We made it!

 The overnight flight was wonderful and horrible at the same time. No glitches--they treated us right--extra leg room--SO excited to be going, yet, pretending to sleep for 4 hours didn't work at all. We arrived in Edinburgh very sleep deprived. Customs was easy and friendly. Then, the car rental.... We were told our car was reserved for 11am and it was 8am so the car we wanted was not available.  The guy explained that the bigger better car he had available was much cheaper than normal and diesel so would practically save us money in gas. After he told us the daily rate and we said okay THEN he said we needed to add insurance for almost the same daily rate (25 pounds a day.)  We started to say no and he said we'd have to pick that one or one for 15 pounds a day as our home insurance wouldn't cover us.  We still looked annoyed. He finally said you could just get tire and windshield insurance, the two most likely things to be damaged, for a mere 7 pounds a day.  As we jimmied the car out of the tiny parking lot and tried to negotiate from the left side of very narrow roads we felt a bit fleeced.

The harrowing ride from the airport to the hotel in Edinburgh City Centre almost killed us both from anxiety. The GPS read to us in perfect English but I swear she said the same thing about 8 times: "at the roundabout, take the second exit." We felt like we were doing figure eights all the way there and we kept looking the wrong direction for oncoming traffic.  I might have told Judd 6 times that he was too near the left curb out my window and he was too busy looking at the head on traffic on the very close dotted line out his right window.

But we survived to explore a bit and visit several parks and pubs. When we came out of one museum, a wedding procession was just going into the church across the street. Stories to follow.

Edinburgh Castle, closed for the night

My Scottish name is Morag....THAT's going to hurt in the morning.

Neighbor Carol (Scottish name Iona), always thinking of us, sent a quiz today to make sure we're prepped for our trip to Scotland. 
Take the quiz yourself:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/scottish-names-are-the-best-names?utm_term=.oyRY7QZk9J

Judd came out as Fergus.  (Oh boy--that's going to go to his head.)

I came out as Morag. (Doesn't sound flattering yet....)

We watched Disney's BRAVE last night, having already depleted all the re-runs of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (season 1) (and running out of time to actually read the next 6-7 novels in the series. ) We've got yellow stickies in about 6 travel books on Scotland but not one book has all the details of places we want to visit.  I'm about ready to razor blade out selective chapters from each book to meet my needs (like Judd does with his AT maps.) It won't make it very nice for the next person to borrow a Scotland travel book, but this week is all about me.

Scotland, here we come.

Just 4 days til we depart for Scotland. We've been inspired for quite a while. In January we held our second annual Burns' Night, complete with the Address to the Haggis and a Toast to the Laddies and Lassies. We've got no fewer than 6 travel books on Scotland and have been studying all that one can see and do there. We've been reading novels and histories and watching TV shows and examining maps. And now we're packing to actually go. Will tell you all about it later.

 

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Judd is back on the trail

Don't think I can sustain two blogs.  Will be helping Judd with the other one:

http://juddandmelanie.blogspot.com/2014/07/deja-day-1-vue.html

WoW!

WoW! I've been saving those cut out W's since February. They ended up in Quebec for a while. In April they finally made it to the Virgin Islands. 

Practicing at home with windowsill sea dollars

Quebec in February- "The Carnival Poutine Special" (what is it?)  "oh, it's just regular Poutine."

60th Annual Winter Carnival -Tim Horton Ferris Wheel- High of 19 degrees 

The St. John Virgin Island dilemma - which beach today?

The water really is that crystal blue

White sand instead of white snow in April -- I'll have that.

I meant to do that.

Plan C

Storm Pax was followed by Storm Quintin.  After all the on-hold angst we were re-booked to depart Boston on Sunday for the Virgin Islands.  Judd, being the new bookie, got the phone text saying "due to severe weather, your flight has been cancelled."  Yes, it happened in the comfort of our living room on Friday night. We weren't already en route to Boston in severe weather. We weren't lazing around Logan Airport at 9pm, looking for a way home.   We hopped right back on all the phones/computers to start asking for refunds, canceling hotels and car rentals/dog-sitters.  We did this virtually with the Thibodeaus, everyone too exhausted to walk next door and commiserate together THIS TIME.  But somewhere around midnight, Judd said, "Want to go to Quebec?"  and I said, "YES!" So miraculously, it was still the last two nights of their Winter Carnival and we found an  adorable auberge a block from the Frontenac with reasonable rates.  (MY suspicion was two folks from North Carolina just had THEIR winter vacation to Canada cancelled by severe down-south Pax and Quintin.)  We texted Carol and Omer to repack for a road trip at 7am.  It was after midnight.

