Reading this week:

• No Man’s Land by John Heminway

Our adventures in Skye loom large enough in my memory that I am somewhat surprised in going back through my journal that after only two nights we were already departing. We packed up and got on the road only to quickly meet our first obstacle: a gaggle of guineafowl blocking the road. My super amazing wife eventually had to get out and shoo them away. She reported that there was a sheep dog fenced into the bordering yard who was absolutely locked in on the flock. Very cute.

We cruised on down to Broadford for some final shopping, first into Love from Skye, where my super amazing wife to my chagrin did not try on any rings (I was hoping to find out what her size was in that shop with their strange UK ring size system). But she is swayed only by yarn and not by precious jewels so it was across the street at The Handspinner Having Fun where her eyes really lit up. They had a lot of tempting stuff there, including hand-knit sweaters and multicolor Harris yarn. Per usual I didn’t get anything but she added more yarn to her stash.

And shortly after that we were off Skye, heading back across the country to make it to Inverness, our last overnight location on the Scottish mainland. Along the way we cruised on by Loch Ness. I remember visiting Urquhart Castle and at least one of the museums dedicated to Nessie last time I was in Scotland. Alas, this time around we weren’t able to visit the castle (we couldn’t reserve parking) though we did stop into Drumnadrochit for some lunch and to pick up some obligatory Loch Ness souvenirs. My most significant personal discovery was that Loch Ness is big. I didn’t have to do the driving last time but we were cruising on by that lake for a while. Towards the north end we stopped at a turn-off to admire it for a bit, though we didn’t see Nessie.

And soon we were in Inverness. We did not have a great deal planned. In the evening the highlight was visiting Leakey’s Bookshop, which is charmingly creaky. I hope they take that as a compliment; I walked out of there with two different books on Africa. Then there was dinner at a local Chinese place, which mixed the surreal experience of eating British Chinese food with the discovery that most people were in fact ordering fish & chips. How much we still had to learn about the culture of this strange and exotic country.

The next morning we awoke and had a massive breakfast, strange only because we had it at Wee Wild Pancakes. My super amazing wife and I both had “Banoffee Pie,” except her in crepe form and me in pancake form, though neither of us could finish it. What we had anticipated being a slow day was unfolding ahead of us, so we did some low-key Inverness sightseeing, checking out the Kirkyard (upon review of that article man that place is ancient!) and then taking a walk up the River Ness. That seems like a very nice little river. As we walked around my super amazing wife kept spotting mini-Nessies (cormorants) until eventually we came to the finish line of a marathon, and spotted Nessie herself!

Our final stop in Inverness was into the Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, attracted as we were by the low low price of free (I gave them a donation). It was in fact really nice and you should make time to stop in. We enjoyed an art exhibit they had going on but what I liked the best was all the neolithic artifacts. And then all the Pictish stones! Last time I was in Scotland my grandpa had my mom drive him all around the northern bit of Scotland to look at various Pictish stones. I tagged along, and I remember that being a really great day. So that was nice to revisit some memories, as we hadn’t been able to get up to any of the stones during this trip. Next time we’re in Inverness I’ll have to dedicate more time to the museum and also read a book on those Jacobites. They seem like they were super passionate about their cause.

And from there we packed up in our rental car and head on out to catch the ferry to Shetland!