Scotland #3

This post is a little jumbled. As a side note, on our flight to Scotland we had a 7 hr layover in Washington DC. I did some research about things we could do there to fill the time. It turns out that there is a special branch of the Smithsonian 12 minutes from the Dulles Airport, and we found a bus that took us there and back. The bus fare was a total of $2 and the museum was free. It was awesome! We got to see some great stuff and not be bored. We only wish our boys could have enjoyed it with us.

This is the F-35 also called STOVL short-take-off-and-vertical-landing

That's what it does, it can take off like a helicopter and then the engine can turn 90 degrees to propel it forward.

This is the Enola Gay. It was the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb and it assisted on the second atomic bomb. It was cool to see, but I found it a bit sad to know that this plane caused so much death. It's pretty evident that I haven't lived in much of a wartime.

SR-71 spy and reconnaissance it's last flight from LA to DC was completed in 1 hour and 4 minutes. (See the shuttle in the back?)

Seeing the Space Shuttle Enterprise was really cool. It's huge! I should have used a fill-in flash on my camera but I'm still just getting the hang of it.

This is a museum in Dundee about Dundee, it was cool.

The driving is something I won't soon forget. It was so difficult to adjust to.

These next pictures are of our last day at Stirling Castle. I am pointing to the dungeon, and it's only door, they didn't need any more than one.

Stirling Castle was really cool and we could take pictures inside it. It was a key castle in gaining Scotland's Independence in the 1300's. The movie Braveheart took place near here. There is a monument called the Wallace Monument, celebrating William Wallace AKA: Braveheart. He and Robert the Bruce helped win Scotland's independence in some key battles. The battle of Bannockburn and Stirling Bridge. In those years the castles was completely military.

This shows some of the outer military walls of the Castle.

It was built on a cliff with many layers of defense, and many layers of history covering nearly 1000 years.

Throughout the castle they had people dressed in character. This lad thought Jake looked like a Scottish King. He actually has noble Scottish heritage. I wish I would have gotten some video of him talking just to show their accent. Elder Ripp can tell you the specifics of who makes Jake descendant of Royalty but our brains are just fuzzy enough, that we can't remember exactly.

This is a great hall built by either James the 4th, 5th. Can't remember. But it has a spiral tower just so a trumpeter can climb it to announce the kings entrance. It was huge, the roof is patterned after the bottom of a ship!

Also in the great hall. Kelli loves that we got to sit in the Royal Chairs. You can see the Unicorns in the tapestry behind me. Unicorns and Lions are big here.

Okay, the bright tan building on the right is a chapel built solely for the Baptism of King James the 6th. He's probably my favorite King because, we know him for the King James bible. He commissioned the collecting and translating of it. Cool huh.

The other building is King James the 4th's personal quarters. When King James the 5th had his turn he had to out do his father by building another building. It was recently restored and opened just before we got there, so that was cool.

King James the 5th has a cool story because he married a French princess named Mary de Guise, but King James died when his daughter (the heir to the throne) was only 1 or so. Mary de Guise raised the young queen, Mary Queen of Scots, to fulfill her duty. Mary Queen of Scots is King James the 6th's mother. As a mother I have to admire Mary de Guise for not taking the easy way out and going back to France.

Okay this pic is looking from the outer defenses toward some inner defenses. The castle had many upgrades. At one time the wall that Jake is by WAS the outer defenses but then they made more. Then in the times of the Kings (1500-1600-ish) many of the soldiers quarters and gunnery's and such were converted to kitchens. The kitchens were bigger than 2 of my whole houses.

This is one of the two men of the hour. Robert the Bruce. He was a king. There are statues of him and William Wallace at Stirling Castle and we saw some at the Edinburgh Castle (pronounced Edinburra) Lastly on the bottom of the statue is Scotland's coat of arms. It is a red lion on a yellow background, and blue tongue and claws.

Our trip was so amazing, we are so glad that we went. We felt like we needed more time there. That's always what you want for a vacation. We are so proud of Elder and Sister Ripp, and their commitment to the Lord and to the Scottish YSA's. But we can't wait for them to come home to us. It was truly once in a lifetime trip!