Turnberry, Scotland and Culzean Castle

I was trying to do this earlier but somehow the week went too fast.

Last weekend was an eventful one. John Luke turned 1!!!! Who would have thought that he would have his first birthday in Scotland?! We had a couple people over from John's work and the sweetest girl Kate, who babysits. She is going to University of Glasgow and going to be a lawyer. We all love her. Scotland is into Vintage fairs and as I was walking around one Sunday I found this girl who has a bakery out of her home and she made the most amazing cupcakes. She even makes her cupcakes gluten free with rice flour and you would never know!!! The Butterscotch Bakery

Sweet John Luke took almost 5 minutes just staring at the cupcake, but once we turned our eyes off of him he went to town:)

You forget how much your kids grow in their first couple of years. He is such a boy...loves to be outside. He gets really grumpy when he is in the house for long periods of time. He LOVES his sister. It was cute picking Ava up from school and he saw her in the window and started smiling and laughing. He loves to dance. He loves FaceTime! He is a picky eater, will not touch meat, but we learned he likes fish! Now when I ask for kisses he goes straight in with mouth open. We all love this boy!

The mornings rise early here:( Saturday we decided we would go check out Turnberry Golf Course, Culzean Castle and Ayr. Only an hour away. We made two of the three. John's great-great-grandparents are from the area around Ayr. We are still trying to figure out everything, ancestry.com is not as easy as they make it out to be. You actually really do need to know your stuff. I did hear there is a place in Edinburgh that will help you, so when Grandma Marcia:) and Pieda give me more information I will go, hint hint!


For all you non-golf fans, Turnberry is one of the golf courses that the British Open plays at and is very famous here. The day was beautiful. The weather was around 55 degrees with partial clouds. Turnberry....beautiful! The town is very small, nothing you want to spend the day at. I was told that Turnberry is the only resort club that hosts The British Open, all the others are members courses. They do have members because in order to have The Open you need members. Word on the street is Donald Trump is looking to buy it and make it better. He doesn't need help with the golf course but the hotel, I was told.

Of course Ava had to have her scooter!

We decided to have lunch there. Very good food. Even more exciting is they bring out a Wee Explorers box for the kids to play with. Love this place even more!

About 2 miles up the road you come to Culzean Castle....wow! No royalty lived there. The Clan Kennedy lived there from 1777. They were Earls before and the 12th Earl Archibald wanted to become more powerful, so he befriended the King and he was knighted Marquess of Ailsa. There still is a Marquess today. He lives in Ayr and has two daughters. In Britain the title does not go to the daughters, so his brother who is Lord could become Marquess if his brother dies before him. His Lord brother does have an 18 year old son, who will become Marquess. I was told that a few summers ago, little Archibald worked at the Castle so he could learn more about his family. I guess on Wikipedia they say you can buy the name for 1.5million Pounds!

We did not go into this building but it right across from the courtyard

I always thought a Castle was for Royalty but a Palace is. A Castle has to have a barrier that protects and this classified as one.

It is spectacular. Most buildings have been refurbished. After the World Wars people did not have the money to maintain them and were left in bad shape. Culzean was given to the Scottish National Trust in 1945 but with one stipulation that the top apartment be given to President Eisenhower. He stayed at the resident 4 times. An American man gave close to $4 million to renovate in the last couple of years because he was interested in Eisenhower's visits to the Castle.

If you are into Downtown Abbey you would love this place. It has the staff quarters and the most fabulous kitchen.

The top floor of the Castle is a hotel, so if you want to stay there it will set you back 250-400pounds. In US Dollars add 68% to that and you realize why I don't shop anymore:) You come to the realization you really don't need much.

There is a room full of British Rifles

First Marquess

The grounds are enormous. There is a Deer Park, Swan Pond and multiple walks throughout the whole Park.

                                                             


              What is a day outside without Ice Cream:) We are really hoping to go to Isle of Arran soon.

More to come of our adventures soon!

St. Andrews for John's Birthday

We decided that we have to do something every Saturday, even if we don't have a "Big" trip. This past weekend was John's birthday, so I let him pick where we would go....St. Andrews, the home of Golf. It is 2 hours away. I laugh with John because if we were in Arizona we would never just drive 2 hours for the day unless it was a football game. 

St. Andrews is even more beautiful and charming in person than you see in the pictures. We spent 4 hours there and I felt like we didn't see that much. 

The main attraction if you are a golf fan is the Old Course. It is amazing that it is right in the town and you can walk right on the fairways. The ocean is next to it, with tons of people walking around. 

That is the members only clubhouse, but if you look behind it and see the red bigger building... that was built because at the time the members would not allow Jews so a wealthy Jewish man built it for himself. It is now luxury apartments going for $2-$12 million each!

                                                                        The Famous Bridge

 Glasweigns are not known for their hamburgers. There is not enough fat in their meat. On Friday night I was telling John that I just really want a good cheeseburger. We went to this restaurant in the red building and let me tell you the cheeseburger was so good!! 

The good thing about eating early with kids is you have a whole section to yourself!

Our server Ruth was amazing! She actually is a student guide at St. Andrews University and she was a wealth of knowledge. 

St. Andrews is not a big town. You can park and walk everywhere. The University is situated throughout the city. There are only 6,000 students. We of course had to go see where Prince William had his first day! Bless John's heart. Prince William and Princess Kate studied History of Art. Apparently that become the MRS degree. Ruth told us that St. Andrews is just recovering from the admissions from the Prince William years because they had an influx of girls. 

There is the old Castle. The ruins are cool to see but there was fruit flies all around so I did not really enjoy being there. Ava on the other hand thought it was so cool and ran all around. 

You can see the Cathedral from the Castle

Ava wanted to bring her scooter, she did not complain at all and loved riding around the streets with it 

The other main attraction is the Cathedral. The crazy thing about this one is the graves. We saw a tombstone for a man that just died in 2010!

Every street we would turn on we would say, "how awesome is that?!" 

The main shopping street. FYI, I wouldn't go to St. Andrews to get a new wardrobe, but very cool vibe. 

We had to stop on our walk back to the car at Jannetta's Gelateria. It has been there for over 100 years. The line or queue was long but Ruth told us during the summer it can be over a block long! I got Chocolate Malt and I loved it! They make the ice creams right there. It was voted in some article as the best ice cream parlor in Britain. That includes London! 

We will definitely be going back....John for the golf (bucket list) and me - more exploring, gelato and finding where Prince William and Kate used to hang out.  Haha!