Ok, I'm back at work now.

Scotland was beautiful. I didn't get very many pictures while golfing because we wanted to keep moving because there were people right behind us. As we were standing by the 1st tee waiting for the pair (friends of mine) to tee off 2 fighter jets of some kind (probably RAF) flew over head no more than 400 feet off the ground. They were almost overhead before we even heard them and then were out of sight over the next hill and we could still hear the roar of the engines.

My golf game was about what I expected, horrible. However I can see why people play because the few good shots I hit felt really good. I only played the front 9 holes, and unlike American cources the 9th hole doesn't end at the club house. So one other and I played 17 that was headed back toward the club house (at the urging of the groundskeepers) who we had talked to. Then I took a drive on 18 and shanked it badly and because I had purchased a box of 15 balls with no intention of taking them home on the plane, I didn't even look for it.

the 9th hole is one of the strangest holes I have seen, and according to the gentleman running the snack bar (where we paid for our round) in the club house it is in a few books as one of the oddest holes in the world. I have a picture that I'll post later, but the tee is about 90 feet BELOW the green and about 150 yards away (on a horizantal line). The "fairway" it bumpy enought that if you don't reach the green and get lucky (as I did) the ball will stop and not roll back to your feet, but that did happen to one of my friends.

We were staying in The Famous Star Hotel, which is the narrowest freestanding hotel in hte world, at 20 feet wide (and 16f feet long). I have a few pictures of the outside, but I forgot to take any of the inside whihc is too bad because it was amazingly tight, but well laid out. The hotel was built on a narrow lot because at the time taxes were based on the frontage on the main road. The exact date it was built it unknown, but it was already a hotel in the early 1700s.

After Scotland we had an uneventful drive back to Manchester, and relaxed after meeting up with some other people that had been in Seaham with us, but took other side trips.

Ok, I need to start working now, so I'll post about the trip to Vancouver later...