Museum and Souveniers

It was raining in the morning so we ordered breakfast. My bagel and pastrami sandwich was very good. When it stopped raining we went to the National Museum of Scotland again.

This was Candace's first time. She was very excited to see Dolly, the cloned sheep. The kids played their games again while I ran around the museum checking out the other exhibits. I saw all the Scottish exhibits. There was a menorah in one display dedicated to the diversity of Scotland in the 21st century.

We left the museum and Tali started to whine. We got the kids drinks and then went to get souvenirs. That was a long expensive frustrating process. Then we got some hand pies. Tali started have a meltdown. We bought some treats. That wasn't good enough. We got back to the hotel just before it rained again.

We watched out game shows, The Tipping Point and The Chase. It was hard.to put the kids down and the weren't behaving great. Abie became sad that we were going home tomorrow. He said he really enjoyed his time here.

Garden and Dean

We got a late start and everyone was grumpy because they were hungry. We ate at an Italian chain restaurant and the kids really liked it. Candace liked her fancy pizza as well.

We made the long walk to the Botanical Gardens. I had a panic attack on Dean Bridge. It's not a scary bridge, but I peaked over and my fear of heights took over. In eroding park gave us nice views of the city. The Botanic Gardens were a nice place, a little too commercial for my liking.

We searched for treats, but Edinburgh is a little weird. Some places close early and others open late. So you find a great place online and it's invariably closed. Candace got some coffee and we searched for Dean village.

My feet and legs were aching and the sidewalk situation was not good for Candace's scooter. I've seen people who use wheelchairs here and it must be very frustrating for them. Edinburgh infantilizes disabled people. Candace has lost some independence. At home or even during our Brisbane trip, she was completely independent. Edinburgh has been very rough in that regard.

It was too difficult to get the scooter down to the iconic view of Dean village. It was nice, but felt like many European cities. We went back to the hotel and ordered some Japanese food. The chicken was good, but the beef was the worst I've ever had.

Football in the Rain

 Today was the last day of Canada's conference. The kids and I went to a used bookstore. Then we saw the statue of the great Scottish boxer Ken Buchanan. We got some pizza and went to see a Hibs soccer game.

The crowd was 16,334, so it's not the biggest stadium. It had more of a minor league feel. It took me a while to figure out how to scan the ticket because I'm an idiot. I scanned Tali and she pushed the gate to go through. I scanned Abie's  but he didn't pushed the gate fast enough and it locked. I did my ticket and tried to get Abie through but we didn't do it fast enough.

This was a floor to top of the doorway rotating gate, so Tali couldn't come out and we couldn't go in. I scanned the tickets again and they were declined. I told Tali to wait right there. Abie and I ran to the handicap ticket taker and told him what happened. The tickets were declined again and he told me to go to support nearby. So I ran there and told her what happened. She reset the tickets and told me to go first. I did, but then the gate got stuck with Abe's ticket. A couple of tries later he got in. We ran over to Tali who was waiting by the gate. She told me later she was just a little scared.

The kids didn't really pay attention to the game. We were in the front row in the corner. Hibs was up 2-0 at the half. The kids wanted food, but I wanted to wait until the second half. Turns out the food stalls close after halftime so they were pissed at me.

In the second half, one middle aged man maybe had too much to drink and kept yelling fucking every third word. His accent was so strong I could only make out "fucking" and the occasional "cunt." I couldn't understand anything else he was saying. I was hoping the kids couldn't either, but they heard all the fuckings being dropped. The constant f bombs spread. Soon everyone near us started tossing them around.

At the end, the other team scored a cheap goal and the lead shrank to 2-1. After some nervous moments, Hubs pulled it out 2-1 just as the rain picked up.

We made it to another book store where I got some books on Scotland for us, drawing much ire from the kids who wanted books we can get anywhere. Then we made the long walk back to our area and the rain pelted us. The kids have effective rain jackets. I have a fleece that does well in the rain, but had left it in the room next door during the power outage fiasco. The fleece I had on attracts rain, so I was soaked.

We got takeaway for dinner and brought it to the hotel, hoping the paper bags of books and dinner wouldn't disintegrate in the rain. Luckily they didn't and we ate dinner in the hotel room.

Parliament

I helped Candace get ready for her conference at 7:30am and fell back asleep at 8:30. The kids woke me up a little after 10. We were able to visit Candace at the conference for a little bit. Talk wanted to stay so I suggested Candace take the kids in so that they would become bored. That was a mistake.

The kids were bored, but Candace is very important in her field so people wanted to talk with her. I waited outside until security said I wasn't allowed to wait there for so long. So I had to come in. I taught the kids about various charts and graphs. Then the kids and I ate at Jollibees. They enjoyed it. We found a playground nearby.

Then we took a long frustrating walk to the Scottish Parliament. The kids would go so slow or just hang 20-30 feet behind me. We got into the parliament and saw the exhibition and the debating room. The SNP is the current ruling party. Talk lost her parliament sticker, so Abie asked for another one for her.

We then walked to the Scottish National Museum. The kids loved it. It was a total mishmash, but they enjoyed the interactive exhibits. We only got to see the first floor.

Then we got some treats from the grocery store. On the way back, I made a mistake I've made a few times. On the map, it's not clear that the bridges are 100 feet higher than the crossroad that takes us to our hotel. We rested in the hotel for a bit and watched The Chaser, a game show we also watched in Australia.

We met Candace and headed for dinner. We ate a Kurdish restaurant, because that's what you do when you come to Scotland. Abie broke a glass. Kurdish food is a close to Middle Eastern. We had pomegranate mousse and saffron and cardamom ice cream for dessert. We went back to the hotel. The kids have not gone to bed easily tonight.

