Our 2nd European Vacation, 2014 Scotland

In 2014 we went back to the UK, starting in Edinburgh and then flew out of London.  We landed in Edinburgh the day they announced that Scotland would stay in the UK and not secede.  Our flight times got changed a few days before we left, and instead of landing at 10am we landed at 5am.  This was problematic for a few reasons, the main one being that neither of us slept much on the flight and because of the vote there were no rooms in the hotel for us to check into early!    We dropped our bags off and sought out caffeine.  The first day we did a walking tour of the city, then crashed for a much needed nap, afterwards we ate some food at Deacon Brodies Tavern  I got Spencer to try some Haggis, surprisingly did not hate it, although he said he was not a fan of the texture!  We made our first stop of several into the Bow Bar, a fantastic tiny little bar that was distinctly not touristy, but was so close to the touristy part of town that I was easy for us to get to it.   After the Bow Bar we decided to find Brew Dog, we got minorly lost if I remember correctly and had some additional time to wander the streets!  After that we crashed and boy did we enjoy our sleep! 

Before our flights, look how awake we are!

6am.....we needed the caffeine!

I told Spencer I was going to drop him off, he didn't seem like he would fight me on it!

The next day we woke up and started our day with a tour of the castle.  There was a wedding while we were there, it was very cool to see the wedding procession, the chapel they got married in reminded me of the chapel on Bakers Campus based on the size.  This one is considerably older than the one removed from Sprokton England and shipped to Baker though.  We did the audio tour of the castle while we were there, saw the crown jewels and the "stone of destiny" which our tour guide the day before had told us about with great fan fare. 

After the castle tour we had lunch and then went on to the Scotch Whisky Experience. I did this back in 2004 when I studied abroad.  The only thing I remembered from it that time was that we were frozen and as soon as they gave us the sample of scotch we all downed it immediately hoping it would help warm us up!  There is a little ride at the beginning that takes you through the history of the drink, then after you get some more info on the different regions of scotch.  We sampled all the regions after that to discover which region we preferred.  For not thinking I liked Scotch at all I discovered I really liked the Speyside region, Spencer preferred the Highlands. 

In order to get a bit outside our walking distance we bought tickets to the Hop On Hop Off bus and took a turn around the city.   That night we did a ghost tour of the city, we visited the South Bridge Vaults, they were designed to hold luxury goods but they leaked so badly that they were abandoned.  After that they became home to the marginalized members of society, who were routintly abducted to be dissected for medical practice.  After that we went to the Black Mausoleum, part of the first concentration camp in Europe for the Covenanters.  The spot has had significant paranormal activity since 1998, although we didn't see anything strange while we were there. 

a cannon overlooking the view from the castle during our tour

the main tourist drag in Edinburgh

a taster of scotch from the tour we did, in the background is one of the schools used in Harry Potter filming, OMG I love Harry Potter

A small snippet of the worlds largest private scotch collection

Spence putting all the knowledge acquired during the tour to good use

at the Black Mausoleum, we didn't actually see anything paranormal, but its better to be prepared right?

During our tour of Edinburgh Castle

The next day was our "active" day.  We decided to hike up Arthurs Seat first thing in the morning.  Now, this was not something we'd officially decided on doing prior to getting to Edinburgh, so I didn't bring any good footwear for this.....so I did the hike in my Toms...with coffee in my hand.  Really did not think this whole thing through.  There were parts of the hike that I really wanted to say screw it and give up, I'm very glad we didn't though, the views from the top of the hike were fantastic!  After the hike we went back down and took the Hop On Hop Off bus over to Scot's monument and went to the top (gotta love us and our need to get the highest views).  It was a very tight squeeze at the top, but the views were great!

Our next stop was at Mary King's Close.  We did the underground tour first, it was fantastic to see how different Edinburgh was several hundred years ago.  The idea that the streets were several inches or more thick with sewage and the smell that would have accompanied it is hard to reconcile with the Edinburgh of today!  Our guide for that portion of the tour was fantastic, very engaged in the history and gave us a lot of really cool information.  The second part of the tour was above ground and frankly, not something I'd consider worth it.  It was  a lot of the same information we'd gotten on our free city tour, and the guide for this portion would randomly trail off, kept checking his (not period accurate) watch.  We lost 6 people and he didn't notice.  We ran into some of the people we saw on our hike up Arthurs Seat who commented on my coffee hike earlier in the day. 

