The Isle of Skye

We drove across the bridge to the Isle of Skye after our trip to Loch Ness. We didn't have reservations anywhere, so we drove to a random campsite and it ended up being the number one ranked campsite in the UK! The setting was beautiful, in a little valley by the sea on the southwest coast of the Isle of Skye. The kids didn't like it as much as the first place we camped because it didn't have a cozy building to hang out it, but it did have a beach. The kids had fun playing in the cold waters of the North Atlantic (or is it the North Sea? I think it's the Atlantic because it's on the western side...) 

Here is our car. Anytime we opened the doors the car pretty much exploded outwards from being packed so tightly...This is where we set up camp. It was a beautiful place to camp, but there were midges. We had been warned about midges, and there weren't too many here because of the breeze, but we still got bitten (you can put insect repellent on, but not in your eyes, and I swear they bit us on any tiny spot we didn't have repellent.)

Here are the kids heading down to the water. They said it was actually warmer than they anticipated. Also, in this picture it is about 7:30 pm and the sun wasn't anywhere close to setting. We were really really far north at this point. Like, at a similar latitude as southern Greenland. (I've got the lack of sleep to prove it!)

After playing at the beach we came back to the tent to go to sleep. I didn't sleep much, because I was on midge patrol to kill the last few that made it into our tent so they didn't eat the kids. (Well, so they didn't eat Justin. Rebecca seems to have inherited her grandma's and great grandpa's genes that make her less susceptible to bites. She only got one little one on her cheek while the rest of us had at least ten. And that one midge bite is the first bite she's ever gotten, ever in her whole life! I remember getting eaten alive in Pittsburgh on summer evenings and my grandpa would barely be bothered.)

Anyway, after we "slept" I woke up in the morning to the rhythmic noise of our tent flapping in the wind. I opened my weary eyes to see half of the tent falling down on our heads due to the heavy wind (and our lack of tent stakes.) Eric restaked the tent with our trusty sticks, but it only lasted another half hour. The kids eventually woke up and we got them into the car while Eric and I took down the tent in the rain and wind. It was so windy that it actually caught air a few times. Fortunately, Eric is strong, because our tent is HUGE and had it actually blown across the campground it would not have been a pretty sight.

At this point I decided we were going to look for a hotel for the following night!