Had to do it!

You can't be in Scotland and miss the chance to go and look for "Nessie"! Yesterday, we "hired" a car and made the drive up north to Inverness/Loch Ness and back. We had been pushing this off, thinking that we didn't want to drive for 3 hours (one way). Then we realized it took that much time on the bus to get to the highland games in Scone last week!

Just getting there was an adventure in it's self, with Ryan driving a stick shift with his left hand and trying to remember to drive on the other side of the road. His ultimate challenge came while going through Inverness where there were 5 or 6 roundabouts in about a two mile distance. He did a great job. There is no way that I would have tried it!
Here we are at the ruins of Castle Urquhart on the shore of Loch Ness.



Look close...can you spot "Nessie"? As we were watching the water, you could see these weird kind of rolling waves without any boat around. At first glance, if you were hoping to see something or someone special, it would be easy to mistake these small waves with the humps of the Loch Ness Monster. No wonder there has been so many "sightings!" I'm not saying I'm not a believer, though:)
It seems we never get pictures of just us anymore.
The imagination of a three year old is so much fun...Thomas would stand looking into the water calling loudly, "Oh Nessie, where are you Nessie?"
After the Castle we couldn't miss touring the Official Loch Ness Exhibition.
Here's Thomas and Nathan admiring their finds from the gift shop. Of course, Thomas begged for another sword. ( I will be happy when he moves on from this whole Knight phase.) Nate chose a stuffed Nessie. He carries it around, makes noises at it, kisses it and basically just LOVES it. I think it is so cute. Now Thomas will say "Where's Nessie?" and Nate will look all around until he finds her. So, I guess maybe we did find the Loch Ness Monster after all!