“The Great British Driving Show”

-or-

“The Coverdill’s British Comedy of Errors”

After the rather exotic places we had been previously (Costa Rica, Australia), a trip to the island of Great Britain seemed rather…boring? Well, boring isn’t the right word, but it wasn’t high up on my wish list. I lean more toward “exotic” locations with lots of nature and animals, of course. However, it was where Michelle wanted to go after the COVID restrictions were lifted and we could finally travel again. I’m happy to say that the experience far exceeded my expectations and turned out to be a wonderful trip!

5/15/23- “To London!”

We picked a noon departure, which was nice and relaxed- we were much less frantic and groggy than our typical 5am departures to the east coast when we visit family. The initial flight to LAX was just silly. The flight was delayed a few minutes from taking off, as one of the flight attendants had lost her phone and was making a huge fuss about it. She even hopped on the intercom and announced there would be no refreshments on the flight unless someone gave her back her phone (assuming someone stole it). Luckily, the phone materialized promptly and we were on our way.

Ready to go, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!
Tucson International Airport

Our overnight flight from LAX to Heathrow was…eventful. I was uncomfortable as usual, even in “economy plus” with a bit more legroom. As much as I love travel, I’m still a miserable flier- fidgety, uncomfortable, and I can’t sleep. That’s the price I pay to see the world, I suppose. We were delayed a few minutes for a well-check on a lady two rows back. She looked alright, so off we went. I watched a couple movies, and Michelle got a few hours of sleep. Seven hours into our 11 hour flight, that elderly lady two rows behind us went into cardiac arrest and died. The next hour was surreal as the crew tried to resuscitate her all the while being respectful and discrete for the rest of the passengers. There was talk about touching down in Ireland (the closest landing spot) to get her proper medical attention but since we were still three hours away, they decided against it. We felt terrible for her son who was traveling with her and had to experience that in a plane full of strangers. The whole ordeal was quite upsetting and we hoped it wasn’t a portent of things to come for the rest of the trip.

Understandably, when we touched down, police and airline officials had to interview some folks and check things out before we were allowed off the plane. Everyone was quiet, polite and respectful. After the delay, we grabbed our bags and hoofed it down to The Tube (Mind the gap!). Lugging our huge bags was quite the challenge and the London Underground was hot and crowded. We vowed to get smaller bags for our next big trip, which of course still hasn’t happened. We managed to find the correct transit line and made it to our hotel in Victoria. I was exhausted and couldn’t even figure out how to turn on the lights! (It was our first exposure to key-card activated lights where the room key has to be placed in a reader on the wall). I had to pop down to the front desk and they educated me on the card slot on the wall- problem solved. With the lights on, we could see that our luggage took up nearly all the available floor space! The room was quite the stark contrast to the large, suite-style rooms typical in the US. The biggest surprise was that the bathroom was merely a corner of the room, closed off in frosted glass, lovely! After a few minutes of mild culture-shock and a quick potty break and shoe change, we headed out to get some food. We made it as far as the pub next door, called The Victoria. It was roughly mid-day, so we grabbed some pub-style lunch, which was adequate. Then we were off to see the sights!

We made a brief walking tour of some of the highlights along the Thames- Buckingham Palace and Gardens, St. James Park, Trafalgar square, The Eye, and Big Ben/Westminster. The weather was accomodating, and getting out and stretching our legs felt fantastic. We got our first views of new birds in St. James Park (15 life species!) We enjoyed a nice dinner at a bustling pub, Queens Arms, which was a bit better than lunch. Afterward, we meandered back to our hotel to call it a night. I slept quite well (as is typical when I travel, luckily) and Michelle did not (as is typical when she travels, unluckily).

5/17/23- “You’re a wizard Harry.”

(We lost a day traveling)- For our first full day in London we had pre-planned a tour of the Harry Potter Warner Brothers studio. (For those of you unaware, Michelle is a huge Harry Potter nerd). We had breakfast at an adorable little hole in the wall café called Artist Residence, which was fantastic. Michelle got blueberry pancakes, I had avocado toast and poached eggs. And coffee, lots of coffee. We made our way to Victoria Station to board our tour bus, which took us just outside London proper to Watford. The ride was comfortable enough and they played a “behind the scenes/making of” DVD of the first HP movie to pass the time. The studio tour is a self-paced stroll through sets, costumes, props, art and basically all things Harry Potter. It was expectedly jam-packed with families and kids, and tough to get a good look/pictures at some of the exhibits. I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at the sets and “how it’s made” aspect of the tour. Michelle, surprisingly, seemed just a tad underwhelmed. She was dealing with some vertigo and nausea most of the day and crowds are definitely not her thing, so I chalked it up to that. She did enjoy it, but I wonder if the anticipation and expectations just set the bar too high (I know I’ve experienced this several times- see Alaska 2024 trip). For any other HP nerds out there, the tour is a must if you make it to London.

Harry Potter Studio Tour- Watford, England

After getting dropped back off in London, we decided to take a stroll through Hyde Park, one of the many wonderful green spaces within the city proper. It’s a beautiful open area with nicely paved walkways, hills, fields of grass, and ponds. There are small wooded areas and the park runs alongside some wonderful historic architecture such as Kensington Palace and Gardens, the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall. Here we had close encounters with new birds such as Eurasian Magpie, Common Wood-Pigeon, and Tufted Duck! We spent about two hours meandering around before our stomachs insisted it was dinner time. We dined at the Jones Family Kitchen- Michelle tried the scallops and mac & cheese, while I had trout with steamed greens and a tasty pale ale. We squeezed back into our microhotel, showered and passed out. Sleep was no good for both of us despite all the walking and some jet lag.

5/18/23- “Escape from London”

We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to The Lime Tree Hotel’s adorable little café “The Buttery” for breakfast. Michelle chose the Allotment Plate- with grilled Haloumi, avocado, Portabello mushrooms, tomato, greens and toast. I tried a salmon benedict- both were fantastic! This (along with coffee, of course) gave us enough energy to start our day, so we headed back down into The Tube to King’s Cross Station for a view of Platform 9 ¾! It was of course quite crowded and there was a long queue of people waiting to take their pictures with the sign. We chose not to partake since we had been to the studio the day before and had the opportunity to take pictures with some of the props. We checked out the little shop hawking Harry Potter merch for a few minutes and moved on.

Breakfast at “The Buttery”- The Lime Tree Hotel

Our next stop was the historic Tower of London! We opted for a guided Yeoman Tour with one of the “Beefeaters.” They escort you through the whole “tower”, which is really a citadel castle on the north bank of the Thames. It has served as a palace, a treasury, an armory, a mint, a menagerie, a prison, and now houses the crown jewels of England- current estimated value of around 4-5 billion dollars! We both really enjoyed the architecture and history of the tower. The coolest part (for me) was the massive collection of medieval armor and weapons in the white tower. There are rooms upon rooms of armor including those worn by several kings. The tour takes roughly an hour, but you could easily spend half a day here diving into all the history, art, weaponry and lore surrounding the tower- it’s over 900 years old! One neat factoid- there are 6 ravens kept at the tower at all times, as it is believed if there are any less than 6, the kingdom will fall! We grabbed a quick sandwich at local chain Pret a Manger and headed back to Heathrow Airport (via The Tube, naturally) to pick up our rental car and start our driving tour of Great Britain. We were about 1.5 hours later than planned (a common theme for us), but everything went smoothly and we set off in our Kia Niro for the rest of our adventure!

Taking our lives into my hands on the wrong side of the road!

Wait a minute, everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road and there are no traffic lights!!!!

What’s with all the roundabouts???

The left lane is the slow lane???

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, other than getting angrily honked at for going too slow in the right lane after I merged onto the M3, driving wasn’t too bad and I adapted pretty quickly, almost without incident. It’s not like I high-centered the car in the middle of nowhere in Scotland…(see below).

We headed out of Heathrow for our roughly 1.5 hour drive to a B&B in Landford, just outside the New Forest in Wiltshire. We had a little trouble with the directions to the house (Street addresses are VERY different here) and we ended up about a half mile down the road in someone else’s driveway. They homeowners were nice enough to come help out the poor lost Americans and point us in the right direction. The B&B turned out to be a quaint little brick house with the hosts living in one half, while we stayed upstairs in the other half of the house. They were very polite, but exceptionally awkward. We lugged our bags upstairs, opened the windows and just relaxed for a few minutes. There was a chorus of lovely new birdsong from the trees surrounding the property. Before it got too late, we zipped over to an adorable little inn around the corner in Nomansland (you read that right), called the Lamb Inn. I had a fantastic curry and M chose spaghetti. On our way out, we spotted a couple Helmeted Guineafowl (escapees- not native) pecking around the field across the road. We retired back at the B&B for the evening. Once again, sleep eluded us (the room was quite warm) and M was having some major upper respiratory signs breaking…allergies? Cold? Time would tell.

5/19/23- “No Tresspassing”

Our cell phone alarms the following morning were most unwelcome! The dreaded jet lag seemed to be rearing it’s ugly head. The host served us breakfast, which was simple but acceptable. She was very chatty, talking about growing up in Cypress and her visit to New York City once. We ended up heading out for the day a little bit later than planned (hey it’s vacation, timing doesn’t matter, right?) I was super excited to get out into the woods of the New Forest- I had scouted out a handful of good sites for birding here! The first was the Franchises Lodge RSPB Reserve. We found our way to the area with only a little bit of navigation difficulties and came upon a closed, but not locked gate. Hmmm, there wasn’t a no trespassing sign and there was signage regarding biring the area on the gate. I had read that birders were welcome pretty much everywhere in the UK, including on private property. I convinced M that it was OK to head on in and start our birding adventure. We decided to park next to a cottage used for wildlife teaching and youth retreats called Cameron’s Cottage. From there we headed out on foot into the RSPB Reserve. We spent about 30 minutes walking through beautiful wooded paths with Blue Bells and constant unfamiliar bird song. Most of the birds were keeping high up in the trees and getting visual IDs on them was remarkably difficult. I had studied up quite a bit on common species, but the sheer number of different songs made it tough to pick out individuals. We relied on Merlin (a birding ID app) to help us determine which birds were calling. Then we could learn their songs and have an idea of what species to look for. We did see Eurasian Blackbird, European Robin, Eurasian Blue Tit, Dunnock, White Wagtail, a Common Buzzard and a soaring Red Kite! After about 30 minutes or so, we bumped into a pair of young ladies working on trail development and maintenance. They kindly informed us that this area was closed and we needed to head out. However, they still took the time to chat us up for a good 10 minutes about where we were from and offered a tour of the cottage! It was a very pleasant way to get kicked out for trespassing (oops!).

