Fortunately, Amy has been packing for a week, and we had set all the bags up ready to go last night. I load up the car and we run through our final list packing the last minute items. It is off to the car to head to the airport. We have to drive the whole way to the airport in the rain with one of the windshield wipers broken. The wiper has slipped off its frame and with every swipe we hear truly annoying metal on glass scraping. I hope this is not an omen for the rest of the day….
0700 PST – We park the car in the garage, note the space and head inside. Check-in and security are remarkably smooth. We eat some breakfast and Amy struggles with the phone. Finally she is able to leave a message for our friends that are picking the car up from the airport. We manage to miss early boarding while Amy taps her foot waiting for her coffee at Starbucks. There is still room enough for all of our carry-ons. The flight to Chicago on Alaska Airlines is smooth and our preparations to keep Eamon occupied work well. He opens his “prizes” and we read the 10 cent comics I bought and Amy wrapped. His leap pad battery dies immediately, but the comics save us.
1530 EST – We land in Chicago. It truly is a nightmare trying to get all of our carry on junk gathered together and off the plane. We find our gate after quite a haul between terminals…and everything looks good. The flight is still on schedule. We grab some great pannini sandwiches from a little bakery in K terminal at O’Hare, this is the best Airport food I have found yet. Again we manage to miss early boarding as I have been sent on an errand for the baby. While on the errand I pick up water and gum and return to find us now last in the boarding line. We get to our seats to find a pair of children in two of them. The mother is seated in front of us and asks if we will move. I tell her we are four and can’t break up. We are sitting in two rows on this 7 ½ hour flight. Two in front and two in back with aisle/window seats, and this works great. I sit with Eamon and Amy with Connor, and we start the long process of entertaining. American Airlines Chicago to London is a Boeing 777 which comes with individual entertainment consoles in all classes of service! Eamon and I watch Disney’s “Home on the Range” which I don’t actually see much of. I doze off shortly after it starts and awake near the end. I switch him to some cartoons on the Cartoon Network station and he remains happy, not having this much TV in at a time ever. That is fine, he may not have any TV for the next three weeks! We get him to sleep after the cartoons finish up and he sleeps for around 2 hours. I watch the end of Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox and then get about 30 minutes of sleep. I don’t think Amy sleeps at all.
0700 GMT – We land in Heathrow. We again go through the hassle of organizing and carrying all of the various carry-ons we have. My neck is tweaked from all the weight. We check with security to see if we need to retrieve bags to go through customs before connecting with Glasgow…they tell us that if our bags are checked through we will do customs in Glasgow, just to head to Terminal 1. We hop on a little bus (they let us leave Connor in the stroller on the bus??!!) and go through Immigration at the connecting flights station in Terminal 1. We pick up our boarding passes from British Airways and head to waiting room 5. Our flight is scheduled to board at 0800 for departure at 0845, but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Looks like a lot of flights into Scotland are being delayed by weather. We grab a bite to eat and break our first Sterling notes. Boy is the US dollar weak right now. This trip is going to feel even more expensive than it is. I detect a diaper in need of change, and start to head to the restroom with Connor…of course, they suddenly announce boarding of our flight. By the time we gather up our gear we are at the end of the line. A gate agent tells us that because the flight is full we will have to check our stroller. Amy tries to explain that it will fold easily to fit in the overhead as it has on all the previous flights. The agent ignores her and pulls me out of line to check the “buggy.” As I am finally heading down the ramp to the plane, a flight attendant passes me telling me that there is plenty of room for the stroller and he will retrieve it. He is unable to do so. Amy has snapped and is in fury on the plane. She has to change the baby’s diaper and has been waiting for me since all the gear was on my back. She gathers what she needs and heads to the rear of the plane. I set up the car seat only to find that it really won’t fit in this seat. The arms are wider than any we have been on yet and I have to provide a little “manual encouragement” to resize the seat. This configuration of plane is not as friendly either, and I take my solo seat behind the three of them. The flight attendant then tells Amy that if the car seat isn’t forward facing that we cannot use it for take off and landing. Every non-US airline we fly seems to have the most bizarre rules. Iberian wouldn’t let us use it for take off and landing either no matter which way it was facing. Amy holds back her fury but lets loose a few barbed comments. She uses the sling they provide her with for take off and landing.
