Balmaha, Rowardennan and Buchanan Castle!

A day trip on Spring break told by Jackson

Today was the 9th of April and we have been going on day trips to different places around Scotland! We rented a car (its an electric car) and have been visiting castles and cool lakes and other stuff. Today we had 3 destinations and the first one was Balmaha. Balmaha is a small village on the East side of Loch Lomond. It is a popular tourist destination but there are only around 60 people who actually live there. It took us 45 minutes to drive there from our house. 

Once we got there, we started to walk on this trail that went all along the edge of Loch Lomond. We walked over rocks, and saw small beaches as we walked along the water for a couple hours. We walked through forests and it was very beautiful. It was quite cold with the wind though.

After walking for a long time we got to a parking lot that had a large beach with a lot of people at it. It was off of the main road so we assumed a lot of people stopped here to look at the amazing views. There was this one cool looking tree that had the background of the mountains over the lake. Here it is:

From there we decided to walk back because we had to take the same route back to Balmaha to grab our car and go to our next destination. As we walked back the wind slowed down and the sun made it warmer than our first half of the walk. 

We walked back to Balmaha and once we got back, we entered the only shop in the Village that we could see. We bought some sandwiches for lunch and some snacks, then went back to our car. We sat in the warm car and had our lunch, disposed of our garbage then put in Rowardennan to our map. Rowardennan is a small rural area on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond further north than Balmaha. It is the furthest place you can drive with a car on the east side of the lake. It was about a 20 minute drive to get there from Balmaha driving on the edge of the lake. The only thing in Rowardennan was a youth hostel and a couple houses.

When we got there we found this really cool rock with a pyramid inside of it and the incredible view behind it. 

We walked on a path that led us to the youth hostel that was located on a huge patch of grass right on the beach. The view from it was amazing!

After seeing the awesome hostel, we walked back to our car and decided to drive to one last stop, Buchanan Castle. This was one of the castles I had researched earlier that was not too far from Glasgow and it was basically 10 minutes drive from Rowardennan so we would make it our last stop for the day. While we were driving on the very skinny roads, we had to pull off the road to let a huge truck pass, and we tried to drive on but we couldnt move. Me and Levi hopped out and realized we were stuck in mud. It only took a push to get us out but the mud we were in was super deep and left our 2 left tires super muddy:

We drove through some water and assumed that that would clean it up. We got to the castle and found a fence guarding it. It was a really old castle that was in ruins, and had signs telling people that it could not be entered. However, we were walking around it and saw a hole in the fence and decided to go in it anyways. It was awesome, there was moss and trees that had grown on and through everything. There were even stairs intact still that allowed us to get to the top of the castle at some parts:

After exploring the castle for like 40 minutes we got back in our dirty car and started to drive back. We had to take a very bumpy and rocky road back to the highway that took us back to Glasgow. We stopped at Lidl to do a massive grocery shop before we went back to our house. 

Happy Mother's Day in the USA everyone.  Kitty Crocker is taking a break!  I did love this day out with the boys, that Jackson writes about above.  Scotland is magnanimously breathtaking!  

stay well,

Kitty

 

Birthdays are the BEST!

 As Yoda would say, 

"Spoiled I was, Grateful I am!"

It was an absolute blast from start to finish.  I even got to go to a restaurant for the first time since last year!  I love having someone else prep, cook, clean, and serve.  Even better still, I got to go with friends.  Such a novel concept!  Levi even got a little fancy to celebrate.

My dear friend Aine!  (she might not be so dear after see sees that I published this).  

It all started with a surprise party at the park.  Complete with fantastic scones, fabulous tea and a great story to go with the mandarin almond cake that some found inedible.  For the record, I ate it, no matter how much baking powder was in there.  

Looks can be deceiving!

I had the whole week planned, as you do, if you have been locked-up in lockdown for 4 months!  Glasgow opened back up just in time for my celebrations, and celebrate I did!  I now know how a prisoner feels with getting out for the first time.......

Monday:  TKMaxx - of course was first on my list and I was just about the first one through the door.