Franchises Lodge RSPB Reserve
New Forest National Park

As we headed out, I realized that I had no phone signal/GPS and would not likely be able to find the other three spots in the area that I wanted to bird. We got a bit “turned around” (definitely not lost…) and decided to move on instead.

To Stonehenge!

The drive was only about 45 minutes, nice. Stonehenge is a very interesting place. The Visitor’s Centre is right off the A303 highway and has a café, picnic area, small exhibition/museum, and gardens. You need a ticket to visit at a particular time, as they regulate the amount of people visiting at one time to minimize impact and crowding. The famous stone circle is a roughly 2.6 mile round trip walk through grassy open farmland with a small stand of trees at the halfway point. You can elect to take a shuttle bus to the stone circle if the walk is not for you. They have an audio guide you can listen to as you tour, explaining the history of the area and stones. Before heading out to the iconic stone circle, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria. I had a hot sausage roll, M got a pesto sandwich. She was dragging quite a bit and had some significant nausea.

I really enjoyed the walk and the views of the ancient stone circle. The day was cool and just a bit overcast, providing some nice moody lighting for pictures. It wasn’t horribly crowded, but of course there were people photobombing, blissfully unaware/inconsiderate of other’s experience. We spent around two hours walking slowly, enjoying the weather, taking pictures and just enjoying ourselves. We even saw a few new birds including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Rook, Eurasian Skylark, Corn Bunting, and Yellowhammer! Unfortunately, M’s nausea got the best of her on the walk back and her pesto made an encore appearance, poor lady! We managed to make it back to the Centre and said goodbye to Stonehenge, heading on towards Bath.

We debated going straight to the hotel for the night since M was under the weather, but she really wanted to see the Roman Baths and walk around the city. Our online resources said the baths were open for tours until 6pm. We arrived around 5pm to find the baths closed. Ugh. Well, what else is there in Bath? We toured inside the Abbey instead, which was beautiful. The gothic architecture and stained glass windows are breathtaking. We walked across the Pulteney Bridge, which spans the River Avon. It’s a very unique bridge with shops built in along both sides. However, most of the shops were, wait for it…closed! We enjoyed it nonetheless. Consolation prize- Michelle’s sharp eyes spotted a Gray Wagtail wading around down in the river hunting for bugs!

Bishop James Montague’s Tomb- Bath Abbey, Bath

We grabbed a very quick, moderately hangry bite to eat on the way back to the car. We had tried to get dinner at a local pizza place, but they were slammed and it would have been an unreasonable wait, and we still had over an hour drive. Our hotel reservation was at the Chester House Hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds and we had to check in by 8pm. Off we go! We made it by the skin of our teeth, 7:50pm. In the room, M was immediately smitten with the bathroom towel heaters- how lovely is that! There was also a rubber ducky, bonus! Dinner was at the hotel restaurant, L’anatra. M ordered the special, which naturally sold out right before our server put the order in with the kitchen. She got mushroom ravioli instead, which was fabulous. I had the other special, lamb cutlets, and a very nice Pinot Noir. We finished with some fantastic ice cream, vanilla with a brownie for me, M had salted carmel. Time for some hot showers and a nice sleep. Except we steamed up the room with the showers, and the room had no A/C (whoopsies!) We opened up all the windows and ran the small fan to try and cool it down, with minimal success. Michelle passed out, but was tossing, turning and groaning a bit, still not feeling well from the jet lag and upper respiratory. I sat down to put pen to paper in my journal for a while before sleep took me.

Our Rubber Ducky Mascot
Chester House Hotel, Bourton-on-the-Water

L’anatra Restaurant, Bourton-on-the-Water

5/20/23- “Whirlwind tour of the Cotswolds”

The morning brought more fatigue after a poor night’s sleep. The room remained too warm all night and the mattress was not comfortable. Michelle woke up SICK. Coughing with a very sore throat and even more run down than yesterday. Despite being “behind schedule,” we decided to make it a nice relaxing, slow paced day (is there any other kind of day in the Cotswolds?) and take it easy. Breakfast in the restaurant was great- I went with a traditional English Breakfast and M had a bacon sandwich and some yoghurt.

We walked around Bourton-on-the-Water for a few hours, visiting the Model Village first. This is a super cool, lifelike model of the town at 1:9 scale. It includes around 100 buildings, the river running through town, benches, shrubs, trees, and even postboxes! There is even a 1:81 scale model of the model village, which contains a 1:729 scale model of the model village within the model village, which contains a paint-only model of the model of the model of the model village at 1:6561 scale. It’s basically model village inception! Afterward, we wandered around the quaint little town for a couple hours, grabbed a coffee to stay awake and Michelle picked up some listerine, tissues and cough drops.

Our next stop was an adorable little village called Bibury. On the way, we passed a handful of Western House-Martins at a small farm- they were flying down from power lines to drink from a puddle on the road. Bibury turned out to be the most picturesque, idyllic little town I have ever visited. If you picture rolling grassy hills, a quiet bubbling creek, and lines of short row houses built with golden limestone, you are picturing Bibury. You may even recognize it from the film Stardust. It was quite crowded and we lucked out getting a parking spot in the tiny car park near the river. We spent a short time here focusing on Arlington Row, the famous row of houses adjacent to the River Coln. We lunched at the local Swan Hotel. I had a delicious fried squid and jalapeño sandwich, Michelle tried fried Haddock fish ‘n chips. Both hit the spot. Michelle seemed to be perking up and feeling a bit better!

…until the car ride to Stow-on-the-Wold. I looked over a few minutes into the drive and Michelle was positively GREEN. Yikes. We made it safely and parked to find a restroom for her ASAP. As it turns out, all the public bathrooms are pay stalls and we had no change (or paper currency, for that matter). While M stayed put outside the bathroom, I sprinted up the street to the post office. I explained our situation and the clerk pulled out a bin from under the counter with a little loose change and gave us 20 pence. I thanked her profusely and sprinted back down the street to M. Alas, as it turns out, the bathrooms required 40 pence. Uhoh! Michelle kicked in the door at the last second and up came the fish ‘n chips. (OK OK, I’m being a little dramatic here. You can get IN the bathrooms if you’re desperate. However, the doors do NOT lock unless you pay. At that point, she didn’t care.) I stood guard in case some poor bloke walked in on that scene. Then it was off to the pharmacy again for some antinausea and cold medicines! With all the excitement (and concern for M) I forgot to take us by St. Edward’s Church to see the Yew Tree Door! It’s a small, pointed arch door made of dark wood, flanked by two gnarled old Yew trees on either side. It is rumored to be the inspiration for Tolkein’s Doors of Durin (the West entrance to the Mines of Moria). For now, it remains high on my list to see next time we make it back to England.

With a couple more stops planned for the day, we left Stow-on-the-Wold for Moreton-in-Marsh. Here we made a quick stop at the Bell Inn, which was the inspiration for the Prancing Pony in Lord of the Rings! There are a few nods to Tolkein here, including a map of Middle Earth on the wall in the front room. I had an Americano, M enjoyed a Sprite and we relaxed for a little bit. We didn’t dawdle long, as we had one more stop for the day, the birthplace of Shakespeare- Stratford-upon-Avon!

Contemplating a trip to Middle Earth
The Bell Inn- Moreton-in-Marsh, The Cotswolds

At just before 4pm, we had just enough time to make the 25 minute drive and catch a tour at the birthplace museum. (Or did we…) We made it there in 37 minutes, with only one small navigation “oops.” Parking was easy to find and we trotted over to the museum. CLOSED. Last entry at 4:30. Well shit. (Is there a pattern here?) We made the best of it and took some selfies with Shakespeare’s house and made our way over to the Holy Trinity Church, where he is buried. We walked along the River Avon and saw an adorable Great Tit foraging along some brush on the riverbank. We walked around a little bit, then I grabbed a Diet Coke for the road and M had a croissant (she was feeling a bit better, her meds had kicked in!). We decided to call it a day and drive to our hotel in Staffordshire to relax for the night.

Shakespeare’s birthplace- Stratford upon Avon

This was our only chain hotel stay for the whole trip, at a Courtyard by Marriott in Keele. We had a splendid view of green rolling hills from our 4th floor window. The hotel is adjacent to Keele University, home to the Harper & Keele Veterinary School- how cool! Dinner was at “Scholar,” the hotel’s restaurant. Porkchop for me, Butternut Squash Tortellini for Michelle. Then bedtime, as we were both exhausted and hoping that M would feel better on the morrow. Sadly, we didn’t see any stubby little Bull Terriers in Staffordshire. Boooo.

5/21/23- “Just a quick stop”

Thankfully, we both slept very well. I suppose there is something to be said for decent chain hotels with a quality mattress and climate control. The self-serve breakfast was typically mediocre but serviceable. We grabbed a starbucks (I know, I know) and headed north! Our endgoal for the day was a B & B in Ambleside within the Lake District- about 2.5 hours of driving to go across roughly 1/3 of the country (south to north). The scale of the UK was refreshingly small and accessible, as our home state of Arizona is roughly 1.2 times the size of the entire United Kingdom! However, the tradeoff is that there are tons of people everywhere! The population is roughly 1/5 that of the USA, but they are all crammed into an area the size of Wyoming.

