Where in the World is Fiona? Scotland!

There was a lot for Fiona to love about Scotland, where we spent about 10 days in late May/early June. For starters, the name Fiona has Scottish origins, and red hair is really common in Scotland, so she fit right in! We also discovered that the national animal of Scotland is the unicorn, and the national flower is the thistle, which is purple, so it seemed like everywhere we looked, we saw Fiona’s favorite animal and/or color. People speak English in Scotland, but with a fun-to-listen-to accent that’s sometimes called a burr.

Here are a few of the things Fiona liked best about Scotland:

Edinburgh Castle

The big castle in the capital city of Edinburgh had it all! Unicorns everywhere, cannons to climb and fancy crown jewels (a crown, scepter and sword) to see.

Grandma

One of Fiona’s grandmas, Grandma Shirley, joined our family for this part of the trip, and Fi was excited to spend time playing, walking and chatting with her (plus sharing some favorite movies, books and music).

Loch Ness

“Loch” means “lake” in Gaelic (an ancient Scottish language), and this particular lake is home to a very famous mythical creature: the Loch Ness Monster (or Nessie, as she’s sometimes called). We didn’t see Nessie, but Fiona was excited to learn about her and decided not to get too close to the water, just in case.

Fairy Glen

There were more mythical creatures for us to discover in the Fairy Glen on the Isle of Skye, where Fiona spent a magical afternoon playing and pretending:

“We went to the Fairy Glen, a place where a mama fairy said goodbye to her husband, who was a clan leader [the Chief of Clan MacLeod, who was said to have married a fairy princess]. It was a beautiful place with tall, tall mountains and we could climb them. I pretended to be a fairy and we climbed up a big mountain with INCREDIBLE views. The Fairy Glen had lots of money in a in big circle thing of rocks, then it had lots of towers—lots of little sculptures of tiny towers. The money was to grant a fairy wish. I made a wish.”

Coos!

We saw lots of sheep and cows in the Scottish countryside, but we were especially excited to see the famous Highland “coos,” which are special kind of shaggy cow that only live in a part of Scotland called the Highlands. We finally saw some on our last day there!