Whiskey, Shortbread & Haggis - A Weekend in Scotland

I had to go to Scotland for work, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. I took the train up to Glasgow and really wasn’t there long enough to comment, but it is a fairly large city (population 2 million) with some beautiful Victorian architecture.

I met Greg in Edinburgh on Friday night. Edinburgh is a beautiful city (population 1 million) with a huge castle situated on top of an old volcano in the center of town and many other gothic looking midevil churches, statues and other cool looking relics. August is festival season…jazz festival, book festival, food festival, international festival, film festival and the Fringe festival. The fringe festival brought out all sorts of interesting characters including a large assortment of street performers. Sadly we missed this world headline incident (I promise it's worth a click...truth is indeed stranger than fiction!)

We stayed at the Sheraton which overall was not bad, good location, great gym & spa. We ate dinner Friday night at a restaurant across from the hotel called the Atrium. I thought it was pretty good but Greg thought it was fairly mediocre.

We got up early the next day and hiked up to the castle. It was our first official castle since arriving to the UK. It was pretty cool to imagine Mary, Queen of Scots and all the other kings living within the stone walls. This castle even had it's own doggie cemetary for the "Scotty" dogs of the servicemen of the castle.

It was pouring down rain (surprised?) which gave us a good reason to have another 3+ hour lunch this time at Edinburgh’s most famous gourmet spot, Martin Wishart. We opted for the tasting menu (skipped the cheese course…why???) and I loved it – even tried a little haggisJ. Greg felt it was a bit “fussy” for his taste. I would say it’s a must if you find yourself in Edinburgh and consider yourself at all a foodie. After heading back to the hotel for a post lunch nap we braved the rain again and wandered about the city before heading back to the hotel for a light dinner and catching Bourne Supremacy (we give it 3.5 out of 5 stars).

Sunday we headed to the gym for a workout and then relaxed at the spa. Much like the hotel in Bath, there were various steam rooms, saunas, and giant outdoor hot tub like thing. It was great. We had a 3:30 train back to London but managed to sneak in a late lunch at Mariachi’s (the only Mexican spot in town – so so) before heading off to the train station.

Overall, it was a nice weekend. I’m not sure why it surprised me, but kilts and bag pipes are quite prevalent. Tried to get Greg to buy a kilt but they didn’t seem to fit his image. The Scottish accent is really cool…hard to understand at times.

I am sure we’ll be back some time in the future as St. Andrews is in Edinburgh which is #1 on Greg’s “must do” list before we leave Europe.

Long Overdue Update

"Blog" has been on my To-Do list for a couple of weeks now and I'm finally getting around to it. As Tiffany wrote in the last entry, The Doodle has arrived. She's taken London by storm, complete with paparazzi, but my blogging time has been replaced by dog walking. Anyway, what have we been doing lately?

Well, first we went back to the U.S. for 10 days or so. All in all it was a really great trip as we got to spend some good quality time with friends and family, although there were a couple of bumps in the road.

- We had a 10am flight out of Heathrow. It takes an hour to get there by the Tube so we left at 6:30am. Not early enough. It probably hasn't made the U.S. news, but Heathrow is a total disaster. It's talked about non-stop here. The British Air check in area is just complete chaos. We were on target to miss our flight and Tiffany was in a complete panic. She basically used her Jedi mind tricks to get a BA employee to let us cut in line and make our flight (which was delayed anyway).

- Really long flight because we were flying to Portland via LA. So we basically went 2 hours south just to get on a Horizon flight and head back up to Portland. Tiff got 10 hours of sleep. I got 2.

- Arrive in Portland and we're greeted by Tiffany's sister - Nicole, who has Morgan with her. Very exciting. Luckily Horizon lost Tiffany's bag and my golf clubs otherwise we wouldn't fit in the car. I'm feeling the need to be more concise, so skipping ahead, Horizon lost Tiffany's bag for 3 days. This was not a good situation. They claim they don't scan the tags so they had no idea where the bag was and the only reason Tiff got it back was because she went back out to the airport and found it there, without any tags or her business card that was in the little slot. My guess is the employees were going to get some revenge for the 25 phone calls we had placed out there over the previous few days.

- After a weekend of golf for me and Tiffany throwing a bridal shower for Nicole we head up to Seattle. We spend a couple of very nice and relaxing days and nights hanging out with Amy and Jesse Pannoni since we crashed at their place. One night a large amount of wine was consumed and Jesse (inspired by Whistler) declared that when we move back there will be a 'guys night out' in Fremont where everyone crashes at my house. He then proceeded to make a batch of Oreo blizzards. I think I was the only one that didn't need to work the next day.

- After crashing at the Pannoni's it was time to head up to Semiahmoo for the Huh & Climenson ("Humenson") wedding. Of course, the night before we depart the Check Engine light comes on in the Honda. I'm hoping it's just a lighting error. Tiff thinks that David Wayne Totten did something when he changed the oil. Can I just take a detour here and tip my cap to DWT. How many people would agree to having a green 97 Accord with an OSU Beavers sticker parked in their carport and change the oil before we get back in town. Solid effort DWT!

