We were headed into the Trossachs...or the wild area....which essentially is what we would consider a National Park. It did happen to be 'wild' at the moment, because the heavy wind and rains made most of it impassable for our bus.
Our intended destination was Lake Katrine, one of many lakes in the Trossachs National Park. This was actually a pretty significant recreation area and over 50% of Scotland's population lives within one hour of the park...which tells us that it is pretty big...like the Smokey Mountains I would imagine.....with more lakes. (lochs)
If you recall
Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott...you will recall that the Lady was found in Lake Katrine. Scott's 1817 novel,
Rob Roy was also set in this area.
One of my favorite Pre-Raphaelite painters
John Everett Millais did his painting of John Rusking here....and the background of the painting looks much like the 'rapids' seen by our students.
We made it to the park, but not to Loch Katrine, however Loch Lammond was a suitable substitution. We could see the snow in the mountains even if we could not touch it.
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| Yes, it was chilly and we were not certain that we wanted to get out of the bus! |
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| The view to the west |
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| A great place for thinking and for journaling. (And if my hands were not freezing....sketching!) |
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| This just screams....friends forever. Can you even imagine being in 10th grade and being on the other side of the world with your best friends......pretty special! |
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| Yes....it was really windy....and icy cold. |
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| Five cheerleaders and five rocks....hmmm....now what would you do with that? |
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| Leap, of course! |
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| Togetherness also means...warmth! |
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Trip to the rapids....ok, the bus met a little dip in the road.
Teamwork got us out of it though! |
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| This was to be one mushy, wet, muddy trip. It is a good thing waterproof boots were on the packing list! But these brave hikers made it into the woods and back again! |
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To the rapids and back with lots of fun along the way.
Sometimes the weather is on your side and sometimes it is not, but like most things in life, if you look on the sunny side of things, you can always find something else to do. All in all, it was better to have misty weather and a smaller lake than to have arrived earlier in the week and be stuck in a hotel room due to the storms!
I was very thankful to have a group of kids that remained flexible and did not complain about potential changes....and they found fun whereever we traveled.
Flexibility and smiles make for better outcomes all the way around! |
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