…bright spots on a gray day…

We finally got wheels–the kind of car Scots appreciate: thrifty, sturdy, reliable and fun to drive both through winding glens and over the M90 tarmac (see photo album to find out).  So off we went for our first road trip and drove from our eastcoast home to the other side of the country (Oban) and back, on 2/3 of a tank of diesel.  Awesome sights left us hungry for more–fall colours; dark gray skies and drizzle; winding, narrow byways alongside lochs and tidal waterfalls ancient fortress abode of Dunstaffnage Castle, still imposing after 800 years of Scottish weather.  We stayed in a quaint country hotel with formal dining room sporting a dozen antlered trophies on the dark paneled walls.  Jake and I played backgammon and checkers in the lounge before dinner, and he won both games with only a modicum of coaching :).  The smoked haddock, kippers, and home baked scones at breakfast were scrumptious. We toured the castle in the rain, surveying the soggy grounds from the ramparts atop the walls which Robert the Bruce stormed in his decisive victory over the enemy MacDougall clan.  We arrived back in St Andrews exactly just in the nick of time to grab the last remaining oak table in our favorite pub-restaurant as the room began to fill and soon overflowed with a crowd there to cheer on the tartan army in their do-or-die match against the World Cup champion Italians.  What an exciting game!  Down to the 94th and final minute we sat with narry a distraction but the beer and tapas on our table. We cheered and clapped, gasped and sighed, and finally sat stunned at heartbreaking goal the Italians won off a highly questionable foul call and the ensuing free kick in the last minute of the game.  But for a minute or two, it was indeed an almost perfect day, in Scotland.