Oban, Scotland McCaig's Tower Adventure

The proprietress of Strathyre's Rosebank House , Mal Dingle is driving. Her sister, my friend, Iona is in the passenger's seat.

We are talking about how there is very little professional tango dancing in London. Iona dances tango professionally and has difficulty finding European men who can keep up with her!

I'm in the back seat eating seasoned peanuts and copious amounts of fruit. If there is such a thing as a vegan garbage disposal, I'm probably it.

In the U.K., people drive on the opposite side of the road than Americans do. It means fewer accidents, although one waits much longer at traffic lights.

They also drive crazy fast on narrow roads here. That's what they get for translating everything into metrics!


At low tide in Oban, Scotland, the gulls frenzy picking at dulce and washed up sealife along the schist banks.

You can see McCaig's Tower at the top of the hill.

The hike up was steep but brief. Only about 15 minutes from the seaside.

McCaig built the tower to honor his family and employ Oban's stone masons during the winter months. The estates of both John McCaig and his widow were famously contested, leaving the tower we see today without its planned museum and sculpture garden.

From Oban, people ferry off to the islands of Mull and Lismore in the distance.

Iona is enjoying some oysters and crab here. Yes, they were excruciatingly fresh. I made contact with those-who-were-about-to-die in their baskets at the fish stand. Poor little guys!

In the U.S., salt water taffy is the ubiquitous seaside sweet. In Scotland, sugar mice fill that role.

Invented in Crieff by Gordon and Durward in 1954, sugar mice are especially popular at Christmas.

Tradition is that their tails should be made of string and not licorice, though the ones I saw didn't have tails at all.

Lawn Cuisine Adventure Photos

Sage, Catnip, Oregano, and Marjoram are hung with twine inside the window to dry.

Sorrel, chrysanthemum flowers (which must be blanched), and blue cornflowers.

Oak chutes grow from fallen acorns buried and forgotten by squirrels.

The leaves can be eaten raw. Here they are soaked in saline water and dried at a low temperature.

The result is a thin, slightly nutty leaf with a texture like nori.

Separating dried clover flowers from their stems.

Formal Night Pics

These are the photos from our first formal night on board the Jewel of the Seas

Mom and me with the captain at his pre-dinner reception

Awww. Mother and son. Kind of like an upscale Olin Mills....

And this is the picture my roommate says "ought to snag me a husband"; see how sincere I look in a tuxedo?

Asia de Cuba photo

The grainy camera phone pic taken of Stefan, Troy and Mom at Asia de Cuba in the St. Martin's Lane Hotel, London.

Ossipee, New Hampshire

My Uncle Ralph picked us up at the pier when our ship arrived on Monday. We stopped off for Dunkin' Donuts and to see my cousin Ellen and her husband before treking to Ossipee, New Hampshire.

My uncle's place in New Hampshire overlooks Dan Hole Pond, named for a fur trapper who was popular with the local First American population.

That night we ate at Whittier House, a student union style bar decorated with old license plates, beer cans, and pewter beer steins. We sat in the screened in back porch which had a stone coy pond in the center.

Mom and I were both pleased to get into full sized beds. I could (and can still) feel the ocean. Mom swears she can't feel it, but I believe she's too exited being on land again to try.

Sunday, Mom and Uncle Ralph went shopping and then watched football all day. I wrote all morning and then planted bulbs in the front yard. There was a quick shower that soaked me - our only rain the entire trip!

Mom won a one dollar bet with her brother on the Broncos/Patriots game. She's says she's going to frame it and put it on her Bronco altar at home.

Monday, we stopped in to see my cousin Stephen on the way back and got to Logan for our flights.

And that's it! We're home!

The Grand Buffet

Our final food event of the cruise took place at midnight.

700 man hours went into preparing all the foods and sculptures for this incredible display that took up most of the 1000 seat dining room.

Highlights included:
-gryphon, dolphin, swan, and mermaid ice sculptures.
- a verdigris green statue of liberty made entirely of chocolate.
- cheese wheels carved to resemble American coins,
- animals made from cut fruit.
- caviar and salmon in mass quantities.
- seven layer cakes in seven flavors.

Mom grabbed some salmon, cheese, and crackers. I got some fruit and a wedge of white chocolate black forest cake. The best part of the buffet? We got to take our portions back to our stateroom for all night munching.

Halifax and the Evangeline Trail

Our kilted guide Ken toured us through the Anapolis Valley where French Catholic settlers, known as the Acadians, first settled.
They built clay dikes to permit the high Bay of Fundy tides to flood the area, leaving mineral rich silt for farming when they rolled out.

