And we've landed!

After a fairly uneventful day spent in Newark Airport, awaiting our 7:50pm flight, and a (fortunately) fairly uneventful flight (not mentioning the 6+ hours spent in non-reclining seats...) we arrived at Edinburgh Airport and got big hugs from the Nasmyths.  They thoughtfully wisked us home for showers and breakfast.  By midday we were ready to hit the road.  A low-key day was in order, and a little bit of casual site seeting in and around Fife was right up our alley.

First Charles and Mary took us to Lower Largo, a quaint little fishing town, which also happens to be home of the statue to Alexander Selkirk, the man whose adventures inspired Robinson Crusoe.

It seemed the plan was a bit of a tour of the small, and lovely, fishing villages on the East coast on our way to St. Andrews, where I had done my semester abroad.  Ray was geared up for lots 'o photos.  Our next stop was Elie, for some photos and chips by the beach - complete with vinegar and brown sauce.  Yum!

Crail is the quintessential East coast fishing village and is very near St. Andrews, so it was our third stop.  We saw lovely views, a very low tide and encountered our first Scottish rainstorm - this means that we were getting wet, but there was blue sky directly above... and no real clear explanation for where the rain was coming from... As we wandered around town, we passed a Bed & Breakfast which seemed to have an interesting tradition.... flag of the day... Our final stop of the day was St. Andrews, my old stomping ground.  I was very excited to show Ray the tiny little town I had spent my semester abroad in.  Funny thing... in 8 years a few things had changed....  I was shocked to see the number of tourists and the fact that there was an open top bus tour of the town!  For crying out loud - the downtown is made up of 4 streets each 3 blocks long, and the grocery store is the size of a gas station!  Well, as it turns out a few rather large hotels and new golf courses have been built, to take advantage of the fact that St. Andrews has the oldest golf course in the world.  Wow!  We did a quick driving tour of the town and took Ray to the cathedral ruins - his first! We stopped at the beach, which is out near my old hall of residence and gives the best vantage points of the town.  The wind was unbelieveable, and the fine sand was whipping down the beach like we were in the middle of the desert! The final part of our trip to St. Andrews was a visit to Andrew Melville Hall!  The building was designed to look like two ships passing in the night.... well... no one is quite sure they got it right, but ironically the concrete building is sinking into the ground.  The lawn out front was designed to look like the rolling waves of the ocean... and thus there are several large "mounds" near the building.  As a resident of Andrew Melville Hall, you had to be "inducted" via a process referred to as being "mounded".  At a most inopportune time, usually when barefooted, in the winter and preferably in your PJs, your fellow hallmates would pick you up, carry you outside and dump you on top of the closest "mound".  Once "mounded" you were officially a member of the hall.  So while I couldn't carry him, I did get Ray up top of the mound for a photo!