Registries

Obviously, we're not fresh, young 20-somethings any more. We already have two houses, with LOTS of stuff in them. ;-D

We do have some items that we would like to upgrade, or have managed to not have at least one of them in either house. So, if you're looking for gift ideas for traditional housewares sorts of gifts, we're registered at these three fine retailers.(Note: All three links should take you directly to our registry lists. If they stop working, please let us know. In the meantime, you may need to search for us by name.)

However..... :-)

Something else to consider is... OUR HONEYMOON.

We will be going on a 2 week tour of the Highlands of Scotland right after the wedding. We will be staying in a number of B&Bs,exploring the castles, beaches, mountains, distilleries, and various countryside.

If you would rather contribute to our Scottish adventure, as opposed to a new frying pan, feel free to check out the details below. We don't have the particulars of each stay, to protect against various members of the wedding party (you know who you are!), but if you would like to explore these options, you can contact Helen to work out the details. All of the destinations below will support direct payments from you. Please just coordinate the purchases with Helen, so that we don't get duplicate overnight stays.

Note that we've put all of the purchase prices into the *approximate* US dollars cost. Sorry, we don't control the exchange rates.

You can contact Helen Jarosz, Carol's sister and maid-of-honor, at jarosz@pitt.edu

Historic Scotland Membership
Membership for two adults --$155
Many of the castles that we will be exploring are part of Historic Scotland. The membership gets us into the properties for "free" at each stop, discounts in their gift shops, and queue-skipping privileges at some locations. The membership also happens to be cheaper than the total of all of the entrance fees. BONUS to you -- a custom photo of us at a property of your choosing.

Number 10 B&B (Stirling)
2 nights -- $100/night
One of our overnight stays is in the small town of Stirling. We'll be exploring the history of the town, including Stirling Castle (duh!), the Wallace monument, and maybe a pub, or two. BONUS to you -- an ornament or chotchki from the castle.

Castle Levan (Gourock)
2 nights B&B -- $200/night
Early in our trip, we will be spending a day enjoying a true Scottish Highland Games festival in the small town of Gourock, west of Glasgow. While in Gourock, we'll be staying in a renovated fortified house, aka castle. There are photos of the house online, feel free to have a look! BONUS to you -- a sample of local Scottish craftsmanship from the Games.

TravelLodge - Central Queen Street (Edinburgh
2 nights hotel accomodation -- $120/night
Yeaaaa... we know what you're thinking... "Travelodge ?!?!... in Edinburgh".... Well, we couldn't really find much in the way of a nice B&B nor hotel in downtown Edinburgh without spending a fortune. As long as the room is clean, and within easy walking distance of all the cool stuff in downtown Edinburgh, then that's all we'll need. We've got several other very nice stays on our trip, so we're going to go simple for these couple nights.

Mary King's Close Tour
2 tickets -- $20 each
We're going to have to check out one of the neighborhoods in the old town of Edinburgh. It is underground! But that isn't surprising especially since it hasn't been used for 400 years. It promises to be interesting and creepy all at the same time. BONUS to you -- a creepy story or a magnet from Mary King's Close.

Braeside House (Fort William)
2 night B&B -- $115/night
As we make our way around the country, we're stopping over in Fort William. It's considered the outdoor adventure capital of Scotland, and we're going to see what sort of outdoor trouble we can get into. Hopefully, the midges will not have wound up into full-summer attack mode yet. We're going to find out! BONUS to you -- a picture or video of Ken, taken by Carol, trying to look calm while wading in Loch Ness (maybe with Nessie!) in water temperatures of 42 degrees.

The Jacobite - train tour (Fort William to Mallaig)
(PURCHASED)
If you have children, or have otherwise managed to NOT be living under a rock for the last decade, you have probably heard about the tale of a small schoolboy in England with some rather odd friends. From those books, they may have made a movie or eight about him too, you might know about the train that carried Harry Potter and his friends to and from their boarding school. The Jacobite is the real-life restored train that was the movie stand-in for the Hogwarts Express. Perhaps you remember some of those spectacular outdoor shots of that train making its way through the countryside -- yea, we wanted to try that in person too! BONUS -- a photo of Carol trying to run into the wall, near a sign reading "9 3/4"

Meadowbank B&B (Isle of Skye)
3 nights B&B -- $125/night
Continuing our circuit throughout the Highlands, we're spending a few days doing some more outdoorsy stuff on one of the outer Isles of Scotland. Skye is one of the largest, you can't miss it on the map. While out there, we'll doing some hiking in the Quiraing. Check out the photos, there promises to be some spectacular views out there! BONUS to you -- a landscape photo taken by Ken.

Old Church of Urquhart (Elgin, just east of Inverness)
3 nights B&B -- $75/night
Once we leave Skye,we pass by Loch Ness and head to the coastal town of Elgin, just to the east of Inverness on the north shore. Mid-May, I don't think we'll be spending much time sunbathing, but this will be prime distillery country. The Old Church is exactly that, a converted small-town church. For those familiar with Pittsburgh, think similar to the Church Brew Works. BONUS to you -- a Scotch sample or shot glass.

Breaslann Guest House (Aberdeen)
3 nights B&B -- $115/night
Castles, castles, and more castles. We'll be spending some time in Aberdeenshire checking out some of the ruins as well as standing coastal castles. There is a strong likelihood of a distillery or pub, too. BONUS to you -- a castle! OK. Not really. How would we get that past customs? Maybe an ornament that looks like a castle?

Ashtree House Hotel (Paisley, aka Glasgow airport)
1 night B&B -- We wind down our Highlands tour with a long day out of Aberdeen, a stopover at Balmoral to see how the top 1% of the top 1% manage to tolerate their summer vacations in such a small drab cottage. Then we're back to Glasgow for our last night in Scotland. If we haven't managed to work up the courage to try a Scottish meal of Haggis, this will be our last chance. The small town of Paisley is right next to the Glasgow airport, our last respite before our flight back to Philly. We've pre-purchased this stop, but since you've had a brief "tour", we figured we would provide the end point as well.