At the end of the first quarter...

We're on top of the mall right next to the train station. That's the train station behind Natalie but in front of the old buildings.

On Saturday, we took the train to Edinburgh. It’s a two hour train trip and it was a very pleasant way to travel. Dan wants to travel by train everywhere now. The trick when traveling with kids is to have something for them to do but the majority of seats are like airplane seats: slightly bigger/taller with a small tray that folds down. The seats are two on each side and not too uncomfortable. Natalie likes to be doing something when she’s not watching for sheep or rabbits. So I reserved ‘table’ seats online. That was the smartest thing I did for that day. She was able to color easier than if we had the normal airline seats. The train went over 100 mph at several points in the journey. There were times when we could see the North Sea as we went north there and back south. Didn’t see any castles en route but did see a rather large house. I guess it may have been a manor house at some point. It was too far away to see if it was still a private residence.

So we arrived and had some time to kill before we went on our bus/boat tour of Edinburgh. We let Natalie run around on the roof of the mall and in the park with the memorial to Scott. Took a couple of pictures. Then we got on the bus. 20/20 hindsight: had it just been the two of us, we would have gotten on the bus as soon as it arrived. We didn”t and we ended up in the back of the bus where the windows were covered by that semi-opaque window stuff that advertisers use. Sadly, a lot of what everyone else got to see we didn’t see because the view was obscured by the bus company’s need to self-promote. On the tour, the pre-recorded voice told us about the multiple memorials to authors in the city, but we didn’t drive by any except two…the one for Scott and some other writer. You can tell it made a big impression on me.

The boat ride was nice enough…We embarked on the boat at a really small hamlet called North Queensferry… named so after the Queen who visited the town… 900 years ago. And it really was quite small. It only had one pub and no shops that I could see…just a pier. Where I live, we have two pubs and two grocery stores, so I’m sitting fairly pretty. So we head inland at first up the River Forth, ostensibly for the purpose of going under the bridge just to say we’re going under this bridge that is falling to bits. Seriously. They said they have fans on the cables to dehumidify them so they won’t snap. I can neither confirm nor deny this. Maybe I misunderstood… I was occupied with keeping my kid from climbing over the side of the boat or being knocked off balance into the water. Luckily we got a seat up in the front of the boat, the Belle Forth. Turning around, we go back under the bridge and go under another bridge that’s just for trains. A cruise ship was in the Firth of Forth on the east side of the train bridge because it was too tall to go under and could not dock at Queensferry.  We sailed out into the Firth of Forth and saw some seals around Inchcolm Island. Really! Two of them were asleep on a buoy and one had come fairly close (40 feet away?) … his/her head looked like a dog…it was grey with dark spots and was having fun just watching us.

We sailed around Inchcolm Island with the option of disembarking for 1 1/2 hours, to be picked up by the next group. I would’ve liked to have explored the abbey and the WW2 buildings and the puffin nests (who have lilac colored eggs!) but it was lunch time at this point.  We ate the packed lunch I brought and drank a Peroni and some coffee. We didn’t get off the boat.

I feel like I’m failing to point out that this was a delightful excursion. Natalie’s enjoyment was tangible… We get off the train in Edinburgh and she exclaims “This is my home! This is my home!”. I’m thinking my kid really likes Edinburgh. I do too for that matter. It’d be nice to go back and explore it a bit more… Maybe see the castle and Holyrood.

Probably why I’ve got a bit of a negative tone in this entry is that that was also the day I threw my back out. I say “threw my back out” because that’s what I think it feels like. Went to the doctor today to double check that I don’t need medical attention (I don’t) and that was a nice experience. No copay, no paying anything. The doctor is a nice Indian man, Dr C. F. Khan. As I typed his initials I realized that he has the same as KFC. The KFC here is okay. But they don’t have the chicken sandwich. You know the one I’m talking about right? The bread is chicken.. … The meat is chicken. With some cheese, maybe. MMMMMM.

Back to my back… the old theater injury, hurr hurr durr. I wouldn’t have gone to a doctor back home normally. I’ve had twinges that burn in the muscle but they pass quickly. This has stuck around for more than 48 hours so I wanted to be sure it wasn’t a slipped disc or whatev. Fairly certain that the trigger was a combination of maintaining my balance while seated, maintaining Natalie’s balance while she’s standing on the seat next to me and then holding her weirdly while she was asleep at the Burger King in the Edinburgh train station. Serious pain folks. I was crying at one point, it was so bad. My muscles seized up and I was having trouble breathing.

I think this is typical of me. I’ve done this before: Sophomore or Junior year in high school = just sitting in the middle of the backseat between two people on our way to play mini-golf and ride go-karts at the place in Edmond (no longer there…mmmph) and I somehow pull a groin muscle. Mom was ticked at me and I laugh now but OH MY EFFING G did it hurt.  Same thing here. I didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t overly exert myself but something goes wrong anyways. Leg cramps in my calves, charley horses in calves and thighs… muscle afflictions are anathema. Even shin splints, and I’m not a runner!

Well…I’m off to do child’s pose. Here’s to the next 14 or so days… May I continue to feel better.