Tuesday: The Library - I had many books to return and replace!

Wednesday:  Is for the WEG's - my group of West End Girls, complete with the surprise shown above.  They're the best!  I also snuck out to an antique store to quench my furniture shopping thirst!

Thursday:  My actual birthday that started with a trip to Lidl, as that is when the deals come out and "when it's gone, it's gone!"  I needed some middle of Lidl treasures.

Friday:  Duvet Day!  I only got out of bed to eat, then returned.  It was glorious!  

Sat & Sun:  I went a thrifting and not at Meijer!  It was a blast and I scored some great finds.

In my natural habitat.  Did they change the K for Kitty?  

Partick Library - 5th in line.

TKMaxx haul

Middle of Lidl, I'm prepping for a new unfurnished apartment.  (I know, I'll explain later).

We also got to go hunting for flowers that Oma shipped to elsewhere.  

Finally securing them by 11pm that night.

The fun of coming home from Lidl with the most gorgeous flowers and chocolates from my dearest friend Ayala!

And ending the day with two of my besties that come zoom or face time were determined to get through to talk!

I even got flowers back in GR!  Thx Chelsea - I love them! 

I love birthdays!  FB blows up with such nice notes from people you have met throughout your entire life.  And luckily for me that means from every corner of the globe.  It's so fun to look back and see just how far you have come, all while realizing that you have amassed quite an amazing group friends along the way.  I feel ever so blessed. 

Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate! 

The day was absolutely perfect!  

the ever fortunate and grateful,

Kitty

 

A trip we will NEVER forget!!!

 

Spring Break Day 1

Levi:  A couple of days ago we decided to rent a car and just go some places to enjoy all of Scotland and what it had to offer. We planned where to go, made a list, and booked a car.  I cannot remember all of them but we eventually got to see some nice places and views that were amazing. It's Scotland, it's hard to find a place that isn't scenic here. But before the result, I have to explain what happened to get to this point.

We all woke up at around 8 am and got ready to go, lunches packed, bags packed, and we headed down to the train station to get to the Enterprise rental company to get our car, we didn't exactly know what car it would be, but we knew it was a stick-shift and my mother grew up driving one so we were alright. Or so I thought...

We got there and talked to the employees, they said the car is being delivered to the location and has to be disinfected before giving it to us. After waiting 40 minutes or so for them to give us the keys, they came back out and said since we are from the US we need to show them our passports to be accepted for having a rental car. This was not good because we took a train here and walked from the station to the building. This was unbelievable, we decided we had to send Jackson to go back and get the passports so we waited somewhere around like another hour.

Once Jackson got back we showed the people and they gave us the car and we inspected it for scratches or anything just to be safe. There were no scratches so that was good. We got in and got ready to go, my mom got used to the seat and stuff and started going. Since the building we were in was under another one (we had to walk down the car ramp to get there) my mom had to drive up the ramp.

Usually in my experience cars have no problem going up a small ramp, but this one was a little different, halfway up the ramp the car wouldn't go any further and was shaking in small intervals. Then smoke started coming out of the engine and filling the car, it was quite a scare because usually when I am in a car I am not trapped in a smoking car while breathing in the smoke. I rolled my window down and asked what happened. My mom said the car had stalled or the clutch has been burnt. This of course I have never heard of before because I have never experienced the workings of a stick-shift. So we sat on the ramp for a couple of seconds waiting to see if the smoke would go away and it did thankfully. 

The problem was that we kept going and Jackson and my mom wanted to continue the drive saying "If we get on the highway the engine will be fine." and maybe I don't understand what they meant fully but first of all, the engine was still smoking a little bit and would smoke a lot every time we tried to accelerate. It eventually even caught the attention of a biker and a taxi driver. So we had a smoking engine and they wanted to go on the highway. On the highway there isn't always time to stop and figure problems out, some highways don't let you just slow down and pull over. So I was thinking if we were on the highway with a smoking engine and it just stopped, what would we do? We cant move to the side or anything so we would need to at least push the car over to the side. 