Michelle agreed to a “quick stop” to do some more birding at the Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve on Morecambe Bay in Lancashire. Driving on the M6 was very pleasant and we arrived at the reserve around noon. Wow. We were greeted outside the Visitor Centre by two volunteers at a sign in table with information and maps of the reserve. The Visitor Centre itself was a real brick-and-mortar two story converted barn with a gift shop, café and a fair bit of seating. We hadn’t experienced anything like this stateside thus far in our birding “career.” We each grabbed a hot pie- meat for me, potato and cheese for M, which were delicious, and headed out into the reserve. There are a number of habitats here including woodland, scrub, giant reedbeds and open water. Five different hides overlook the various habitats that allow views of the wildlife without disturbance. It was an absolutely lovely place to walk, breathe the fresh open air and see new birds and wildlife- exactly what we both needed. We couldn’t resist walking the entirety of the trails, checking all the hides and squeezing every last bit of the experience out as we could. All told, we were there for 5 hours, walked nearly 5 miles and were quite disappointed that we had to move on at the end of the day! We managed to peel ourselves away around 5:30pm, after the Visitor Centre had already closed. We had seen 54 bird species, including 24 new life species! Some of the highlights included: Common Shelduck, Northern Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Little Grebe, Marsh Tit, Common Reed Warbler, Eurasian Nuthatch, Eurasian Treecreeper, Eurasian Bullfinch, and Reed Bunting. We were even able to see two Cetti’s Warblers, which are notoriously difficult to get eyes on. Towards the end of our visit, we heard the calls of multiple Eurasian Bitterns booming across the reeds. The star of the show, however, were the Western Marsh-Harriers. Such beautiful, graceful birds- we were privileged to see three individuals hunting over the reed beds. What an experience!

Juvenile European Robin
Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve, Lancashire

Nesting Black-headed Gull
Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve, Lancashire

Despite having to leave the reserve proper, we weren’t quite done with birding for the day. A volunteer had mentioned that there was a saltmarsh on the bay with two additional hides just down the road. We had enough time for a quick stop here, as we were only 45 minutes from our B & B in Ambleside. The saltmarsh did not disappoint, giving us wonderful views of breeding Pied Avocets including their adorable fuzzy little hatchlings! There were oodles of birds here including hundreds of Black-headed Gulls, numerous duck species, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwits, and Little Egrets. Michelle also spotted us a Common Redshank! After nearly an hour here, we really needed to move on, much to our chagrin. Who knew Great Britain would be so birdy? I was very pleasantly surprised.

Next stop, Crow How B & B just outside Ambleside. When I was planning the trip, it was quite difficult to pick which small town near which body of water we wanted to stay at as our hub in the Lake District. I chose Ambleside due to it’s central location and description of the town with it’s numerous shops and restaurants. I chose well. Ambleside was my favorite town thus far on the trip. It sits in hilly, grassy country at the head of Windermere Lake. There is a creek running through the town and the building facades are dark gray/brown rough stone. We checked in with our host just before 8pm (phew, just made it!) and got settled in for a few minutes. The view from our room was nothing short of spectacular, with a colorful garden opening up to a grassy field and beautiful rolling hills beyond. There was even a happy little Song Thrush singing and bathing down in the garden bath below our window. Luckily Ambleside is a bit more touristy and some restaurants were still open this late. We got a great tip from our host and headed down to “Podd’s” Italian Restaurant. Michelle chose a chicken polenta with cream sauce, I had a seafood risotto. I also tried a local beer “Collie Wobbles,” which was excellent. A wonderful meal to end a fabulous day. We were both exhausted and retired to the B & B for some rest. Before bed, we hung out outside after dusk for just a little bit to see if there were any owls about. No luck.

The breathtaking view from Crow How B&B!

Podd’s Restaurant- Ambleside, The Lake District

5/22/23- “The world’s best gingerbread”

The morning brought the breaking up of Michelle’s cold. Lots of coughing and grossness, but she had a bit more light in her eyes. I Hoped she would at least feel well for the second half of the trip. Breakfast at the B & B was decent- I had a full Cumbrian Breakfast (a variation of the English Breakfast with emphasis on locally sourced ingredients and a bit bigger portions), M went simple with some sausage and hash browns. After breakfast we hopped in the Niro and headed out to explore the Land ‘o Lakes! We started at the Brockhole on Windermere Visitor Centre, right on the lakeshore. M grabbed some ice cream with flake and we enjoyed the sunshine and a nice breeze, taking in the spectacular view of the lake. At the time, the Centre was very well-kept with lush gardens and a host of activities for the entire family. It was a great jumping off point for the Lake District. Sadly, it seems like the Centre closed in March 2025 and has fallen into a state of disrepair.

Brockhole on Windermere- The Lake District

The second stop for the day was Coniston. Unfortunately for us, a local farmer was fertilizing his rather large field with tractor loads of manure. The entire town smelled like a ruptured sewage line, which rather spoiled the experience for us, to be honest. It was a bit disappointing, as the lake is stunning and much quieter and less crowded than Windermere. We snacked on salted caramel shortbread and coffee while meandering around the quaint little town, which made things much better. After an hour or so, it was time for stop three, Grasmere.

We headed back through Ambleside and then north up to Grasmere. Our target species here: GINGERBREAD. Sarah Nelson’s Famous Gingerbread, to be specific. It’s a little spicy, a little sweet and somewhere between a cake and a biscuit (cookie) in texture. You can’t visit Grasmere without trying Sarah’s world-renowned gingerbread- the recipe remains secret and hasn’t been changed in 170 years! The gingerbread shop still operates out of Sarah’s house to this day. We were lucky in that the queue was only a few people and we didn’t have to wait long. (This time of year you can expect to wait 15-20 minutes). The gingerbread is well worth the typical wait, and is hands down the best I’ve ever had. We bought four packs of six and regretted we didn’t get more!

Gingerbread Shop- Grasmere, The Lake District

From Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost:

“And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.”

Indeed Sir William, indeed.

After filling out tummy with the sweet treat, we naturally were ready for lunch. We tried Harley’s Bistro & Café Bar. Michelle ordered a Margherita pizza, I had the Cumbria burger. It was a typical pub-fare lunch, just fine. We meandered down to the lake (Grasmere), opting to walk around the lake to a public access point, rather than pay for the view at the Faeryland Boat Launch. It was a lovely half-mile stroll and provided gorgeous views of the water, rolling grassy hills, horses, sheep and a handsome gray stone farmhouse. We even had a bonus lifer Garden Warbler bopping around in someone’s garden, go figure! With three lakes and towns visited for the day, we decided to head back to Crow How and relax for a bit.

…and have more Gingerbread!

Seriously, this stuff was life-changing!

Our walk down to town for dinner was quite fortuitous. As we left Crow How, I heard and found a Common Redstart in the trees right over the drive. It was our only one for the trip. The walk to town is easy and less than a mile. I’m fairly sure we saw a Eurasian Sparrowhawk being chased by a Jackdaw (really cool medium sized corvid), but I didn’t get a good enough look to tell for sure. As we passed the Rydal Road carpark, a Eurasian Jay flew right over our heads! Great looks at another lifer!

We dined at another Italian restaurant “Misto.” Michelle had the chicken gnocchi with baked prosciutto, I went with the Gamberi- a King Prawn and squid chilli spaghetti. Both were absolutely fabulous! Probably our best meal of the trip thus far. After dinner we walked down to Borran’s Park at sunset. I had scouted it out before the trip, as it had the second highest bird species count in Cumbria. It was pretty quiet when we arrived, however. Still a great way to walk off dinner and enjoy a sunset together, which is always time well spent!

Dinner at “Misto”- Ambleside, The Lake District

Walking back to Crow How at dusk, I commented to M “It’s weird that there aren’t any bats here.” We subsequently crossed a small bridge and suddenly there were a handful of cute little fluffy bats flying over the water!

A few minutes later, M and I were reflecting on our desire to see owls (If I had to pick a favorite group of birds, it would be owls) and M commented “They have no owls here” with a twinkle in her eye. I told her she was too cute. We had been listening to recordings of the song and juvenile begging call of the Tawny Owl just in case, so we knew what we were listening for. Just a few minutes later, as we were walking down the long drive of the Crow How B & B, I freaking heard a juvenile Tawny Owl begging from the trees near the farm!!! I opened Merlin just to verify, and BINGO- confirmed! We both whipped out our binoculars (don’t leave home without ‘em, folks!) and there was just enough light for M to spot it in the trees. As we were watching, I spotted the parent fly in right next to it! Holy crap, heard and seen! I was ELATED, it made my whole day. Nothing like a huge adrenaline rush right before bed to help you get to sleep!

5/23/23- “To Scotland!”

No surprise, sleep wasn’t the greatest. (Come to think of it, maybe I don’t sleep that great when we travel) Michelle’s respiratory funk was still clearing up and there was less groaning/snoring but it was still lingering a bit. Breakfast was decent again, M chose porridge, I had the Full Cumbrian again. I filled the petrol tank in Ambleside (first time for the trip) and we headed to our last few stops in the Lake District before heading north to Scotland. Ullswater was first up, which is a 7 mile long “ribbon lake” formed by glaciers and is the second largest lake in the district. It’s a stunning, calm, quiet place to reflect on nature. Adjacent to Ullswater is Aira Force, a waterfall set within a wooded ravine. The hike is not too hard, roughly a mile taking the circular path past the waterfall and offers some fantastic views of Ullswater. Aira Force itself is a beautiful 65-foot thunderous waterfall, well worth the visit and hike.

