Today we took a day trip to Edinburgh. We parked at a bus station outside of Edinburgh and took a bus into town. Alison and I thought we were headed for the Royal Mile, but we walked in the wrong direction in a while, went into a few interesting shops (one of which was warehouse style with kilts, vests, and jackets made out of mismatched tweed, leather, and fur.) Once we figured out we were going on the wrong direction we of course turned around, and quickly found our way. We crossed the North Bridge and a block later hit the Royal Mile. At the Southern end is the Edinburgh Castle, and at the North end Holyrood Castle. First we went the Edinburgh Castle, which was impressive and had interesting information, but was kind of brought down by how windy cold it was. We did get to see the room Queen Mary of Scots had James (the successor of Queen Elizabeth for the throne of England), the Honours of Scotland, and the Stone of Destiny. Once we left the castle Alison got a baked potato with haggis on it, and I had a mug of tea. Alison and I both officially ate haggis today at Rabbi Burns Cafe for the first time - Alison so graciously shared her haggis with me, only true friends share their haggis. When that special moment ran it's course we walked down to Holyrood Castle and took a few photos of the outside because we were running short of time. Because we are responsible adults we gave ourselves 40 minutes to get back to the bus station since we were unsure of where it was. Regardless, we were booking it back and just could not find it. It was strange too, because I was recognizing landmarks. We asked a few people, and no one seemed to know where it was, so either the people of Edinburgh do not take the bus often, or we were flattering a lot of non-natives ("They thought we were from here!") I know I get excited when people take me for a native....usually. ANYWAYS...we finally found it after running because we were going to be late and by the time we ran through the station to our gate we were 2 minutes late, and the bus was gone. Sad day. Plan B: we made sure the bus had really left (which it had-5 mins early might I add) so we called Don to see if they would wait at the parking ramp for us. Thank goodness Grace answered, and Don said Al would wait. So we got on a bus 10 minutes later and only got to the parking ramp 5 minutes after they did, what luck! I think it was the IRN BRUs Alison got us while waiting for the second bus, because, "It'll get you through." Minor crisis averted, we drove back to Arbroath to a dinner of hamburger, fries, and strawberry meringue with yogurt for dessert. Shortly after dinner 9 of us took a trip out to Luna Bay to take photos and explore. I just can't resists the beaches here, so many discoveries! Ashley and I of course found a critter to be fascinated with and poke. This time it was jellyfish that washed up on shore. We were finding all sizes and colors, and we poked every single one:) Then I spotted a sand pit that looked like it was yearning for some yompers, so after teaching Heidi, we yomped the crap out of that pit. Further down the beach there were some cliffs that we wanted to check out so Heidi and I embarked from the dunes. On the way we saw a waterfall tucked back under the railroad bridge that flowed into the ocean that we of course investigated. Back to the cliffs, there were caves! We walked around in those for a while before starting back, where guess what? We found a dead seal! Which is sad, but also an awesome thing to poke - which I certainly did not do;) The whole body was intact, but the head had decayed to the point that the skull was visible. The pictures I took are kind of creepsy, but I think it is interesting. We then noticed that the beach was empty and that we should probably book it so I was not late 2 times in one day. This time I made it back the van on time, and spent the whole ride back smelling like ocean and decayed ocean creatures, yay! Got back to Hospitalfield, immediately showered and crawled into my jammies so I could write myself to sleep recalling a day of adventure.