Scarborough

Scarborough today!

Another fun day in Yorkshire today. Scarborough is a rather stereotypical English seaside town - some of it not our normal cup of tea but we did find some cool things to do. We had a go in the funicular to get from the beach to the town - it's been there for over a hundred years and it's pretty cool.

We found a nice cafe for lunch up in the town and then headed for Scarborough Castle - it was just over there after all... Turns out 'just over there' is actually a fair wee trek, but we got there! There's not much of the castle left but it obviously did used to be pretty big, occupying a large part of the headland and offering great views over Scarborough.

I practiced some gymnastics and Dad and I had our customary battle!

From the castle we headed back to the beach. We stopped by one of the many amusement arcades and recycled some 2p pieces in the coin drop machines for a while and then found some ice cream :).

I practiced gymnastics on the beach - Mum and Dad insisted!

On the way back to the car we saw Cbeebies filming a show. It was interesting to see all the cast and crew involved for what could only have been a 60 second shot for some show. It was very funny when it went a bit wrong at one point and one of the actor's ice-cream was thrown over one of the extras!

Warkworth Castle

We're on our holidays! We're heading for North Yorkshire this time and the way south we stopped at Warkworth Castle. It's a very cool castle, really quite large in a lovely wee English village. Of course we had to continue the tradition!

These are some fireplaces.

Bothwell Castle

Mum wanted to go to look at fabric for curtains which Dad really didn't want to do. But he managed to find a fabric shop near to a castle that we haven't been to before! Not only that, it wasn't even too far from home. We've no idea how, but we had no idea about Bothwell Castle just along the road towards Glasgow.

It's a nice castle even on a not very nice day like we had today but the shop attendant very generously loaned me a sword that would defeat Dad once and for all - great fun!

Exploring

It's the last week of the summer holidays and Dad has taken some time off work so that we can have a few days up north before going back to school.

For one of the days we went exploring with Auntie Anne and Uncle Ian. They took us on a great walk up a Craig Mony to an ancient hill fort. The walk was through an old forest with some really massive trees!

Although the fort was barely recognisable, after a lovely picnic lunch supplied by Auntie Anne, Dad and I had to carry out the tradition of having a sword fight!

The walk back down through some more massive trees was fun.

Then it was off through another wood to reach the backs of Loch Ness. We couldn't find the monster but we did find some very friendly ducks!

After that, we went back to Auntie Anne's for some more food. We had a fabulous day and I hope we can do it again.

Dirleton Castle

After diving today we went to Dirleton Castle. Diving was great, only our second lesson and we were up on the three metre board already! We started with a couple of jumps off the one metre springboard then a bunch of jumping and diving in off the side of the pool to practice our technique then it was up to the 3 metre platform for the first time! We were all excited and a bit scared. Apart from one wee girl who couldn't contain her excitement at all! She was straight up to the board first and had the biggest smile ever! I played it very cool, like I do this every day, until I completed the first jump - it was amazing! I was so pleased I had a wee dance when I got back up the platform. The second time I didn't maintain my pencil shape all the way into the water and everyone got to know that I'd hurt my arm when I surfaced and roared 'Oooowwww'! It was fab, can't wait until next week.

So, Dirleton. It's a while since we've been here but it's very good. We had a wee walk around the lovely garden first, I had a sword fight with Dad, and we saw this amazing tree. Its bark was like fur so I named it a chimpantree!

And then it was into the castle. It's a nice castle and has one of the best preserved doocot's we've seen. It's also got a great walkway over a fab (but dry) moat. Dad and I had a great battle on the walkway and and an even more fab one underneath!

Moving around, we found a very cool tree that was growing at an angle - perfect for climbing!

Castle Campbell

After Granny rejected us this weekend we had to find some other way to amuse ourselves. Saturday was a wee trip to see Gran and Grandad (they love us). Auntie Vikki and me wee cousins were there. Dylan and I had great fun playing together and Mummy had great fun playing with Ethan! We stayed for a lovely dinner before coming home so that Mummy could see Strictly.

Today we headed for Castle Campbell. It's a while since we've been there but it's a very nice castle with a lovely walk up through Dollar Glen. When we got to the castle Dad realised that we'd left the swords in the car; he suggested Mum go back for them but she wasn't keen so we had to buy new ones!

The castle is very cool. It has probably the best latrine closet of any we've seen with both a urinal and a sit down toilet with room for your toilet roll! Dad particularly liked walking up the original stairs in the tower which are over 400 years old! I particularly enjoyed fighting on the roof and on the different floors of the castle!

It was a great way to spend a short and chilly winter's day!

Fort George

It was another busy day today with very mixed weather. It started looking pretty wet so we headed for Fort George. We'd tried Fort George last year but it was so miserable when we got there we just turned and came away again. This time it wasn't so bad. Although we were lucky to make it because we met some Europeans on the road in driving towards us on the wrong side of the road and although Dad knew what was happening it seemed to take them some time work out it was them that were in the wrong and needed to move - the look on the European lady's face in the passenger seat would have been a sight if we could have seen it behind her hands!

Fort George was great fun. Even in the rain! We saw lots of dolphins - even in the fog! We obviously had a sword fight. And had a wee cake and glass of milk before leaving.

In the guard house:

Fighting with Dad:

Fire!

This is embossed on top of the cannon:

You don't see many of these about at home but there were lots up here.

Is it just me, or does this look like a model to you too? I can assure you it's not, it's real, we were all in it. And it's really very nice...

It's a big place. And perfectly symmetrical. I was learning about symmetry at school this term. That's me in this picture by the way.

After some lunch we went to the Findhorn Foundation to try to see the artist we saw last year. Mum and Dad has spotted a picture of his they wanted to buy. Unfortunately he wasn't around but we had a bit of a wander around the Foundation while it was fair. We might have had a cake at the cafe too - I can't keep The Folks out of there!

Then I insisted we go crab fishing again! When we parked up it was like this:

But a few minutes later it was like this!

And a few minutes after that it was like this!!!

East Lothian in the Sun

It's been sunny all week and with nothing already planned for a beautiful Saturday, Mum and Dad decided a trip to East Lothian would be a good idea. First we headed to Tantallon Castle, just in time for lunch and a wee picnic Mum had prepared.

Then Dad got the swords and we explored and fought our way around the castle - lots of fun on a beautiful day.

Tantallon is right on the coast and the nearby beach and water looked amazing so afterwards we headed down to Seacliff beach. It was pretty busy as it's a really nice beach. The tide was on its way out so there were plenty of rock pools for us to explore. We saw fish, shrimp, shore crabs, hermit crabs and even a few tiny flat fish. I caught a hermit crab and had a shrimp run over my hand! This is actually a couple of the 50 things I need to do before I'm 11 and 3/4!

We also climbed a little hill and found a secret little harbour and explored the rocky area beyond where Dad took a bunch of pictures of me looking reflectively out at Bass Rock. And jumping!

After that, it was time to get in the sea. No one could believe I hadn't been in yet, although I had managed to get my new trainers pretty soaked in the rock pools! A quick strip and into my trunks then I waded into the sea. And actually did some swimming! This is another of the 50 things to do before I'm 11 and 3/4! It was pretty difficult and I didn't do many strokes. Having been taught to swim correctly, I put my face in the water - there's none of this head up nonsense with me! But no one had brought my goggles so it was fairly uncomfortable. I did it though! Very pleased myself and so are Mum and Dad.