Our last stop in the Lake District was Keswick, by way of the Castlerigg Stone Circle. This is a druidic stone circle, similar to that of it’s big brother Stonehenge. However, the Castlerigg circle is older (circa 3200 B.C.) and honestly is in a much more picturesque area with numerous surrounding mountains in every direction. Also, lots of sheep. After about half an hour trying to boop all the sheep and get pictures without strangely dressed people photobombing us, we decided to move on to our last stop in England, Keswick.

Keswick lies just northeast of Derwentwater, the third largest lake in the region. It is a very busy hub for the region and was MUCH more crowded than Ambleside and the smaller towns we visited. We had a nice little stroll down to the lakeside, which was of course quite stunning (they are all wonderful). Lunch at the LRB Café was quite tasty- I had a salt beef hash, M the smashed Avo. Coffees to round things out and keep us going. We grabbed our customary souvenir magnet for the Lake District here and decided to forego any more sightseeing, as we had about two hours to drive to our next destination, the Crossbasket Castle outside Glasgow, Scotland!

The drive was easy, mostly on the M6. Initially, coming down out of the hills, woods and lakes of the Lake District, Scotland seemed rather drab. I knew that would all change in the coming days, however! We arrived at Crossbasket Castle (a 5-star castle hotel) and our jaws dropped. The décor was exquisite- lush carpets, beautiful tapestries and antique portraits covered nearly every surface. Old, dark wood and dim candelabras added to the ambience wonderfully. The room was spacious, beautiful and had a splendid view of the perfectly manicured gardens out front. We strolled briefly around the castle grounds, including down to a bubbling creek crossed by an old stone bridge. We were rewarded by seeing a cute little White-throated Dipper bobbing it’s way down the creek! We stayed here for dinner and it did not disappoint. We both went with the tasting menu, which was a full 7-course meal over two hours. My courses included a rabbit leg and carrot pâté starter, Turbot main dish (the best piece of fish I’ve ever eaten), and a strawberry soufflé. M had a Sea Trout with pickled vegetable starter, rack of lamb, and chocolate mousse. There were several other dishes in between including a delicious cheese board. Our drinks were a pineapple, strawberry and Chambourd martini (French Martini) for M, and I chose both a wonderful Merlot and Ardbeg 12-year Scotch. Without any hesitation- to this day this remains the best meal that Michelle and I have ever eaten. Hands down. We returned to our suite to find chocolate on our pillows from the turn-down service. We took showers and even put on the plush robes and slippers before sleep.

Pre-dinner stroll down by the creek
Crossbasket Castle, Scotland

5/24/23- “Whoops”

Unfortunately, our sleep wasn’t 5-star (no fault of the bed or room, just us being us). We still started the day in good spirits- Michelle was feeling much better and we were very excited to finally explore Scotland! Breakfast at the castle was amazing- I had the full Scottish breakfast (of course), which included black pudding and haggis- it was great! Michelle had a tasty porridge. We strolled around the inside of the castle for a bit after breakfast, taking it all in. We were sad we only had one day here, but we had to move on. We narrowed down the extensive list of potential stops for the day- RSPB Scotland Loch Lomond, Buchanan Castle (abandoned castle ruins) and various points along the motorway in Glen Coe. Our first stop was the RSPB Reserve in Loch Lomond. Just like the Leighton Moss Reserve, it was fantastic. Greeters out front with maps gave us tips for seeing birds of interest, and details on a spot to possibly see Pine Marten! The reserve was full of birds and the scenery was gorgeous. We managed to limit ourselves to only three hours here, which was a small miracle. We saw 43 bird species including four species of gull, four corvids, three tits, sedge and willow warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Eurasian Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and so much more!

Excited for breakfast!
Crossbasket Castle, Glasgow

Sedge Warbler
RSPB Loch Lomond, West Dunbartonshire

Eurasian Siskin- Loch Lomond RSPB Reserve

Unfortunately we had to skip Buchanan Castle (I was much more disappointed about this than M) due to time constraints. We decided to focus on a handful of the scenic stops along A82. We were approaching hangriness after the reserve and luckily came across on the Real Food Café in Tyndrum. It was a cute little joint owned by a very friendly Russian family. We both had a nice big plate of fish and chips which warded off the grumpies. We got back on the road and hit numerous spots along the way to Fort William- Loch Tulla Viewpoint, Bridge of Orchy, Rannoch Moor, Glencoe Viewpoint, Buachaille Etieve Mor (The Wee White House), the list of breathtaking stops is endless. Lochs, rocky moors and towering mountains as far as the eye can see!

As we entered the car park for the “Wee White House,” I managed to get the car high-centered on a wicked dropoff of the crumbling pavement. With two wheels off the ground in opposite corners, we weren’t having any luck getting unstuck. Luckily, we had help from a very nice German couple that brainstormed using some large rocks wedged under the tires for traction, which got the Niro unstuck. That would have been an embarrassing call to Enterprise. After taking in the views of the tiny white house, it was time to move along. We tried to grab lunch at the Clachaig Inn, but managed to arrive just after a large group of 20-somethings took over the whole bar and dining area. We decided to keep going rather than wait over an hour for a bite of food. Sadly, we also had to skip out on the An Torr hike (Hagrid’s Hut) due to time. There are just too many cool things to do on this stretch and it could easily occupy several days. We made it to Ravenswood House (our B&B for the night) just outside Fort William, got checked in, then headed back to town for dinner.

It was a little late and only a few places were still open. The lines at every restaurant were out the door with LONG waits. We settled on Tavern Restaurant after scouting the main drag through town and got in line. We were just behind a family of four Scots who were absolutely lovely and made the time pass rather quickly. We chatted about our trip as well as several places they had visited in the US including Arizona, which they loved! Dinner was quite good- M had Scampi & Chips (fried shrimp) with a Bundeburg Ginger Ale (her favourite). I elected the Scottish national dish- Haggis, Neeps and Tatties: it was GREAT! We retired to our B&B and planned out the following day- visiting the Genfinnan Viaduct, Loch Shiel and then on to the Isle of Skye!

Scampi & Chips; Haggis, Neeps & Tatties (Far)
Tavern Restaurant- Fort William, Scotland

5/25/23- “All aboard the Hogwarts Express”

Breakfast was an awkward continental-style affair in a small room with two “tables-for-two.” An older couple from the adjacent guest suite was having their breakfast as well and none of us were very chatty. The host, however, was lovely and the food was just fine. Afterward, we packed up the Niro and had a quick drive to Glenfinnan. There is a short hike up the side of a hill from the car park to the viewpoint, where we sardined ourselves amongst the oodles of Harry Potter fans. Interestingly enough, the predominant language spoken amongst the tourists seemed to be French! The “Hogwarts Express” (truly the Jacobite Steam Train) came by right on schedule and the conductor slowed way down, got the smokestack puffing away and gave us some long toots of the horn! Michelle’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas day, making the whole trip worth it just for that experience alone. We let the crowds disperse and took our time heading back down to the car park. We got some nice pictures of the viaduct from below and did some quick birding of the fields and stream coming down off the hills. We were treated to watching an adult White-throated Dipper feeding a cute little fledgeling! We also had a singing Mistle Thrush and even a fairly rare Osprey soaring high above the loch. Speaking of the loch, we crossed the street to the monument and took in Loch Shiel- the “Black Lake” in Harry Potter. We grabbed a couple small souvenirs, life-giving lattes and headed out.

Ready for the train! Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland

Here comes the Hogwarts Express!

The Jacobite Steam Train- Glenfinnan Viaduct

I was admittedly getting a little crabby toward mid-day (spoilers- this would be the theme on Skye for the next few days), as breakfast was a bit light. We stopped at Aldi in Fort William to grab some food and drinks for the road. I tried IrnBru, Scotland’s “other national drink” an orange-colored soda. The flavor is notoriously hard to describe: there are fruity notes, it’s somewhat similar to cream soda, and maybe hints of bubble gum. I describe it as ICKY. Not a fan.

The drive from Fort William to Skye is remarkably scenic, initially traveling along Loch Lochy on A82, then Lochs Garry, Loyne, Cluanie, Duich, Long and Alsh on A87 (so many lochs!). Our first quick stop was at the Commando Memorial, honoring the British Commando Forces that served in World War 2. Here we also saw our first Hooded Crows and a pair of Eurasian Curlew. No drive through this area would be complete without a stop at the famous Eilean Donan Castle. Originally built in the 13th century, Eilean Donan sits at the confluence of Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh. It was destroyed in 1719 but was later rebuilt from 1919 to 1932. It is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland and is most famous for its appearance in the original Highlander movie. Since we were running a little late (hah!) we skipped on the admission ticket to cross the bridge and tour the castle grounds. We did get some nice pictures, fresh air and saw a few birds including Common Sandpiper and Great Cormorant. Then it was back in the Niro and over the Skye Bridge to the Isle of Skye!

Sneaking a cheeky kiss at Eilean Donan Castle

This was the portion of the trip that I was most excited to experience. Skye seems like an almost mythical, unearthly place- just my style. The views on the drive in were fabulous and Skye blessed us right away with TWO White-tailed Eagles! This is the closest relative to our Bald Eagle, and they are considered a species pair- occupying the same niche in different geographical areas. They were once extirpated from the UK, but reintroduction beginning in the 1970s has been successful and they are now relatively common in certain areas, with roughly 150 pairs in Scotland! The first eagle we saw was an immature bird, flying parallel to us (though quite a distance away) over Loch na Cairidh. Less than 5 minutes later, just around the corner to the west was an adult! This one was quite close and we got great looks at it for a few minutes. We were so very lucky to see them here- they were one of my top targets for the trip! Unfortunately, those sightings seem to have used up all our luck for our stay on Skye…more to come on that front.

