Instead of heading out right away, we decided to hang out and enjoy some of the activities offered at the hotel. So we awoke and had some breakfast. Then I went to the spa and Scott & the girls headed to the outdoor chess game. It was overcast and would lightly rain for a few minutes and then stop again. After chess, we headed over to outside bowling. It was an interesting game. We got 1 white ball and 4 larger black balls. You start the game by having someone roll the white ball down down the “lane.” and then you get points for the person/team who then rolls one of the black balls (which are sorta lopsided) closest to the white ball. We broke into teams and Scott & Emily won. Next, we headed to a bouncy house/slide for 15 minutes. After the girls jumped for 15 minutes, Emily & Scott headed back to the stables for Emily’s turn at riding. Unlike Ainsley, because Emily was 8, she did not have to take a lesson and could “hack” by herself. (with Scott & a guide) While the were off on the hack, Ainsley & rented sone rackets and we played some tennis. Then we headed up to get a picture of Scott & Emily and their hack had arrived earlier than we were told so we missed out of getting a picture. We decided that we should get on the road so we could maybe see a castle.
So we drove and drove a drove through beautiful countryside. A few times we had to stop with the sheep crossing the road. We finally arrived at our first (and only) castle of the day – Braemer.
Braemer castle is owned by the town. The castle was a private residence for a long time before it finally went on the market. The people of the town decided to pool their money together and bought it and have been maintained the castle and giving tours. We arrived 5 minutes after the last tour began but we were able to sneek in to the tour group after receiving an abbreviated description of the first 3 rooms. This castle was nice because it hid a teddy bear in each of the rooms. While the guide discussed the house, the kids searched the room for the teddy bears. One of the more recent occupants was in the fashion business and was quite well known in Scotland.
We then drove to Balmoral but it was closed. That actually made a lot of sense. Balmoral castle is owned by the queen and when she is not at Buckingham, she is here. We read about Balmoral when we learned about Queen Victoria. It was her favorite vacation spot and her family spent a lot of time there. So we drove some more and finally arrived at Kildrummy Castle hotel. It is located right next to Kildrummy castle ruins. It was nice. We ended up having dinner when we arrived in the castle. We got a little nervous when we saw a woman dressed in a long velvet dress and her husband in a tux also going to dinner but we were ok. In speaking with the woman working at the reception desk, apparently that couple always dressed up and we were fine in the clothes we were wearing.
Dinner was very good. Everyone polished off their plates. And then off to bed. The girls room was around the corner and not attached to ours so I ended up sleeping with them and Scott got the room all to himself – (unlike Crieff, it was not too spacey). After he fell asleep, I went over to the girls room for my cozy sleep on 2 chairs pushed together.
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