Continuing With Scotland/London Trip . . .

Leaving Glasgow, we drove north along the shores of Loch Lomond Britain's largest lake.  We made a stop at Fort Augustus and took a short cruise on the very scenic Loch Ness with the hopes of seeing Nessie!  Scotland is just beautiful and the people are so warm and friendly! Tonight we are staying in the 18th Century Tulloch Castle, the castle that is believed by some to have a ghost living there.  The way the story goes is, the little girl in the family discovered her father in an awkward situation with the maid.  She ran out of the room down the stairs and fell to her death.  She is believed to be roaming the halls of the castle . . . unfortunately we never ran in to her.

Leaving Glasgow heading north

W found out that the sheep outnumber the people in Scotland!

Tulloch Castle

Our private dinning room in the castle

Front Door of the Castle

Could this be Nessie?!

Look Back at Scotland . . . day 1

On August 5th we landed in Glasgow at 7:30 am as did the other members of our group!  Family and friends came from Chicago, California, South Carolina and of course all of us from New Mexico!  After passing through customs we met our tour guide Barbara, who was fantastic, boarded our coach bus for a city tour of Glasgow since our hotel was not available until mid afternoon. The first thing I noticed were the beautiful Victorian red stone buildings, many  draped with beautiful flower accents.  While most of the sights were historical in nature, at 10:00 we pulled up to Auchentoshan Distillery to see the process of whiskey production.  At the end of the tour, samples of various scotch whiskey were enjoyed by most! It was a long travel day so we all shared an early dinner, talked until we couldn't keep our eyes opened and then off to bed so we were well rested for our early start to find the Loch Ness Monster. . .

Glasgow

Whiskey in the making!

Finished Product

Dolan Fountain

Anticipating My Trip!

This time next week I will be on a plane for a very exciting trip with 21 people . . . some family members and some close friends.  We are taking a trip to Scotland and London! I'm not sure what excites me more the trip or the wonderful people making up the tour! We have been planning this for almost a year and it's hard to believe it is almost here.  I am so grateful to be going and can't wait to come back and share all the wonderful sights we are fortunate enough to see and experience.  Life can pass us by so quickly, so we need to be sure to stop and smell the roses . . . corny but true ;-) I won't be blogging for the next couple of weeks, but I plan to journal so I don't forget any details!  See you in a few weeks!

Look Back at a Great Week!

Had a great visit when my brother and sister-in-law came last week!  It's always fun and this time was no exception.  We took my brother to our "body combat class" which he loved!  He was very impressed with the high intensity of the class.  :-)  We went hiking at the Petroglyphs, which is always a visitor favorite.  It's like stepping back into a history class.  They wanted to do something we had not done so we went to the Botanical Gardens for the evening music concert in the park.  Gorgeous evening, great food and music and the company of course was awesome! We also attended our first Isotope AAA baseball game. New Mexico does not have any professional teams, which was hard coming from Chicago, but, we decided to give it a shot.  Fun filled evening even though they lost. Their last day/night we had a pool party to introduce them to the new friends we have made.  Again, perfect day and evening!  The plan is for them to also move out here within the next couple of years.   Here are a few pictures from their visit!

Beautiful Sunset just for them!

My sister, brother and cousin at Petroglyphs

 

Petroglyphs

My cousin, sister and sister-in-law enjoying the music!

Go Isotopes!

Start to my birthday celebrations thanks to my brother! And yes it was yummy!!

My First Year . . .

It is a one year since I've retired and have moved to New Mexico.  The year has flown by to say the least! A year with many changes but happily all the changes have been good! I'm starting to feel like it's now home . . . and I love it here! Of course I will always miss the people that are part of my life, but so many have come to visit and I can share this wonderful place with them. So my slice today is some of the reasons I love it here . . .

The lifestyle . . . much slower and definitely less stressful
The weather . . . one word awesome! Four seasons to enjoy but no extremes like Chicago
The sun . . . that it shines most every day

The people . . . so friendly and generally kind and helpful
The beauty that I see everyday . . . mountains, breathtaking sunsets,  awesome hiking trails and open land that goes on for miles
New friends that we have made in our neighborhood
Seeing the hot air balloons floating on most days
Watching the geckos running freely and sunning often

So hard to choose . . .so many beauties

I never tire of seeing them

One of the hiking trails

The view from the front of the house of the city of Albuquerque