JC and Islay Day Three

Day Three (Saturday)

Sorry that I’m late posting Day three. The night before, Katy and I had a blast wandering the two from pub to pub and meeting and talking to so many friendly folks. We watched the new episode of Ted Lass when we got back to the Airbnb. Well, Katy did; I fell asleep before it started and never woke up until the morning. So instead of posting day three, I watched Ted Lasso. Great episode, by the way.

So Day Three is about the Two-day Test that we had to do to arrive in the country. We took a COVID test three days before we left and were negative. So once you arrive you have three days (A two-day test, but the first day is day 0) to test and send it off to the lab. We didn’t realize that it is straightforward to find a drop-off box in London, but down in Weymouth, it isn’t straightforward. The closes drop-off box is in Poole, about 20 miles away. Because of this, we planned our day exploring the east end of the Jurassic Coast.

So we headed to Poole to drop of the tests and then off to Corfe Castle. The last time we were at Corfe Castle was in December of 2013 with the kids. But that day, it was too windy to go into the castle. So why not try again. We even had lunch at the same pub that we had with the kids. To many, seeing 1,000-year-old castles isn’t that interesting, but to us, we enjoy the scenery, reading about the history, and most of all, seeing how the community embraces the castle.

Since we were only a few miles away from Swanage, the end of the Jurassic Coast, we decided to make the drive and walk about the town. Though there are plenty of hikes, we decided to give our legs a break. One thing that has surprised me the most is that all of the communities embrace their environment. Meaning that even though it was overcast and officially fall, folks were still at the beach and still swimming in the water. You had lots of folks with these cool little shacks sitting, reading the paper, having coffee (or something enjoyable), and just enjoying life.

Since we were away, we thought about doing one more stop. There is a winery in the area that is changing the game of sparkling wine. So we checked to see if Bride Valley Winery was open, but it closed at 2 pm on Saturday; it was almost 3 pm. So out of luck, we headed back to Weymouth to enjoy the Saturday late afternoon and evening.

We had a blast going to several pubs and meeting beautiful folks. What we learned is that Weymouth is a distention for stag parties. And it being Saturday, we ran into several. Also, we ran into a group of friends that meet up each year for a weekend. But found it entertaining that each had some sort of sporting team outfit on, mainly rugby, but you had a tennis guy and even a WWF guy. At first, we thought they had just come back from a match, but then we asked, and they told us the story that they have been doing this for 20 years. The night before they all dressed up as black tie security – including the earpiece.

So after our usual stop at Waterloo and running into our new friends David and Julie, we were heading to “home” to watch Ted Lasso, but I didn’t make it out of the intro.

JC and Islay Day Two

Day Two (Friday)

Wasn’t the best night of sleep, but we were up and the sun shining. Since we only have a big picture of what we want to do we took our travel book to breakfast with us. We were in search of coffee, but found this fun little breakfast place and got traditional English breakfast – eggs, toast, beans, sausage, hash browns, and Americano black. It was great and not that expensive. Anyways we went through our options and decided that we were going to see the Durdle Door. By car it’s only a 15-mile drive, to walk it would have been about 8 miles. So we drove knowing that we would be hiking about 6 miles anyways. So we drove to Lulworth Heritage Center and parked there. Plenty of parking. We weren’t rushing the day, just letting it come to us. It was 11 am by the time we parked and paid for the day.

The first thing that this walk greets you with is a little 400 feet elevation hill that wakes you up. Well maintained and very wide for it is very popular. Take your time and enjoy the view as you head up. From there the day has started. Again, take your time and enjoy the views. The Durdle Door is special because of the views. You are on the Jurassic Coast and a “dragon” is coming out of the sea. It takes you back to another time. Though the time said an hour and 32-minutes, it was just over 2 hours because of the stops that we took to enjoy God’s great creation.

We had plenty of daylight left so we decided to take another hike. This time to right and see the fossil forest. Once again take your time and enjoy the views. Two servicemen opening the military range greeted us when we got to the top of the hill. The path goes two ways, the first goes along the military range (for when the range is close), and the other goes through the range. Going through the range is a more leisurely hike, so we were happy to see the servicemen opening it up.