At 7am when we called and woke them, they were not up for the sudden reversal in latitude.  We secured BACK the dog-sitters and hopped in the car.

I had visited Quebec summer 2009 with three kids in tow to meet up with Susanfriend and her husband and twins for the International Fireworks Contest.
http://internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/en/historique/historique.aspx
It had been August, 90 degrees, polar bears wouldn't get out of the water at their aquarium. But this trip, it was February, minus 10 to positive 10 degrees, all the roads and sidewalks covered with layers of snow, ice and slush. We did a good job of re-packing with triple long underwear, the hot-hands packets from the kids' stocking stuffers, hats and hats and hats. 

By day, we walked the streets of the Old City and the carnival proper up on the Plains of Abraham.  By night, we did it all over again, the ice fortress and snow sculptures all lit up. We downloaded the ap on our phone to follow the parade route.  We waited an hour lined up on the curb for the parade. We were okay that we only say the mini-beginningist of the parade and got cold and went back to the hotel. 

At dinner at Aux  Ancienes Canadienes, described on the travel reviews as, " This restaurant exemplifies traditional French-Canadian, aka cuisine Québécois. This is Not a French restaurant.  It is a restaurant showcasing the unique foods of the region. "  and  "very meatcentric."
Judd ordered the farmers plate and had about 8 kids of meat: meat pie, pig knuckles, foie gras, I can't even say what else.  At Le Petit Chateau, we had breakfast crepes the size of my bistro table. Everyone is very polite about letting you practice your baby French and then answering you back in impeccable English.

We shopped for trinkets and when we went to get a friend a cigar the young salesman apologized for stumbling on his English.  He couldn't flawlessly come up with words like "distinguish" or "reduce."  We told him it was okay -- he was speaking our language for us.

We stayed at Hotel Chateau Bellevue which was just a block from the Hotel Frontenac.  Nice window overlooking a park that overlooked the Saint Lawrence. The lobby had an amazing feature where you put in a card and it poured a glass of wine for you. 

One highlight was taking the ferry to Levis across the St. Lawrence.  Judd was stunned that the water was carry mini-icebergs in one direction part of the day and in the other direction later forgetting that it was tidal water.  The ferry took about 20 minutes to get across and another 5 minutes to align itself against the current. Judd was also a big fan of the Musee du Fort - a tiny museum with a ginormous diorama with small theater-seating.  You sit and watch the tiny lights go off on various ships and battlegrounds while a slide show plays for 15 minutes.  It was very helpful orienting us to the geography (and the history.)

My favorite thing was The Hotel de Glace, not in Old Quebec but 20 minutes outside of town which we visited on our way home. I CAN NOT imagine actually sleeping there, but I sure liked going room to room, each with a theme (Easter Island, Mayans) The overall theme was mythology and they had sculpted snow and ice in other rooms. One entire room was devoted to the Disney movie Frozen (which we have yet to see) and a mom there with her kids sliding around said it was fabulous. 

The Ice hotel slide show 1.7 minutes. The whole trip one is long (7min?)--I'm still working on how to edit it.

p.s. Carol helped us re-book while we were gone and we are slated for St. John in April!! Back to a new count down calendar........

Winter Storm PAX

en.wikipedia.org 

I've been counting down the days since September:  163 days........154.........95.......75......
....46......23.....9..8...7...6...5...4..3..2..1..... and today, day zero, on depart-for-St. John-Virgin Islands-Valentines-Day,  I'm sitting in my kitchen watching Judd snow-blow 12 inches of snow and freezing drizzle because my flight is cancelled. Sure, everyone else's flights from North Carolina to Canada are cancelled too.... but ours was special. This is our first adult only vacation in 26 years, going with the neighbors, Carol and Omer, to a tropical island, renting  a cottage (i.e. NOT camping.)  









I've been watching the daily temperature, looking forward to going from -6 to 84 degrees in one day.

I've been rolling our quarters and pennies, $210 dollars worth of coinage!

Then yesterday afternoon, we got the message of the flight cancellation. Carol and Judd and I spent, literally, hours on hold last evening trying to re-book the cancelled flights/reserved rooms while Omer cooked us consolation-comfort foods. The on-hold music (on three different phones) was the most obnoxious, rinky-tinky din--it's like they wanted us to give up and hang up. 





This morning, Judd is STILL blowing and shoveling. I'm keeping him company from the kitchen bistro table, keeping my eye on the Boston weather for tomorrow.