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She is quite the innovator…

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Congratulations to Angie, who ran the fastest 5k in Mid-Michigan for her age group in 2009. She ran the Alma Highand Festival 5k in 20:15 on Memorial Day weekend. That blew away the second place finisher, who ran a 21:07 in Ele’s race. Full results are here.

>Here are some panaoramas we’ve taken in the past few days.  Click on the image to download a high resolution version.

The first was taken from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle.  It was a cloudy day but the view was spectacular.

The second was taken from North Berwick Law.  We hiked up it instead of going to the seabird center (the attractions of which consisted of a cafe, movies, and remote bird viewing, in that order, all indoors.)  This was a great choice because the girls got to hike up their first mountain and the views at the top were outstanding.

In case you’re wondering, the white arch in the photo is a “replica” of a whale jawbone, a tradition at the site for 300 years.

>On our third full day in Edinburgh, it’s finally time to post something. We’ve walked all around the city, spent time at the playground in Princes Street Gardens and in Edinburgh Castle, and went for a few runs in Holyrood Park. We’ve had our share of Fish n chips, vegetarian lasagna, and pizza (not as scary as it sounds!)

Today we’re taking the train to the Scottish Seabird Centre. Look for bird pictures tomorrow!

>Everybody needs a day off, even on vacation. We basically did nothing Saturday but find Frankie a cute birthday cake at great bakery and hang out at the rich kids playground on the way to dinner at Rebel House.

>On Friday we road tripped to Niagara Falls. I remember going at least once when I was a kid, and then once in college, but I don’t know who went with me! Both of those times we went to the American side, and this time we stayed on the Canadian side, so it was a lot different. In any case, Niagara is about 1.5 hours from Toronto, so it makes a nice day trip (thanks for the suggestion Phil!)

We started out at about 10 am and drove to St. Catharine’s, where we had found a nice breakfast place called the Bleu Turtle. It was very small and very casual but had fantastic French Toast and omelets. I had a wild boar sausage with my meal, which was a first for me. Bee ordered the French Toast, but didn’t eat much, so guess who helped her?

When we arrived at the Falls, we walked to Table Rock, which is right next to the horseshoe-shaped falls on the Canadian side. We were surprised at how cold we were from all the mist drifting off the falls, so we went in to the Table Rock welcome center and bought Bee a very nice jacket. After that, the main thing we did at Niagara Falls was ride the the Maid of the Mist. The girls were excited about wearing their blue rain coats, and of course riding the boat, but I’m not sure they were ready for the falls (I know I wasn’t!)

One of the unexpected themes of the day was rainbows. We saw one off the stern of the boat, and a beautiful one over the falls as we left. It was a nice way to end the day.

Dinner was as Real Thai, the fourth place we’ve been to on Bloor St. It is great having all those choices nearby. We snuck in some ricotta and the girls ate it with rice noodles.

>The girls went sledding today (without me again!) because they had so much fun yesterday. This time though, they brought a camera. Here’s some action (turn your sound down now- it was windy!):

>Here are some pics from Christmas (finally).  Some of them are blurry but I like them anyway, so, they’re included.

>Here’s the view from the balcony of last night’s “Marble Muskrats Making Music” concert. Barbara was super-excited to be on stage singing with the kindergarteners.

Here is Bee and her classmates singing (and signing) “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. (If you crank up the sound you may actually hear them.)

The full-size video is here, with more video here and here if you just need to see more.

Did I mention we were in the balcony? Front row in fact. Frankie took advantage of that by losing here shoe over the railing. (No one was hurt as far as we know.) Here’s a shot of the actual shoe sitting in an actual lap below us.

>Quick quiz: What did we have for dinner last night?