First Day of 8th Grade / S2 / U4

As the pandemic continues to rage on, the girls and the parents were all so excited to be able to go back to school in person (unfortunately, for what we would soon find out to be only a short while).  For someone as social as Brenna, online learning became tiresome and dull.  She was happy to be back with her friend!  

Our rhythm of school now follows the routine of dropping Brenna at a friends house every morning where the girls all congregate and walk to and from school together.  Its a good group of kids, it saves me from a little traffic congestion at the school's entrance, and the girls appreciate they're new found freedom, so its a win-win for everyone!

This is officially 8th grade middle school by US standards, S2 high school by Scotland measures, and Upper 4 according to St. Georges classifications.  

Fox Lake Adventure

The girls squeezed in one last adventure before the return to school.  Fox Lake is just outside of Edinburgh and it's an outdoors adventure park.  It has over-the-water rope courses, wake boarding water courses, ringo pulls, ziplines, and segway tours.  We had hoped for better weather, but that's not the kind of thing you can wait for in Scotland.  We've learned that if you want to do things, sometimes you have to do it in the rain!  

The girls started the day with a segway tour around the lake then they changed into wetsuits for a long day of wake boarding.  It was Brenna's first time wake boarding and I wasn't sure how well she's do.  After watching other people with little experience make attempts, it was apparent that your level of enjoyment was directly related to how long you could stay up on the board.  Otherwise, you're just being dragged around the lake in muddy cold water.  Luckily, she took to it easily and quickly mastered the art of the getting the board up in the water.  After several runs through the course the coaches began to teach her how to steer and maneuver.  Overall, her first wake boarding experience was a success!

Despite the less than desirable weather, we were fortunate not get any significant rain through out the day.  We all enjoyed lunch lake-side and the moms spent the day visiting.  After so long in lockdown, it was wonderful to have what felt like a normal day out with friends.  The start of school was right around the corner and future plans were uncertain due to the increase in covid cases.  We knew another lockdown was coming and we appreciated the opportunity to just be with friends.

Three Bridges Tour

Scotland summers are fleeting at best and with lockdown consuming a portion of that short time, we were determined to make the most of the time we had left before school (virtual or otherwise) began again.  One very chilly summer morning we decided to join friends for a boat tour onboard the Maiden of the Forth for a day out!  Both the girls as well as us moms were excited at the prospect of a whole day out of the house.  We joined the crew for a leisurely sail around the firth enjoying the sights and history of the bridges as well as Inchcolm Island.  

One highlight of Edinburgh is it's location nestled between the North Sea and the Firth of Forth (not to be confused with 5th of 4th).  Firth is a word used in the Scots language to refer to a coastal body of water.  We would think of it as a straight or an inlet.  Forth refers to the River Forth, which is one of the major rivers that feeds into the inlet that connects to the North Sea.  The famous Three Bridges stretch across the Firth of Forth to connect The Lothians with the Kingdom of Fife.  The three bridges sit side-by-side-by-side across the firth as a symbol of engineering evolution.

The first bridge was the Forth Rail Bridge that was completed in 1890 and provide a vital means of moving supplies across Scotland by railway.  The bridge was the first of it's kind as a cantilever suspension bridge made completely of steel, rather than iron.  Both the designer and contractor were knighted for their work on the Forth Rail Bridge.

The second bridge emerged as Britain’s road system flourished in the 1930s.  There became a clear need for more convenient vehicular passage between Edinburgh and Fife.  The bridge was approved in 1947, however due to numerous delays work did not begin until 1958.  The Forth Road Bridge was officially opened in 1964 as the fourth longest bridge in the world and the longest outside of the United States.

The Forth Road Bridge had a life expectancy of 120 years, but in the 21st century the planned capacity of 11 million vehicles per year had risen to more than 23 million.  A maintenance inspection conducted on the bridge in 2003 discovered that the main suspension cables had suffered a loss of 10% due to corrosion. The accelerated loss of strength threaten to limit the bridges capacity by 2014 with closure by 2019.  This information, along with the strategic transport importance of the bridge, prompted discussions for replacement.  In 2007 the Queensferry Crossing was approved at an estimated cost of $5.2 billion.  The bridge was completed in 2017.  Queensferry Crossing is the longest three-tower cable stayed bridge in the world and has more than 23,000 mile of cable.

Brenna’s 13th Birthday

Brenna’s 13th birthday was, like so many other things, hampered by Covid.  She very much wanted to have a big party with all her friends, but we were still under strict Covid restrictions that would only allow for a limit of three households indoors with a maximum of seven people.  Looking back we were really fortunate that her birthday fell during that time.  It wasn’t long before the restriction were reapplied and we wouldn’t have been able to have even the little gathering that we did do.  

Despite the limitations, we wanted to give her something special to mark her passage into her teenage years.  We used a creative interpretation of the rules and hoped that none of our neighbors took notice of the infraction and turned us in!  We counted Caitlin as part of our household, since she had technically been part of our social bubble through the previous weeks thanks to our Scotland getaway.  She invited two other friends and they had a fun celebration at home.  The cupcakes, pizza, and popcorn were free flowing.  There was a homegrown game of jeopardy that was all about the birthday girl and a role-play murder mystery that carried on for hours.  The girls stayed over and spent the entire night doing makeup and tiktok dances.  She’s got a great group of girls here and we were thankful to have the opportunity to celebrate with them.

Scottish Highland Adventure

Just a short two weeks after our England getaway, we were off again.  During lockdown, as we were patiently waiting for restrictions to lift, a friend and I planned a joint Highland adventure for our families not knowing whether we'd be able to actually take it or not.  As it turns out, it ended up being a celebratory trip!  We celebrated both Brenna and Michelle's birthdays.  We were trying to make the most of our very short, socially distanced, don’t leave the UK summer.  

  

The trip started with a curvy drive through Glencoe.  The highlands are incredibly beautiful!  Brenna snapped pictures along the drive of all the mountains and valleys.