The British forced their expulsion from the land in the mid 1700s. Longfellow's narrative poem "Evangeline" popularized the cause of the Acadians internationally. In the last century, Queen Elizabeth dedicated the histroic park at Grand Pre to the memory of thier tragic exile.

We ate in the small college town of Wolfville. Mom and I tried out the "national obsession" Tim Horton's coffee shop. I had a few sips of the brew - my tounge grew fur and my ears began ringing. Later, we journeyed to a local apple orchard where I tasted a 400 year old cultivar, the German Gravestein. Most everyone else enjoyed a scoop of homemade ice cream.

When we passed back through the Anapolis Valley the tide was high and the clay dikes we'd photographed earlier in the day were now swollen marshlands. As a bonus, our coach took us to the star-shaped dry moat Citadel that looks over Halifax, guarded by soldiers in traditional costume.

St. John's Surprise

Our unreally perfect weather continued into St. John's, Newfoundland. Rough winds, however, chilled us at our first stop, Cape Spear.

This handsome stetch of coast, a lookout station during the second world war, still boasts a working lighthouse and status as a national park. Wild yellow lupins, thistle, milkweed, and black eyed susans bind the soil with their roots and prevent it from blowing away. The evergreens all bend in the direction the wind blows and lose their needles on the eastern side.

After a pass by the settlement of scenic Petty Harbor, we drove through downtown St. John and up Signal Hill.


We could see our cruise ship from this site that overlooked both the harbor and the Cape Spear lighthouse. I climbed the steps to the Marconi Turret where the first wireless transatlantic signal was exchanged.

Our guide Laura, a young Newfoundlander, though less steeped in history and fact than our other guides gave us the best demonstration of what it was like to live in the area as she joked with the driver and shared personal anecdotes.

The locals easily gave us our best welcome and our best send off of the cruise. At the pier, huge furry Newfoundland dogs, Canadian mounted police, actresses in Victorian dress and a Tv crew greeted us. As we departed, our friendly hosts lined the piers, cliffs and roads surrounding the inlet and waved to us until we passed from sight.

Lismore and Waterford

Our most rewarding of the journey, the shore excursion to Waterford took over nine hours. Our guide, Claire passed around a bottle of Potcin, or Irish moonshine, and a sod of dried peat or "turf" as exhibits to explain the way of life in the Irish Countryside. She graciously explained hurling, mandatory prayer in schools, Irish divorce (the couple must spend four year apart to make it legal), and many Irish aphorisms.

Mom wants to import "Tidy Town" and "Tidy Street" competitions to the U.S. We passed the all-Irish "Tidy Street" winner on our way through Lismore and took a stop at Lismore Castle which one can rent out for 2 grand per weekend with 12 friends.

Ultimately, we traveled to the Waterford Crystal Factory. In the last 30 years, the factory, which originally employed a team of about 70, expanded to 900. We saw at least two dozen active workers on the tour, pouring, molding, turning and shaping hot glass.

The three floor showroom was crowded both with crystal and with consumers. Both Mom and I made small purchases.

Cobh, Ireland

We arrived in Cobh, the second largest natural harbor in the world (Sydney is first, San Francisco is third) at dawn. This pic is a little shaken by ship motion. Cobh is one of two islands in Cork county that are connected by bridge to the town of Cork on the Irish mainland.

The first immigrants to be processed on Ellis Island originated from Cobh. Irish immigration to the United States is percieved in Ireland to be a century-long phenomena, tailing out in recently with a twelve year technology related boom.

Dublin Pics Part 1

St. Stephen's Green in Dublin.

Our Ship

Our cruise ship, The Jewel of the Seas, as seen from the tender boats departing from Plymouth, England.

Dartmoor Pics 3

These wild ponies are also native to the area. Their full height is about 4 ft tall. This one has a foal.

Dartmoor Pics 2

A black-faced ram. This type of sheep is native to Dartmoor and roams wild over the moors and across properties.

Dartmoor Pics 1

A view from the tour bus of foggy Dartmoor, the inspiration for Doyle's "Hounds of the Baskervilles".

Port Racine, France pic

The smallest port in France named for the playwright who once lived in the area.

Grevile, France Pics Part 2

Mom posing in front of a typical house in the village of Grevile

Grevile, France Pics Part 1

In Grevile, the birthplace of painter J. F. Millet posing with his statue.

Cabin Pics Part 2

Me spreading out on the desk in our cabin.

Cabin Pics Part 1

Mom demonstrating our balcony on embarcation day!