June 26, 2016 - Loch Ness and Inverness

Today would have been Andy's 65th birthday - in days of old he would have enjoyed this trip but the last few years he was not really into doing anything new and his decisions were becoming more and more erratic. I had thought about bringing the small urn I had kept but realized it would probably cause lots of problems at the airports if I had it in my carry-on and I didn't want to put it in my checked luggage. Even if he hadn't been able to walk the distances that I can, he would have loved the photography opportunities. 

River Moriston - Rather neat stone bridges that we explored.    

Fort Augustus, Loch Ness - Weather was not as nice today as it had been. Chris took us on a drive through Fort William which is where Loch Ness is located. We were lucky that the boat tour office was willing to store our backpacks while we wandered around town. I finally bought a box of Kleenex - what a relief to have a supply. 

The boat through the Loch was interesting but it reminded me a lot of the boat ride at Moraine Lake - lots of rocky ledges with interspersed trees and very cold deep water. The windows on the boat had little sticky figures on them so that if you took a photo through the window, it would appear you saw Nessie! 

I bought a tartan bow tie for Aaron as his "Whadya bring me?" gift then M and I went to the local pub for lunch - I quite enjoyed my burger but she didn't like what she had ordered. I thoroughly enjoyed the collection of sauce packages on the table – such a variety.

Mid-afternoon we got picked up by David driving our second tour bus. This group was not as enthusiastic to start. David is a great historian but not as much of a story-teller as David so we were not sure if we would have as much fun.

Inverness Waterfall of Smoke: Climbed way down into a ravine of sorts following a path. It was wonderfully peaceful – made me want to simply sit down and contemplate the world. There were rocks with poetry on them along the path which was fun.

Inverness: Nice city and good B and B. Miss Molly was our host but I think she is just a figure-head and her son and grandson really run the place. I really enjoyed my walk along the river after dinner.

M wanted to go for a walk which was much further than I wanted to go so after my walk, I returned home. I had taken the outdoor house key with me but then realized M wouldn't be able to get back in the house without it. I tried to text her to call me when she arrived but my texts wouldn't go through because, as I discovered, the only fairly consistent WiFi was while sitting on the staircase. As I was texting her, she arrived so all was good. She finally got my message the next day!