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Although part of our time we may have wandered slightly out of the Great Glen (the area between Inverness and Ft William), we were in the general area for our first 2 1/2 days in the Scottish Highlands.

Day 2, Thursday, 14 OCT 2004:
Today didn't go according to plan, but worked out well. Because the sky was cloudy, we decided to save the scenic stuff for the next day, so we started with Ft George. There really isn't that much to see, but for some reason it was very interesting. Maybe it's just because it's something different: a perfectly preserved 18th century fort still in use by the UK military. We got a pretty good audio guide, and the sky cleared up.The views over the water were also good. Erin was hoping to see some dolphins in the bay, but they leave in mid-September.

Since the sky cleared, we decided to do something scenic in the afternoon. We drove down a very narrow road along the east side of Loch Ness to hike a trail. It was ok. We didn't get very many good views, mostly just forest. We got the best views from the drive. Although in the second picture we did discover something suspicious coming out of the water, if you believe the myths.

Day 3, Friday, 15 OCT 2004:
Another good day, this one according to plan. We started with Culloden, the site of the last battle on British soil. Culloden presented the very sad end of the Scottish way of life on the battlefield where it happened. We started with a film explaining the history, the battle itself, and then the repercussions. After that was a short display inside, with artifacts from the battle and period, and another presentation of the history. After all the information, we walked on the field itself. The present curators have tried to keep it similar to its appearance in 1746, so it looks like an open field. But there are a few memorials and clan gravestones.

Justin wanted to do some hiking around a glen, and found a nice one that he calls Ben Affleck (the Scottish - and everyone else - call it Glen Affric). When we finally reached a place to hike, after a very long and narrow road, we walked the River Affric path which yielded excellent views. It was one of those hikes in which every corner was better than the previous - it was hard trying to figure out what to take a picture of. Erin wanted to walk a small scenic route, but we ended up just wandering down a dirt road. When Justin discovered Erin's short route had a scenic point, he ran up to get a picture just before we were leaving. When he came back excited about the view, Erin wasn't very happy we picked the dirt road. But she gets to see all the scenary while he drives, so it's fair.

We finished the day with dinner at Pizza Hut and shopping at a Borders bookstore in Inverness.

Day 4, Saturday, 16 OCT 2004:
We started the day with a quick walk around Inverness. The city looked nice enough, but didn't have much to appeal to tourists.
On our way out of the Great Glen, we stopped at the Loch Ness exhibition thing. It was a pure tourist trap, which we knew going in. ~$20 for a few minutes' worth of video; the information presented we could have learned from a one-page pamphlet. If we weren't sure it was a tourist trap at first, it was completely obvious when we got to the gift store - it was larger and better done than the presentation.

After that we headed west, out of the Great Glen and over to the Isle of Skye.