The Deeside Hotel Ballater

... drove all over the Caringorm Mountains today and I found some beautiful poisonous mushrooms which I have added photo's of.

Tomorrow we move on to Isle of Sky, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in Scotland. It will be a long drive but we should see many great things. Our driver is spoiling us and has been wonderful and it just could not have been a better trip for us. The lodgings have been luxurious and the food great.

... and of course the gift shop! I am finding many presents to bring home-just hope the suitcase will hold it and those TShirts I'm getting rid of help the weight. Glad I brought the little pod case that Karen loaned me and am sure we will use it.

Saw some lovely views of which I am attaching some photo's. It rained during the night and in some locations ...

... having the vision a head of time!

We passed through Blairgowery a town where my Great Great and Great Great Great Grandfathers were born. We stopped at many churches and were unsuccessfully in finding out further info, however we were invited in by some locals and treated royally, offered tea and asked to take a seat. Quite nice. In the process we ...

Looking forward to the over 14,000 mile trip and the 19 hours flying.

Left the nice sunny day in Aberdeen. Nice view back down on the city/north sea as well as the office / quarry / home.

Also got some pictures of St Andrews again. But then it clouded up.

Rothes is the little Scottish village where the Glen Grant Whiskey Distillery is located. It is part of the Speyside Whisky Trail, where the largest concentration of Scotch whisky distilleries is located in Scotland. This large valley is popular among distillers because this is where most of the barley is grown for the distillation process.

The distillery has a nice garden and a gift shop.

Well, I thought I would miss it, but had to walk through a little rain to/from the taxi and from the gate to the plane. Don't you just love airports with outside stairs?

Plus it is always fun to watch the flight attendants clean up all that rain that gets into the cabin in their seat/work area.

So today is our wedding anniversary, so most of my thoughts were consumed by missing my husband horribly.
Anyway, we had breakfast at Ardno House and hit the road. Our destination was Dufftown in Speyside (whisky capital of Scotland) but we also stopped in Loch Ness. This is not somewhere I planned to go. I typically try to avoid tourist traps, but Jodi was just so excited about it, so off we went. Besides, it wasn't ...

Super windy, but at least the sun was shining. The Wigwam was so much better than the cold tent! Were awake pretty early again so had yummy crumpets and headed further north again following the coast. Drove along the costal trail and through the outskirts of Edinburgh as we've been there before. The sea was super choppy, it was still blowing a gale!

Drove over Forth Road Bridge ...

I don't like those phone calls that come in on my blackberry. I shouldn't have told one of my friends that I would be in Aberdeen for 2-1/2 weeks. Shortly after I said that, the call came and I was packing my bags. A couple more aerial photos of the city, including one of the office and my flat.

... to actual mountains to moors with creeks, streams, rivers and lochs all thrown into the mix. I don't think the pictures even do it justice. This is a place of the world that I definitely reccomend to any of you that love seeing different parts of what our world has to offer. I'm really looking forward to going to the west coast with all of the islands, beaches and coastline. It's also supposed to be stunning. Crossing my fingers on the weather for this ...