June 11

June 11th (foggy & sunny)
We left by 8:30 towards northern Scotland with hopes of getting somewhere near Inverness. We passed interesting places like the “Firth of Forth” bridge to “Fife”. We stopped at St. Andrews and this confirmed again to us how much we like smaller places. The price for a round equaled $250 US or 125 Ls and it was busy. I tried to get a couple of ball markers/cards, but to no avail. If I had to buy them, it just wouldn’t be the same so I took a few monogrammed napkins from the washroom. We also appreciate smaller places because of the food shopping in the specialty shops. I think of my friend Echo and how much she enjoys good cheese and bread.
As we drove this part of Scotland, it was in the back of my mind to try to get to see Carlogie House. When we were in the tourist office at St. Andrews, I got the address and we proceeded to change our driving plans to drive towards Carnoustie to find it. The Carlogie House is a small farmhouse hotel that a fellow workmate of mine from Telus and her family bought and were going to operate. Things did not work out totally as planned and they have since returned to Canada, but we did find it and visited the current owner, Hugh, who gave us a first-hand tour of the place and property. Len and Carol might be interested to hear that he sold the back buildings and property, built a couple of stone fences and will be renting out the whole place during the week of the Open. After that, he will be converting the current kitchen into an apartment and using the hotel as his own residence.
After a lengthy and very friendly visit with Hugh, we decided to stay in Carnoustie. We saw the golf course where the British Open, will be played next month, (possibly the last one in Carnoustie because of hotel availability), and also we saw the hotel that Tiger will be taking over for his entourage.
After walking and talking to the locals, we had dinner, played our usual crib and crashed.