Wimbledon and Scotland!!!!

So much to write about! We’ve had an exciting past few days! Thursday morning, we went to Kingston Hospital for Phillip to take his surgery exam. (He has an exam after he completes each clinical rotation.) I found a comfy chair in a waiting room at the hospital and read a book during his 3 hour exam! He was so glad when it was over!!!! After he finished, we hopped on a train and went to Wimbledon!!!! Kingston is only about a 10 minute train ride from Wimbledon, so we figured this would be a good time to go! We had to walk forever to Queue…fancy word for waiting in line. We got there mid afternoon and got right in though, so we got lucky! We sat on the hill and watched Lisicki and Sharapova play on Center Court. That was neat! Then we wandered around and watched parts of other matches for awhile. We got some really good seats, even sat in the very front row for a mixed doubles match. That evening Lisicki played a really good doubles match and we had very good seats for that too! I had to splurge and buy strawberries and cream because Wimbledon is known for their strawberries and cream. (27,000 kilos of strawberries are sold each year at Wimbledon!) Oh so good!!!! We really enjoyed our time there! We joke that Phillip had to bribe me to move to England – his 2 bribes that actually had an effect on me were that he’d take me to Wimbledon and to see the Eiffel Tower! Now his mission is complete! :-)




This ticket made me VERY HAPPY!!!




strawberries and cream - sooooooo good!




Notice my tennis earrings and necklace - Can you tell that I was super excited to be there?!? :-)




Lisicki serving during a doubles match










We didn’t get home from Wimbledon till 10pm and then had work to do! Philip started looking online, trying to book a hotel room for the next 2 nights and I finished packing for us! He found a hotel room and got it booked, which meant…

Friday morning, we left early to take a taxi to Slough, then a train to London Paddington station, then the subway to Kings Cross, and finally a 5 hour train ride to SCOTLAND!!!!! We got to Edinburgh mid afternoon and checked into our hotel. Our hotel room was totally fine, but was described online as a “small room with a double bed with no view.” It was pretty small considering the price we had to pay, but it was nice which is all that matters! It even had wireless internet (so we could get online with Phillip’s IPod) and a flat screen TV, which Phillip seriously enjoyed watching at night! It was a treat for him!

After checking in at the hotel, we wandered around the city. We really had fun exploring and looking at all of the incredible buildings. We went into several gift shops and loved walking through an open air type of market. It had all sorts of stands set up, selling everything from food to crafts to candy! We bought some pastries to snack on in the hotel room…yum! We also got to sample some flavored cashews and some weird candy. The candy was Turkish Delight – chewy candy that was a really weird texture. The weirdest thing of all though was the flavor! ROSE! Who ever heard of the flavor rose? It seriously tasted just like roses smell…is that even possible?!?!? Soooo gross!!!! I love the smell of roses, but it seriously should not be a flavor! Haha! We had lots of fun though! We went to Edinburgh’s Hard Rock Café for dinner! That is one of Phillip’s favorite places to go when we travel! We really enjoyed it!






pastries at the outdoor market - delicious!!!



Celtic Cross - so neat!


Saturday morning, we walked the “Royal Mile” which we think is way longer than a real mile! The whole thing was slightly uphill too, which made it harder for me at 32 weeks pregnant! We went slow though and went into several shops along the way. We had lunch at The Filling Station…very good food and pretty fast too!!! We stopped in an incredible church called St. Giles. It had absolutely beautiful crosses and stained glass windows! We finally got to the Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill and spent about 3 hours in the castle! It was really neat!!!! We got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Prisons of War, the Military Memorial, the 1 o’clock gun, plus lots more. There were also amazing views of the city because the castle is up so high! We saw the changing of the guards outside the castle and even got to have our picture taken with 2 of the guards!!! That was neat! :-) Then we went into a kilt making factory. We got to see how they weave the yarn to make the plaid fabric and then use that fabric to make the kilts. Fascinating that they weave their own fabric too!!! Then we walked down the Royal Mile and saw the Parliament Buildings at the bottom of the hill. We got to see the Castle that the Queen stays in when she’s in Scotland too, so that was neat. We finally got back to our hotel area and had a late dinner at McDonalds. We were both tired, our legs were sore, and we were hungry! We splurged and got double chocolate milkshakes after dinner! I think we deserved them! Hehehe!!!



view of the castle from the city



part of The Royal Mile







changing of the guards - cool to see!





Which one is bigger?!?!?!?




Prisons of War - can you imagine being stuck in this dungeon???? Ugh!




Phillip and me with the Castle guards!!!!


Sunday morning, we went to “The Scotch Whisky Experience.” We got to see how whiskey is made and learned how to tell the difference in the 5 different kinds of whiskeys. There are 4 main different types of whiskey, but the most popular is actually a blend of all 4 types. 90% of whiskeys sold are the blend! A couple of the others sure did smell better than the blend though! Phillip got lucky…he got my sample and his! Haha!!!! Then we checked out of our hotel, had fish and chips for lunch, and began the journey back home!



The Scott Monument




The Old Waverly Hotel, where we stayed




Phillip with my Scotch Whiskey sample and his! (We were in a room with the world's largest Scotch Whiskey collection - It has 3,389 unopened bottles of different kinds of Scotch Whiskey!!!)




Fish N Chips and mushy peas!!!


Some of the highlights from Scotland: Bagpipes!!!! I can’t help it, I seriously enjoyed watching the men in kilts playing the bagpipes!!!! The kilts just totally amused me to begin with. To add to it, the bagpipe music was awesome! I seriously liked it! These guys were amazing! They stand on the sidewalks (wanting tips of course) playing bagpipes. It just gives the city a neat atmosphere though because you can almost always hear bagpipes being played no matter where you are walking. Too cool! We also really enjoyed buying things for Baby Girl. I guess now that it’s getting so close, we are too tempted to buy things for her!?!? We bought her the cutest little Nessie tshirt! (Phillip wanted to see the Loch Ness Monster, but we didn’t make it that far North!!!! Haha!) We also bought her a little Nessie stuffed animal and a Nessie story book. I think Phillip is determined that she like Nessie because he always liked Nessie! We bought something else crazy too…mini bagpipes!!!! Ok, when she’s old enough to play them, I’m pretty sure we’ll totally regret that, but they are just too cute! Phillip tried them out in the hotel that night and he needs some practice! I told him it sounded like a dying cow!!!! Haha! We enjoyed seeing the sheep too! Tons and tons of sheep everywhere!









For the record – Scotland is part of the UK, which means our insurance still covers us there! We don’t want to travel anywhere without insurance, especially this late in the pregnancy! I can’t fly now either, but that’s ok too since we could get there by train! We were both worn out, but so glad we went! Scotland is truly a neat place and I’m grateful that we got to experience it!!!!

I was lazy Monday, recovering from our weekend!!! I did start doing the tons of laundry that had somehow accumulated, but was lazy otherwise! Yesterday morning was exciting again though!!!! We had 2 appointments at the hospital…a 9:00 ultrasound and a 9:20 doctor’s appointment!!! The ultrasound was fine – they kept Baby Girl’s due date the same and said she looks right on track! Hooray for that news!!!! Bad news though – she is no longer head down!!!! Now she is laying across my belly with her head on the right side, bottom on the left side, and arms and legs going down! She moves a LOT (the ultrasound tech even called her a “wiggly baby”) so hopefully she’ll move head down soon!!! Anyway, they want to do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to check her position. I also have a glucose tolerance test scheduled in 2 weeks and a midwife appointment in 2 weeks. We’re going to be busy with appointments for awhile!