I got LOST again!

After barely getting settled from our Scotland trip, I got a call on Friday from pal, Jim who needed help sculpting some sets for the season finale of LOST TV show. The following Monday I was flying out to Oahu with work tools in hand. From there I worked 8 straight days with nutty deadlines and wacky hours. As you can imagine, I can't say a word about what we worked on so don't expect any plot clues here.
I will say this though, if you are a LOST fan, DO NOT miss the final 2 episodes of this season.
Unlike last year when I worked on the show, this year I got to spot many of the cast members, met a few of them including Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and got to talk to Michael Emerson (Ben) for several minutes. Very nice guy. As a huge fan of the show, this was a great experience.

Can't show pics of what I sculpted, but here are some shots of the always entertaining crew I worked with.


Frankie, me, Scratch and Jim.


Marcus, Kimo and Walter.

Also got a "packing day" and was able to check out the island.


Nuuanu Pali.


Beach by Chinaman's Hat.


Turtle Bay.

We made it to Scotland!

Yes, we flew into Heathrow's Terminal 5 on the day it opened, March 27th. Yes, we were very lucky our flight to Edinburgh did not get canceled. Yes, British Airways lost our luggage. No, I don't want to talk about it. (As of April 13th, Akiko still does not have her luggage.)

Despite the nightmare of getting to and out of Scotland, the time we actually spent in Scotland was incredible. The sense of history, the statues, ornaments and architecture of the buildings and the breathtaking landscapes of the Highlands and Isle of Skye made Scotland a vacation to remember.

Our first stop was Edinburgh.


Akiko outside our hotel, The Bonham.

Our hotel was just a half mile from Edinburgh Castle so we left the car walked up King's Stable road and ended up at the castle and the Royal Mile.


Edinburgh Castle sitting atop volcanic rock.


Outside the castle, at the top of Royal Mile.

Our first day we did a ton of walking checking out the alleys, buildings, graveyards and taking a couple of tours.











The second day, we strolled around the residential area of New Town then went into Edinburgh Castle.





What an amazing place and again, so much history.

Dalhoise

One of our goals for a trip to Scotland was to stay a night in a castle, so we did.


Dalhoise Castle outside of Edinburgh.




The falconry had all these guys plus several owls.

Outstanding service from the staff and a gourmet meal in the Dungeon restaurant added to this fun stay.

Glasgow

After walking the castle grounds, we hit the road towards Glasgow. More stressful driving on the opposite side of the road and those wacky roundabouts made for some tense moments, but we made to the Alamo Guesthouse and set out on foot.


Glasgow School of Art designed by Rennie Mackintosh.

We got a few shots of the School of Art and then visited the Tenement House where some kind old Scottish folks with thick accents told us what life was like for those living in tenements in the early 1900's.



Then it was through Kelvingrove Park to the Art Gallery and Museum.



From there we walked up the hill to the impressive buildings of the University of Glasgow and strolled around the campus for a little while.





After dinner and coffee, we noticed a pub right down the street from where we were staying. The Drawing Room: Food, Drink, Art. So we grabbed our sketch pads, pretended we were part of the Drink and Draw Club, had a few drinks and sketched away. (I'll post the drawing at a later date.)


The Drawing Room.

The next morning before leaving the city, we went to the Hunterian Art Gallery. On display there was the Mackintosh House. The interior home designed and decorated by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald. Walking into these rooms almost brought a tear to my eye. Art Nouveau has always been my favorite art period and an inspiration so seeing it all in one place reflected in everything from furniture to interior design to the art hanging on the walls was a special experience. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures so I have no pics from this one.

Into The Highlands

Driving through the Highlands was filled constant "wow" moments as the scenery was just beautiful.


Me and our Scottish Hot Rod.

One of our stops was Inverlochy Castle. We spotted a sign for it on the side of the road and it turned out to be the most wicked set of ruins saw on the trip. It was raining pretty hard so we had the place to ourselves.





Then it was up to the Glennfinan Monument. We hiked up to the viewpoint in a serious downpour, but it was worth it.





Glencoe: Volcanic formations filled with fault lines and carved by glaciers. This area is truly gorgeous with colors ranging from bright moss green, yellows and brownish reds. Ice capped mountains with runoff creating mini waterfalls, surging streams and a raging river coe.

We stayed at the Clachaig Inn which was smack-dab in the valley of Glencoe and had several trails steps away from the door.



We took the trail out to Signal Rock where the signal was sent by the English to commence the infamous massacre at Glencoe where they attempted to murder the entire MacDonald Clan in 1692.


Signal rock.

Old Bridge

We decided on taking an alternate route to check out something Akiko had researched, the Old Bridge at Invermoriston and man, was it sweet.



If it wasn't for Akiko, we would have missed this spot and I glad we didn't because I really loved it. Rushing water, super cool rocks and an old stone bridge. Nice.

Urqhart to Inverness

After a nice breakfast at the B&B overlooking the Drumbuie farm and Loch Ness, we decided to hike the 2 mile trip to Urquart castle. Urqhart was a much more commercial tourist attraction than the other ruins we've seen to this point, but still a very impressive site.





We hiked back, stopped for coffee in Drumnadrochit, got back into the car and drove through the city of Inverness and out to the Clava Cairns.



This site of rock mound burial chambers encircled by standing stones dates back to 2,000 BC. Now that's some old stuff! The official name of the site is Prehistoric Burial Cairns of Balnuaran of Clava.






On the way back we stopped on the shore of Loch Ness.


Another great Highland view from the next morning as we aimed at Skye.

Isle Of Skye

On Friday, April 4th, we entered the Isle of Skye from the bridge at the Kyle of Localsh. After a quick lunch, we went North and checked into our B&B which in between Broadford and Luib.


The veiw from the driveway of Skye Picture House where we stayed.

Not much else to say other than that this island was simply gorgeous. The next few days we dealt with all types of weather that came an went quickly. Sun, rain, wind, snow and hail kept us on our toes.


Old Man of Storr.


Lealt Falls.


Kilt Rock.



It seems as though vehicles are not the only thing travelling by road in Skye.


Highland cow.


Dad, Mom and the kids.

Skye part 2

During breakfast at the B&B we talked with another visitor from Amsterdam. While we were talking about living in LA, he said he had only been to one city in the states for job reasons. Guess where that was? ROCHESTER friggin' NY! The city where I was born, raised and eventually met Akiko, Rochester, NY. How's that for an entry in the Small World Journal?


Did I already mention that there was sheep EVERYWHERE in Scotland?

Both days in Skye, we drove to the North end of the island. First day we took the road up on the East side and the second day we took the West side road.


Cool old thing in Uig past Loch Snizort (yes, those are real names).


Duntulm Castle.


Carved standing stone.


Graveyard in Dunvegan.

At this point we headed South in an attempt to get to Skye's only distillery, Talisker, to take the tour before it closed. Unfortunately, we missed the final tour by about 30 minutes so we left in search of dinner. This venture was not always as easy as it would seem as most the towns in Skye were tiny and pretty much everything is closed by 5pm. Luckily our B&B host had lent us a great map and we ended up at the Sligachan Hotel where Akiko had some roasted veggies over cous cous while I had the fish pie and chips.


View at Sligachan.

Overall, Isle of Skye was a place of stunning landscapes, deep history and friendly peolpe. Both excellent photographers, Steve and Gill, were great hosts and their clean, modern B&B, Skye Picture House, was a welcome spot right on the shore with amazing veiws.


Caught this rainbow while filling the car with gas.