THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Let's Go!
We squeezed our belongings into carry-ons, flew across the world, and settled in before our official tour began.
Arrival in Scotland
I flew from LAX to meet my mom in Seattle and then we hopped on a plane for our long trek to Amsterdam and then Inverness. It was my mom’s first-ever long flight, and although I knew she was nervous, she handled it with wonderfully. Watching her step outside her comfort zone at 60 made me so proud, like this trip was already stretching us in good ways.
Here we are before getting on the plane. Happy, but with a subtext of possible nerves about the long flight.
And here is my mom taking her first steps in Scotland. Pure joy! Relief that the flight is behind us and excitement for our tour. Also, look at that clear sky! Very unexpected.
Jet Lag Adjustment Day
The Rick Steves website gives a lot of good tips for pre and post-travel plans, and one of the suggestions was to allow a day or two to adjust to jet lag before your trip begins. This was a great tip! That slow, unscheduled day gave us space to settle in — not just physically, but emotionally. It was the gentle beginning we needed.
Shooglie Bridge
The 'Shooglie Bridge' is a fun Inverness landmark we just happened upon while we were walking around. Shooglie means "wobbly" and it is certainly that.
Victorian Market
Another landmark we happened upon was Victorian Market. It had cute little shops and local restaurants and was the site of our first fish and chips meal!
Shopping Joy
Look how happy this woman is. My mom loves a mall! And this mall did not disappoint. She found a little travel backpack that she ended up using every day.
DID YOU KNOW?
Scotland's national animal is the unicorn! This has become my emotional support fact. It is simply wonderful. It is the only country to have a (supposedly) fictional animal with this honor.
Wait... HP in Scots?!?
I love to collect editions of the first Harry Potter book in the languages of the countries I travel to. To my delight, I found a Scots version while exploring the mall in Inverness! I was utterly delighted because I did not know it had been translated into Scots! What a win both for my collection and for linguistic representation. It felt like a small but meaningful reminder that language — like culture — survives when people choose to carry it forward.
Fun discovery: The name "Albus Dumbledore" in Scots is "Albus Dumbiedykes" and that is just absolutely splendid.
The #MomDotInScot Travel Journal
Before our trip, we decided that we would keep a little travel journal to make note every day of two things:
1) What We Learned
2) Our Favorite Memories
It was challenging to make time for it each day, especially toward the end of the trip when we were more exhausted, but I'm so glad that we did it! It’s only been five months, and rereading those pages, I was struck by how much I had already forgotten. Writing it down slowed the trip down for us. It helped us notice more. And now, it helps me remember not just what we saw, but how we felt.
The cover of the #MomDot journal! We collected these stickers in shops along the way.
Sharing this image (the title page) so you can see my flawless Scotland flag drawing.
Sample page. The "favorite things" section goes on into extra pages every day because we had so many favorite things!