Isle of Skye

So far, all of our travels have been plane, train, ferry, tram, bus, taxi and even a narrowboat. Now that we have a car, we feel more like natives because we are out of the city and blended into the countryside. During our drive, we saw many large blue signs proclaiming "YES" which were remnants of last week's referendum on whether Scotland should secede from the United Kingdom.

Our first stop was for three nights on the Isle of Skye located about 4 ½ hours north of Edinburgh. Skye was named after the word for "cloud" and our first evening the island seemed ensconced in a rain cloud.

We arrived at Waterside Cottage which we shared with our good friends from Pittsburgh, Doug and Katie Johnston along with their baby daughter and Doug's parents. The cottage sits on the bay in the town of Bradford. The next two days the six of us and baby drove around the island enjoying the beauty of the mountains and the tranquility of the water all around us. 

We also visited the one distillery on the island, Tallisker. (I volunteered for baby duty and skipped the tour since I am not much of a whiskey drinker.)

Our last day we had blue sky and sun so we all took a hike down the Sleat peninsula to the lighthouse. Leave it to my husband to pack a swimsuit. When we reached land's end and the beautiful white sandy beach, he took off his clothes and jumped into the clear, but cool, water.

Back at our cottage that evening we built a fire and enjoyed a cup of tea and Scottish shortbread. We enjoyed our time on this scenic island, but were ready for our next move in anticipation of what brought us to Scotland… the Ryder Cup.