Hey, hey, hey APJ!! What’s up?!It has been such a long time and I have missed you all and all of the chats here. Needless to say, I am thrilled to see APJ up and running again. Truth be told at first I did not know what to do with my free time. I ambitiously thought that I would continue to write during the break and come back with stories to tell and then … life took over. Haha, so much for my goals. Life has been hectic but wonderful and full of surprises. I am going to tell you today about my love affair with Scotland. As my husband had a business trip to Hawaii during my son’s spring break, I decided to go to Edinburgh and the Highlands with my son. Of course I have travelled alone with him, but this was our first sightseeing adventure without Dad there to entertain or be an adult conversationalist in the evenings. I could not have been more thrilled with the experience. We put away the iPad and iPhone (couldn’t talk to husband anyway because of the 11 hour time difference) and hit Scotland with loads of energy and excitement.As my son so eloquently stated on our first day in Edinburgh, Scotland completely surpassed all of our expectations with its beauty, people, history and sites. My son surprised me with his knowledge of some history and when I enquired where he had read that he told me Donald Duck was not as useless as I always claim. Edinburgh is a city of contrasts with the Old Town and the New Town. The architecture is stunning and the sheer determination of humans to occupy the Castle Rock, where Edinburgh Castle is positioned is unfathomable to my feeble brain. Edinburgh has stolen my heart with its magnificence.The 19th century Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson described Edinburgh so eloquently when he wrote the following in Edinburgh Picturesque Notes. “Into no other city does the sight of the country enter so far, if you do not meet a butterfly, you shall certainly catch a glimpse of far-away trees upon your walk; and the place is full of theatre tricks in the way of scenery. You peep under an arch, you descend stairs that look as if they would land you in a cellar, you turn to the back-window of a grimy tenement in a lane: -and behold! You are face-to-face with distant and bright prospects. You turn a corner, and there is the sun going down into the Highland hills. You look down an alley, and see ships tacking for the Baltic.”Our tour of the Highlands was a highlight on this trip and has ensured that we will return next year to further discover what the Highlands has to offer. As a child I believed in Nessie the Famed Loch Ness Monster. My son is not quite the believer I was but he had a wonderful conversation with one of the crew on our cruise of the Loch. Maybe one day he will believe. Ben Nevis was clearly visible on a partly cloudy day and the air was so fresh and clean that it reminded us of Austria. But our absolute favorite part of the Highlands was Glencoe, the famous glen surrounded by snow capped mountains, waterfalls, lush greenery and clean air. We could have spent hours leisurely walking around and discovering the wilderness there. We spotted a herd of red deer grazing which elicited squeals of joy from both of us.Scotland is fantastic and I will go back next spring break with my son. We plan on exploring the Highlands a bit more. Perhaps The Isle of Skye and the surrounding area.I was monogamous in my perfume choice for the entirety of the trip as well. This past winter I fell in love with Frederic Malle’s Dries van Noten and it was a perfect choice for the trip. Due to the chilly air I needed something cozy and warm. The opening is a tad bit harsh but Dries van Noten quickly dries down to a soft vanilla, tonka bean, sandalwood, woody dream. I am not a light sprayer and the more I spray of Dries the better my experience. It melds beautifully into my skin creating this wonderful aura. I usually stick to one perfume if I am traveling to an unknown destination, I don’t want any challenges to my olfactory senses when I am trying to focus on the new destination. If it is a family vacation I tend to bring samples or decants so that I can vary things up a bit.How about you? Do you travel with perfume? Please tell me what you have all been up to. Any trips? Any new perfumes?KissesSandra xoxo(All photos taken by me.)