vacation day two

Wednesday, August 3

It wasn't Dana's fault: she'd wanted to visit Iona, beloved place of pilgrimage and home to a saint (Columba), a holy well, and a religious community. But when I looked into visiting Iona from Glasgow it looked like a long and perilous journey, so I talked her into visiting the Holy Isle off the Isle of Arran--home of a saint (Molaise), a holy well, and a religious community--instead. So that was the plan. It was an hour-long train trip and another hour on the ferry to Arran. When we arrived we had some time to kill before we had to catch the boat to the Holy Isle, and we spotted this poster for the 184th Arran Show, featuring horses, cows, sheep, dogs, alpacas, and vintage tractors (oh my!). We puzzled our way through the bus schedule and soon we were tramping through the fairgrounds admiring the animals (Dana) and the various food carts (me). Sometime during the horse judging I got a text from the Holy Isle boat operators saying that the weather conditions weren't going to permit the crossing that day, so we got to stay at the fair long enough to see the first half of the dog show, in the pouring rain. Then we gave up and made our way back to the ferry dock, admiring the Holy Isle from afar. Back in Glasgow, we ate noodles at Wagamama...a pilgrimage of another sort.

The ferry's nose opens to let in the cars! This blew my little Washington-State-Ferries mind.

Underway. It was blowy and rainy on the way out, but we found some sheltered spots outside. Sitting inside always seems like cheating.

The Queen judges horses at the Arran Show. Probably it wasn't the Queen. But it could have been.

Vintage tractor parade.

Fresh donuts and tea. What could be better?

The clear crowd favorite in the dog show. Both of them dripping wet and perfectly behaved.

The Holy Isle: so close, and yet so far.

In which Dana's spirit animal makes an appearance, so we couldn't have been that far off track.

Primate Crew Only

Push-button faucets yes! Mixer taps? Nope.

Wagamama has a special place in my heart as the first (and for a long time only) sit-down restaurant I ever ate at alone. At the tender age of 24.