Scottish Weekend

We spent the Veterans' Day weekend visiting new friends near Ayr in Scotland. The Hepburns (whom we met through a colleague of Chuck's) own a beautiful country hotel (Ladyburn) about 10 miles from Ayr. On Friday night we attended, with the Hepburns, the Remembrance celebration held in the Ayr town hall -- a smaller version of the UK national Remembrance celebration held in Albert Hall in London. (Remembrance Day is the UK's version of Veteran's Day.) The ceremony was moving and the bands, choruses and other music were enjoyable and stirring.

Before the ceremony we were invited to join a group of the Hepburns' friends -- all the men (including David Hepburn) being retired British Army officers or currently officers in the Territorial Army (the Reserves). It was a very congenial and friendly group -- and Chuck enjoyed being the only "blue suiter" in the group.

On Saturday we enjoyed a tour of the local area around Maybole -- the nearest town to Ladyburn. Just driving through the beautiful Scottish countryside was a treat. This area is "Robert Burns Country" and we visited his birthplace and the associated museum in the town of Alloway. (One of the local rivers is the River Doon -- and we were surprised to learn that Burns, in his story "Tam-O-Shanter" referred to a bridge over that river - the "brig' a Doon", the source of the name of the famous musical and movie.)

A few photos from the weekend are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/969815/1/44668557