- Semiahmoo and the wedding are really nice. They allow dogs at the resort and it's a perfect spot for a dog. There's a beach for swimming right outside our room. The only downside is they alternate the 'pet' rooms with the smoking rooms. Walking into our room was like walking into a London pub (pre smoking ban). We leave the ionizer on and then spend a few hours laughing a lot with the Tottens while drinking and eating at the Packers Lounge - interrupted when the Bride comes jogging across the lawn to tell us that security is looking for us because our dog is barking. Just what you want the Bride doing during the first joint family dinner. Way to go security. Anyway, the ionizer hasn't done much by the time we get back. Tiff climbs into bed and passes out while I head to the front desk. The manager basically gives me a non-smoking/non-pet room and we're good. Tiff had unpacked, so it took me over an hour to move all of our stuff but was 10x better.

- Like I said, the wedding was really really nice and a few memorable moments need to be memorialized: i) Tommy Verhasselt wins a KP on a hole - he spends his clubhouse certificate on an Under Armour shirt (in time this will be funny - trust me), although Tommy is the only person I've seen wear Under Armour where the fit is baggy. He also beat Ernie by two on the back ii) DWT and I have a rough day on the course, only highlight is that our playing partner is a HUGE Coug supporter so that was a good fit iii) Karen's outfit for the rehearsal dinner was amazing - she looks like Korean royalty

iv) the sundae station at the rehearsal dinner v) the smore cart at the bonfire vi) volleyball Top Gun style a few hours before the wedding vii) DWT simulatenously drinking a bloody mary, red bull and vodka, champagne and a bud light shortly followed by this performance on the dance floor

viii) Mark Todd ordering a round of lemon drops followed by being called out and forced to do a shot of whiskey which is clearly his favorite. It's not obvious in this photo, but for all you that don't know Mark, he's what you'd call a 'strapping' guy. In other words someone you think could handle some whiskey (I'm sure he'll forget about that comment by the time I get back to Seattle).

As much of a dream as the wedding was, the drive back to Seattle was a bit of a nightmare. Turns out the Check Engine light was working just fine. About 80 miles north of Seattle on I-5 the RPMs go to zero for a split second. I get worried. The car then starts sputtering/misfiring. Luckily I pick a good spot to pull over (exit 232 in case you ever have to do it). There's a Shell station there and a Bob's Burgers. We grab lunch at Bob's while we wait to be towed to the Totten's in Bellevue. Our tow truck driver likes to talk. He starts by telling us that Bob's has the hottest waitresses "in town" - whatever that means. Tiff pretends to sleep and I get to make conversation with Dave of Dave's Towing. We make it back fairly unscathed, although I learn that tow truck drivers sometimes get tips and that Dave is considering taking a job with Comcast for the free cable and "company car". Update: the Honda just got $1,100 worth of repairs. Now I gotta keep that thing for another 3 years to validate the expense. Anyway, we spend the next couple of days chillin with the Tottens eating great food, drinking good wine and mediocre beer - but hey, everything is half price!

The last thing worth writing about (if anyone is still reading) is our flight back as there was some weird karma in play. On BA you can't choose your seats until you check in and the soonest you can do that is online 24 hours prior to the flight. I try to do it online but get an error. I call and they say it's a website error, but they make a note that we want exit row seats. On the way to the airport we hit traffic, so we're third from the last to check in. I tell the lady about the website error and the request for an exit row. Her response, "yeah, that's not gonna happen." In order to avoid saying something rude, I leave to take my clubs to the oversize check in and let Tiff try to get two seats together. As we're boarding the plane, the lady at the gate says, "oh you're gonna love your seats - business class." I think she's being sarcastic because we're near the toilets or something, but Tiff lets out a smirk and wouldn't you know it business class here we come! My theory is it's like crack. Give some away and you'll get them hooked. And you know what, I can't stop thinking of the crack. It was life-altering. Ironically, I slept the entire flight, which was kind of a bummer because I wanted to get the full experience, but I haven't slept on any of the other flights to or from London so it was well worth it - and a good way to end the trip.

We've got a lot of other trips planned, so we should be doing some blogging. Edinburgh Scotland, followed by Paris, then back to Portland for Nicole's wedding, then Tuscany to meet up with the Humensons on their honeymoon.

Oh yeah, I haven't sent out a mass email but I started a job in July. I joined the strategy and corporate development group at HP. I know, I know it sounds amazing, right up there with secret agent 007, but basically I manage any acquisitions we make in Italy, France and Iberia (Spain and Portugal I believe). We only have a sales office in London, so most people work from home. Really, it's the perfect gig for our time here. I get to hang with the Doodle and if I do need to travel it's to Paris, Rome or Madrid. One funny story about my first week - Theo the IT guy was helping me get network access and he asked, "So, are you an intern?"

Miss Morgan Has Arrived

On Wednesday night, our beloved Doodle arrived from her direct flight on BA. She was in great shape (whew!). Usually we can tell when she's a bit out of sorts, but she acted as though the trip was across town, not across the Atlantic.

She seems to love it here (especially the pigeons) and spent her first weekend hanging out in the back patio enjoying a proper 4+ hour European lunch with my co-worker/friend Claire, her boyfriend, George, and sister, Helen. It was a really fun and relaxing afternoon - seems to be the way many Londoners spend a sunny or a rainy weekend afternoon - I could get use to this!

Today was some good off leash time with a picnic at Hyde Park and an adventure to Covent Garden for some of the city's best gelatto - it was probably close to 90 degrees here today...summer as FINALLY arrived.