Fingal's Cave

Well, it's been a while. I've had this photo set edited for several months already; I just never got around to adding any text. This spring was one of my busiest yet and I'm nearly halfway through my summer class, but I've finally found some inspiration and gusto!

Fingal's Cave is related to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. It is supposedly part of the bridge between Ireland and Scotland built by Finn MacCool as he threw rocks in retaliation to the taunting of a Scottish giant. The rock formations are nearly identical to the causeway but they form a huge cave located on the small island of Staffa off the west coast of Scotland. This island is only accessible through Staffa Tours (or if you have your own boat, I suppose). We booked a last minute tour a couple of days before while we were camping on the Isle of Skye. The tour included ferry tickets from Oban, Scotland to the Isle of Mull where we took a bus (also included in the price and about an hour long) to the other side of the island. From there, we boarded the Staffa Tours boat and headed out to Staffa.

The ride out was a little wet and little rough as one would expect on a small tour boat, but the tour guides provided us with some super awesome yellow rain slickers to keep us dry. They dropped us off to explore the island for about an hour or so.

The island was pretty spectacular with its huuuuge basalt columns.

The entrance to Fingal's Cave!

Forrest and I immediately headed to the cave while others on our boat decided to climb the slippery stairs to the grassy top of the island to try to spot some puffins. We had to follow the pathway made a little more navigable by handrails from the drop-off point to the cave. It was very wet; I was glad, as always, to be wearing rain boots.

I almost died several times. Those rocks are slick!

The water was so clear inside the cave. I wish I could have captured it a little better.

Up we headed to the top to explore! The island is actually a bird sanctuary and home to a large puffin colony (which no one in our tour was able to locate). The island is small enough to explore pretty quickly, but I wish we could have stayed a little longer for more chance to behold some of those puffins. Puffins would just about make my life, I think.

If we'd had more time, we could have wandered all the way over there (behind me). We spent too much time admiring the cave. Can one spend too much time admiring a cave, I wonder? The slickers were starting to get a little warm as the clouds burned off, but I was still wearing two coats.

I really want to know how in the world they made that tiny dock and stairs.

This tour was a really fun and fairly unique experience. We went on the Three Isles Early Bird tour. I think we had to get to the ferry from Oban around 7 am, if I recall correctly (which is pretty early for me-- especially if I am waking up on the ground and it is raining (and it always is)) But the early tour is cheaper which is always a plus (and I think they were probably sold out of the regular tours?).

From Staffa, we took the tour boat to the small Isle of Iona where they left us for the rest of the day. We had to take the (tiny) ferry from Iona to Mull (which was about a 10 minute ride) and then the bus from Mull back to the ferry terminal on the other side of the island where we took the last ferry back to Oban. All of this was included in the tour price and it was pretty stress free once we realized we wouldn't have to coordinate bus and ferry times all on our own.

Iona was just about the cutest island I have ever seen. It was easily walkable and had the huge Iona Abbey (where the Book of Kells was possibly made!) I have another post planned for the island. It was a lovely, relaxing way to end our tour.

Iona up above and Iona Abbey below as we got closer.

The people on the Isle of Iona were just the nicest and we really enjoyed exploring for a few sunny hours. More on that later! 

Oban, Scotland

After we explored the Fairy Pools, we left Skye by bridge and made our way to Oban, a small coastal town near the Isle of Mull. These first three photos were taken on Skye (which I still cannot get over).

We found a large field with a spectacular view a few minutes outside of Oban and set up camp. I tried to make friends with the horse in the field next to ours but he would have nothing to do with me. I blame my lack of carrots.

Seriously, that view.

//weird side note--I miss my CRV so much! We put over 40,000 miles on it in two years (impressive, I thought, considering that I only drove it 2-3 times a week!) and it never let us down. Well, there was that radiator incident (on a different trip to Scotland, now that I think of it).. but I blame that on cheap British car parts. :) I don't think any other car will ever be able to live up to this one.//

The downside to camping in Scotland.. millions and millions of midges. I had more bites than I could count despite the scary amounts of bug spray we used. I am coughing just looking at this picture. 

