May 20th 

Well, as you can clearly see from my photographs, we have had another fun-packed, gorgeous day in western Scotland. Started the day with another wonderful Scotish breakfast, said goodbye to our Lawriestone B&B hosts and went to a few stores that were open in town and then headed to the Ben Nevis Park. We picked up a map, loaded Rick's backpack with water, gloves, my iPhone (for pictures) and two chocolate bars (called Yorkies - in honor of my puppy Sprinkles at home:). It was a fun walk - quite rocky for quite a bit and we maybe walked about 700 or 800 feet up before we headed down. Lots of sheep to keep us company as well as a few tough hikers making their way down from the steep cliffs of Ben Nevis. We came back to the car a bit tired but a whole lot warmer than when we started out!

Lawriestone B&B - Ft. William, Scotland

Rick in front of the Lochaber Yacht Club in Ft. William -
right across the street from our B&B

We climbed back in the car and headed south to the small fishing village of Oban in the Argyll area of Scotland Again, a beautiful drive, this time mostly along the water, seeing lots of sailboats and fishing boats and cozy cottages nestled by the sea. We arrived in good time, but it took us a bit to find our B&B, the Dunheanish House - but finally did and what a magnificent looking place, a tall and grand stone home way up a hill overlooking Oban Bay and looking down the Firth of Lorne. We settled into our lovely room, with fresh tulips on the windowsill and rested before dinner. We took a great walk a way down the hill to the waterfront area and had a terrific seafood meal at the Waterfront Fishouse Restaurant - lobster bisque, crab, clam and corn chowder, langoustines (shrimp) and crabcakes. Needless to say, I had no room for Sticky Toffee pudding tonight! We took a stroll around the waterfront, checking out the wooden hulled fishing boats land one very large "tall ship" from Sweden that is actually a student training ship! Quite impressive to say the least. Of course, what comes down must go up and up the steep hill to our B&B we went.

Tomorrow we have our last full day in this lovely land and will head back to Edinburgh, traveling through the historic area of Stirling - most notable to me for William Wallace's battle at the Stirling Bridge (there is Stirling Castle there as well, but I think Rick has had enough of castles:). Will finish up the blog tomorrow night before we head home on Tuesday! Cheers!