ISLEORNSAY, ISLE OF SKYE, Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 4:45 p.m. — We had a delightful morning in the sunshine, glorious sunshine.

We all slept in then went downstairs for a leisurely breakfast in our hotel. I tried out the Brose (rhymes with prose), which is a very thick, coarse porridge served with cream. It was very hearty. Pa had his usual bacon and eggs, Grandma her roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, and Will ate a whopping two bowls of corn flakes, toast with jam, a hard-boiled egg and bacon. Whew!

We then enjoyed the morning sun outside,

and Mom and I found a wonderful wool and tweed shop next door where I actually bought something! (I never shop on vacation.) They had beautiful scarves and funky hats and tweedy men’s jackets, all made in Scotland. We then ventured out on our driving tour of Skye, a 4 1/2 hour venture to the tip of the island and back, past some of the most rugged and gorgeous scenery we’ve seen on the trip. I had to get into my “single-track mind” again, as we wove up the coast past the quaint harbour town of Portree. At 2,000 residents, it’s the islands largest city and capital. We then cruised up the coast, past innumerable sheep, which threatened to jump out in front of our car and become lamb burger at any moment, past innumerable white-washed houses with dormers peaking out, past lovely rock formation after rock formation. The Old Man of Storr is the most famous, and it was striking.

We took a steep, single-track road up to see the Quairaing, a series of weird rock formations on the sweeping green hillsides. The drive was a bit hairy, because you couldn’t see far ahead of you and it was NARROW and STEEP and quite dramatic. Even more dramatic was turning around at the top! We then headed back down and talked Dad into driving the whole way around the Trottenish Peninsula — we were all a bit (OK, a lot) tired of driving, but we’d come so far we couldn’t turn around now.

We enjoyed the rest of the drive, in which we encountered many many sheep, many many beautiful views out across the water to the surrounding islands, and a few small white houses set against a dramatic vast green backdrop. We also passed the Flodigarry House Hotel, where our friends the Ahmads stayed — unbelievably gorgeous setting!

As we rounded the island and headed for home, Will asked, “Where are we going?” We said, “The Hotel.” “Why did we do that?” he asked about the drive, since his face had been buried in his DVD movies most of the time, though we prodded him to enjoy the view all the way along.

And as we approached the hotel, the skies — which had been graciously kind to us for our day of sightseeing — began to darken, and yes, rain began to fall. It’s now raining quite hard, but that doesn’t matter because we are safe and cozy in our hotel. The weather forecast for the last three days of our vacation? Heavy rain.