Loch Lomond etc

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I'm back in my office today, but, if we hadn't been going to USA next Thursday, we could easily have stayed at the Carrick Club a bit longer than the 3 nights we enjoyed this weekend. Thankfully, Barry and Helen have now taken up residence there so our week hasn't gone to waste - hope they're enjoying the spa and the scenery as much as we did. It's certainly one of the nicest resorts we've ever stayed at.

Gary and Luca made good use of it on Saturday night too - and Carole would have loved it - if only she'd known beforehand what was on offer!

Our weekend started off with a very nice lunch break at the Drovers Inn, Memus. It's a bit off the main road, just before you get to Forfar, but it's well worth the trip - especially if the weather's nice, as it was on Friday afternoon. They have a lovely big, grassy garden where the kids can run around to their hearts' content. Jo was reading her book when I got back from the loo:

As we were well inland at this point, sat nav directed us cross country through Blairgowrie etc to Perth. It's a lot slower, but it appears we missed a major log-jam on the Dundee - Perth road, so it probably eased our journey a bit.

Our apartment was in the Mansion House at the Carrick and it had a huge living area, and it overlooked the 16th (I think) green of the Carrick course, which is already looking a lot more mature than when I played there a few years ago, not long after it opened:

 On Saturday morning, we drove over to the east side of the loch, up the narrow loch-side road until it stops at Rowardennan, where we got out the car and noticed the start of one of the trails up Ben Lomond. We hadn't planned anything, so weren't organised - no drinks, no food - but decided to start walking up the hill anyway. We took some detours, and then I remembered to switch on my GPS tracker, after almost an hour of walking. Eventually we got to about 800 feet, where Jo said "no more!", so we headed back down for some lunch. It got a little damp on the way down and Jo's neatly coiffured look took a bit of a beating:

We drove back to Drymen and had lunch in the Clachan Inn - very nice. Our first visit to the spa at the Carrick was later that afternoon, just before Barry, Helen, Dawn and Jordan came to pick us up and take us up to Arrochar for dinner at the Village Inn.

Gary and Luca were in Glasgow watching Partick Thistle beat Celtic in a friendly match, and we'd pre-arranged that they would join us for dinner. The look on Luca's face when he walked in to the restaurant and saw us, was, as the Mastercard advert says, priceless. His Dad hadn't told him he was meeting us there.

After eating, Luca and I crossed the road and went down the steps to the beach, which was covered in mussel beds. Luca just wanted to throw them back in to the sea "to give them a little drink"!:

Luca and Gary stayed with us on Saturday night and drove home in the morning - and that was the end of the first part of our weekend adventure.