During our climb up Arthurs Seat

Spence is at the VERY top!

OMG we both made it! despite the lack of appropriate footwear on my part....

First view of Scott's Monument

Yup, we climbed it

We took the red route to the top

Our last day in Scotland we did a day trip with Rabbies.  This is the itinerary from their website

"Depart Edinburgh at 09.00 and travel north over the Forth Road Bridge, passing one of Scotland's great engineering wonders - the Forth Rail Bridge. Continuing north into the Kingdom of Fife you pass Loch Leven castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1567 and forced to abdicate from the throne.

Further on you will also pass Perth, the medieval capital of Scotland, before crossing the Highland Boundary Fault line, and the point where the scenery changes from the rolling farmland of the Lowlands to the forested hills and mountains of the Scottish Highlands. Surrounded by this beautiful scenery and on the banks of the River Tay is the Cathedral town of Dunkeld, your first stop of the day. Dunkeld was for many centuries the capital of the Christian Celtic Church, and its 13th century Cathedral reflects the once great importance of this quaint Highland village.

At Dunkeld, one of my favorite pics of us on this trip

The church at Dunkeld, its seen better days but is still amazing

I'm such a sucker for stained glass

From Dunkeld it's a short drive to the Hermitage, a fantastic woodland walk leading up to the Black Linn Falls where the River Braan cascades into a narrow gorge. Surrounded by some of Scotland's tallest trees and changing spectacularly in appearance throughout the seasons it's a great place at any time of year. You may even have the chance to see the spectacular sight of Salmon attempting to leap up the falls and on towards their spawning grounds.

We had such a great time at this stop, the falls were amazing and so was the hiking.

Leaving the Hermitage you follow the wide valley of the River Tay towards the Victorian resort town of Pitlochry. You will spend around 1 hour here and you can visit the many great shops and restaurants or maybe even take a walk down towards Loch Faskally.

After lunch you take a scenic drive through the mountains of Highland Perthshire, first crossing over the Pass of Killiecrankie before a short stop at the Queen's View overlooking Loch Tummel. On a clear day the view here is stunning, looking over to the unmistakable peak of Schiehallion and beyond to the mountains of Glencoe.

Continuing alongside Loch Tummel you then head over the hills into the ancient lands of Breadalbane, or the ‘High Country’ surrounding Loch Tay. You will make a stop at the waterside village of Kenmore with a chance to walk along the shores of the loch and enjoy the views to the dramatic bulk of Ben Lawers rising high above the water.

From here you travel the short distance to the town of Aberfeldy and Dewars Whisky distillery, where you can discover the secret of how Scotland's national drink is made. No visit to Scotland is complete without sampling a 'wee dram' and you will get the chance to taste some of the finished product. Known in the Gaelic as Uisge Beatha (or 'water of life') whisky has been produced for centuries in Scotland and the art is now close to perfection. From here the tour returns you to the lowlands and Edinburgh. "

This was Spencers favorite part of the day, the part w booze.  He got to try a Scotch that was out of this world fantastic!

This day trip was fantastic!  It was a lot of sitting on the bus, but we knew we were in for that before hand, and for us not having to be in charge of the day was a nice break.  We saw some parts of the country we wouldn't have on our own and felt it was very much worth the money spent. 

After the trip we walked down the way and went to a speakeasy Spencer read about online.  It was on his "must" list for the city and it was a great way to close out the first half of the trip.  Its designed to look like an old barber shop and the door is disguised like a bookshelf, very cloak and dagger! 

The Birdcage drink was dramatic as well as delicious!

Secret entrance!



Infertile? Really?

