Tag Archives: Diana Gabaldon

Àdhamh’s American Adventures: Seattle and Sacramento

For those who may not have heard, Outlander’s own Gaelic expert has arrived on our American shores. And judging from the pictures coming out of his first two stops in Seattle and Sacramento, much fun is being had by all involved.

First up: Seattle

While in Seattle, Àdhamh had the opportunity for a wee tour about the city’s famous sites before settling into the main event. Thanks to Wendy Nay and Kay’ee Pipkin for the great photos!

Riding the pig at Pike Place Market
On top of the world…I mean the Space Needle!
The man just can’t pass by an instrument
Everyone loves their name on a marquee, right?
Maybe we should start with introductions…
Counting to ten….
I might better sit down, this may take a while!

Next up was the handoff to NorCal and Àdhamh had his very own welcoming party at the airport!

Next up was a visit to Good Day Sacramento for a bit of a chat with the hosts and maybe teach them a wee bit of the Gaelic.

And then the host tried to teach Àdhamh some southern slang. Guess he didn’t know how in love with Southern culture Àdhamh already is!

Be sure to watch the full video of the segment here:

Good Day Sacramento Part 1

Good Day Sacramento Part 2

Can’t wait to see what adventures Àdhamh gets up to next! After Sacramento, Àdhamh will be visiting Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs.  For those interested in attending an event in those cities, you can find information here:

Àdhamh Tour Info

For those not able to make it to these tour stops, don’t lose heart! Àdhamh has plans to visit other areas in the USA in the future!

P.S. That second segment of the Good Day Sacramento piece reminds me that I haven’t done the blog post on Southern colloquialisms I promised. I will get that done soon!

Never Reckoned on this: Spoiler free reflections on Paleyfest

I really feel that I should start this blog post with a few abject apologies. I know I haven’t really posted anything since my return from Scotland. I blame that completely on the effects of #Droughtlander. You know, this funny thing happened over the last few months. I remembered that I had a life before all things Outlander consumed me for the past year. It was nice to have a chance to reconnect and do some things that had fallen by the wayside.

However, now that the end of #Droughtlander is in sight, I’m ready to get back to it. I’ve truly missed writing these posts and I definitely need to get back in the groove before May. Oh, did I not mention that I’m going back to Scotland in May for the OutlanderUK Gathering and more? Don’t worry, it will be fully covered! Not only will I blog it here on GreatScot, but I’ll also be meeting up and spending a week with the lovely ladies from The Outlander Podcast. No telling what hi-jinx we’ll get up to, but I fully expect it to be covered in two mediums!

Up, up and away

Many of you know by now that I usually start these posts covering a trip with a shoe pic (it’s become something of a tradition because of the pics that Terry Dresbach usually tweets at the start of her trips). However, I’m starting my coverage this time with the airport. Sitting around in the airport in Atlanta is not usually that much fun, but I have come to realize that it pays to keep your eyes open around any flight from ATL to LAX. Atlanta has become a very popular location for the TV/Movie industry with the likes of The Walking Dead and Vampire Diaries filming in the area. Knowing this, I kept my eyes open for any celebrities returning to LA and, sure enough, I was not disappointed. As I entered the jet bridge, I realized that actor John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun, Shrek) was only a couple of people ahead of me. Even after boarding the plane and taking my seat (I was lucky enough to be upgraded to business class), I saw several other people who looked familiar but no one to whom I could definitively put a name.

Eventually (the plane was delayed a bit by an equipment change), I took my shoe pic and then we were up in the air and on our way to the land of movie stars. I don’t usually comment on the flight itself, but I’ll make an exception in this case as it was one of the more bumpy flights I’ve ever been on. We had over an hour of pretty constant turbulence. On our arrival into LA, the bright lights were pretty spectacular. I know the picture I took from the plane is a bit blurry, but I think you get the general idea.

Gotta love room to stretch.
Bright lights, big city!

Upon arriving, I was lucky enough to have Candida pick me up at the airport and whisk me off to her house. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again (and probably again and again…), the best thing about Outlander is all the truly special people I have met and the lasting friendships that have been forged. It’s wonderful to have such a great home base for this trip and to get to spend more time with Candida. 🙂

The Big Day

After waking up early (thanks to a body still on Eastern Daylight Time), and accomplishing a few work related conference calls, it was time to get ready for the big event.  Thanks to the President being in town to film an appearance for the Jimmy Kimmel show (I’m pretty sure the President is following me as he was in Atlanta two days earlier), we decided we needed to head over to Hollywood well in advance of the 7pm start time for the Outlander Paleyfest panel.