The one thing that we talked about is how this area reminded us of so many other places. Not like in general, but different sections. Though this is not the Grand Canyon, the elevation change makes it comparable. You have beautiful cliffs that you can see for miles that are similar to the Cliffs of Mohr. You have giant boulders on the beach like Diamond beach in Iceland – Boulders vs. Ice, but they stand out the same. Tree-covered hiking path like you would find in Indiana. Beach activity like you would find at any small beach community.

So after arriving around, 11 am we were heading back around 4:30 pm. A nice shower and ditching the hiking shoes for lightweight tennis shoes was a welcome change. Even though it was Friday night, after doing over 20,000 steps and climbing 90+ flights of stairs, we were ready for dinner at the Ship Inn and calling it an early night.

JC and Islay Day One

Day One (Thursday)

Indy to DC was uneventful, except that I saw one of the most incredible rainbows of all time and couldn’t get my phone camera to turn on quick enough. I slept hard on the flight from DC to London and was okay to drive the 3 hours to Exeter (160 miles) to have lunch with Bruce. Then only 1.5 hours from Exeter to Weymouth (61 miles). And then another hour to park after we unloaded at the Airbnb. The hour to park was mostly our vault, but all good in the end. We would make a great team for that traveling show but might have been the last to complete the task of parking.

Weymouth is 100% a beach town, but there is a lot of character here. I can see this place packed during the summer – you have the promenade, but you have all the other shops and pubs along the bay as well. But with COVID, I think we were the only American’s here. The people were great, and we had many great conversations. It’s a long day and time to crash hard tonight.

COVID – the lines to get through Custom was at a record low. We were at the bus stand to pick up our rental car in about 15 minutes – and that included the 10-minute walk from the plane to the Customs area and hitting the ATM to gets some pounds. Though our plane was packed (from what I could see), the number of arriving planes was way down. The guy at the rental car said it is picking up, but they usually run about 500 rentals a day but are only at about 100 / day now.

The hardest part about going was the hour it took to upload all of the documentation the night before – COVID test result and passenger location (a long-form) but that way, they can track where you sat if they find someone is positive. So we didn’t have to show anything even though we printed off our vaccination cards, test results, and passenger location forms. And sort of felt cheated because they didn’t stamp our passports. But our Custom Agent was excited that we were going to Islay – she said that her family is from there.

Driving here isn’t any different than driving at home – except you are on the right side. Just remember, the driver is always in the center of the road. And get an automatic, not a manual. We made that mistake back in 1993 on our second trip over. Also, you now have to focus on the lines on the right. The final nuance is that you need to watch your left side when pulling into parking stops – twice I freaked out Katy as I was about swipe the parked car on the left – always stopped in time to make adjustments, but only have some excitement from Katy.

Saying this, the drive from London to Exeter was pretty easy – M (Interstate) for about the first 40 miles and then a four-lane divided highway for most of the rest and then the last 30 miles two-lane roads. We were surprised that we drove right past Stonehenge. We have been there as a family several years ago and knew that a highway ran close by – I have some of those pictures but wasn’t expecting to that we were on that road. The drive from Exeter to Weymouth was easy, but mainly two lanes and going up and down through rolling, beautiful countryside.

Jurassic Cost and Islay

History of trip

As a couple that loves to travel, you almost felt something was coming. Iceland at the end of January 2020 was a great trip. Katy went from there to Japan for a week and Germany for two more weeks. She returned at the end of February. My next adventure was the Big 10 Basketball tournament. Byran, Jim, and I had great seats to all of the games and had a room downtown when this thing called COVID hit. That got shut down, and Katy’s and I’s big adversity trip to New Orleans got canceled. The shutdown was on – but for how long? No one knew.

At first, it was two weeks, and then we’ll be back in the office. Then it was April and then July, and then finally 2021 But, since working from home was new to us, we did book a condo on Wrightsville Beach for two weeks – where we worked and enjoyed the downtime. Even though COVID shut down most stores, there was take-out, and grocery stores were open. And the trip to Wrightsville Beach is an easy 11-hour drive and a great way to see America. We did take extra precautions about getting gas because not everything was open.