Infertile.  Is there a more loaded word to a married Midwestern girl in her early 30’s?  I’ve known that there could be issues with us trying to get pregnant since I was 26, that’s when I found out I had PCOS.  But I was 26, we were newlyweds and there was a LOT of time to worry about having a kid.  Spencer and I briefly considered moving up our time table for kids at that time, but decided against it.  Then in 2011 I started my current job, the job that has me living in hotels for 21 days a month.  I talked to my doctor in December 2014 about wanting to quit preventing kids, and we talked about the possibilities of it taking a little while and what steps we may need to explore.  One of the first things she brought up was that since I have Hashimotos (a form of hypothyroidism) that I may want to get some allergy testing done to see if I have a gluten intolerance.  I met this suggestion with laughter, anyone who knows me knows that bread and pasta are (or were) my go to foods.  Turns out I laughed too soon, I have a gluten allergy.  In Jan of 2015 I was diagnosed with the gluten allergy, along with some other random food allergies.  But GLUTEN.  I existed (almost) solely on pasta and bread with some cheese thrown in for good measure up until this point in my life.  I started seeing a functional medicine doctor at this point to try and get to the root issue of my medical issues, including but not limited to digestive issues, not having a regular period etc.  I was also diagnosed with adrenal fatigue (basically my love of caffeine and stressful job, along with things like my dads cancer diagnosis etc caused extra stress and taxed my adrenal glands to the point where they just basically quit working).  All of this led to some major lifestyle changes. Most notably the absence of fluffy bread from my life forever which, trust me, is sad; like really sad.  I’m also now that person at a restaurant who grills the waitstaff and managers about the kitchen and ingredients and if they have separate prep spaces for my food vs the gluteny food.  I also gave up caffeine entirely, this from a girl who had a Rockstar for breakfast every day for a decade and when going to Starbucks would order a quad shot tall drink, they usually had to put it in a grande cup because of the extra espresso. 

This is all in a 2 month period, I didn’t think there was anything to be super worried about. I told myself that I’d make these dietary changes and we’d be fine, I was sure I’d be knocked up in no time.  I noticed a lot of positive changes from cleaning up my diet. I noticed a big improvement in my sleep, skin and digestive system when I cut out gluten, dairy, soy and most sugar. I also started to have a regular period, so I thought our issues were solved.  A year went by, a year where I have slowly regressed back into my old eating habits (except for gluten and caffeine, I’ve cut them out totally) and did not get pregnant.  A lot of this is likely due to the fact that I was not near my husband for the necessary days of the month, but none the less there were a few times I was home during the “correct” window and nothing happened.  I had some blood work done that showed that even though I was having a period I wasn’t actually ovulating. 
EXCUSE ME?
So I was dealing with the cramps, the mess and the overall unpleasantness of Aunt Flo but wasn’t actually able to get pregnant? This seems like a crock.  My doctor advised that taking a drug to help me ovulate would be the next step, so I’ve taken Femara 2x so far, the 2^nd time it showed I ovulated, but no baby.  So we’ll try it one more time and see if it works, if not then its onto a Reproductive Endocrinologist to see what the next steps need to be. 

There’s a million blogs and posts about infertility, I don’t think there's anything I can write that hasn’t been written more eloquently by someone before me.  But this is where I’m at right now.  Month after month, wondering if this is “The Month”.  Seeing what feels like ALL my friends get pregnant, some after a long struggle, but most with seemingly little effort or even trying.  You feel like such a bad friend because your reaction isn’t 100% happy, of course you are happy for your friend and you can’t wait to meet their new little one, but inside you can’t help but feeling like every kid that someone else has somehow reduces the chances of you having one.  When one of my friends told me she was pregnant I literally cried for an hour before I was able to call her and tell her congratulations.  I tried to pass the stuffy sound of my voice off as allergies, but I’m not sure she bought it.  I never thought that we’d be in this position.  I never thought that something that is supposed to be so natural and easy would turn out to be something that at times feels like its sucking the life out of me. 

My Dad.

In July 2014 my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  He passed away in Feb 2015, after being in the ICU for a week and a half with pneumonia. There are a million things I could write about my dad.  He was a phenomenal photographer, he was a marvelous wood worker.  He could cook (or so I've been told), he was quiet but not withdrawn, his favorite night was when he was in his chair with his dog Biscuit curled up with him.  There are always so many things that can be said *about* someone, but its so hard to capture someone's spirit.  I wish I was a better writer, or that I was more connected to him and had a better understanding of who he was.  My dad and I weren’t super close when I was growing up, a variety of reasons that are neither here nor there.  As I got older we saw each other more often, lunches and more phone calls etc.  After the diagnosis we saw each other more frequently, and the whole time he was in the hospital I was able to spend every day working from his room and we got to spend some quality time before he passed away.  The morning I found out that he died during the night was the worst day of my life.   

