August 2: To the top of Arthur's Seat

I knew the whole family needed to see Arthur's Seat, so on Thursday morning we woke up and set out for a hike to the top! We signed up via Air BnB Experiences for a guided walk, which was awesome because our tour guide David knew all the best routs and had studied the geology. This area was an ancient volcano, and some rocks still have the markings of water and sea life from millions of years ago.

Highland beauty

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Our guide told us lots of interesting facts - the gouges out of the mountain to the right of us in this photo were from mining - many 19th Century London streets are made out of the stone that was quarried there

And lots of amazing legends, like the story that King Arthur and Merlin lived nearby. That lake is presumably the home of the "Lady of the lake," and he threw Excalibur back into the lake when he converted to Christianity. Indeed, that lake was explored recently and many many weapons (including lots of ancient swords) were found at the bottom.

Stone was pretty acrophobic at the top - I've never seen him scared of heights like that.

More stories on the way back down - this time about Edinburgh mass murderers and tiny little coffins with dolls found in a nearby cave representing each of their victims. :/

All the way to the top of that outcropping in the distance, and all the way back down.

The ruins of an old old Catholic church, destroyed by (guess who!) Protestants 

After the hike Lindsay and Lucy were too tired to move

After recovering our strength we went out for dinner and tried haggis at the mash bar. It was actually really good! It just tasted like meatloaf. And it was meatloaf. A loaf of lamb's heart, lung, and stomach meat. But we didn't think about that when we ate it.

Our silent Disco Tour of Edinburgh was a no-show (partially to some children's relief), so we walked around watching street performers 

And went on the ferris wheel

And then we went back home to bed. (Lucy looks sad because I wouldn't let her have ice cream.)