Our lodging for the next 2 nights was at Monkstadt House, near the far Northern edge of Skye- about another hour drive from our eagle sightings. We were hoping to get there in time for dinner, as I had read very good things about the restaurant. We made it right around 7pm. When we walked in, the hostess tried to seat us for dinner, not realizing we were checking in (because we didn’t need to, I already had a code for the lockbox with our room key in my email, oops). She directed us on how to get to our suite, instructing me to check my email for the lockbox code. We zipped down the driveway to our suite (very nice!) unloaded all our stuff real quick, and walked back down to the restaurant for dinner. “I’m sorry we are all booked for the night.” Ugh. Apparently the couple that arrived just after we did got the last available table. We headed back to our room to look up other places we could eat. However, my phone wouldn’t connect to the wifi and I also didn’t have service here. Double Ugh. So we headed back to the tiny town of Uig to see if we could snag a table somewhere. Of course not. We got a tip from a lovely young lady at the Ferry Inn that we sould be able to grab the last takeaway slot at The Galley Café, so we zipped through town- and arrived at 8:03. Closed. Triple Ugh. I was beyond hangry at this point, just plain ragey. We were out of options. Well, our suite had a kitchen, so we drove back into Portree (a 25 minute drive) and hit the Coop (grocery) for dinner items and breakfast supplies for the next two mornings. Everything worked out just fine despite my hypoglycemia-fueled furor. Michelle- my sweet, wonderful, lovely Michelle, fed me chips and guacamole on the 30 minute drive back to our suite. A crappy frozen pizza got me settled and calm again. Just barely. I spent some time backing up my pictures thus far from the trip, did some journaling, and headed to bed. Tomorrow was THE day for me, our one full day exploring the beauty of Skye!

5/26/23- “Skye hates me”

I mean, I know logically it’s not possible for an inanimate object/place to have feelings about little, insignificant me. But it sure felt like it. I had several SNAFU moments the previous day, including filling up my camera memory cards (my fault), being unable to transfer all said pictures to my backup drive (it too, was full-again, my fault), my computer not recognizing the camera card or backup drive, my phone not being able to make calls on Skye, and the GPS/navigation system crapping out halfway back to Portree for groceries the night before (clearly Skye). I felt targeted.

Anyhoo, back to the 26th. M wasn’t feeling great again and was quite sluggish getting up and going in the morning. We didn’t end up leaving the cottage until nearly 10:30am. We did get some lovely views and pictures of a Redpoll on the driveway on the way out, so that was nice. We headed to The Quirang, one of the scenic hikes I wanted to hit for the day. The weather was cold, windy and cloudy. Now, this is not unexpected in this part of the world at this time of year. However, this was our ONLY full outdoor hiking day for the trip and turned out to be the ONLY day with shitty weather. *sigh* The hike was great initially, with simply amazing views of deep, green valleys and mountainous jutting rock formations rising above us. We had never seen a landscape like this before and it was obvious why this is such a popular place to visit. However, about 1/3 of the way through the hike, it became completely socked-in with fog/clouds, and we were essentially hiking through clouds. It wasn’t exactly raining, but we had a constant cold drizzle being blown into our faces. The views completely disappeared, camera gear had to be packed up, we were getting slowly drenched, and it was cold. The rest of the hike was not what we hoped for, and M was particularly miserable. As a concession, we did see three “real” rock pigeons (truly wild, non-feral pigeons) and heard the calls of two Ring Ouzels! We finished the hike sopping wet and COLD and headed back towards Portree for a nice hot bite to eat. We wanted to stop and see Kilt Rock/Mealt Falls, but alas, it was closed for construction. Skye 3, Chris 0. We just headed directly to Portree for food.

How it started. The Quirang- Isle of Skye, Scotland

How it ended.
Nothing to see but this soggy sheep.
The Quirang- Isle of Skye

Aah the Isle of Skye (that hates me), Where you have a very brief window for lunch or dinner and have to make reservations- or you’ll starve. (OK that’s a bit dramatic, but it gets the point across). We arrived in Portree at 4pm- nothing was open serving food. Nothing. There were a few coffee shops with pastries, but that was it. No restaurants/pubs/inns open for meals until 5pm. We scoured the whole town. The only exception was a take away fish n’ chips joint down at the harbor that was cash only (and we had none). We sat down at Mackenzie’s Bakery and got a couple coffees and a salted caramel tart to hold us over. Listening to a pair of blue-collar rural Scots speaking Gaelic at the adjacent table was fascinating though and helped us pass the time. We had seen a little restaurant that doesn’t require reservations right up the road, so we got in line to be seated at 4:50- we were fourth in line. They started seating for dinner at 5:12, and took our order at 5:20. Michelle ordered a steak pie and I chose a venison burger. It took an hour and twenty minutes before we got our food. It was loud, hot and we were both very hangry and miserable company. We watched longingly as several tables that had been seated after our order was placed got served their food before us. We felt ignored and forgotten. I complained after we had been waiting an hour and the server replied “We take an average of 40 minutes per order, it hasn’t been an hour yet, your food is coming.” I’m not a violent person, but I was considering becoming so- just this once. Fifteen minutes later, she arrived with our food, saying “Apologies from the kitchen, they were cooking the venison.” I had all sorts of snarky reponses flash through my head, none of them nice, but I didn’t let the intrusive thoughts win and kept my mouth shut. (I’m fairly certain they had forgotten our order, but whatever, we finally had our dinner.) M’s steak pie was not good, it looked like a salty mud pie. My burger was at least decent. We watched as several other families popped in trying to get a table and were loudly complaining about the lack of availability of places to eat in town. I was proud of myself for not going off on the poor server, as it was apparent they have to deal with this a LOT. (Note to self and anyone reading this- make reservations ahead of time). After dinner, we walked down to the harbor and snapped a few pictures of the famous colorful row of houses, then headed back to the cottage. We strolled around the grounds for a bit as the sun set and even heard a few Snipe “winnowing” above us, then it was bedtime. M enjoyed a nice hot shower. I had an initially warm shower with a very abrupt rinse in ice-cold water as the hot had run out. Skye hates me.

The infamous steak pie and venison burger
Meanwhile Chris is trashing the joint on Yelp (Kidding, of course)
Portree, Isle of Skye

Colour House Viewpoint- Portree, Isle of Skye

5/27/23- “Goodbye to Skye”

From my journal:

“Well, yesterday was kind of a bust. Coming into this trip, I knew that we would have at least one day get changed or affected by bad weather or happenstance. But why did it have to be the ONE full day on Skye, the thing that I was most looking forward to? Don’t get we wrong, it was beautiful and a great hike, just not at all how I imagined it would be. Oh expectations, how you can set the bar too high sometimes.”

We both slept like zombies (do zombies actually sleep? I’ll have to look into that). M and I both got up out of bed rather easily. We had a relaxed, pleasant breakfast of sausage and porridge, accompanied by some mango/pineapple juice. I also had a peanut butter English muffin. And coffee. We took our time packing up the gear and checked out around 9:30am. We stopped by the Fairy Glen, a unique little bit of landscape carved out by glaciers and a landslide long ago. There’s a small pond, craggy rocks, a spiral circle (created by visitors, likely circa 1850-1900), and groves of gnarled little trees where you can find the fairies! (Well, maybe a few small birds, there are no actual fairies- bummer). It’s a very cute spot that you can thoroughly explore in about an hour and is much less trafficked than most of the other attractions on Skye. It was still overcast and drizzly, but we really enjoyed our time here.

Sadly, it was the last part of Skye that we visited. We had about 4 hours of driving to make it to our next destination and a few potential stops along the way. We headed back down the A87, past Portree, over the Skye Bridge, past Eilean Donan Castle, then North along the western shores of Loch Ness! We stopped at Urquhart Castle on a whim (we were actually doing well on time for once), and the parking lot was full but the attendant let us in and we were able to find parking and get tickets for the tour!

The tour starts in the visitor’s centre, with a 10 minute movie covering the history of the castle. As the movie ends, the projector screen lifts up, curtains behind the screen open, and you have a wonderful view of the castle ruins out a huge window. It was a great reveal and made us excited to explore the castle. It’s situated on a small corner of land right in the middle of Loch Ness. There are beautiful views of the loch in almost every direction. A few minutes into our time exploring the castle, it started raining again. We hadn’t brought in our rain jackets, as it was sunny and clear-skied when we arrived- whoops. It was just a bit heavier than a drizzle (a light shower?), so M and I and a handful of unlucky (unprepared) tourists squeezed in together in the gatehouse to wait out the worst of it. After about 10 minutes, M and I made a break for it up to the highest point of the ruins to try and get some pictures. By the time we got up to the scenic spot, the rain had all but stopped. It worked out well. We did a quick scout for Nessie (no luck), checked out the rest of the castle grounds, and headed back inside to grab a snack. Unfortunately the café was cash only- oops again. On to Inverness!

Rainy selfie- Loch Ness/Urquhart Castle, Scotland

Just a quick 30 minutes drive north on the confluence of the Moray and Beauly Firths lies Inverness, the cultural capital of the Scottish Highlands. We found parking downtown and set out immediately to find something to eat. The city was jam packed with tourists and it was prime dinner time so we were nervous about our chances. However, we lucked into a table after just a little bit of searching at a super cute little restaurant- Number 27 Bar & Kitchen. Michelle had a salad and burger, I went with Cullen Skink (a chowder with Haddock, potatoes and onions) and Fish & Chips. Both were fantastic, far better than the food in Portree (and it didn’t take over an hour!). We were very satisfied.

Number 27 Bar & Kitchen- Inverness, Scotland

We walked off our dinner strolling around Inverness along the River Ness, appreciating the old churches and other unique architecture. You could easily spend a few days here taking in the culture and architecture of the Scottish highlands. We, however, had to move on. About 45 minutes southeast along the scenic A9 lies Boat of Garten and our stop for the night, the Boat Country Inn.

