Greetings from Scotland - We're Broadcasting From a Hot Tub Filled With Scotch...

(Okay. We cannot take credit for that heading, directly. It was lifted from the Anchorman 2 preview. But did it not get your attention? And who knows... It's actually not half a bad idea. We'll look into this immediately and will get back to you.)

Hello lovelies ~

Welcome to our Scotland travel blog! We had big dreams of working on the blog prior to our departure. You can see in the very first post (see below) that we made that we didn't get much further than shoving a stuffed sheep (that's Zoe McFluffNStuff, one of our trip mascots) in front of a martini glass and then calling it a day. Then we had big dreams of working on the blog from the plane. That didn't happen either. Who wants to work on a blog on a plane anyway? That's just crazy. Especially when free wine & movies are involved. (Movie reviews from the plane: 21 Jump Street - funny. It's a renter. Bel Ami - I want  that 2 hours of my life back. It's crap. Straight up. Cindy watched This Is War. It's a decent rental love story with pretty people in it. And MommaRam watched some Marigold Hotel thing and said it went on and on. So there's that out of the way...)

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Glasgow and are renting a fantastic flat for the next 3 weeks. We're in a wonderful location in the Western part of the city and are within walking distance to a major street with lots of food and shopping. Everything we need!

So here's what you need to know: a bunch of us are going to Scotland. And there will also be an Amsterdam excursion. That's a promise.

If you've received the link to this hear travel blog then chances are fairly good that you know at least one of us. Maybe you know more than one of us. Regardless, we're all a little nutty by nature. And by proxy that makes you a little nutty too. So let us begin with some introductions.

First, a lovely photo...

This was taken by Richard Chadwick (Cindy's awesome husband!) Who took us in the Chadwick Family Bus to the Spokane Airport. (You may notice that three of our suitcases are identical except for the color. That's how we roll! Ha ha... quite literally. Suitcases roll, dontcha know?)

So in this photo from left to right: The fantastic Luna Jean Redhawk, her mom (and present authoress, Jenna Redhawk), then we have Diana Ramsdale (AKA MommaRam, my mom and Luna's grandma), and then my soul-sister, Cindy Chadwick. And if you look really close (on the purple suitcase!) we are also joined by our lovely trip mascots, Ramsey McGoodrod & Zoe McFluffNStuff. Watch for them in random photos - there may be some fun contests & prizes later!

Later we'll be joined by some pretty fabulous folks: Luna's dad, the wonderful Brandon Redhawk will be flying into Amsterdam to join us on the 23rd of June. We're very excited about that! Brandon has been to Amsterdam a couple of times and will serve as our leader of that experience. And we'll also be teaming up with two of my oldest & cherished friends, sisters Kristin & Tracy (AKA Tres) Pamperin. I've known these girls since we were on the same bus to elementary school when I was in the first grade. So this trip is a long time in the coming! Tres has a big birthday coming up this summer and we'll be celebrating in style together in Amsterdam! The girls will be on a magnificent trip of their own to Europe (Paris, Amsterdam, London, Glasgow) and will be joining us both in Amsterdam & Glasgow. Cheers to that!

Let's talk a little about our journey here. Travel days suck. Period. But we made the best of it. First off, Cindy rocks. We sat down to lunch at the Spokane Airport and she presented us each with "Trip Gifts." Because she's thoughtful and awesome. So we each received eye masks & slippers.

 Here's Luna with her Auntie Cindy & her little bunny mask. It comes in a bunny bag. How fabulous is that?!?

And then we have MommaRam & me (Jenna) sporting our fine sheep masks. Fantastic! (They came in VERY handy... sunrise in Glasgow is around 4ish and sunset is nearly 10:30pm. I'm extremely thankful for this gift! Thank you Cindy!!!)

We had a quick flight from Spokane to Seattle. Easy breezy. We then waited in Seattle for a couple of hours for the BIG flight.

 Yoga can be very helpful in preparation for a big flight. (Footage from the rest of us doing this pose has mysteriously been lost.) Miraculously, Luna's photo is still available! So there you go.

We went on a BIG plane to London. Here's the plane:

 It's pretty large. And we were paraded past the fantabulous business class section with the awesome folded down bed sort of chambers to the crappy section. Luna and I were literally in the last possible seats one can sit in. NOT awesome. But whatever. We're here.

This photo is a new tradition as we had a similar one in our 2009 travel blog on our first Scotland trip. Safety first!

So we already spoke about the entertainment (free wine and movies.) Other than that it was 8.25 hours of sheer grossness. Cindy took some fun photos on the plane. Let us enjoy:

 

 :: At least someone slept on the plane! ::

:: Almost there! ::

:: Cloudscape ::

:: Even Closer! ::

:: London from 30,000 Feet ::

We landed in London and barely made it to the next plane due to the sheer craziness of Heathrow Airport. Wow. Got on the next plane and made it to Glasgow!

Cindy took this one from the cab ride to our "flat" (they apparently don't use the word "house" for such arrangements...)

We're staying in an absolutely amazing place... sorry "flat"... that we found. Everything is so old here. Cindy commented that the sidewalks here are older than our country. So true.

Here are some lovely photos from around the flat...

:: View Outside to the Deck ::

:: Said Deck ::

:: Pretty View Into Courtyards ::

:: Ethereal View ::

:: Everything is Pretty in Black & White ::

:: Picturesque View ::

:: We're on Clouston Street, Ya'll ::

:: Sleepy Dinner at La-Vallee Blanche ::

:: Cindy's First Meal; Fish & Chips, Glasgow Style ::

:: Luna Outside of Our Flat ::

And that's essentially where we'll end the day. It was a long day of travel and we were really feeling super tired and out of it! We're closing this out at close to 11pm on Thursday evening (it's just now getting dark outside - super weird but we feel pretty cool that we're still up!) We have lots more to share of our Thursday adventures and hope to get that out to you sometime tomorrow morning so we'll be caught up. 

In the evenings we shall palaver over a glass (or two) of wine and share the events of our day's adventures and will work on our travel blog. I blogged our 2009 adventures and it turned out to be quite wonderful. We turned that adventure into an actual hard covered book that we'll be able to keep forever. Priceless! It's so hard to remember the day to day happenings so this really will come in handy in the future. Plus, this way we get to share everything with you all as well! 

We love you & miss you! 

Signing off for now... 

Jenna, Cindy, Diana & Luna