Le Chic

Here's Frankie, all dressed up to go out to dinner in Maryport. She picked her outfit out all by herself.

Snazzy!

Home from York

We just got home from York this afternoon. Frankie was sad to leave for two reasons:

1) we had to say goodbye to Grandad and Grandma Jo
2) Frankie totally fell in love with our York hotel. Largely beacuse of the pool, which was as warm as bathwater and inexplicably devoid of other swimmers.

I have a bunch of new pictures, and will work on getting them posted sometime tomorrow.

SuperPosh

We're in York at the moment, staying at a hotel so fancy that every time we walk into the lobby a butler offers us a glass of champagne from a silver tray.

Crazy.

But, mostly crazy awesome.

My favorite Edinburgh moments

We did quite a few fun things in Edinburgh, but here area few of my favorites:

1) Saturday morning, everyone went to Edinburgh castle except me. I took the morning to go antique shopping in the part of the city called "Stockbridge." I went to five or six amazing antique shops and browed around, blissed out on all of the great vintage finds. My favorite was a place called "Unicorn Antiques." Unicorn is a two-story shop in a residential block. It's essentially like someone decided to turn their house into an antique store. Every inch of space in all of the rooms was crammed full of stuff. The basement was four huge dark rooms, winding around in a little maze, again stuffed with antiques. It was like stumbling around the basement of an 90-year-old relative that's lived in the same house all her life. In a good way.

2) Saturday night, Jim, Jo, and Frankie turned in early. Matt and I went out on a mini pub crawl down nearby Rose Street. We had a few pints, and befriended some locals. They were amazed by Matt, swearing that he looks exactly like... wait for it..... Quentin Tarintino.

Despite the less-than-flattering comparison, it was lots of fun. It felt like we were on a proper date.

3) Sunday afternoon we all took a hike to the tallest point in Edinburgh: Scotland's National Monument. It was quite a haul up the hillside, but totally worth it. The view was spectacular. See for yourself:

That tiny blue speck in the left corner is Frankie.

The tiny red speck on the horizon is Jo. Jim, Frankie, and Matt somehow shimmied on top of the monument. You can see them center right if you look really carefully.

Jump, daddy!

It was honsetly one of the most beautiful views that I've ever seen. Really lovely. And there were hardly any people up there as well, which made it feel even more special.

When we were up near the monument, Frankie suddenly decided that she loved the camera. She had been running away from pictures the whole trip, but in that moment she totally channeled Tyra Banks and insited that I take about a million pictures of her "poses." She made me, and  group of nearby Japanese teenagers, laugh out loud. However, she took the poses very seriously. Here are a few from the series:

Fierce!

Holyrood Palace

For the most part, Frankie was a trooper. She was really well-behaved, even when we went to Holyrood palace and the Queen's art gallery. She straps on the audio tour, and is good to go.

Here are a few shots from the outside of Holyrood Palace. It's the place where the Queen stays while she's visiting Edinburgh. In fact, she had just been at the palace the day before we arrived.

Touring a palace is fun, but after awhile I can’t help but think… OK, I get it. You’re SUPER RICH. By the end of the tour, I always end up consumed with two thoughts:

1) I can’t believe people actually lived like this.

2) When The Queen is here, can she make her minions take all of the antiques and jewels out of their cases so she can wear them around? Like, could she open the vault where Mary Queen of Scott’s bed is and sleep in it if she wanted to? Could she take out King George’s royal robes and wear them after her bath?

And this is the face...

...of a four-year-old that's so tired, she's lost her mind.

This is the face...

...of a four-year old that's sick of following around a bunch of boring grown-ups.