St. Andrews

August 21st -- We decided to take a break from the shows today and take a day trip to St. Andrews. While the kids don't really understand all the "hype" around St. Andrews, they were excited about the opportunity to play golf. St. Andrews is an easy, one hour train ride north of Edinburgh. We actually arrived in a small town outside St. Andrews and then took a bus to the town. We arrived at the bus station and made the short walk to St. Andrews Links and the Old Course. While we had only travelled an hour north, the temperature was notably cooler and the wind was really blowing..classic St. Andrews. We had read that they had a small pitch and putt area called "The Himalayas", which is actually set up on the ladies putting green. We had decided that would be a great place for us all to "play golf at St. Andrews". We spent some time around the 1st tee box and 18th green of the Old Course and the R&A clubhouse and then begin walking over to the larger, public links clubhouse for lunch. We actually passed the Himalayas on the way and saw a sign that it would be closed from 1 - 3:30 today. We are glad we saw that because we now needed to stop and play before lunch. The kids were really excited about playing golf, especially Austin. He was always too young when we were back in the states, so this was his first experience. Even though we were only given a putter and were on the ladies putting green, the combination of wind, classic St. Andrews undulating greens and location right by the 1st hole of the old course, made it feel much more formal. We have been trying to figure out if Austin is right or left handed. He seems to eat and do most things right handed, but he kicks a ball with his left foot and seems to "swing" left handed. Luckily, he had a blade putter, so when he walked up for his first putt, he lined up left handed. There was our answer...or so we thought. Throughout our round, he seemed to go back and forth between right and left handed. I guess we will have to wait and see. We had a blast but were ready to get out of the wind by the end of our round. It was a little hard to get Austin off the course, but we finally did and headed to the clubhouse for lunch. It was a good lunch with views of the first tees of the other St. Andrews courses. After lunch, we spent some time shopping in the pro shop. We then headed back outside. While in Edinburgh, we had bought the kids what is billed as "the world's smallest kites". They were little tiny, full-functioning kites. They had brought them with them so we decided that with the wind, it would be a good time to fly them. Well, apparently "the world's smallest kite" is no match for St. Andrews wind. We got Abby's kite up first and almost immediately, the wind ripped it away. It managed to get caught on the roof of a nearby building. We spent about 5 minutes trying to get it down. Luckily, the wind was so strong, it kept blowing the kite over the edge of the roof, while the string was hung in the shingles. We finally got the kite down. In the meantime, Austin had managed to get his completely tangled up. Well, so much for kite flying. We headed back to the Old Course and took some pictures on the Swilken bridge. We then went up by the 18th green and watched a few groups finish their rounds. We then headed into the main town area of St. Andrews and found a great bakery for an afternoon snack. After our snack, we headed back to the bus station for our journey back to Edinburgh. When we got back to Edinburgh, we had to go by the Fringe box office on the Royal Mile to pick up our tickets we had pre-ordered for the rest of the week. Of course, there was another street performer putting on a show, so the kids managed their way to the front of the crowd and got front row seats. It was a great show that lasted a little over 30 minutes. By the time it was over, it was almost 7:30. We'd had a great day and now headed home for the evening.