Ft William, Day 2

Busy day. Started with intense planning review for our dinner, actually. our BnB hosts advised that the VERY BEST food in the area was a seafood platter from the ArisaigShellShack company. for 78pounds, you get lobster, crab, and all kinds of other goodies. Downside is.... it's a 55 minute drive from our place. good news, gthough... is that the Harry Potter train goes straight to (and past) it. Bad news - the Harry Potter train is expensive, like $120/ea. good news though.... there's a diesel passenger train that runs the same route for $17/head. wahoo! except..... doing this puts you in Arisaig for 3 hours, which was deemed TOO LONG a time to spend in a small town, enjoying seafood. Good news - they actually can send your food to Ft William if you coordinate well with them! Bad news, the coordination I did to accomplish this very feat was not effective, and was overridden by commmunication between the vendor and the BnB hosts we are staying with. Feel like you're getting whiplash watching mental tennis? me too!! the short version of all the above, was Shane spent all damned day looking forward to really expensive boiled crustaceans, only to discover that he would eat no such crustaceans! you cannot possibly imagine how happy I was to figure out that my hopes and dreams would go unsatisfied. Jolly! sigh.... all that said, we had a great day. we went into town, spent about 2 hours looking at stuff we didnt buy, then had a skink soup lunch (this has turned out to be my favorite scottish meal - I plan to master it once I'm back in TX). I hit all the kilt shops in town hopeful to find a Blair tartan kilt in a size ~38, but no joy. however, I did find one in a tiny size at a thrift store and I got contact info for that kilt mfr- and have since sent them an email to see if they would make one in a fatboy size.

After that, we did the Glen Nevis hike, which runs along the perimeter of Ben Nevis - the highest peak in all of the UK. After about a mile or so, this opens up into a huge field, with a tall waterfall and a large creek running thru the field. going over the creek is a cable foot bridge that we both used.

(this isnt the "big" waterfall, but it's one that we were really close to) To my surprise, there was no fee to use it, no lifeguard to watch you use it, no liability waiver form to sign before climbing on. Nope - it's just there for you to use and hurt yourself on if thats what happens. Well done, people of Scotland!!!

Following the Glen Nevis hike, we ran into an Aldi- Deannas big moment of the day was finding a great deal on misc food products and beverages. Ever the miser, she. Next item on the list was a visit of the Glenfinnan Viaduct train trestle - which is apparently featured in a series of movies - not the least of which is Harry Potter. There were tons of (other) Harry Potter dorks in the area, and I must admit, it's a darned cool train trestle. I didnt think it was a big deal, but this sign disagreed with me...

Total kick in the nuts however - was the train that WASNT carrying my lobster dinner crossed over the train trestle while I watched it not carry my lobster dinner. it was as if the train/trestle/lobster were "flexing" on me as I stood there in hungry, over funded, frustration.

After that we headed back to town and got a bit desperate looking for a suitable replacement for the Lobster platter that shane didnt eat, and ended up at the WEatherspoon, which is like the Scottish equivalent of a Chilis. Pizza for shane and a chicken alfredo for Deanna with a couple beverages. We were so disappointed by the WEatherspoons that we stopped at the Grog and Gruel for a couple more beverages - a stop shane was very, very happy to make.