1000 GMT – We land in Glasgow. I am in the front of the plane, but have to wait for the whole plane to empty so that I can pack up and get off the flight. Finally I get out of the plane and we head off to find our baggage. By the time we get there, the whole plane has retrieved their baggage, (we stopped at the rest room along the way) and there are no customs agents whatsoever, so we just grab our bags and head to the rental car. Our paperwork says that we rented from AutoEuroupe, but there is no such entity. Finally we track down some vouchers for Eroupecar which we do find. Of course, they tell us that American Auto Insurance and Visa Card insurance are not accepted in the UK and unless we pay an additional 17 pounds per day (almost $30) we are not allowed to drive the car in the UK. We are dumbfounded and feel like we have been cheated. We went with this deal because it was cheaper than the deal I got with Hertz or Avis and my discounts (insurance was included in those prices), now it is more expensive. With no choice and deciding that at this point money is less important than a good start to our vacation, I just pay it. Amy’s fury has returned. They do give us a free car seat in an attempt not to drive her over the edge. She tells us that our car is “quite large” and should be fine for our….was ALL of that luggage ours? She frowns and says that we should give it a try, but she doesn’t recommend installing the car seats until we see if the boot will close. After three configuration changes, the boot does close and we load the kids and their seats.
1200 GMT – I am squished into the passenger side of this “quite large” little European sardine can. Even if I could push the seat back further (which I can’t without significant whining from Eamon) I doubt I could actually be comfortable. Amy tells me that the next vehicle is larger. Connor decides that now is the time to nurse and Amy tries to do so in the drivers seat. Once he falls asleep, she can’t actually get out of the car, it is so small. I unfold myself from the passenger side and take him from her to load him in his seat. While she was nursing I had matched our directions to the map and we are ready to go. Amy is masterful with the left hand side of the road driving, and while we have some moments of confusion, she gets us going quite smoothly. We bump a curb on the left occasionally, much to our amusement, and actually survive the 5 or 6 roundabouts we hit in the first two minutes of driving. If you haven’t been to the UK before, they use rotaries called roundabouts in lieu of traffic lights in most places to control traffic flow. Add to this the need to drive on the opposite side of the road from what you are used to and it can be quite an adventure. The first challenge comes in Aberfoyle, where we run into the phenomenon of UK village traffic. The roads are not any wider, but parking is allowed on one side. This means that you have one tiny lane to service both traffic directions. This leads to considerable need for kindness and courtesy. I fear that in the US this would lead to a significant increase in non-accident related traffic fatalities and road rage. We hit the “scenic route” along Loch Ard, which means that you have a shear drop off into the water from the left edge of the road, and in most places a high rock wall on the right. Did I mention that these non-main roads are only wide enough for 1 ½ cars in many places?
In just one of those places we come up against two trucks and a tour bus headed the other way. We are forced to put the car in reverse (which was a challenge to find) and back up 150 yards into the driveway of a B&B we had passed. The larger vehicles move on and we head back up. Finally we arrive at our destination, MacDonald Hotels Forest Hills Resort.
1345 GMT – We can’t check in until 2:00, so we sit in the car for another 15 minutes, both the kids had fallen asleep as soon as the car started at the airport, so we can’t really go off exploring. Finally we head in and check in. They inform us that our unit won’t be ready until 3:30 at the earliest. We decide to go swimming. We track down our suits in the luggage and hit the pool. The pool is beautiful…it is floor to ceiling with gorgeous tile.
The wall of the building facing the Trossachs (lower highlands) is glass and we have a nice view. There is a sauna, steam room and a “spa” or hot tub. We try them all. I note the presence of a small exercise room for tomorrow. We retrieve our key and learn that the curling rink is broken and will not be open during our visit. Amy is quite disappointed as she had hoped to learn to play this wild ice sport while we were in Scotland. There will be no curling for us. We also learn that they moved us to the lower lodges from the upper lodges upon which Amy starts her fury once more. She tells them that they better be nice because we have had troubles with RCI before. They assure us that it was just a scheduling issue and all the lodges are equivalent. The lodge is indeed quite nice. We have a view of the loch that we would not have had otherwise.
It is a bit of a walk to the recreation center and restaurants, but I think it will work out fine. The bathroom upstairs is gorgeous with tile everywhere, a huge sunken tub big enough for the whole family (well almost) and a sauna.
We are exhausted. Amy tries to get a little food ready for Connor. I take Eamon on a walk up to the restaurant to order some “take away” food for us all to eat. While we are waiting in the pub, Eamon has a hot chocolate and I have my first pint, this one of Guinness. By the time the food comes, I can tell that I have little left in me. We bring the food back and all four of us are trailing…
2100 GMT - Ok, well three of us were. Finally it is off to bed for us all.
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