 

At my parents wedding

With his mom Ann and Dad Marshall

 

With his step dad Gene and mom at the reception

The average survival time for stage 4 lung cancer is 8 months, that was one of the first things I read on Web MD after I found out.  (I was subsequently banned from Web MD after hysterically calling Spencer with scary cancer facts for 2 days after)  The day after I found out about the diagnosis we were hanging out with some friends and I was holding their daughter, I remember thinking to myself that it was very unlikely that even if I got pregnant the next day that my dad would get to meet my kids.  – Sidenote: that night we went to go see Guardians of the Galaxy, you know the movie that opens with the mom dying of cancer? Thank God for the 3d glasses that hid 90% of the evidence that I was bawling, I hadn’t told any of my friends about the diagnosis so they would have been confused.  I think I almost broke Spencer’s hand I was gripping it so tightly so I wouldn’t react. 
 

 

 

 

 When I found out that my dad died I was obviously heartbroken because I was going to miss him, but I was also so upset because in my head I always saw us getting closer when I was older and a mom, he was such a great grandpa to my step siblings kids that I was excited to see how he was with my kids.  One of the worst things about losing someone so early in life is you feel cheated out of the things you never got to have.  I have the last voicemail he left me saved in 4 places, on it he tells me that I’m the best daughter in the world  and how much he loves me.  It’s one of my favorite things.  I miss my dad every day.      

Norwegian Epic, December 2013

A lot of Spencer's friends seem to be very artistic, and have carved out some pretty cool jobs over the years.  One of his fraternity brothers/roommates/good friends, Kyle, moved out to LA and started working with the Second City training center in LA.  He's pretty good, I'm not just biased.  In 2013 he got a job with the Second City crew that was working on the Norwegian Epic.  He sent out a general "who wants to hang out with me" email and Spence and I decided that, heck ya we did!  We had only done 1 cruise before this, on our honeymoon.  That trip we hadn't done a lot of travel together and stuck to the ship excursions and didn't really venture out of that bubble.  This trip since we knew we'd have the benefit of Kyle having been to all the places before we decided that we'd skip that and just wing it. 

We decided to fly down to Miami the night before the ship left for 2 reasons, (1) I am beyond paranoid about missing things due to travel delays beyond my control and (2) one of my best friends from high school and her husband live in the area and OF COURSE we wanted to get some quality time in with them.  In an amazing twist of fate another one of our friends and her husband were taking a different cruise that left from Miami the same day.  So the 6 of us were excited to have some time to spend together before the ship left the next morning.  We went to a hockey game, a first for me, it was quite exciting and came down to a shoot out for the win!  A tradition is that this team throws plastic rats onto the ice for a win, once I heard that all I wanted was to see people throw rats at the team. No idea why this was so fun to me, but hey, I'm easy to entertain.   The next morning Ash and Lew took us all to the cruise terminal and sent us off on our adventures!

Top Left: after the win, the black dots are the rats! Bottom left: the shoot out for the win

Top Right: our friends when we were at the airport  Bottom right Spence and I at the game

2 of my oldest and most amazing friends.  These women are truly a blessing in my life.

 

Top left: Cuban Coladas aka the best coffee ever. This little cup is supposed to be split by like 4 people.....but I drink my own, its amazing.  Bottom left: first drink on board, vacation had officially started!  Right Photos: views as we left Miami

 

Spence and I before the ship left Miami

 The first stop on the ship was St. Marteen BVI.  The day started out with some rain, and we saw a double rainbow from our balcony before we left the ship.  It rained a bit more after that, but then turned into a gorgeous day!  We walked around past where the shops and chairs were for rent and lounged on the beach with our towels.  For lunch we ate a little beach shack that had the MOST AMAZING seafood nachos I've ever come across.  I'm not kidding when I say I would go back to St. Marteen for these nachos alone.  Not an overly exciting day, but the fact that we were on vacation, hanging out with a friend we hadn't seen in a long while was more than enough to make the day. 

The top rainbow is a little hard to see, but it was such a beautiful view from our room!

 

We waited out the last rain before walking to the beach

Everyone needs one of these photos on vacation right?

 

at lunch, gotta love a beach shack meal

Our beach view for the day

 

Hanging out in the water!