Greig Street Bridge and Free North Church of Scotland- Inverness

Our last drive for the day was uneventful and we arrived in Boat of Garten in late evening. As we gathered our things and headed to check in, a gust of wind blew all my planning papers (itinerary, journal, passport photocopies, etc) straight out of my hands and all over the parking lot. We’re talking 25 pieces of paper. (Skye, is that you again?) Luckily a group of young gents hanging out in the parking hopped right up and helped me gather everything up, nothing lost to the curse of Skye. Thanks blokes!

The Inn provides a quaint, cozy vibe that felt truly Scottish. Our room was HUGE (particularly by European standards), the bathroom was bigger than our entire suite back in London! We had a comfy bed and the suite overlooked the local rail station. After dropping off our things in the room, we went for a quick evening walk a little bit before sunset. This was the first day of our trip that we hadn’t seen a new life bird, so we thought we’d try our luck and give it a shot. We wandered down the main road out of town, across the River Spey heading towards Loch Garten. We bumped into an older couple equipped with binoculars milling about near a wooded car park. They greeted us with the question “Are you here for the Woodcock?” Intrigued, we relayed that we were just having a stroll and hoped to see some new birds. “Well, we’ve been camping here and the past two nights we’ve had a Woodcock fly over at 10 minutes to ten.” It was 9:40, so we decided to stick around and mill about with these nice folks for a few. Sure enough, at 9:54 we heard some strange squeaking approaching from overhead. Bins up, and there was a Eurasian Woodcock flying overhead, right on time! We kept our lifer-a-day streak alive thanks to these wonderful folks! Feeling very thrilled about our spot of good luck for a change, we headed back to the hotel for a some sleep. We both slept great.

The River Spey at sunset- Boat of Garten, Scotland

Chris capturing memories
The Boat Country Inn- Boat of Garten

5/28/23- “From forest to the capital”

This was one of the other days I was most excited about when planning our trip- birding in the Cairngorms National Park. Breakfast at the hotel was quite good- full Scottish for me, a porridge for Michelle (Hey, we like what we like). We got out nice and “early” at 9am and headed over to the Loch Garten RSPB Reserve, which was a short 7 minute drive. Strangely, there was construction in the parking lot and I couldn’t find the actual visitor’s centre! I had done enough research to know there was an actual building (as we had seen at the other two RSPB reserves), but we couldn’t find it. Rather than drive around lost, we decided to shuffle down to the loch and poked around for a few minutes. There was a trailhead here, so we set off on the Twin Loch Trail! Right off the bat we found two Crested Tits (lifer for the day, check!)- so cute, and somewhat reminiscent of our Bridled Titmouse here in southeastern Arizona. We bumped into a small birding group here, and the guide had just spotted a Crossbill high up in the canopy. I unabashedly tried to piggyback off his spot and get eyes on the bird but never spotted it. Michelle got a glimpse of a small reddish bird flying off as the group lost it, but we didn’t count it. The rest of the hike was quite pleasant. A very peaceful trail through tall conifer forest with lush fern-laden undergrowth. It was a bit quiet bird wise, but otherwise lovely. We had a pair of Tree Pipits calling to each other across the trail near the second loch (Loch Mallachie), but we weren’t able to see them either despite several minutes of concerted effort. Yet another reason we have will go back some day.

When we got back to the car park, there was a blue RSPB tent up with a greeter, just like the other reserves. She was happy to solve the mystery of the missing visitor centre for us- it was right up the road past a closed metal “no admittance” fence we drove past earlier- it hadn’t opened until 10am. We paid our 5 pound admittance and walked over to the centre. It was fabulous. There were feeders just outside a nice big window with Eurasian Blue Tits, European Greenfinches, and Eurasian Siskins right up close. Several Wood Pigeons were also hanging about. The highlight of the centre was a Red Squirrel coming down to a suet feeder for a snack! There was also a nest cam and telescope centered on a local Osprey nest, currently occupied by a breeding pair of Osprey! Cams were also set up for breeding Common Goldeneye and Eurasian Goshawk (Northern Goshawk at the time- the species was subsequently split into American and Eurasian Goshawk by the American Ornithological Society just a few months later). The centre was not only an excellent spotting site/hide for these awesome species, but was heavily focused on conservation and education for the public. I continued to be truly impressed by the RSPB facilities at each reserve we visited.

Hiking the Twin Loch Trail- Boat of Garten

When it was time to move on, we took another small side trip to visit the nearby RSPB Insh Marshes. Here we were treated to all kinds of marsh and reed birds including the Eurasian Curlew. They were the highlight of this stop, we counted at least 13, 4 of which were young chicks! So cute and fuzzy! Michelle particularly enjoyed this stop and it was a bit difficult to cut ourselves off and head out. At this point we were both STARVING and wanted to avoid the hangries. After about an hour of driving, we found the adorable little town of Pilotchry. We grabbed an early dinner at The Bridge Restaurant: I had a tasty burger, chips and salad, M went with scampi & chips. As hungry as we were, anything would have been fine, but the meal was truly excellent. It had become apparent to us that the opinion that food in the UK isn’t good is truly misguided. Our food quality and the dining experience thus far was as good (one exception notwithstanding), if not a bit better than most places back home- particularly the service. We didn’t have time to stay and explore the town, so we hopped back in the car and kept on towards Edinburgh!

We wanted to stop in Stirling and see the castle and Wallace Monument, but it was closed by the time we were passing through (I feel like I’ve typed this statement before…) So, we just kept on going straight to our hotel in the West End of Edinburgh. The drive was uneventful, even getting into downtown Edinburgh was straight forward. We arrived at The Bonham Hotel for our stay. Holy smokes this place is FANCY! Dark woods, low light chandeliers, oil paintings, and plush cozy furniture- it felt like we were back in our castle! I really liked the aesthetic- probably my favorite of the trip thus far. And the amenities and service were out of this world. Our room was gorgeous, cozy and even had our own personal Nespresso- that won over Michelle right away. We plopped down and shut off our brains for an hour or so, then showered and hit the town to see what Edinburgh was all about! It was early evening so I didn’t expect us to do much, but boy was I wrong! We walked the few blocks over to Princes Street to get views of Edinburgh Castle (Wow) and the Scott Monument, then hopped up onto the Royal Mile via one of the side streets and walked up to the castle. There was a massive construction project putting up metal stadium-style seating on either side of the entranceway, preparing for summer concerts. That was as far as we could go.

After that we strolled down the Royal Mile- ALL the way down. Right down to the Holyrood Palace. Such a cool walk down the center of this ancient city. So many shops, restaurants, churches and just oozing with history and culture. I’m not much of a city guy, but I LOVED Edinburgh. We hoofed it all the way back uphill to our side street, and headed back to the Bonham. We shared drinks in the lounge- an Old fashioned for me, Bailey’s hot chocolate for M and called it a night.

5/29/23- “Getting our steps in”

This would turn out to be quite the marathon walking day for us. We both slept well and it was easier than usual to get up and going. The professional Nespresso machine in our room definitely helped! Michelle had scouted a potential breakfast spot the night before, so we gave it a try. “The Painted Rooster” did not disappoint! It’s a very small, very cute hole in the wall café just a 3-minute walk from the Bonham. The food was excellent- we both chose the “Big Avocado Breakfast”- Smashed Avo on toast with cherry tomato, smoked salmon, mushrooms and poached eggs. Their coffee was also top-notch. It was the perfect start to our full walking tour of Edinburgh.

Breakfast at the Painted Rooster- Edinburgh

We did some research during breakfast looking for tickets to the castle and the Real Mary King’s Close, but they were all sold out. Our trip timing unfortunately lined up with a bank holiday, so it was much busier that typical for this time of year. We were told we may be able to get a walk-in slot to see the castle at 3pm, so we planned our day around that potential.

We headed towards Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano overlooking Edinburgh, taking in many of the cool cultural sites along the way. We started on Victoria street with it’s colorful, curved storefronts and narrow bustling lane- likely one of the inspirations for J.K. Rowling’s Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. On Victoria Street is The Elephant House, the coffee shop where Rowling did much of her writing of the first few HP books. Unfortunately, it had been closed due to a severe fire in 2021. Next on the list was Greyfriar’s Kirkyard Cemetery and Greyfriar’s Bobby.

A stroll around the cemetery reveals many familiar names for those who are familiar with Harry Potter, including James Giles (married to Anne Potter), Charles Black, Moodie, Scrymgeour, and of course Thomas Riddel. Michelle wasn’t aware of the names here, so this was a nice surprise for her (and revealed why I wanted to take her to a graveyard).

“Bobby” was a loyal Skye Terrier who guarded the grave of his owner (an Edinburgh nightwatchman) for 14 years after his death. He has a memorial inside the Kirkyard and it’s customary to give his nose a rub for good luck when you visit.

From the Kirkyard, we walked through the University of Edinburgh’s campus and into Holyrood Park proper. We initially headed to Duddingston Loch around the south side of the park in order to catch a glimpse of a Pink-footed Goose that had been spotted here recently. We were trying to keep our streak of a new life bird every day going and this was one of very few options in the area. It was quite warm, very sunny and we had both overdressed. (I think our experience on Skye may have caused a bit of over preparedness for cold/rainy weather.) We got very sweaty and I may have gotten us turned around a little bit on the way due to some confusing trail markers and GPS points- definitely not my fault. We made it to the loch and scanned it a few times from the road above. No obvious Pink-footed Goose. There was a large cluster of geese at the entrance to the loch below- lots of Canada Geese, two apparent Canada x PF Goose hybrids, but no actual PF Goose. I popped down the trail to the water’s edge to scout, but didn’t see anything out on the lake. I turned around to admit defeat and leave and there it was! Success!!! I waved Michelle down, we took a few quick pictures of said goose and then headed up the hill to Arthur’s Seat.

