Good morning (afternoon here),

We're having a lovely time in Scotland.  You can see a few photos from the past few days posted to Mike's Facebook page.

On Thursday, after an eight hour flight we arrived in Glasgow at 6:30am.  Having traveled enough overseas we knew our best way to combat jet lag is to get as much sunlight as possible (hard to find sunlight in the UK) and stay up until at least early evening (also hard to do).  We checked our luggage at the train station and went for a 5 mile walk along the River Kelvin in Glasgow.  It's a lot like walking along the

Bow River except there's more vegetation and the buildings are older.  

At noon we caught the train to Edinburgh, a quick 50 minute trip with

trains leaving every 15 minutes.   It was very hard not to fall asleep

on the train and while Mike chivalrously volunteered to stay away while Angela slept there was at least one time when both of us nodded off.

The train arrived at Haymarket Station in Edinburgh which is two blocks away from Mike's office.  We met up with his coworkers and had lunch at the Haymarket Pub which Nigel describes as "disturbingly cheap".  Mike's coworker Ranald just got back from his honeymoon in Bali, so there we weren't the only jet lagged tired people at the table.  The meal was indeed cheap and not very good but the conversation made up for it.

After lunch we got a ride to the flat, settled in, and went for a walk in search of some dinner.  We ate at a nice place but felt a bit embarrassed as neither of us could stop yawning and falling asleep face down in our meal was a very real possibility.  Finally we got to sleep around 9pm.  Mission accomplished!

Friday was a low-key day.  Lots more walking around, lunch with Nigel and Linda, and finally dinner and board games at the Michael, the best man's, house.  Michael lives in Edinburgh but is originally from Belfast.  His parents still live in Belfast but they also have a small flat in Edinburgh which they stay at when they want to visit their grandchildren.  We're staying in their flat.

Saturday was the wedding.  Edinburgh is in Lothian county and the wedding ceremony was at Linda's church in Dunfermline in Fife, which is the county west of Lothian.  We caught a ride with another wedding guest to the church.  The ceremony was delightful although we felt a bit out of place when nearly everyone were singing the hymns.  Both Nigel and Linda come from very religious backgrounds and both still practice their faith just as religiously.  After the ceremony there was a light meal and ice cream reception at Carnegie Hall next door for all guests who

attended the ceremony while the bride and groom did photos.   Andrew

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline and both the hall in Dunfermline and the famous concert hall in New York are named after him.  Nigel and Linda decided on the ice cream reception in the spirit of taking care of their wedding guests and giving people enough to do and eat during the photos which are traditionally quite a boring time for guests.

After the ice-cream reception it was a 40 minute drive back to The Hub in Edinburgh for the evening meal and dance.  The meal was very nice. 

We learned two important things: there is no tradition of clinking glasses in Scotland and it is possible for the British to cook their meat to medium rare and leave some moisture in it.

Finally the night ended with a Ceilidh which is traditional Scottish dancing best described as full contact square dancing.  Mike attended a Ceilidh with Nigel in 2005 while on business in Edinburgh and has been looking forward to another one every since.  It was fantastic with both of us dancing nearly every dance until 12:45am.  Angela says that Mary and Barry would recognize two of the dances as Turkey in the Straw and Virginia Reel albeit to odd music.  After a quick taxi home we collapsed in bed sometime after 1am.

Mike was up at 9am playing a new game on his computer and Angela slept in until nearly noon.  She's trying to catch up on some much needed sleep which is lacking when Matthew wakes early and Calvin is hard to get to sleep before 10pm.  We went for great seafood at Fishers restaurant.  Angela is currently touring the National Gallery of Scotland and Mike is in Starbucks composing this email.  In a bit we're heading to the pub to meet with Ranald (the newlywed who was just in

Bali) and his wife Naomi to watch the final game of the World Cup: Spain versus The Netherlands.  While Ranald was born in Scotland he was raised in Holland, speaks Dutch, and will be cheering hard for "The Orange Men"

to win.

Monday and Tuesday are reserved for more walking around and more touristy type activities.

Lots of Love,

Mike and Angela

(P.S. Yes, Mike wore a kilt to the wedding)