Sleepless Nights and Arthur's Seat

The power didn't come on until the morning. I had trouble sleeping and went down at 4:30am to complain about the lack of power. The night shift worker tried to help. He let me charge our stuff in the room next door, which was a much smaller room. I tried to sleep there with a noise machine, but this hotel requires a keycard to close the blinds and it gets light at 5am.

I charged our phones and tried to sleep back in our room. I finally fell asleep at about 6:30am. I had to wake up at 7:30am to help Candace ready for her conference. I went back to sleep at about 9am and slept until noon. The kids had slept in and were playing nicely.

Candace had sent me messages that things were not going well at the conference. The rooms at the convention center were too narrow for the scooter and the food was terrible.

The kids and I walked to Arthur's Seat, a mountain a couple of miles from the hotel. It was very windy during the entire day. Talk wanted us to take a certain path that was closed due to possible me rock slides, steep cliffs, and general danger. it was fenced off, but Talk insisted that was the way to go. While getting yelled at, I pushed through until we found an acceptable path to Tali.

The wind blew dirt in Abie's eye, so he was suffering most of the walk up. We got very high when I realized we were close to the edge and the wind was trying to push us off. I started to have a fear of height-related panic attack, so we decided to head back down.

We wanted a fish and chips restaurant but couldn't find a good one that was open. So we went back to the hotel and looked for one nearby. There was one on Victoria Street. We had delicious fish, chips that were like fry a shaped mashed potatoes, fried haggis, a fried Mars bar, and sticky forget pudding. We loved it. We got back to the hotel to find Candace waiting outside our door. She told us about her tough day due to Edinburgh's poor record on accessibility. We got Candace the same food for takeaway but she didn't like it as much. In retaliation for Edinburgh's lack as accessibility she has been calling the city "Eden-burrow" in the streets as loudly as possible.

In Edinburgh

We had a relaxing morning in the hotel. I woke up hours before everyone and booked our tickets to the castle. The castle was not great for Candace. The path is mostly stone, which makes for a jarring ride on the mobility scooter. Stairs prevented her from seeing some of the exhibits.

The kids like it at the beginning. The love climb iron cannons, a habit they picked up from visiting Civil War battlefields. They liked how high up we were. But the exhibits didn't really capture their attention. There were roo many people. And I think they became tired and hungry. Candace heard the one o'clock salute, but we missed it. We saw the prisoners quarters which is shielded from the sun. They got hammocks to relax it and got to play games like dominos. They even had meals prepared and served to them. Maybe I missed the point.

We then walked to get hand pies for lunch. Cheap and delicious. I had the haggis pie, which was quite good. This place was accessible, but Edinburgh has a big problem with wheelchair accessibility. Many stores and restaurants have one step to get in. The curb cuts are there, but sometimes very steep. They're definitely not uniform. Of course, the stones on the a Royal Mile are no fun. It's hilly, so there are lots of stairs. So Candace has been frustrated.

After the pies, we got ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel. Candace mapped and the rest of us watched gameshows. A few hours later, the kids and I went for a walk that turned into an arduous trek.

We climbed up Granny Green stairs to the castle. Then we made our way to Princes Street. We walked to the National Monument and Talk had a meltdown. She wanted to wall a long way out of the way to get a view of the city that we already had where we were. She kept screaming at me.

I managed to calm her down. She fell and I carried her for a bit. Then we bunny hopped down some stairs. Abide wanted attention too so I carried him a bit too. Then we all had bathroom emergencies.

My stomach had been acting up and that haggis pie wanted out, so I darted into a fancy hotel. I apologized and asked if I could take the kids to the toilet. The receptionist was showed up to the loo. It was one of the nicest bathrooms that I've even seen. The kids were thrilled.

We walked a long way to the grocery store and picked up some food and and treats. We came back and ate. I went to heat up Candace as food and the kitchen lost power. Then the TVs went out. So that's where we are.

DC to Edinburgh

 We had an overnight flight from DC to London. Only Abie slept at all. I watched The Godfather and Creed. We didn't have much time to catch our connection to Edinburgh. The scooter came up late, and the kids were freaking out because they were overtired. It came and then we weaved our way to passport control. There was one officer there and a very long wait. There was a second shorter line for people with flights departing soon. We were put around that line. I eventually just slithered into line and we didn't have to wait too long.

We had our picture taken, went through security, had our picture taken again and we made it. They took Candace a different way onto the plane, but it all worked out. Abide slept a little.

We waited for the scooter for a while again in Edinburgh, but we weren't in a rush. When the scooter came, a worker escorted us through the airport. He said we were the first Americans to check only one bag. He took us to the tram and the tram workers gave the kids paper trains.

We made it to our stop, but Tal had a meltdown on the walk to the hotel. The hotel let us check in early and it is very nice. It's two rooms and we can see some of the castle from the window! We all took a nap and forced ourselves to wake up.

The plan was to get groceries, mostly treats, and then Indian food as it's Candace and my monthiversary. The kids rode on the scooter, but there was a rocky curb cut and the scooter tipped over and they all fell. I was joined by several people who helped get Candace untangled from the scooter and we put it right and helped her up.

The kids were only hurt a little, like a normal fall, but Candace hit her head and felt nauseous. Then we realized Tal's  jacket that had been on the back of the scooter was gone. I ran to retrace our steps, and the kids followed me, leaving Candace alone. We found the jacket on the sidewalk by the hotel and ran back to Candace. She was ok when we got back. She didn't want to go back to the hotel. We got snacks from the grocery store and found the Indian restaurant. The most positive gregarious woman took my order for takeaway. We made it back to the hotel and ate the delicious food and tried n the snacks, a great ending to a tough day. So far, the people here have been so kind.