Dear Momma,
Hello from the Highlands of Scotland! In case you haven’t noticed, Internet is very scarce.
Rachel is typing this letter and Deb is dictating most of it. Rach is paraphrasing and adding in. 🙂
Belfast was amazing! We got to go to a really awesome and alive church and it was a highlight of the trip. We found this great little cafe and it reminded us of Dolce’s. It was called Charlies. Of course it wasn’t as good as Dolce’s, but it was the closest we’ve found and it was great to have a little piece of home. 🙂 They had the best thrift stores. They all benefit something. Like the one was for impoverished children and there are a lot for cancer research. No, we didn’t buy Chris anything there. Tell her to hold her horses.
On to Scotland! Our plane ride was very uber short. Like 20 minutes or something. We found the Hertz place just fine after a long walk. We have a very nice gray Ford Focus. It was a little scary getting started beings we started in Glasgow city and we’re driving on the other side of the road….. with a stick shift. So far, we are all alive. 🙂
The first day we saw Loch Lomond. The banks are very bonny. 🙂 We stopped in a little town called Balloch and bought blankets. (Yay for warmth!) We slept in a little campground in Glenco where the Campbells massacred the Macdonalds in violation of Scot hospitality in the 1600s. Pretty place. We went to this little cafe thing just down the road from the campground. It was called Crofts and things and they could make a mean mocha (according to Rachel) Just so you know, We were in the literal middle of no where. Don’t be fooled into thinking we weren’t cause I found me (Rach) some coffee!
We headed to Inverness the next day. We stopped by Loch Ness on our way and there was this uber cute little boy playing the bagpipes. He was pretty stellar and pretty young. Like ten or twelve. We looked for “Nessie” but no luck. We thought that if we could get a real picture of her we could pay for our trip and My (rach) college…. maybe the adoption too…. But alas, It was not to be.
Inverness was lovely. They had a T.K. Maxx which is a T.J. Maxx UK style. They had more warm clothes for me (Rach) and shoes for Holly and Deb is thinking she’ll get something when we go back through. We searched all over creation for an adapter so we can plug the computer in whilst we drive. Once again, it was not to be.
We headed more north towards Ullapool. It’s right on the Alantic. We spent the night there and it was awesome. Everyone was so nice to us. On the way there we saw a sign for fresh fruit so of course we had to look for it. We went off the main road (two lanes) to a back road (one lane with passing spaces) to a dirt road with a sign saying beware of ditch on left. We ended up at Tolley’s Croft where Collin and Edna Campbell were manning a fruit stand. We picked raspberries, red currants, black currants, and goose berries. They helped us pick our own berries, and then gave us a jar of black currant jelly that Edna made herself! And they let us use the bathroom at the croft! They gave us hugs and their phone numbers. “Just in case!” We thanked them and Edna told us that she just thinks of her own children and hopes people are nice to them when they go off traveling. We went on our way with lots of fruit!
Now we are in Stirling, Scotland.
Love you,
Beebs and Rachel
Delaware Grammy 
Now didn’t you find that reassuring? It sounds like they are doing just fine! What a wonderful adventure for them.
wow, sounds like the girls are having a bonny time! what fun, what memories ,what a blast!
Your daughters and niece are having a grand adventure! I would love to see pics of all the places they have visited.I’m sure they’ll have lots to tell you when they get home! Blessings to you!
I smiled (and laughed out loud a few times) all the way through this letter. I just love your girls, and I never even met them. The apple definitely has not fallen far from the tree when it comes to humor and writing.
I have the Campbell name in my family line. True: what the Campbells did to the MacDonald’s on a morning long ago, after having broken salt with them the night before, was the utmost in treachery. To carry that grudge, or the burden of that guilt, through hundreds of years is poison. Yet to this day in this country there are persons who will put me and my kin out of their places of business, or cut off conversation, when our family name becomes known. Do we Mennonites impart such poison in the relationships with our Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran neighbors as we perpetuate the stories of the persecutions of our ancestors or “spiritual forefathers”? I think perhaps we do, and suffer similar poisonings of our families, our churches, our daily lives. I am forsaking the bitter hardness of my Campbell ancestry, (both distant and recent history) and I am claiming only a spiritual parentage from my Father God the Creator, who became present here in the form of ‘Yeshua of Nazareth, and by the death, resurection, and ascension of that only-begotten-Son left his Holy Spirit to dwell in hearts willing to let go of self and believe in his only Redemption. mw