Travels with a Flat Hat

  Puffin, Hiking and Rough Waters in Anstruther Our explorations around Scotland have been exciting and wondrous but the latest was much more than that. It was the fulfilment of a life long dream for Susi.   I don’t know how many times she talked about seeing puffins with a dreamy longing expression on her face. We booked the boat tour far in advance since it is an extremely popular destination for tourists. The boat (Isle of May) holds around 50 passengers and the slots fill up in a flash. As our time got closer, the weather forecast got more foreboding with a promise of a high chance for 34 mph winds which could force a cancellation. I am not sure what the wind speed was when we got the go ahead, but they were quite fierce. The waves in the harbour were fairly calm, but as we went through the walls for the hour plus trip out to the island the boat was rocking and rolling like a wild carnival ride. Many of the passengers were screaming when we crashed through some of the bi...

This Ewe just wanted to be petted, so we did. Susi and I have been trying to do at least one day each week to take a long hike or a tour of an interesting town or city.  Ofttimes our plans are all for naught due to the lack of cooperation from the weather man. Yesterday when we saw that the our forecast had changed from steady rain and wind to dry, relatively mild and overcast skies, we saw an opportunity to take advantage of the dry weather to do something outside. After discussing the situation and overcoming our lazy alter ego's desire to cocoon with a good book, we adopted a plan to hike locally.   Springing into action, we hurriedly packed our back packs, put on our hiking boots,  caught the bus to Kinross, got a cup of coffee at our favourite cafe and took a bird watching hike up to the RSBC (Royal Society of Bird Conservation) visitor center and back. By the time we were done, we had covered 13 miles and sited many birds, four of them new to our list. ...