Jame and Claire on the Jamie and Claire Tour

DAY 1

Scot here.  We're outlandishing a private tour for an American family from Italy.
You'll like this.  Vicky and Jim's bairns are called Jamie and Claire.  Aye, really.
What's more, wee Jamie has red hair and his current stature promises great height as an adult.
Cò-dhùi, anyway, I'll hand yeez over to them as they are prolific writers.

Claire-    Today we visited to a very hilly place, not a mountain though. I am not exactly sure where we went. I found it very enjoyable. We hiked all around there, and we saw lots of sheep. Jamie ran all around trying to "catch" some sheep. [Aye, a true MacKenzie at heart : "I was just Borrowing them".] It was sort of funny. We stopped at a spot where standing stones used to be. We read a little bit of one of the Outlander books describing Claire's journey through the stones. It was very descriptive, and I liked it a lot. The men hiked all the way up to the top of the hill, but they did not bag a monroe... too bad. On the way to our hotel, we saw lots of little baby sheep, they were sooooooooooooo cute!! I am very exited to see what tomorrow brings. :-D

Jim, he "went up a mountain and came down a hill"

Jim - Well today began the tour!  I didn't know what to suspect but it has really turned out to be more than I had expected.  After getting sandwiches for the day, we were off. It was as if Scot and Samatha and our family had known each other for quite some time.  After eating our picnic lunch at the edge of a field, we took a hike into the hills. I learned that even the hills were very wet and bog like.  I just thought that it would only be like that in the lower areas.  Scot decided to take a hike to the top of the hill over looking valley and I decided to join him on this adventure.  It was quite a hike to the top, but it was incredible.  The view was worth the effort.  After a day of hiking, we drove to our B and B for the night.  It too is very nice and we are sitting down at dinner this evening at the restaurant, the food is very good and the conversations are great.  I am anxious to see what tomorrow will bring!

Vicki-After many many sleepless nights or nights filled with strange Samantha dreams.........the day finally arrived.  Sam and Scott picked us up in Edinburgh. We stopped at a busy store to pick up sandwiches etc for the day.  We headed out driving and getting to know each other.  We stopped at their beautiful house.  What a lovely place to spend your time.  We headed out to places unknown to me.  We arrived a the most Scottish looking place you can imagine.  We sat on a pile of stones for lunch.  We gathered ourselves and headed up a large hill although not a Monroe.  There will be no "bagging" a monroe as they are a minimum of 3,000 feet.  I feel the hill Jim and Scott climbed should count as a monroe.  The kids Samantha and I hiked up to a large clefted stone.  It was so perfect. As Sam read the excerpt from the book I could "feel" myself checking out of this reality and into 18th century Scotland.  You could see the grove of trees that Claire stumbled into after coming through the stones.  I could imagine the small battle between the Highlanders and the Dragoons.  If you sat on the side of this hill, and kept yourself very still......you really could place yourself in the story.  Besides the clefted stone, I could imagine how Claire must have felt sitting next to Jamie looking out over the beinns and trying to get a sense of how her life was going to be.  Just spectacular!!!  We reluctently left the quiet peace of that place and headed to our b&b.  Cozy, beautiful, perfect.  now we are sitting at wonderful restaurant awaiting our dinner.  YES, we have already had our hagus.  It was a big hit with my Jamie the red!!

Red Jamie, guddling a trout?  Na, washing the mud off his feet

Jamie-    well today we were picked up mr.Scott and Mrs. Samantha, and they took us us on a long car ride to a "secret location" that was very hilly and rocky. it was very very pretty. shortly after arriving we sat on rocks and had a wonderful picnic, then we began the hike up the hill, there was a beautiful stream going down the hill, I tried wading in it but i decided not to get frostbite. We then got to the "jamie and claire" rock were claire is sent back in time. after reading a bit of the book i saw some sheep and decided to chase them. I had chased them quite far down the hill until I realized I couldn't get them. I started to run up the hill until I stepped in a sinking bog, my shoe came off and I got really muddy and wet. All in good fun though. shortly after we headed back down the hill to the car and drove off to our hotel and currently I'm having hagus and salmon... I cant wait until tomorrow.


Scot - it was good to loosen the winter cobwebs (and the leg muscles) with a climb today with Jim.  NOW it feels like the touring season has begun.  I'll get a bit fitter so that I can look forward to punishing, I mean meeting, a few of yerselves when ye come adventuring.  It'll be a pleasure.  

Scot