Thrs Nov 6- Bad bad service on the sleeper train but the views as dawn breaks over the Highlands is worth it. There is snow on the highest mountains and lots of fog in the valleys, very surreal to wake up to. Lindsey picks me up at the station and takes me back to her lovely house which is a converted outbuilding on the grounds of Culloden House, which is now a hotel. She makes me an amazing omelet and we have lots of lively conversation about people's views of ATS. She drops me back in Inverness so that she can go to school (she is almost done with midwifery school). Inverness is amazing despite me being absolutely exhausted. I walk about a bit, find the tourist info office and find a walking tour to go on after lunch. I fall asleep at the table waiting for lunch to come out, I am so tired I order poorly and can only eat a portion of it. I take my backpack back to the rail station to put in a locker and then go meet the guy for the walking tour. Very silly but interesting guy, I am the only person on the tour so it was totally worth the money. He asks lots of questions about my family line but it made me realize how little I know. Went back to the station to get my pack and charge my phone. Call Morgan and talk about their trip tomorrow night. I walk about the mall a bit, I see the little top hats mounted on headbands there, and then Lindsey retrieves me and we go back home for dinner with her family. Then we are off to my ATS workshop at a lecture hall at her school. Workshop is great, I teach Nikki's Dragonfly, Arabic 5, Funky Fish, African Egyptian and Raj Choo Choo. Head back home in very ambient Scottish drizzle. I will never never never get used to cars being on the wrong side of the road, especially in conjunction with roundabouts!

Fri Nov 7- I sleep til 11am!!!! *sigh* Do a bit of laundry, eat and then Lindsey takes me to some cairns that line up with the winter solstice. There were only about 5 left but a map showed the hundreds that used to there. I could only stand there and imagine the harsh life that these people must have endured and how out of reach any info about them is. Had another lovely meal with Lindsey's family and then went to Blockbuster with the kids (bought candy bars at the counter! the US really does need to get over this stupid obsession with corn syrup), watched IronMan with her ten year old son. Sat up a long time talking with Lindsey about our birth stories and how dreadful the medicalization of birth is.

Sat Nov 8- Got up at the crack of dawn to get on a train down to York to meet Ava and Morgan, Lindsey and I were up way too late talking...argh. The fam made good time getting on an early train to York and beat me by an hour. There was also a "bridge strike" which meant something had hit a bridge and damaged it so there were lots of delays on my end. Went for a "curry" and had pretty hard time ordering because of the language barrier. Sickly sweet Indian food but Ava loved it of course. Went for a walk around the Shambles that night, there is a great open air market on the weekends and have fun drinking hot cocoa with a Laplander who had a great conversation with Ava about Obama. Cheap princess dresses everywhere! Ava falls asleep as we go to a Thai place so we end up just taking it back to Blossom Hotel, jet lag and three year olds are not a good mix. Turns out that was the best choice ever, we ate yummy Thai while watching BBC, had showers (en suite!) and Ava was in a great mood at the end of the night.

Sun Nov 9- Had my first English breakfast, the staff are very nice about Ava and my food allergies. Ava is very tired and does not want to walk, we cave and start asking about buying a "pushchair" (a stroller). We take a bus tour (Ava naps) and get to see the new archeological dig where they found more Viking ruins. Afterwards we grab a flyer for a production of Cinderella at the tourist office as a powerful totem to energize her. She is all the sudden having fun and loves the walk along the wall. We still stop in to a dollar store and buy a stroller that pulls to the right, the rest of the day has theme music...stroll stroll stroll, thwak (as we pivot it back left), stroll stroll stroll thwak.... We had a great time at York Minster, the museum about the excavations of the Roman fort underneath are fascinating. We ate at a gourmet burger place for dinner (I had some of our bread with us, I carried over a whole loaf from the States) and I had a coke!!!!
Next post is the rest of our days in York and LONDON!!!!