I married a haggis-eating, hill climbing loony. He married a wolf-woman.

Alex and I were in Scotland last week and I'll write a bit more about our trip as soon as he's processed the photos. We traveled with our granddaughter and son-in-law (ex) and had a fantastic time with them. Kyle's grandmother lived in Edinburgh until she married his grandfather, after WWII, so we visited her house. It was a shock to see it for rent! I tried to talk Kyle into renting it, but he remembered he lives in Canada.

We also stayed at the fantastic Castle Stuart where we enjoyed the hospitality of Caroline, Mrs. M, some shetland ponies, angora bunnies, ducks and pigs named Bacon and Norbert. If you ever have a chance to get to Inverness, I cannot recommend Castle Stuart strongly enough. TripAdvisor members voted it the 2nd best castle in all of Europe -- which is quite a tribute when you consider it's a tiny castle that was restored by a Scottish couple and now managed by their daughter.

I learned a few interesting things on this trip:
1. My granddaughter will eat just about anything -- mussels, haggis, icky things -- but she won't touch olives. Alex ate haggis, too. Yuck.
2. My son-in-law (ex) is great for the environment. If you've got food left over from your dinner but the castle pig, Norbert, isn't available Kyle will happily consume whatever's on your plate.
3. Alex is nuts. He made us climb the hill in the photo, right. We'd gone to visit the palace at Holyrood but he saw the hill and we spent the morning walking up it.
4. I'm crazier than Alex. When I saw the hill, I knew he wanted to walk up it, so I suggested, "Would you like to climb up that hill?"
5. Our granddaughter really laughs when I howl like a wolf and sing, "Werewolves of London."
6. Basil the Bunny who was rescued by Paws Here is now living happily at home in Edinburgh.
7. My granddaughter is a very good traveler. She didn't whine or pout or complain at all -- even when we awoke her at 3:00 a.m. to get on the plane to come home.
8. Our son-in-law (ex)comes from the Cummin clan. We came upon the graves of two of his ancestors. To Kyle's utter shock, both were wood workers. Kyle, too, is a wood worker. Shows you there's something to all that genetics stuff, doesn't it?
9. Scottish people are very, very nice...and funny. When one tour guide learned that Kyle came from the Cummin clan, he spat and said, "They're nothing but liars, scoundrels, thieves and adulterers." Hmmm... I'd never suspected Kyle was a scoundrel.