Like Queen's

We had a great visit with my parents. As is usually the case, the visit went too quickly and now it is back to normal life. Thought I would highlight one particular part of my parent's visit because it was more unusual than some of the things we did.

I was sent from the US a "traveling tea pot." Sort of along the lines of the "traveling pants" movies for those of you who have seen that (and for you UKer's not familiar with the movie, it's a pair of jeans that is sent from friend to friend, not errrr, well, not "pants." Just thought we should clear that up!) Anyways, so this teapot has sojourned with a couple of my aunts and eventually made it's way to me. Each person receiving the tea pot has to have a tea party, or the very least, tea with another person, then journal about their experience. It's a rather interesting idea and though I was a bit skeptical at first it was sort of fun. Since it was going to be expensive to ship back to the US I decided I better do something while my mom was here, and since we were traveling so much off and on during their visit, organizing a proper tea party with friends was out. I was stumped as to where mom and I should have our tea party. Then I had the brilliant idea to take the tea "party" to Balmoral Castle (the Queen's holiday home).

It was July 1st and one of the hottest days we've ever had here in Scotland. (Side note, the entire first week my parents were here we kept saying, "this isn't normal, it isn't usually this warm or sunny." We all enjoyed it, us because it was warmer, them because it was cooler. However, it did get a bit toasty travelling in our non-air conditioned car in upper 70's and low 80 degree temps cross-country. I even managed to sunburn my arm on this particular day while riding in the car!)

Mark opted for a coffee shop and sat out the Balmoral tour. We had done it before and he thought that was good enough for him. So my parents and I enjoyed walking around and learning more about the royal family and their estate. Towards the end of our time Mom and I broke out the thermos of hot water we had brought, poured it into the traveling tea pot with two tea bags, then poured into disposable cups. We left the Royal Photographer (i.e. Dad) in charge of photographing the event (you are to include photos in the journal entry) while we enjoyed a few moments of sipping tea with the castle in the background.