So we were planning on remodeling our kitchen and lower level – so we got that scheduled, and they were finally able to start in October. It was the change that the house needed, and I’m super happy that we did it. But even so, the lockdown was still on – not going out, not going to football games, we got used to it. So I was stunned that Katy got me a trip to the UK for 2.5 weeks as a Christmas gift. It took me a second to figure out that it was a trip because the gift was a sheet of paper with sets of numbers and letters. When you’re not expecting a trip, it’s hard for your brain to process the ticket and confirmation codes. The plan was to go in late April through early May. Excitement was beyond words!

So as the new year rang in, a new wave of COVID began, and more chaos pursued. The UK shut down to foreign visitors and or a ten-day quarantine period. So we decided to push the trip to the end of September through early October. And now we just need to see what happens.

Fall of 2020, once everything went back into shut down mode, we booked an Aruba vacation for Feb 2021. The island had a curfew from 11 pm to 5 am (that didn’t affect us). It was one of the most relaxing vacations – morning walks with beautiful scenery, spent the afternoons chilling on the beach, and then walking somewhere for outdoor dining. The best thing was that there weren’t many tourists, so it felt like we owned the place. As you can see from the pictures from the link above, we did a lot. But we also learned that traveling wasn’t that hard. Because we still had leftover dollars on airlines, we booked a trip to Vegas and some hiking at the Grand Canyon for August. Fly into Vegas and then drive 4.5 hours to the south rim of the Canyon. That is a beautiful drive – nothing like the drives in Indiana. Once again, we felt like we owned the Canyon – though there were folks there, the parking lots were mostly empty. We had no problems or lines to wait in to get into the park. Locals told us that there could be up to a four-hour line to get into the park during peak season. We found that interesting because the WSJ had written an article about how people were flooding the national parks, and it was hard to get in. Maybe it was because we went mid-August, and most schools were back in session.

And now life is about to speed up—a lot of activities going on in September. Labor day weekend Katy and I went to Madison, WI, to pick up Sarah. Sarah and Drew wanted only to have one car in Indy for their special weekend. Great weekend in Madison with 80,000 footballs fans at the game and around 140,000 in total. The following weekend Sarah and Drew’s wedding number two happened. It was a great time, and even downtown Indy had gone maskless. It was a great event with around 120 folks. And so far, no word of COVID. Though you read how everything is shutting down and how vaccinated folks are getting sick and going to the hospital – I guess they call that “Break Through” cases. Anyways – I don’t care what the person’s vaccination status next to me is because I’m vaccinated. I’ve done my part, and I can’t control what everyone else does or doesn’t do. So I’m not letting them control my life. And now we are only a few days away from the trip.

Bruce flew to London Sep 12, 2021to start his next chapter in getting his Masters in Medieval Studies from the University of Exeter. His leaving helped us to figure out all of the unique COVID things that we have to do.

It’s Monday, and we leave Wednesday afternoon. It’s finally hitting that we are getting to go. We are all set for accommodations, rental car, internal flight from London to Islay, Scotch tours scheduled; it’s time to go.

So this morning, we have to get a COVID test so that we can fly on Wednesday. I can’t lie; this is one test that I’m not sure what the outcome will be, even though I feel lovely. So yes, I’m excited about the trip, but what if one of us has a positive test? Both feel fine, but now it hit me that our whole experience comes down to one medical test (actually two). I guess that I’m a little concerned or worry is that for the past three weeks, it’s been non-stop, Madison, the wedding, the Colts game on Sunday. That’s the most folks that we have been around in the past 18 months.

The plan

So the high-level plan is to fly from Indy to Heathrow (9/22 depart and 9/23 arrival). Pick up the rental car and drive down to Weymouth – the Jurassic Coast area. Make one stopover to see Bruce in Exeter and then spend the week doing day hikes. On the 29th, we return the rental car and fly from Heathrow to Islay. We have a place in Port Ellen until Oct 5th, when we fly back to London and spend the last three nights. I am excited because we have reservations at an excellent restaurant (that I’ve been trying to get to for several years). I hope I didn’t set the bar too high. Also, while in London, we want to meet up with some of Shannon’s college roommates/friends. And then, finally, we head home on Oct 8th.

So that’s the plan – I’ll update the Actuals as we go along.

Actuals

Ok, game on! The COVID test came back negative! Usually a very positive person, I’m ok with being negative.