The hike wasn’t grueling, but it is fairly steep and we had already walked about 3.5 miles. We were a bit tired and very sweaty. About halfway up the hill the Merlin app picked up the song of a Greater Whitethroat (another lifer). I listened carefully and scouted the small stand of trees the song was coming from, but couldn’t get my eyes on the bird. At this point I didn’t want to risk M’s wrath with another diversion, so we pressed on up the hill. The view at the top (and the breeze) was definitely worth it! Simply spectacular views of the whole city, the Royal Mile, the castle and the Firth of Forth. We took some time to rest, take some pictures and enjoy the views before we were ready to move on. We headed down the North side of the park, looking for a drink and some food. We stopped at the very first little shop we found on the mile. We got some ice cream here as well, which was lovely.

Gorse covered hill- Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh

From here, we hauled butt back up the mile (again) to Edinburgh Castle- we wanted to be there by 3pm to see if we could get “walk in” tickets. Alas- all sold out, no more entry without pre-booked tickets. Well, this is how we learn folks. I was definitely bummed out (mostly because it’s my fault) that we didn’t get to see the castle, but given how much we loved Edinburgh- we will be back. Crabby and hungry, it was real food time. We grabbed a late lunch (“linner?” “dunch?”) at the Copper Still- I had the Copper Still Burger (Scottish beef, lettuce, gherkins, onion chutney, cheddar, bacon) and chips; Michelle had the Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Sandwich with a salad. We each had a cheeky adult beverage as well, to take the edge off. Lunch helped. A lot.

We decided to head back to the room and just relax there for a bit. We were exhausted, our feet hurt and we were sweaty and gross. Why not take advantage of our very comfy beautiful room? We put our feet up and for the first time in two weeks, just relaxed and did….nothing. It was pretty great. We got cleaned up and grabbed dinner down in the lounge before our last task of the day. I had a Cajun Chicken Club Sandwich (yum) and M had an Italian style Panini- along with an Old Fashioned (me) and French Martini (her). All fueled up, we headed out (again) for our last outing of the day. It was a paltry 1.5 miles down Princes street to the Scottish National Monument on Calton Hill. I read this was a great spot to watch the sunset, which turned out to be quite accurate. We arrived just a little past true sunset as the light just began to dim. As it turned out, there was a group of folks practicing fire dancing up by the monument, which Michelle and I had not heard of/seen before. Very cool! They used various weapons/props, all of which were on fire over some portion of the prop. There were staves, nunchucks, hoops, and a very advanced gal practicing with a rope dart- essentially a ball of fire on the end of a long rope that she spun, whirled, flung and even kicked out and around her- it was VERY impressive!

Fire Dancing- Calton Hill, Edinburgh

Scottish National Monument
Calton Hill, Edinburgh

We got some nice pictures of the monument as the sun set (the light was lovely), along with the Portuguese Cannon and the Nelson Monument. We stuck around for a bit and watched the fire dancers, getting some great low-light photography practice while we enjoyed the show. We enjoyed the views of Edinburgh at twilight on the walk back and retired to our room for a nightcap- they brought our drinks of choice right up to our room from the bar. Not gonna lie, it was nice being a little fancy and getting pampered. Such a stark contrast to our practical, no-frills day to day back home, a very pleasant change of pace. (Maybe this was why we started dabbling in the Powerball after we got back home…) Sleep was good.

5/30/23- “England is for the birds”

We broke our unspoken “no repeats” rule and headed back to the Painted Rooster for breakfast. We just couldn’t pass it up, being so close and so delicious. We even had the same meal. (Shame on us, I know). It was time to say goodbye (for now) to Scotland. Since I had cut it close on the way in to Edinburgh, there were only about 32 miles left in the gas tank (eek!). Luckily there was a petrol station only 3 miles away from the hotel. We filled up the tank, grabbed road sodas, and headed south towards England. Excitedly, today’s agenda included PUFFINS! Our first destination was Seahouses in Northumberland, the far northeast corner of England. The almost 2 hour drive was OK and there was a fair bit of nice scenery along the way.

On arrival to Seahouses, both our bladders where threatening to burst. Since we had JUST made it with enough time to check in for our boat cruise, we did so before the restrooms- just in case. Luckily, there was a public bathroom right across the street from the harbor. Phew, close one!

Sadly, Avian Influenza had been ravaging the seabird populations throughout the UK for the previous two years and boat tours were no longer able to land/disembark on the Farne Islands. (The tour that caught my eye when planning the trip included landing on Inner Farne for 1 hour to mingle with said adorable little Alcids.) This tour still promised to be quite worthwhile and exciting- a 2 hour boat tour around the Farne Islands.

At this point in the trip we had seen 89 life species. Pretty darn good for a cultural/historic self-guided tour of the UK with a side of birding every few days! Naturally, I was hoping for 11 more species on the boat tour to make a nice round 100 (OCD much?). This was definitely not guaranteed, but I had seen reports of about 15 reliable species in this area that were new to us, so it was possible! We loaded up and off we went!

The boat captain/guide reminded us SO MUCH of our friend Nolan- the looks, the beard, the sense of humor, everything. He was great! Right out of the gate, we saw Common Eiders all over the harbor- males, females and ducklings (1)! As we headed out towards the Farne Islands, Common Murre were plentiful everywhere (2). A few minutes into the ride a sandwich tern (small tern with a black bill dipped in mustard) flew directly overhead- spotted by Michelle (3). We picked out a few Razorbills among the murres (4).

Next up was the star of the show, the Atlantic Puffin (5)!!! So. Freaking. Adorable. We saw thousands of these little guys! With their colorful candy-corn like painted bills, stubby little bodies and flappy wings, they were simply spectacular. On several of the islands were small groups of European Shag (6)- a medium sized cormorant with oil-slick iridescent green-black feathers and a jaunty crest on their head. We also got some fantastic views of lots of Atlantic Grey Seals (bonus mammals for Michelle- she likes the fuzzy creatures). They are pretty cute for chubby water torpedoes if you ask me.

Napping Atlantic Gray Seal- The Farne Islands

A couple of islands later was a small group of common terns (not new), followed by a large group of nesting Arctic Terns (7). The next island was home to numerous nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes (8). We were getting close! We motored by the lighthouse, where we heard the tale of Grace Darling, daughter of the lighthouse keeper who helped rescue many sailors from a terrible shipwreck in 1838.

Then “Captain Nolan” called out a small flock of Northern Gannets flying north (9). Unlike the other birds we had seen so far, they don’t nest on the Farne Islands. They head out to open water to feed in the morning, then head back to roost on Bass Rock near Edinburgh in the evening. I spotted a few more small groups of Gannets, always flying back north/northwest to roost. The whole experience was fabulous- great birds in huge numbers, excited people and Michelle didn’t get seasick (which was remarkable)! She confided that she thought it was her favorite part of the trip, just as exciting as the Hogwarts Express and Harry Potter Tour (which she did thoroughly enjoy, just all the people and sickness at the time tamped things down a bit). I was thrilled to see her beaming and happy and I had enjoyed myself thoroughly as well. We grabbed a bit of fish & chips (the biggest piece of fish we had ever been served) and I scouted a nearby hot spot to sneakily try and get us two more life birds. (I hadn’t been updating Michelle with our species numbers at all and my initial goal for the whole trip was 60 new species). We had plenty of time to dawdle on our way down to York for the night, so we gave it a go.

My best gull impression
Neptune Fish Restaurant- Seahouses, England

15 minutes south was the Northumberland Coast Area of Natural Beauty- our destination. We had to navigate a couple one-track primitive back roads, but managed to find the car park. We headed out to some tide pools to try for Common Ringed Plover and Little Plover. Almost immediately we saw a Common Ringed Plover (trip lifer 99!). Then M picked out a pair of dark birds floating out on the surf- long dark bodies, long dark bills with orange on them…Common Scoter!!! Number 100!!! I sprang the surprise on Michelle with a huge high-five! “Holy Shit!” was her response. Indeed love, indeed.

Northumberland Coast in search of trip lifers 99 and 100!

At this point, all the diet coke I had at lunch was threatening to make a scene, so we headed back towards the car. We had wandered a ways down the beach and were on the other side of some rather large, rocks covered with slippery seaweed. It made for some treacherous footing on the way back, but luckily we didn’t have any spills. As a bonus, we also spotted a very small tern standing on a sandy peninsula- a Little Tern, lifer 101 for the trip! I had to sneak behind some large rocks and water the ocean real quick or risk severe embarrassment. That done and back in the car park, we heard lots of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits singing along the adjacent grassy field. We were peeking at a group of vocal black-headed gulls in the field when M and I both suddenly yelled out: “Pine Marten!” I think each of us startled the other. There on the edge of the field, running across a low wall of rocks was the cutest little brown and white weasel! He was clearly looking for trouble (as mustelids do). With some difficulty (we were roughly 20-25 yards away) we got some ID photos as he sprang across the rock wall and out of view. (Picture review would reveal that this was actually a “Stoat,” aka the Short-tailed Weasel or Eurasian Ermine, a much smaller and more common cousin to the Pine Marten.) Yet another fuzzy mammal for Michelle. So cute.

