Inverness Weekend - Day 2

Greetings all!

On Day 2 of our Inverness trip, we started by visiting the Cairngorm mountains, which are awesome. Unfortunately, it was too windy for us to ride a little rail carriage through the mountains, but we got to see them and we also attended an educational presentation about flora and fauna in the Cairngorms, which are radically different than flora and fauna in the rest of Scotland because the tips of the Cairngorms are actually above the clouds...Or something like that.

Here's a picture of Sarah and a 5,000 tree trunk.

And here's a picture of the general beauty of the Cairngorms:
Sarah: I promise I didn't up the saturation on that photo.


One of the coolest things about going to the Cairngorms was learning about a new eco-friendly initiative for all hikers/campers who visit the area. It's called the Cairngorm Poo Project. Instead of letting the visitors use the Earth as a toilet -- and instead of providing them with toilets that would send the waste into the local streams or lochs (lakes) -- everyone bags their own waste and disposes it at a poo disposal point. The waste then travels to a special water treatment facility.
After the Cairngorms we went to another distillery. This time it was the Glenlivet Distillery. It was pretty cool, but just not as cool as the Glenfiddich Distillery that we already visited.
Sarah: Ya, that's basically all we do in Scotland. Another day, another distillery.

After the distillery we went on a cruise! Okay, it wasn't a cruise that we are familiar with; instead of the gorgeous, bright, warm Caribbean, we saw the dark, cold, mysterious Loch Ness. We searched for Nessy intently but she eluded us this time.

The cruise took us to the Urquhart Castle. It was mostly ruins but there were still a few awesome structures, such as a stairwell in which I performed a reenactment of a hostile invader preparing to put an end to the unjust oppression of the local dictatorial royalty:
Of course, due to my inexperience with hostile takeovers, I had to hold onto the roped guardrail and my most formidable weapon besides my limbs was my glasses.


This is Sarah's William Wallace impression (with more cuteness and less sword):
Finally, we stopped at Glencoe, where are more stunningly massive mountains. I believe it was Sir Walter Scott (or some other famous Scots literary figure) who said Glencoe was a "burial ground for giants." It made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings. I searched for hobbit-sized beings but only found sheep.
Sarah: The name of this formation is 'The Three Sisters'. There's a third peak outside the frame of this pic. Anyway, we thought that was interesting because there's a bar right next to our apartment block called the Three Sisters, and on Wednesdays we can hear their sound system all night long. Kind of like a lullaby.

Zach: Not really....especially when they play such a weird playlist as Johnny Cash, Alanis Morrisette, and Nickelback at 2am.

Cheers!
Zach and Sarah