The hunt for the Loch Ness Monster

Our first (and only) goal of the day was to find the Loch Ness Monster, so after breakfast we headed into Inverness to find out where we could get a boat! We passed by the Inverness Castle and ran in the tourist information office, grabbed the addresses we needed and went on our way.

Our Jacobite cruise left from about half way between Inverness and the Urquhart Castle, and we had some time to kill before our departure, so we perused the gift shop, and then sat on a driftwood bench by the water. We were two of about 7 people waiting at the dock, until 5 minutes before leaving a group of 16 frogs joined the boat (frogs for those of you who don't know, are the french). The first half an hour of our hunt was a little insane, the tour bus group broke out the bottles of champagne before we even left the dock and were dancing and taking group pictures every moment of the way. The other 7 of us non-frogs (all American and English people) all migrated to the front of the boat and enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings. The tour group had signed up for the sightseeing trip on the castle grounds, so they departed on the far shore, at which point we all spread out and began to hunt more diligently. As you can see from our photo, it paid off!!!!!

Okay... so maybe not, turns out the Loch Ness Monster must have been on vacation, but it was still lots of fun!

Next we headed south, back towards Edinburgh. On the way we saw a sign for a Highland Animal Park, and took a detour to check out some buffalo and horses! The park turned out to be pretty huge, hosting a drive through section to see reindeer, bison, wild horses, blue mountain sheep and a few other things. Then there was the wildlife hike, where you could see a red fox, snowy and tawny owls, lynx, wolves, arctic foxes, elk, beavers, otters, and many other birds and small mammals. We ended up spending a good 2+ hours here, before looking at our watches and realizing we better get going!

We got back to Gran and Grandpa's at around 7pm and all sat down for a dinner of beef pie, which was followed by trifle. Then we all headed into the living room to look at photos and relax. Geoff and Grandpa had a nightcap of molt whiskey, and we all talked about the days to come. It was a fun evening, and before we knew it time had whizzed by and it was almost midnight. We said our good nights and headed to bed.