Scotland & The Open {Part II}
6:54 PM
Tuesday, July 14
Erik and I put the kids to bed at their normal time the night before, thinking they would adapt no problem. After all, it had been a really long travel day for everyone and we got them up at what would have been 2:00 AM back home. However, the kids thought they were only napping when we put them to
bed Monday night so we were up in the middle of the night having crackers on
the floor at midnight local time. Needless to say, Erik & I were pretty tired in the
morning! But it was a fun adventure and something I will always remember about our trip and sharing a room with 2 little boys in Scotland.
After breakfast that morning, we ventured back out to do more exploring in St. Andrews and stopped
for lunch at Blackhorn for burgers and wraps. It's the restaurant that we stopped at the day before when we were exploring where we took pictures with Will next to the bull statues. The food was really good and the people in Scotland were so
nice and very accommodating to our family with such small kids, even bringing a
high chair over to us for John and giving Will a complimentary milk with our
lunch.
We stopped at the St. Andrews Visitors Center and picked up some maps
and brochures of things to do and on our way back to the house saw the
LocalMotion Land Train (the local tram). After a quick stop at the house and
some diaper changes we headed to the “choo choo” so that Will & John could
take a ride. I know you can't tell based on the pictures, but Will was really excited about this! And John enjoyed being all snuggled and warm next to me in his carrier.
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We went to The Open to watch some of the practice rounds at
The Old Course and ran into most of the family while we were there. We stopped
at the shops and bought baseball hats for Will and John, a big rubber golf ball and some gifts to send
to Uncle Scott.
Here we are staging ourselves for a family picture looking back onto the 18th fairway and green. The photos of this course cannot do justice to how historic and beautiful it was to be there.
Will, look at the camera!
The oversized golf ball saved the day and we finally got our family picture!
We finished with our pictures while on the course and then took the train back home again and settled in for dinner at the house. We all got a much better night’s sleep tonight thanks to a long, busy day of being out and about.
Wednesday, July 15
The kids slept much better on night 2 than they did on night 1! Although John started a trend of coming into bed with us after nursing and not wanting to go back into his pack n play. Who doesn't love a sweet sleeping baby in the middle of them in a queen sized bed? Ha! He sure was adorable and cozied himself right in between us.
Meanwhile, the blow up bed we got for Will started deflating so he pretty much slept right on the floor. Looking at the picture I can safely say he was so exhausted that he didn't seem to mind.
We all slept in and had a late breakfast today. We got ready
and Erik's friend and old coworker Richard (who lives in Glasgow, Scotland) drove over for the afternoon to explore St. Andrews with us and have lunch. Together we all visited:
St. Andrews Cathedral Ruins
Beach by the North Sea (Will said it was dirty)
Walked past St. Andrews University
St. Andrews Castle ruins
It started to rain pretty hard while we were out exploring
so I stopped to buy some rain boots (with John) and Erik, Richard & Will
made a quick stop at the house. The rain let up and we went for a late lunch to
Josper Bar & Grill. Will & John shared mac & cheese, I had a
burger with pulled pork and Erik had a venison burger with Haggis; lunch was
delicious! We said our goodbyes to Richard around 4:00 and thanked him for
buying us all lunch.
The St. Andrews Cathedral ruins were beautiful and in between the rain we were able to explore it with some beautiful blue skies.
Will and I - doesn't he look excited to be in a picture with me?
John got to enjoy some views from the stroller today instead of being strapped to mom in the carrier the whole time. We both appreciated the break!
The scenery here is just so beautiful. It's hard not to take multiple pictures of the same views which is why I have so many to share!
Once Richard left, the 4 of us headed to the course and met up with everyone to watch The Champions round of The Open (all the past Champions played 1, 2 17 & 18) and then did a group photo of the whole family in our McAdams Family Open t-shirts that Kristin & Joe had made as a surprise for everyone for the trip. It was an unusually sunny afternoon and proved to be the perfect day to do pictures.
Grandma & Grandpa with the boys. Wil wouldn't give up the snack cup. Traveling all the way across the ocean and sightseeing all day is sure to make a 2 1/2 year old pretty hungry!
Grandma & Grandpa with Riley and Mara. They didn't require snack cups.
Pat, Amy, Riley & Mara - Mara the goof knelt down so that she wouldn't block anyone.
Our turn for some family pictures on the course of just the 4 of us.
We got back to the house late, after a very long and busy day, had dinner and then it was bedtime for the kids. Will was so tired that he fell asleep after dinner while watching “Fast Cars” with Bear on the couch!
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