Vacation in the States nearly done...

Real mixed emotions here. Last full day in the States before heading to Scotland via London. Had a great time at home and running around visiting family, friends and neighbors. This visit has reinforced my resolve to finish out the contract and get the farm paid for. It will be worth it. The weather here at home has been amazingly warm. Not the usual Minnesota fall weather... No complaints. We even had some rain and clouds and that was even nice to see for a change.
Doing some last minute repairs and prep around the house and then heading out tomorrow evening.
More on Scotland as time allows.

Looking forward to some vacation...

Not much happening that is worthy of report.

We are just about three weeks away from a HUGE vacation. We have pretty much the whole month of October off... cool stuff. Not much of an agenda for the first three weeks. Heading home and prepping the farm for winter. However, that last week we will be staying at the Pitfour Castle in St. Madoes, Scotland near Perth.

Pitfour Castle

 I mean, if you stay in Scotland, why not make it a castle...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfour_Castle

Seeing Scotland is something I have wanted to do as long as I can remember. Needless to say, I am pretty wired about this trip.

The following link is for 6 Pitfour Castle (apartment 6). We are staying at 4 Pitfour (apartment 4) and they look much the same I am told.

http://www.sixpitfourcastle.com/

The castle will serve as our jumping off point for day trips...
Can not remember the last time I was this fired up about a vacation.

The Main Staircase at Pitfour

Our pics to be posted in November after our return.

Late night in Al Balad

Just a quick post this morning. We went to Al Balad again last night, but we did not leave the compound until 9:30 or so. We went with another couple and met a Saudi man (Fuad) and his family for dinner to break the fast of Ramadan Kareem. What a great time we had and it is really an honor as a Westerner to be invited to break the fast.

We ate outside in the family section of an outdoor eatery. A simple but awesome meal of chopped liver and chopped beef cooked outside in huge pans over an open fire served with peppers and spices served with my favorite Arabian bread and luke warm Pepsi in glass bottles straight out of the 50s!

Fuad works as an artist where I work. He is a world renowned artist who used to live in Italy and travel extensively through Europe. He came back to Jeddah to care for his ailing parents. Family is a big deal here. He is a little older than I am and has three children from about age 10 through 17. Very nice family and I mean that in every sense of the word.

After dinner we wandered through the old section of Al Balad where things were really happening. Every shop was open and it was all lit up and very festive. We went to see a jeweler there who is an old friend of our friend. The man is amazing. He is from Yemen, speaks 6 languages and has made a living in a shop the size of a bedroom closet for 30 years. Then we drifted over to one of my other favorite places downtown and had Moroccan tea. Moroccan tea is simply amazing. We also had some of the ever present sweets that seem to be served everywhere here in Saudi. Diabetes is a problem here.

We were delivered home at 2 AM after a harrowing one hour drive from downtown. Steve drove and we watched in amazement as some of the worst drivers in the world did their thing. (Saudi has the second highest auto death rate in the world. I know why.)

This morning and for the rest of today, we will be lounging, starting with a soak in the pool to try and wake up.