This would probably be a good time to explain Paleyfest for those who may not be familiar. Paleyfest is an annual fundraiser for the Paley Center for Media. William S. Paley was the founder of CBS (a broadcast network in the US) and also founder of the Paley Center for Media. Paleyfest is composed of panel events for selected television shows and it is an honor that Outlander was selected to be included in the event! Continue reading →

A Day at the Folk Museum starring Miss Candida N. – Scotland Day 14

Candida and I were just a little bummed this morning to be packing up to leave Pitlochry. It’s been such a wonderful home base for our explorations. Thanks again, Susan! I was also just a bit worried looking at all my packages and parcels about getting all the stuff I’ve bought into my suitcases for the trip home. But, like Scarlett, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

Our last morning’s view of the loch.
Lovely house.
All the comforts of home.
Lovely view from the Master Bedroom
Skylight view in 2nd bedroom

We did finally get our stuff loaded though and headed north for the final time. This time our destination was the Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore.  Arriving, we checked in at Reception. There is no charge for the Highland Folk Museum, just donations requested to help maintain it, and the friendly person at reception was happy to orient us to the mile-long site. Weather being extremely Scottish at the moment, Candida and I chose to head straight for the 1700’s replica township on site. (Only a 5 minute walk we were promised. I’ve been to Scotland before, so I knew better. Apparently, whoever sets these times walks much fast than I do!) Continue reading →

Another Outlandishly beautiful day – Scotland Day 13

Sorry for the delay in today’s post but didn’t get in from Inverness until very late last night and after concentrating on driving very dark roads for 50 miles driving on the left, I was beat! Woke up extra early this morning to get it done though. Sitting here writing and listening to the rain patter on the roof and trying not to think about having to pack back up and head to Glasgow and then leave for home on Saturday.

Yesterday was beautiful though. At several points there weren’t even any clouds in the sky, so we had a beautiful drive down to the village of Falkland. We ended up doing some shuffling of our plans for the day as we realized that Aberdour Castle was going to be closed on Thursday and Friday, so we decided to do that today and hold off on Newtonmore until Thursday. We made the hour or so drive south to Falkland in good time, even lucking into a parking place right in town. Judging from the signs around town, parking is really restricted until the end of September but in October nobody cares!

My Outlander friends will recognize Falkland as the filming location used for 1940’s Inverness. Of course Candida and I did just a tiny bit of squeeing as we saw the house used for Mrs. Baird’s and the memorial in the street where ghost Jamie stands. We walked all around taking pictures, only occasionally remembering that we were mostly standing in a public street. Luckily traffic was a minimum. We also had a great time shopping in Earth Fayre, which was the shop front used for the scene where Claire looks at the blue vases.  We didn’t find any blue vases there, but I did pick up a bag full of great stuff for people back home and the owner even gave Candida and I a little free key-chain shaped like a sporran. She also told us a bit about how interesting it was to have her shop front turned into a film set. Continue reading →

Lights, Camera, Outlander! – Scotland Day 12

The day started bright and early this morning as we had an action packed day planned. I probably owe Candida the first shower tomorrow as I apparently used more than my half of the hot water. Oops. After a quick breakfast, we hit the A9 south towards Stirling where we were meeting one of the Outlander UK girls at our first Outlander filming location of the day.  We arrived right on schedule and found our compatriot with no problems. She led us on a short hike up the hill to a very familiar location to those who have either seen episode 105 – Rent or keep up with Matt B. Roberts’ pictures of the Day.

University of Stirling
Cottage used in Episode 105 – Rent

Next up, we headed over to Culross. Culross is the village used by the Outlander team for the fictional Crainesmuir as well as some of the outdoor garden scenes at Castle Leoch. The Palace itself was closed but we were able to explore the gardens to our heart’s content. We then ventured up cobblestone streets to the house that was used for Geillis and Arthur Duncan’s house. It has scaffolding because they are still in the process of returning the house to its pre-filming color. Continue reading →