. What was cool about this zoo, though, was that it was on a hill. I felt as though the animal exhibits were spiraling upward. And the animal exhibits were very nicely laid out, with lots of trees and water. My favorite part was the penguins. Everyday, at 2:15pm, there is a Penguin Parade. The penguins get to decide if they want to do the parade that day or not. They volunteer. It was so cute! The little penguins waddling around, looking so pleased with themselves. It was super cool to go to a zoo in a different country.

Ellie
Yesterday we went to a castle that I liked. It was called Doune Castle. It was old and a wee bit ruined but had echo-ie rooms that were deserted and fun to look at. I really liked that there wasn't a lot of stuff that you had to read. Instead, there was a small speaker thing that you held to your ear. Each room was numbered and there was 16 things to listen to. My favorite place to go in the castle was up on the battlements. I saw where they would pour hot oil over the walls onto their enemies and I even found the a "toilet" up there!