I Like #117

Well!  I'm back!  For any of you following along, I was out for two weeks on a hiking touring trip to Scotland with a good friend from graduate school.  We hiked the West Highland Way which runs from Glasgow to Fort William- a hiking distance of 96 miles we spread over 8 days.  Each night we stayed in a different bed and breakfast along the way.  We really lucked out with only two really rainy days, one hiking and one later on the touring end of our trip, and all in all it was a wonderful experience with fabulous hiking.  Since getting back it's been work and catching up and a summertime cold, so all the things to like this week are from the trip!  I know other people's vacation photos aren't ever quite so much fun as one's own, so I've tried not to have too many!  It's also wonderful to be back though- I missed my pups, and my shower, and my mattress, and my washing machine.

The first hiking day through low hills and fields.  Lots of stone walls and sheep.  It was the perfect time to see lambs, tons of them-- so cute frolicking through the fields.  Playing and aggravating their mamas.

View of Loch Lomond from atop Conic Hill.

The wildflowers were just exquisite- all different kinds, but giant giant fields of blooming bluebells.  I've never seen fields of flowers in the mountains like this before.

For some reason this picture of my Grandpa with his pups accidentally got selected when I was uploading and I thought I'd leave it-  he's definitely awesome and a good thing to like. :)

These were someone's pet guinea pigs we met at a campground while hiking.  They were huge for guinea pigs.  Super cute.  Also there were tons of dogs hiking the WHW with their people, so fun to see them over and over.  All so well-behaved and friendly!

The yellow scotch broom or gorse or whatever you call it was in full bloom too and everywhere.  Such a strong bright yellow in the sort of muted tones of the Highlands.  Really remarkable.

These slugs were pretty common along the way and since they aren't the ones eating my dahlias at home (ARGHH) I was able to appreciate them.

Tons of ferns in the mountains in the Highlands.  So beautiful and different from dry western mountains in the US.

The sore feet statue at the end!  This was of course after we'd showered and recovered a bit.  The lady in red is Andrea, a friend we met up with along the way, almost every night.  Fun to have trail friends!

Then a visit to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides.  We rented a car and driving it was very very stressful, but Mull was a beautiful island.  This is the town of Tobermory.

Then a day trip to the Isle of Staffa and the most amazing basalt columnar formations.  These are naturally occurring formations, but feel almost temple like in their shape and grandeur.  Really cool.

And a last short visit to the Treshnish Isles where there are billions of puffins and other see birds!  I have so many puffin pictures, it was hard to pick just one!

We also found a couple of good knitting shops in Edinburgh, so that was fun and crafty too.  I hope everyone had a good week here,  head over to Lee Anna's for more things to like!