I Met a Celebrity

Today we toured John Knox's house.  It was pretty interesting, although he didn't live there very long.  The thought is that he died there.  Who knows.  BUT, while we were there, we saw this interesting character:

Hmm, maybe a relative of Mr. Knox?

Wait, no...that's my relative.  In fact, that's my dad!  Wow...I even have his autograph...and my picture with him.

After finishing at the Knox house, we did some touristy shops and met up with Kate to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens (love how everything's royal this, royal that.  You don't get that in the States...it wouldn't go over so well I don't think.)  The gardens were gorgeous!  We just loved them and again, Kate was an outstanding guide.

One of the first things we did was go into this hot house.  I think it looks so elegant.

They had some pretty cool benches inside.

    

Some spiky thing...love the symmetry.

Next we walked through the memorial garden for the Queen Mother.  It was so sweet and filled with roses and other happy flowers.

Even the tiniest little guys have the mark of an amazing Creator.

There's a small hut that has seashells lining the interior walls...quite a sight to see.

This is a huge hedge wall.  It's 100 years old and is only trimmed once a year.  The next trimming is in September.

So many beautiful flowers! Isn't that stunning!?

After walking a little ways, we stopped for a spot of tea and a scone.  Since we're so extremely British it is a necessity for us.

I love the shape of this tree.

Three nice people up on a hill.

Then, Kate and Simon invited us to their home for dinner!  Do you know what we had?  TACOS!!!!  Ah, the joy of Tex-Mex prepared by a Texan.  It was great and so fun to be with this happy couple.

Here they are in front of their house.

They drove us to our B&B, but on the way back we went onto Arthur's Seat, which is a craig (like a cliff thingy I think) that overlooks the city.  I wish these pictures weren't as blurry, but it gives you an idea of what it was like being high up.

This is Edinburgh Castle that we toured yesterday.

Wow, I'm finishing up this post way before midnight...aren't you proud of me??  Tomorrow we are supposed to fly back to Poole, but we should have almost the whole day to explore around here.  By the way, breakfast this morning was much better than yesterday.  All three of us got homemade Belgian waffles...I think they were the best I've ever had.  Rest assured, no more black pudding for me.