I just couldn't understand how they both wanted to continue driving IN A SMOKING CAR. I am pretty sure that is not normal. So I kept saying we should go back because I wanted a car that felt comfortable like it wouldn't explode at any moment. 

After some driving around and testing of the acceleration, I think I convinced my mom to drive it back and we got there. They looked at the car and said the clutch was burnt out. "Great, now we have to rent another car." I thought. While I was thinking that the man working there said they have an electric automatic car that they can let us rent for free! That was relieving to hear and I was not as regretful that we came here.

Basically, after all of that paperwork and cleaning the second car, we got the electric one. The interior was cool and I loved it, you can look at the "Vlog" videos Kitty took from inside the car and you will see it is quite nice and comfy. There are videos of this all that you can see for yourself. I have no idea where she posted the videos but I am sure you can ask her to see them. (videos @celtic.kitty on instagram)

After all the bad that happened, we got a nice functioning car and got to see some cool things! 

Here is some of what we did and saw:

                                                                        (The Kelpies)

                                                                         (A pretty view)

                                                      (Old Church in the town of Saint Andrews)

St. Andrews

    

        (Old exotic buildings also in Saint Andrews)            

                                            

Overall it might have been a bad start but a great lesson learned, and as Jackson would say.

 "Why would anyone want to drive a Stick-shift?"

-Levi

A couple of clarifications (read excuses) from Car-talk Kitty:

-I NEVER stalled the car (or said that I did), I just got really close...

-How can you burn out a clutch in one go?  (google answered that for us)

-My High School drivers-ed training needs a tune up.  

-Enterprise could not prove that a passport was needed or that they told us to bring one,,,,arggggggg

-Levi was the only sane one in the car.  I didn't take it back until the third taxi driver waved us over to tell us the car was smoking.  

-It took us 4.5 hours to leave Glasgow that morning.

-Nothing we did that morning was free, as Levi seems to think above.

-I almost threw in the towel and went home sulking, but I'm no quitter!  Shaking hands, feet, and stomach be damned....

-I'm done renting manual cars and electric ones for that matter.  (more to come on that later)

Isn't vacationing fun!!!???!!!

I say yes, if you are still alive to tell the story!

SMDH

Crazy Celtic Kitty

Going back to the USA!

Jackson here; 

In a couple of weeks I will be flying back to Michigan! I decided to head back to the USA earlier than normal to get a head start for this summer. Luckily, I already have been accepted for a job at UPS that pays $15 an hour which is great! I have lots of plans for when I get back to Michigan. I have shipped a lot of items from various places to Grand Rapids so I will come home to many packages. 

I have 3 large shipments coming from abroad that FedEx will deliver on April 12th (tomorrow). Inside are the first items that I will be selling as part of my Jax Hoffman brand in collaboration with my friend Tony. We are starting out with three basic pieces that should be great for summer wear. We have embroidered baseball caps, and two different types of tee-shirts. One is a plain white T-Shirt with the "JH" logo in black embroidered onto the top left chest. This will probably be the main item, just the essential minimalist T-Shirt Design:

This is just a mock-up for what the actual product should look like. The final T-Shirt we have which I am most excited to see is a graphic T-Shirt with a design done by somebody I connected with through instagram. This is the graphic:

This graphic will also be on a plain white tee. We will probably name it the "Roll The Dice Tee" or something like that. I told my friend that I wanted the text "roll the dice" somewhere and a pair of dice in the graphic and he did the rest. I love the wings and background stuff he added! Should look great on a shirt! When I get back to Michigan around late April, I will have all of the stuff there already so Tony and I can start photographing the items by themselves and on other people to start our content for Instagram. I wound love to open the store (jaxhoffman.com) sometime in May, preferably anytime before June 1. Then I think I will wait to see how we do and if we plan to do another summer drop or to wait until autumn to do another release. Im glad that the 3 items are all things that I will personally wear on a daily basis, thats kind of the idea! 

