Getting Ready . . .

The two of us are getting ready for our adventure overseas. The three week itinerary calls for stops in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Iona, and wherever else we go in Scotland as well as Belfast, Derry, Kilrea, the Giant's Causeway and beyond in Northern Ireland. Along the way we plan to learn a little something about whiskey distilleries, Presbyterian history, the art of afternoon tea and whatever else presents itself. We will also be seeing some friends who live in that part of the world and are very much looking forward to that!

We leave on Wednesday, August 19th for Portland and will fly out early the next morning. The last few days and weeks have been filled with preparations. This week we got an outlet adaptor for our electronics, various 3 ounce containers (why don't more companies make that size now???), and booked a rental car from a funny guy named Willie who we can't wait to meet in person. Today we went to the bank, to buy gifts for the folks we will be staying with and also the paint store (yeah . . .we need to finish painting the windows in the study so they can be hung before we leave - the house sitter might not appreciate the plastic we've had over the gaping hole in the wall!!!). And tonight . . .we PACK! Tomorrow we will probably have to decide what can be left behind, because we expect to overpack on the first go. We are limiting ourselves to what we can carry in our backpacks and our spiffy new carry-on suitcases (the patterns are a bit on the LOUD side, but they hold a lot and are super sturdy and light.

Our hope is to upload pictures and posts when we can so that you can follow along on this adventure with us. There may be times when we go a day or more without being able to update, depending on whether or not we can get online. But we will do what we can to share this experience with you. We are very excited to see new places and re-connect with old friends and can't wait to share our stories!