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We flew to Edinburgh on a red-eye on the 23rd of September. Thankfully we got an extra seat and so could put Ezra in his car seat in his own seat and that with the aid of a tiny bit of children’s benadryl meant that at least he got some sleep en route. I, of course, can’t sleep on planes, even a 10-hour flight.

Our time was spent catching up with old friends mostly: the Watsons, Urminskys, Courts, Stubbs, Johnson/Craigies, friends from University and church. We ate lots of meals with friends, had a few good curries (wish we’d had more actually), enjoyed proper fish and chips and Scottish ale (well, Bryce did anyway) and drank lots of tea. The weather was warm for the first half of the week and not too bad the rest of the week. Ezra did well sleeping when he could in the Ergo carrier as we carted him around the city.

I met with my supervisor twice and went to a postgrad seminar that I had gone to previously when we lived there. It was like being back again. I thought that going back to Edinburgh after 2 years would make it all feel eerily familiar but surreal — like it had felt when we came back to CA for a visit a year and a half after we’d lived in Scotland — but actually, it felt incredibly normal to be seeing friends even with the 2-year interim and walking around the city still felt like ‘home’.

We took about 10 pictures and they’re mostly of Ezra playing with Maxwell. (We’ll get them up soon). We took one of Ezra in front of the Thomas Chalmers statue (Chalmers is Ezra’s middle name). Other than that, it was too much effort to tote around a child and camera paraphernalia, but you can trust us that we all had a wonderful trip that felt entirely too short. Ezra got a bit of a cold but is doing well and adjusting to the time change as can be expected.

Highlights include:
1. Spending time with old friends
2. Talking about possibilities for the Church in Scotland with the Courts
3. Caledonian 80-/ and whisky for Bryce
4. Curry at Kabob Mahal
5. Walking around one the most beautiful cities in the world

Bryce, Ezra and I will be hopping the pond for a vacation/research-for-Ashley trip at the end of September. Here’s to good ale (for Bryce), good curry, chips with salt and sauce and getting to see good friends that we haven’t seen in 2 years since we moved back to California.

If you’re in the UK and interested in meeting up with us when we’re there the last week of September, please let us know and we’ll be happy to pencil you in. (Haha, as if we’re that popular).