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There are no photos for this day of our trip but you will find plenty of photos on future days as this trip progresses.
Over the last few days I had been watching YouTube.com videos about Edinburgh and about Scotch Whiskey from the island of Islay, Scotland. The main purpose of this trip was to take a four day tour of many of the distilleries on Islay and sample the Scotch whiskey from those distilleries. In 2017 we went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh and had a chance to sample Scotch from all different parts of Scotland. Until then we had never found a Scotch that we really liked. But from those tastings we found we really like the smokey, peaty taste of Scotch from Islay. This trip is actually a birthday present from my wife to me to go visit the distilleries on Islay. Plus, as long as we had to fly to Edinburgh to do that, we figured we stay a week or so to do some touring of Edinburgh. To learn more about the Scotch Whiskey Experience, click here.
One thing I learned from the YouTube videos is that Edinburgh is not at all pronounced the way it is spelled. You never pronounce the "g" so there is no "burg" in "Edinburgh". The "gh" is pronounced more like the "gh" in the word "through" as "oo". For Americans this would make more sense if it was spelled "Edinburough" in which case the "rough" part could be pronounced just like the "rough" part in "through". Or it can also be pronounced as "EDdin-buh-ruh" or with a Scottish accent as "EDdin-buh-rruh" with the "r" rolled only slightly. Locals sometimes call it "EM-bruh".
Islay is pronounced "Eye-la". There IS no "IS" in "Islay". Think of the word "island". The "Is" in "Islay" is pronounced just like the "Is" in the word "island". Which makes sense since the "Isl" part of the name "Islay" comes from it being an island. There is no agreement as to where the "lay" part of the name came from. One theory is it came from the ancient Gaelic language which could mean "law" or "divided in two". There are many other theories as to the origin of the name of this island. You can read about some of them as well as pronunciation of the names of other places on Islay at: https://www.islayinfo.com/islay_place_names.html.
Last night both Barbara and I received text messages from United Airlines warning us that there would be severe rain and thunderstorms in Chicago today which is where we would be changing planes to fly to Edinburgh. United Airlines offered us to alter free of charge the day and time of our flight or to change where we would change planes. Last time we flew to England this offer worked out quite well for us. On that flight we were supposed to change planes in Texas which was experiencing severe weather. But, with the offer from United Airlines, we were able to change to a non-stop flight from Los Angeles direct to Heathrow Airport in London. I had known about this flight earlier but found that it was too expensive or cost too many United Mileage Points and thus had not booked it. But with the free offer we were able to change to that non-stop flight for free!
No such luck this time. There are no non-stop flights from Los Angeles to Edinburgh. What flights are available that do not change in Chicago have very few seats remaining. Most are middle seats. To complicate matters I had booked my flight using my United Mileage Points and booked Barbara's flight using her United Mileage Points. To try to change both our reservations and keep us on the same flights and in seats together on both segments might be an impossible effort. We decided we were just going to take our changes and stick with our morning flight out of Orange County, California, with a change in planes in Chicago to Edinburgh.
We did realize there were a number of things that could go wrong in our existing travel plans. Our flight to Chicago could be delayed or cancelled due to the bad weather in Chicago. The flight from Chicago to Edinburgh could be delayed or cancelled. Maybe worst case is our flight to Chicago could arrive late while the flight to Edinburgh would leave on time without us. But we figured United Airlines would have to make some other arrangement for us if any of these problems came up, even if it meant we ended up flying in middle seats on a later flight that day or next day to Edinburgh. I had already planned our trip such that we arrived a day early before going on our Islay tour just in case there were any potential delays like this. When going on cruises I always make sure we arrive at least one day if not several days early just because of travel problems that can arise like this. I would never want us to miss our cruise ship!
I had set the alarm clock for 6 AM so that we'd have enough time to get ready for the Uber ride that I had scheduled to pick us up at 7:45 AM. That would give us plenty of time to get to the airport for our 10:30 AM flight that would begin boarding at 9:50 AM, even with the morning rush hour traffic. At 6:30 AM Barbara asked me to check the status of our Uber driver. Since he should be on his way by now the Uber App Map should show where he is. There was nothing! I looked at the Upcoming Rides section of the App and it showed the scheduled ride as having been cancelled. I don't know if the Uber driver had cancelled the ride or if I had accidentally cancelled it pressing the wrong button. That is something I've been known to do as I find many App options confusing. So I started all over again to schedule an Uber ride. I had previously scheduled an "Uber Comfort" just to make sure the vehicle would be big enough for all our suitcases. But this time, there were no "Uber Comfort" vehicles available, just UberX. I'm always worried all our stuff won't fit into an UberX if they send us a small vehicles, though it has not yet ever happened even when 3 of us travel together. To my luck they assigned a UberX vehicle big enough to fit everything easily and the quote was less than the "Uber Comfort" that I had originally scheduled.
We got to the airport in plenty of time to zip through TSA Pre-Check and head to the United Club Lounge for a couple of Bloody Marys. Unlike when we fly Southwest Airlines, the United Airlines gates are right by the United Club Lounge. We even lucked out that we were flying out of Gate 9, the closest gate to the lounge!
As it turned out, everything turned out fine. Our flight managed to get into Chicago and our connecting flight managed to get out of Chicago before any severe weather developed. The one place we did have a little delay was just getting off the ground in Orange County, California. The winds kept switching direction and they had to keep alternating which way the planes would take off. Fortunately our plane was ready to go ten minutes early so we had left the boarding gate ten minutes early at 10:20 AM instead of 10:30 AM. We ended up waiting out on the runway for about 20 minutes, but that ended up having us take off only ten minutes late since we had left the gate ten minutes early. After getting queued up and one end of the runway, the pilot actually had to taxi the plane all the way to the other end of the runway as the winds had shifted again. In any case, the flight went smoothly and we ended up into Chicago on time. We could definitely see the bad weather clouds forming as we were landing in Chicago and the ride down was a little turbulent.
The time between landing in Chicago and the time to board our connecting flight was only about an hour. With the long walk from one gate to the other, there would be no time to stop into the United Club Lounge in Chicago to unwind. We just headed straight for our boarding gate. We weren't there very long before our flight started to board. On this flight to Edinburgh there were quite a few empty seats. I think United Airlines efforts to get people to change there plans and not take this flight were somewhat successful as I think there were supposed to be quite a few more people on this flight.
Barbara and I had the row of 3 seats to ourselves and were able to spread out using the middle seats to store our coats. It was also nice having that spare middle seatback table that we could share. Barbara and I always use that old trick of booking the window and the aisle seat leaving the middle seat empty. Since nobody wants a middle seat that is one of the last seats to get picked when people are selecting their seats on a flight. Unless a flight is very full, a lot of the middle seats will stay empty. I'd say about 30% of the time when we fly the middle seat between us remains empty. Because so many flights get fully booked, 70% of the time someone has booked that middle seat. But that is OK. Barbara just moves from the aisle seat to the middle seat to be next to me when that person comes to take that middle seat. In every case that person is pleasantly surprised to find they have an aisle seat instead of the middle seat they thought they had! I've yet to have anyone insist they sit in the middle seat that they booked.
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