We managed to peel ourselves away from the wildlife and made it back to the car. We had about 2.5 hours of drive time to York. We stopped at a local McDonald’s and I grabbed a celebratory Diet Coke and fries. Shame on me, I know, but this was the ONLY chain restaurant/junk food for me for the entire trip! The drive to York was kinda meh, we hit our first real traffic/back up of the trip as well on the A1 but it wasn’t too bad, we made it just fine. Our hotel, the Guy Fawkes Inn, was situated immediately adjacent to the York Minster- the very famous cathedral and one of the best reasons to visit York. As we arrived, the downside to this location was made apparent- the carillon was going off and boy oh boy was it loud! Another wrinkle was that there was no parking at or near the hotel, as it was situated directly in the middle of the city center. (Apparently the Romans didn’t have the foresight to plan for this when the city was founded in AD 71, shame on them.) The closest parking was a roughly 8 minute walk away, which isn’t bad if you’re not slogging along dragging a full suitcase, heavy camera backpack, snack bags and other goodies across the uneven, bumpy (but unique) cobblestone streets. Oof. The hotel itself was very quirky, rustic and dark (all very befitting of it’s revolutionary namesake, who was born here) I liked it. M did not. We muscled our luggage up a very narrow, awkward staircase to our room, which was similarly dark, quirky and rustic. I kinda liked it. M did not. (Full disclosure, the floor was notably angled, with the head of the bed on the DOWN side. It made for a strange night of sleep.) An additional bonus were the TWO loud groups of inebriated 20-somethings down in the courtyard below the room. Not to mention the karaoke bar across the street with an excellent sound system. Lucky for us, they shut down at midnight. We were both so spent that we didn’t even attempt to go out for dinner. I had a dram of Glenallachie 15 YO scotch (quite good!), showered, and passed out. At a downward angle.

This thing is LOUD! York Minster- York, England

“Paint me like one of your English girls…”
Guy Fawkes Inn- York

5/31/23- Our 9th Anniversary!

We walked around the corner into the Shambles (Another potential inspiration for Rowling’s Diagon Alley) and found a cute little breakfast joint (this seems to be our favourite thing to do) the 1331 Grill. I chose a simple hash browns and eggs breakfast, Michelle had pancakes and Bacon. We dragged all our stuff over the cobblestones yet again, jammed it all back into the Niro and headed to Heathrow. I really enjoyed the feel of York, it is oozing with both Roman and Viking history- I’m adding it to our “must go back” list.

We made good time on the almost 4 hour drive back to Heathrow despite hitting some gnarly traffic along the way on the M25, even with a few instances of complete standstill. This did allow us to see 6 or 7 Red Kites soaring over the motorway though, which was awesome. We dropped off the trusty Niro at Enterprise around 2:15 (we were EARLY for our estimated drop off time of 3pm for a change!) and took a shuttle to Terminal 4. Grabbed a sandwich at Costa and then braved The Tube again to head back into London proper. Luckily, the Picadilly line took us directly to our hotel- only a 2 block walk, not bad!

The Montague on the Gardens was fabulous! This is the kind of place that has actual porters, multiple front desk agents and room staff in fancy coats. EVERYONE that passes you smiles and engages with you. The room was lavish, complete with a switch near the door changing an LED outside the door from “do not disturb” to “service my room”- no flimsy paper knob hangers here! The best part- it had a crisply responsive thermostat set to 18ºC (65ºF), nice and cool.

The Montague on the Gardens- London, England

We rested for a little bit, then I popped the question to Michelle (no not THAT one): “Do you want to try and keep the streak alive and go for another lifer today?” We still had three hours before our dinner reservation and there were a few parks within walking distance. M said “Let’s go for it!” We headed out to Regent’s Park, about a 20 minute walk northwest of the hotel. Our target was the Red-crested Pochard, a large diving duck with an orange head, red bill, white flanks and black breast (well the males look like that- like most other birds the females are comparitively drab). If we got super lucky, we could also see a Eurasian Linnet or Green Woodpecker, the two most common species we hadn’t seen yet. Inside the park, we saw a lot of the “usual suspects,” but I knew there was a boating pond, where I expected the ducks to be hanging out. As it turns out, this park has an extensive collection of exotic/escapee waterfowl, which complicated things. There were even more exotic species here than at St. James and Hyde Parks, good grief! As I was unfamiliar with migration patterns and expected species here at this time of year, I just listed all the birds I saw. I knew I would be hearing from the local eBird reviewer, as I already had two emails from him asking me to revise my previous lists from the aforementioned parks, removing the exotics (he was very helpful). Oh well, here I go! Smew, Red-breasted Goose, Common Eider, Chiloe Wigeon, White-faced Whistling Duck, Wood Duck, Greater White-fronted Goose, Garganey, White-cheeked Pintail, just oodles of birds. (Every one of those species came off my official list as they were all captive birds!) We scouted around the pond for some time, then Michelle’s eagle eyes (pun intended) spotted them! Sleeping on the far bank across the water was a group of Red-crested Pochards! Victory! We zipped further around the path to get better views and verified our ID. Mission accomplished!

Since we were very efficient with time (for once), we had a little extra to enjoy Queen Mary’s Rose Garden on the way back to The Montague for dinner!

Michelle showered, I got myself cleaned up, we put on our fancy clothes and headed to the restaurant. Just in time for our reservation- 8:30pm. We chose to sit in the new covered garden observatory, an addition made during the COVID lockdown. The observatory was a glass-enclosed space overlooking a beautifully manicured garden. There was a very talented pianist in the adjacent bar and our service was flawless. We started with drinks- a French Martini for M and a South African Pinot Noir for me- this remains the best glass of wine I have ever tasted. Our starters were grilled asparagus and fried pickles, yum. I chose a ribeye steak with new potatoes, Michelle had shrimp stroganoff with basmati rice. Both were exquisite. Dessert for Michelle was a chocolate and passion fruit sorbet accompanied by a Bailey’s hot chocolate, and I had rice pudding and an Old Fashioned (but you knew that already, didn’t you). We were absolutely stuffed, uncomfortably so, actually. We waddled back to our room to get more comfortable…what an amazing 9th anniversary it has been!

Grilled Asparagus and Fried Pickles
The Montague- London

Ribeye Steak and Shrimp Stroganoff
The Montague- London

6/1/23- “Happy birthday mom!”

Quite a bittersweet day. Our last day here in Great Britain, wrapping up a fabulous trip. Breakfast at The Montague was good, but nothing compared to last night’s dinner. It was a combo continental/full breakfast self serve affair with numerous options. The coffee was amazing and the food was tasty. The restaurant area was quite busy and loud, however, pushing my tolerance for noise and overstimulating Michelle. We carefully packed up all our things to be plane-worthy and decided to head to the airport a little early. Our initial flight had been delayed an hour, leaving only about an hour and 15 minutes for connection time in Salt Lake City. Michelle was worried about missing our connection and getting stranded there, so we would try and sort that out before the flight.

The tube was jam-packed with people, hot, stuffy and uncomfortable. Luckily it cleared out a bit after a few stops (We passed a total of 23 stops!). Unfortunately we had to stand the whole time to keep our luggage out of the way for the other passengers. At check in, the Virgin representative said that our connection time should be enough and if by chance we did miss our connection, Delta would put us up in a hotel for the night and get us home first thing the next morning. This gave M some peace of mind, so we checked our bags and headed to the common waiting area after passing through security. It too was crowded, loud and I was already hungry. M grabbed us some drinks and sandwiches while we waited to see which gate we would be heading to. Since we were there three hours before departure, we had to wait about 90 minutes before getting a gate assignment. My brain was absolutely fried, so I pretty much just sat there like a vegetable. Gate assignment came through at 3pm so we headed out.

By the time we got to the gate, the lounge was already full and there was a queue to get in and sit…well stand, rather, as all the seats were full. 45 minutes later, boarding began. Our seats on the plane were excellent, a two-seat section with just us. The in-flight entertainment was MUCH better than the selection on the way over. I watched a Masterclass on Sleep, Bill Nye’s class on critical thinking and scientific reasoning, and got most of the way through a Navy SEAL teaching wilderness survival, good stuff. I was tired and head-bobbing a little bit, but true to form, no actual sleep. We made good time and about ten and a half hours later, we landed in Salt Lake City. Luckily, as far as I know, everyone survived the flight.

Sad to be heading home
Heathrow International Airport- London

We deplaned and waited about half an hour for our bags. Luckily customs was pretty easy and uneventful.

Custom’s Agent: “Do you have any food, liquor or animal parts/products?”

Me: Just a couple pieces of gingerbread.

CA: “Anything else?”

Me: Nope.

CA: “How much value of souvenirs did you bring back?”

Michelle and I look at each other: Um, like $150?

CA: “Have a good day.”

Excellent!

We left our bags and hoofed it to gate B1. Naturally, it was the farthest gate from customs in a completely different terminal. We made it to the gate 10 minutes before boarding. SO. TIRED. I inhaled a bag of Doritos and grabbed a Diet Coke (as I always do). On the flight to Tucson, I was miserable. It was only two hours, but there were no TVs or anything else interesting to keep me occupied. Restless leg had kicked in, and I was far too tired to read or comprehend anything, so I listened to trusty Alter Bridge. It didn’t help much, but I made it through. We got our luggage quickly (one of the perks of our wonderful little airport here in Tucson) and headed home. The drive was rough, but M kept me focused/awake and I even managed to drive on the correct (righthand) side of the road! That was quite the achievement having driven on the left side for the last two and a half weeks! At home, we said “Hi” to Thorin and Anconeus, then to bed. Our bed.

Thus ended our third and to date longest international trip. We checked off continent #3 (4 to go!) and added 102 new bird life species! We still talk frequently about how much fun we had and the desire to go back. Particularly to Scotland/Edinburgh. What an amazing adventure it was!

Final Trip Summary:

Mileage: Over 1500 miles driven

Cities & Towns Visited- Over 20

RSPB Reserves Birded- 3

Birding- 127 species seen, with 102 lifers! My goal was 60!

We had a fantastic time on this trip touring England & Scotland, particularly enjoying the quieter, less touristy spots. It was a nice balanced mix of the tourist “must see” sights, nature hikes, and birding. However, afterward we both agreed that this driving-heavy style of trip, spending only 1-2 nights in each place is a bit stressful. Next time, we will likely stay in two or three places at most, with day trips to the areas of interest. Likely in Wales and Ireland!

-CCC, June 2025

England & Scotland- May 2023

California- October 2021

Alaska- July 2024