Enchanted Forest

Friday night we headed back up to Pitlochry in the Highlands and stayed again at the homey Dalshian ("dal-sheen") B&B. We went to see the Enchanted Forest - an evening of lights and music in the local Faskally woods and loch. It was pretty cool, check out their pictures.

Portugal

Portugal 10/11-10/19

We spent 8 fabulous sun-filled days in the Algarve, Portugal. The Algarve is the Southern tip of Portugal and we stayed in the town of Carviero. The area is filled with wonderful picturesque beaches—most of which are coves accessed by long staircases down to the beach. It seemed that each cove beach was filled with wonderful rock formations, caves, turquoise water and golden sand. The area was very family friendly and the locals were very welcoming—especially to children. It was very easy to move around with our “large” (by UK standards) family. Besides the beach, we took a day long jeep tour of the area and up to Monchique, learned how cork was harvested (Portugal’s largest export), tasted the local moonshine and the local honey. We ventured out on our own to Silves to see the local farmer’s market, the roman bridge the castle (from the 10^th century), and the churches. We also took a boat tour of the area in a restored 1800’s wooden ship. From the large ship we took an excursion into the water caves, which was amazing. It was a perfect vacation and we all came back feeling rejuvenated.

NeSC

I work at the National e-Science Center in "downtown" Edinburgh about a quarter mile from the Royal Mile. They were taking some photos of the staff a few weeks back. I normally photograph terribly but this one isn't half bad. It didn't look as good after rotating so I left it as is. The past two days we have seen only blue-sky with no clouds or wind. If you know Scotland, this is rather amazing.