I also seem to remember that someone forgot to bring pajama pants with him because, "It's summer!" Luckily for him, I wear men's pajamas a size or two too large and brought two pairs with me.

Camping in Scotland is chilly business.

These highland coos are all over Scotland and I finally had a chance to stop and take a few photos. I want to hug one so badly!

Oban is the cutest town. It's a resort town and was quite busy. We weren't able to spend a lot of time there because we had a ferry to Mull and Iona to catch early in the morning. We stopped for a meal the day we left and walked through town a little bit. It was packed full of tourists and backpackers. I wish we'd had a chance to stay in the downtown because it was so beautiful. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to visit either. It started out a little cloudy and then the sun came out to play and make us remember it was summertime!

If we ever go back to Oban, I want to stay in this hotel right here.

I've got about two more solid posts of Scotland left. I have been enjoying looking back at these photos (and sighing with longing to go back) so much and I hope you (Mom) have too!

P.S. parts 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

Ol' Kentucky: Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace

We stayed with Forrest's dad and brothers for a couple of weeks in July last summer about 45 minutes outside of Louisville.

I'm just going to come right out and say it: if you're not really into horses, there's not a whole lot to do in Kentucky in the middle of summer. It's too hot to do anything outdoors except swim (for this PNW girl at least) and there aren't any clean rivers or lakes nearby (less than an hour drive). We did go to Kentucky Kingdom, a waterpark located right outside of Louisville, but the only day we could go ended up being one of the coldest days of our entire trip (~65-75).

Forrest had been promising me forever to go and see Abraham Lincoln's birthplace when we went to Kentucky. We somehow didn't get a chance when we were there six months before, but this time I was determined. We chose an extremely muggy day to go with even a few scattered showers. Notice that I am in jeans because it was even a little chilly that day! There weren't very many people there (maybe because of the weather) but I can't imagine that it's ever very crowded.

The cabin is protected inside a large mausoleum.

I couldn't actually get a picture of the whole cabin because I only brought my 50mm lens and it was pretty close quarters inside. But you get the idea.

Abraham is the baby.

"Here over the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born destined to preserve the union and to free the slave. A grateful people have dedicated this memorial to unity, peace, and brotherhood among these states."

There is a lovely grotto built around the old well or the Sinking Creek as it is called. Once you step down inside the walls, all you can hear is the trickling water. There are trees all around the top and it is very serene and gorgeously green.

It only takes an hour or so to watch the introductory video at the visitor's center (worth watching in my opinion), have a short chat/tour with a ranger up the trail, see the cabin, and walk the whole trail around which is about half a mile. Forrest and his brothers had already been to Lincoln's birthplace and warned me that it wasn't very exciting, but obviously I wanted to see it anyway. From there, we traveled the few miles to Abraham Lincoln's childhood home (which doesn't exist anymore). Basically it's a big field with another little cabin (below) that may have belonged to a neighbor which was moved to where the Lincolns' cabin was thought to have been.

This building above was some sort of historical tavern/visitors center that is no longer open. I think it had a renovation sign on the front and they are intending to fix the floors and the structural integrity of the beams, if I remember correctly.

And this is one of the fields belonging to the Lincoln's farm. 

The most interesting thing I learned from this expedition was that Abraham Lincoln's family was not destitute as we are all taught (born in poverty). Rather, his father was actually a semi-wealthy farmer belonging to the middle class! You had to have money to buy your own 300 acres of land (duh). This was a little bit of a shocker to me, but when I saw the cabin up close, it's really not that small, especially if there was a loft (the ceiling is really, really tall!). Seeing the cabin once is good enough for me, but I'm really glad I got the chance to visit.

If ever you're in Kentucky, this is a pretty good afternoon out!