Trip to Oban

One of my favourite places to visit for a day trip is Oban. It's just up the road from here, a mere two hour drive (not counting the seven minute ferry crossing) and it's a place we became very well acquainted with while Mr Click and I spent six weeks in Appin (just a little further up the road) while I was on a teaching placement in a village (even further up the road) in Ballachulish.

As a birthday treat on Friday we headed north for some retail therapy in Oban. It meant an early start; 5am early to be exact. When the alarm went off I was very tempted to just turn it off and go back to sleep. I didn't, I dragged my butt out of bed and had a shower, but it was definitely very hard work. As we were leaving the dog with my in-laws all day I also had the task of walking her from our house to Kerrycroy (where Mr Click met us in the car and drove us on to his parents' house). Luckily it's a fairly easy walk and with Tara on the extendable lead she tires out quite quickly.

The drive to Oban was nice. We listened to some of my favourite CDs on the way and made really good time. When we arrived we went to this little cafe for a Malteaser slice and hot chocolate (for me, Mr Click had a coffee and a roll), then hit the charity shops.

We have the charity shops there down to a fine art. You go right to the far end where the British Heart Foundation is, then work your way back through the Cancer Research and Oxfam, then through the little Oban Community Charity shop and Mary's Meals. There's also a Waterstones there as well as countless other little shops which are always worth a look.

I had planned to look for clothes and books, but we ended up mostly buying DVDs and spent the most in the British Heart Foundation where we found a bunch of films, a pair of trousers for Mr Click and I found a couple of old cuddly toy pattern books. One is Knitted Dogs and the other Knitted Cats; they're very eighties but I'm looking forward to having a go at them at some point.

We did a fairly big shop too, restocked the freezer (for less than £50 no less) and then headed home, stopping at Inverary for sweets and chips on the way home. All in all it was a lovely (if tiring) day out; just the right way to spend my day off!