South through Tayside

After our explorations around Inverness and Loch Ness we would have liked to spend some time exploring the Cairngorms on our way back south. In the end we decided that a couple of days of r&r in Perth might be a better idea. We were all feeling a bit fatigued and a day with no packing up, driving and unpacking had some appeal. The drive from Inverness to Perth on the A9 wasn't exactly boring in any case. After travelling over the moors we spent some time exploring the valley of the river Tummel.

Soldiers leap - supposedly a soldier leapt over this chasm to escape pursuers during the Jabobite uprising

We found the fish ladder (and accompanying visitors centre) at Pitlochry interesting. Eric could even sort of remember visiting their when he was a child. The fish ladder allows migrating fish to get around the dam on their way up and down the river.

We took it pretty easy in Perth although Elise took Sam out to an adventure park just north of town. It had mini golf, peddle go-carts and various other entertainments to keep Sam entertained for a few hours.

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New York: National Museum of Mathematics

When we first came to New York we all wrote down where we wanted to go while we were here. All of us included the math museum (confirms our status as a family of total geeks) so that is where we headed today. On the way we went to the LEGO shop. There was plenty of great Lego art and some pretty cool sets that Samuel hadn't seen before. The best part was the machine that used a palm print to generate your Lego avatar. Eric: Check out the six pack. Not sure where they got the toupee from though. Samuel is Johnny Depp? Amazingly accurate this one. The famous Flatiron building A nd the math museum? Of course we enjoyed it! It was all interactive with loads of old and new problems to solve. We even got to use maths in an artistic way. Tessellating Samuel and Eric were most entranced by a floor exhibit which changed periodically but had a range of practical problems. The museum was well populated in the morning with ...

Santa Cruz

Unlike our first island hop, Isabela to Santa Cruz was done by boat (see the addendum below for my thoughts about inter island boat travel). At least the early morning trip was a smooth one. Luckily we had managed to book an apartment in Puerto Ayora which meant we could do some of our own catering for a change. By the time we arrived we were slowing down some, we felt we'd seen much of the wildlife the islands offered and frankly, we were exhausted. So we didn't venture too far from Puerto Ayora. One nice place near town we did visit (Eric went twice) was Tortuga bay which was exactly what you would expect a tropical beach to look like. In fact it had two beaches, one a surf beach and one a quiet cove where you could snorkel with barely a ripple. There wasn't much wildlife here except a few Iguanas (and one turtle) but the warm water was great for a swim nevertheless. As with San Cristobal we took a taxi trip to the highlands, crawling in Lava tub...

Dining in Denpasar

A key part of any holiday experience is food. During the first week of our stay in Bali we had two nice and very contrasting dining experiences. Merah Putih is billed as the best Indonesian restaurant in Denpasar. It was just a few blocks from our Seminyak villa so we prebooked well ahead of time for a visit. The restaurant venue is very impressive - from the inside it looks a bit like a giant greenhouse, including the plants. The food was spectacular. While every dish was good, the Bak Pao Sapi (Beef steamed buns) and Semur Sapi (slow roasted beef cheek) were incredible. Then for Christmas Eve lunch we had booked at Starfish Bloo at W Bali, one of the swankiest Sunday Brunch venues on the island. Sunday brunch buffets are a signature Bali experience with many of the big international hotels putting on all you can eat extravaganzas once a week. Needless to say the meal was jaw dropping. We had a great table close to the beach where we enjoyed un...

EE & S Adventures

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