Day 3 and 4 April's trip
Under pressure to finish writing the rest of April’s time here in the UK, I have decided to not give you a detailed play-by-play but more of a summary of the two days spent in Edinburgh.
We arrived early Saturday morning after an eventful time of trying to make our train (ask April if you want more details). We checked into our guesthouse which is a flat located on the fourth floor building just off Princes Street. It is also purported to be the childhood home of Robert Burns. We stayed in the Thistle room and as you may have already imagined, was decorated in a thistle theme. The first day April experienced the agony of walking miles and standing on a hard surface
as we toured the Edinburgh Castle and shopped the Royal Mile. That evening I introduced April to the yummyness that is sticky toffee pudding at the Tass which is a pub I had previously visited. At breakfast the next day, April was introduced to a traditional Scottish breakfast of toast, runny eggs, sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, and tea. We spent that day visiting an art museum, riding the tour bus going to the museum of childhood, and Grey Friar’s Bobby church and statue, and shopping for presents. At the end of the Royal Mile near the Palace of the Holyrood, we wandered into a little store. A lot of these tourist stores are run by Asians but this was owned and operated by a local woman. When we explained that we were a bit Scottish, she was very excited and wanted to know what clan we were from. Up till now, we had not been able to uncover a tartan for Cairns. In her well worn book of Scottish clans and surnames, the woman discovered that we are a sept of the 
MacGregor clan! Basically, the Cairns were too poor to commission their own tartan so the MacGregos’ agreed to let the Cairns wear their tartan if the Cairns would fight for them. I purchased a MacGregor tartan tam and April and I ran around proudly declaring “We are MacGregor!”. That evening, April tried the traditional Scottish meal of Haggis, neeps, and tatties which she actually enjoyed! That was the end to our a
dventure in Scotland and I think April was a bit sad to say goodbye to her bagpipe playing, kilt wearing Scotsman. Because we were leaving early the next morning for Manchester, our host family left us breakfast and sandwich making for which we were very grateful and thus began our adventure in Cheadle Staffordshire.
Under pressure to finish writing the rest of April’s time here in the UK, I have decided to not give you a detailed play-by-play but more of a summary of the two days spent in Edinburgh.
We arrived early Saturday morning after an eventful time of trying to make our train (ask April if you want more details). We checked into our guesthouse which is a flat located on the fourth floor building just off Princes Street. It is also purported to be the childhood home of Robert Burns. We stayed in the Thistle room and as you may have already imagined, was decorated in a thistle theme. The first day April experienced the agony of walking miles and standing on a hard surface
as we toured the Edinburgh Castle and shopped the Royal Mile. That evening I introduced April to the yummyness that is sticky toffee pudding at the Tass which is a pub I had previously visited. At breakfast the next day, April was introduced to a traditional Scottish breakfast of toast, runny eggs, sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, and tea. We spent that day visiting an art museum, riding the tour bus going to the museum of childhood, and Grey Friar’s Bobby church and statue, and shopping for presents. At the end of the Royal Mile near the Palace of the Holyrood, we wandered into a little store. A lot of these tourist stores are run by Asians but this was owned and operated by a local woman. When we explained that we were a bit Scottish, she was very excited and wanted to know what clan we were from. Up till now, we had not been able to uncover a tartan for Cairns. In her well worn book of Scottish clans and surnames, the woman discovered that we are a sept of the 
MacGregor clan! Basically, the Cairns were too poor to commission their own tartan so the MacGregos’ agreed to let the Cairns wear their tartan if the Cairns would fight for them. I purchased a MacGregor tartan tam and April and I ran around proudly declaring “We are MacGregor!”. That evening, April tried the traditional Scottish meal of Haggis, neeps, and tatties which she actually enjoyed! That was the end to our a
dventure in Scotland and I think April was a bit sad to say goodbye to her bagpipe playing, kilt wearing Scotsman. Because we were leaving early the next morning for Manchester, our host family left us breakfast and sandwich making for which we were very grateful and thus began our adventure in Cheadle Staffordshire. 
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