I have also been in talks with a local music studio which I am very excited to work with. I plan to book some studio time and record my next album(s) with them. They do great work and I actually just got an email from them recently saying that they have just moved into a brand new custom built studio with double insulation and everything, so I'm definitely excited to record and work with them. It's great because I already have over 40 songs written so I wont have to write any other songs for a while unless I want to (which I will). Best part about it is that they are located pretty close so I can just moped over to the studio whenever I have recording sessions! 

I also plan to purchase a new Moped this summer! My previous moped was a TaoTao and cost around $900 brand new. It was the cheapest one that I could find so I just bought it. I did some research and found that the Bintelli mopeds are higher quality than the TaoTaos. The TaoTao are the cheapest moped you can get. They are made in china, and the Bintelli mopeds are also made in china however they are produced in factories with better working conditions than others and they also come with better stock parts than the Tao Tao does. It costs about $600 more but its higher quality. Here is a picture of the Bintelli Flash:

I have had problems with my TaoTao with its acceleration, its delayed by a few seconds and it makes speeding up after a red light especially on a hill difficult. After I get a new Moped Ill drive it to my UPS Job which should be every day 12-4 PM which are great hours, and also to the music studio and anywhere else basically. 

So those are all of my plans for when I get back to the USA. This summer should be pretty fun and I hope to save a lot of the money that I make from my UPS job. My friend Tony who works currently at UPS says its pretty labour intensive so it can basically double as my daily workout, combined with my running every other day. I hope over the summer to increase my average run to at least 30 minutes maybe even longer. I have to get a Covid test before I fly so I have one booked a couple days before I fly out. Summer 2021 should be dope.

-Jackson

Easter!!

Jackson:

This week was the last week of March. We went down to Lidl to do a huge shopping trip and it was a gorgeous day. We have been having pretty sunny days around 50 degrees which is nice. We bought some easter candy at Lidl and on Sunday, had a large Easter feast. We all prepared a meal of roasted chicken and sweet potatoes / potatoes. It is one of our favorite meals and it was delicious! The sweet potatoes are usually one of the best parts of the dish. 

We had our easter candy after our meal, here is Levi with his:

(No haircuts since before Christmas!)  

(don't you have baked chicken for Easter?)  LOL!

We have been walking around and visiting some houses to potentially move to. We walked to one house where an American couple lived, and they actually let us go inside and look at their house. It was a 4 bedroom house that had a secret room at the top. The top bedroom had a window that led onto the roof where there was a large balcony which was pretty cool! They were really nice people. Here are some photos we took while walking to and from the house on a sunny day:

Levi:

When the weekend came we decided to all go on a walk by 2 potential houses for us. We got ready and headed out on the 30 minute walk. When we eventually got to the first house, we only expected to see it from the outside and go on about our day. But when we got there the people living there actually opened the door and we started chatting to them. They were nice and American which is rare when you know,  you're not in America. They were nice enough to let us inside the house and look around the whole place! 

    So they took us about the house and showed us all of the rooms and furniture, paintings and all that. It is such a nice house and I was thinking to myself after seeing the first couple rooms that I would love to move there. It is a much better walk to school than I expected because the walk goes through the botanical gardens which is nice to walk through and see all the plants and sun.

     Now, my favorite part of the house is on the second floor there is a stairway leading up to just a small 8 foot wide 3rd floor with only bookcases as walls. "Why is such a small section of the house your favorite part?" Well, because of this awesome feature; one of the bookcases actually opens up like a 1 foot thick door and leads up to a gigantic top floor with a bathroom a balcony and a whole bedroom! I could fit a desk, bed, wardrobe, cabinet and more in the room there, it is so cool.

It's is one of the most unique houses I have ever seen. Quite exquisite!

Goddess Gratitude Take Two

Thanks for all of the outpouring of love from my last blog!  You all are the greatest!  I must confess that after I posted it, I was awake at 4am, worried about my vulnerability being so public  for all to see.  BUT, you all were amazing and so supportive!  Thanks for being such a powerful and passionate tribe.  You came out in droves!  I feel blessed and really very lucky to have you all.  Life is a series of ups and downs and on this Easter day, I'm ready to spring into new beginnings.  

namaste

K