On our second (and sadly last!) morning on the Isle of Skye, we woke up early, checked out, and made our way towards the Fairy Pools after a quick stop to resupply at a grocery store in Portree. A couple days later I saw someone post a selfie from this grocery store with Russell Crowe! (Lots of stars in town to film scenes for the new Highlander movie at Eilean Donan and the Quiraing.)
As we drove towards the Fairy Pools, it started raining soooo hard. Like torrential downpour with a whipping gale. So when we got to the parking lot we checked the radar and decided to hang out in the car for 20 minutes or so in hopes that the storm would subside a bit.
Trying to capture the rain outside, but you can't really see it...
How about now?
As we started off, the winds were SO strong that they blew Luke into a drainage ditch and then knocked him back in again when he was almost out. It was CRAZY. We quickly learned that when a gust came, we either needed to brace our legs or drop lower to the ground--otherwise you had no chance of staying upright.
Neil had been hoping to do some swimming--not today!
We could barely see the mountains--we had been planning to do a loop trail that went through the mountains, but the closer we got, the worse the storm got.
And once we got past the "easy" section of the trail, the trail itself pretty much disappeared.
But look at that beauty!!!
I was soooo glad we all had not just raincoats but rainpants as well. We saw a lot of people in the parking lot trying to squeeze water out of their jeans.
Then we drove back from Skye to the mainland, listening to one of our favorite audiobooks that everyone has memorized backwards and forwards--The Water Horse. Can I just say that it was the coolest thing to be driving along next to Loch Ness while listening to Kirstie and Angus tipping Crusoe into the loch from the very same lay-by we were driving past at the moment???
After we checked into our hotel we went on a ramble through the woods to get down to the shore of the loch. It's pretty anticlimactic, to be honest, but kudos to the nearby towns for running a bustling tourism industry out of essentially nothing!
We also spotted the Fairy Log--legend has it that the deeper you pound your coin, the quicker the fairies will grant your wish.
And lots of gorse in bloom!
Back at our hotel, the boys enjoyed a rousing game of foosball.
And made some wee Scottish friends!
That night I was texting my sister about how sad I was that we were leaving the next morning and I had yet to see a genuine Highland cow (or "hairy coo" as they're called locally). I debated going for a run the next morning before we left for the airport as I was pretty tired and the idea of sleeping in sounded very alluring--even more so when I got up and started getting dressed and realized the rain was pounding on the skylights and windows in our room. But I made myself go out and when I left the boundaries of the town of Drumnadrochit, almost immediately I spotted them!
Genuine hairy coos!
Then I ran up through the woods towards the site of an Iron Age fort that I'd read offered a great view of Loch Ness.
This was truly one of the best runs of my entire life. I was still on an adrenaline high from finally seeing the Highland cows, the rain was tapering off so it was a light drizzle that made all the colors come alive, and NOBODY else was out--just me and the sheep and the sunrise on these gorgeous gorgeous trails.
Sheer heaven. I was so so so happy. It didn't even bother me when the rain started blasting down again.
I got back to our hotel (I thought the logo was so clever!)
And we drove out past Loch Ness, pausing for one final look back at Urquhart Castle.
Then it was time for a looong day of travel--flying from Inverness to London and then London to home. I thought this was a cool little thing in the Inverness airport.
And I had my own little hairy coo to snuggle with on the plane.
This is the last picture I took at the very end of my run as I came back into Drumnadrochit--we have a little free library in a British phone booth at home and I thought it was so fun to see in Scotland!
So the next morning I hauled my jet-lagged self out of my beloved bed and ran 10.1 miles downtown to take a photo with our little free library at home! I must say the weather was waaaay more enjoyable on my run the previous day in Scotland. Kind of wild to run in 50-degree beauty one day and then 6100 kilometers away in blazing heat the next.
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