 

The 2nd stop of the trip was St. Thomas USVI.  For this day Kyle hung out with us for the first part of the day and then Spencer and I went out on our own to Megans Bay for some more beach time.  Our first stop was at BadAss Coffee, because the coffee on the ship left something to be desired.  Then we took the sky tram up to Paradise Point for some great views.  After this Kyle went back to the ship and we took off for the beach!  St. Thomas is great because they take US Dollars and because you can use your cell plan.  What we didn't anticipate is that we'd have a hard time finding an ATM.  As a result we may  have run out of cash and almost didn't make it back to the ship!  Thankfully some kind soul gave us cab fare back and we didn't miss the boat!

 

View from Paradise Point

View from Paradise Point



Our ship in the background, at the top of Paradise Point

The best part about traveling so close to Christmas is all the festive trees in tropical settings!

 

We spent the majority of the day soaking up the rays at Megans Bay.  Good drinks, great people watching.  It was one of my favorite stops!

 

 

The last stop on the trip was Nassau, Bahamas.  After 2 beach stops that didn't cost us a fortune we weren't really feeling like paying a lot to go hang out at one of resorts.  I did some research and we decided to the Bahamian Food Tour.  It was a full day of stops around Nassau, and some history about the city along the way.  We really enjoyed the food!  We stopped at the following places (copied and pasted from their website) Bahamian Cookin’ Restaurant & Bar

A three-generation iconic downtown mainstay adored by locals for its mouthwatering selection of soulful traditional Bahamian favorites and warm ambiance (est. 1986).

Graycliff Chocolate Factory
This iconic estate is home to the region’s first 5-star restaurant, an award-winning cigar factory and onsite chocolate factory serving handmade, artisan bon bons (est. 1973).

The Drawbridge Patisserie
A beautifully restored colonial home featuring delicious designer pastries and the island's only selection of Bahamian gelato.

Athena Cafe & Bar
The island’s oldest Greek restaurant and a Downtown Nassau landmark serving original classics including Greek salad and gyros from its family run kitchen (est. 1995).

Genuinely Bahamian Boutique & Confectioner
A local specialty merchant showcasing a unique selection of: native jams, spices, salts, exotic pepper sauces and tea and sweet treats sourced only from Bahamian artisans (est. 2011).

Tortuga Rum Cake Company
Nassau’s premiere rum cake bake shop serving 6 flavors of rum cake baked daily using 5 year aged rum (est. 2005).

Just a little sample of what we had on the tour, I would recommend this to anyone.

These chocolates....I still have dreams.

Everyone needs a picture with a pirate!

Before the tour we grabbed a drink at a bar next to the Pirate Museum.

classic Nassau

 

 

Of course, the port stops are only part of the fun when on a cruise, we spent several days on the ship between stops and had a blast!  One of the things we enjoyed most about the Norwegian Epic is entertainment options.  We saw Blue Man Group, Cirque Du Solai dinner show, all of the Second City Shows (obviously since Kyle was in them) including a murder mystery lunch, the "Legends" show which featured Katie Perry, Elvis and Steven Tyler impersonaters along with the live music, alcohol tastings pool side fun etc.  Having Kyle on board also gave us a "behind the scenes" look at the crew and the other side of cruise life.  Kyle had to get special permission to hang out with us before the trip since crew members are not supposed to fraternize with the guests. 

We always try to get a balcony room, I like the ability to get up early and sit out there while Spencer sleeps in and not have to contend with other people in my space all the time.  The room on the Epic was a slightly strange configuration in a wave, at the narrowest part it wasn't even wide enough for Spencer to put his arms out to the side!  The balcony had plenty of room for Spencer, Kyle and I to hang out after the last comedy shows for the night were over.  It was almost like when Spencer and Kyle were roommates in Lawrence again, except it takes far less alcohol to get us tipsy than it used to! 

Yay we're finally boarding!

 

We're excited to be here!

Our cabin with the wavy walls

Pool side fun on board!

Overview of the pool area

Waterslide fun on sea days!

Having fun after the slides

the set for the Cirque dinner show

Martini tasting, one of the best things we did on board, they were delicious!

Svedka Ice Bar, you go in and they give you 2 *very* strong drinks while you try not to freeze.  It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.

Boy, do we look like we're having fun! (and being photo bombed by the statue)

Views from the balcony on our room, I spent probably 3 hours a day just relaxing with a book and a glass of wine.

 

At the end of the trip we were back in Miami, Ashley and Lew picked us up and we did some sightseeing before catching our flight back to KC.  It was the perfect end to a friend filled trip!