The night before, we actually got back to the hotel a little after midnight. I forced Bean to tell me 'Happy Birthday' even though he complained that my birthday didn't officially start until the next morning 'when we wake up'.
My first mission of the day: watch Milkshake. It's a kids show that comes on every day of the week until 9am- there's a silly host who reads birthday cards (more like decorated poster boards) to kids in between some really great cartoons. My favorite is called Little Princess. Her voice is hilarious, and I love her teeth and hair. She had me laughing on multiple mornings. Here's a clip from youtube:
I found out when we got home that the milkshake website doesn't work outside the UK and I was so disappointed. But then I found out that Little Princess is actually a series of books, so I can pass along the funny stories to our kids! My other goals for the day were: have some champagne, scallops, steak, and chocolate. And as many cups of english tea with cream and sugar as I could get! Poor Bean felt so bad that he couldn't figure out a way to make my birthday feel like a birthday. But on vacation, there is a different set of objectives for the day and that generally doesn't go along with the objectives for a birthday.
For example: on vacation, the goal is to see the sights, try new foods, take pictures. Be adventurers.
On a birthday, my goal is to talk to as many friends and family as possible, take naps, relax, and have a great dinner, maybe blow out a candle or read a card. Almost all of which are impossible to do on vacation- especially in a different country!
So I figured with my goal of foods to eat, I'd at least get one of my components in- really great food!
After watching the fabulous Milkshake, we got dressed and headed out to the Royal Mile. It's the street that runs from the Castle (which we saw on Day 1) and the Palace, where we went that day. We stopped and had a croissant and some tea (one objective met!) on the way so we could have a big lunch.
This is the palace the Queen stays in when she visits Scotland. I don't know if this is a picture of that or not:
We stopped at a cemetary outside a church where someone in the royal family was recently married. I think this is where the writer Robert Louis Stevenson was buried.
Here's the outside of the church. Excuse the extreme angle, I was trying to avoid getting tourists in the photo.
Here's Bean pretending to be a guard outside the palace.
Of course no pictures are allowed inside but it was just as gaudy as you'd expect. My favorite area was where Mary, Queen of Scots lived and where her son was killed. There is still a blood stain on the floor! Creepy. This is the outside of that area of the palace:
The other cool thing was the abbey outside. It's from the 1500's and used to be completely enclosed but has worn down for some reason. This is standing at the back looking toward the front which used to have stained glass windows:
The stone is so beautiful. On the way to a place we wanted to go for lunch, we stopped and picked up a few flavors of fudge from a cute fudge shop.
This is Greyfriar's Bobby, the most loyal dog in Scotland. His master died and he'd sleep on his grave every night. During the day he'd hang out in taverns and people with feed him and play with him. Now there's a statue of him.
The Witchery, a restaurant we'd heard about was where we tried to go for lunch but we didn't have a reservation and they were booked until a lot later. Did I mention it's now 2pm? And there was a group dinner planned for 6pm. But the hostess at the Witchery got us a table at the more modern restaurant at the top of the National Museum, so we went there instead.
We had the scallops for an appetizer, and notice my glass of champagne (check and check!). Bean removed his hat, which was a bonus.
For lunch, I had the salmon and a glass of chardonnay.
Bean had the steak and a beer. I'm sad to report that the steak was a check off the list, but it was one of the worst I've ever had- just too dry and overcooked. It's ok though, the scallops were excellent!
I convinced Bean we needed dessert (we didn't) so we got some passion fruit creme brulee. We were very stuffed at this point.
The good news is we had to walk some of it off on our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. This is another statue outside a museum we went to in the morning. I think I forgot to mention we started the day off with a free museum that was the most boring place we went! Kinda funny though.
On the way back, we stopped at a cupcake shop and got a little treat. I'm realizing now there are no pictures of all the cute outfits I put together for this trip.
For some reason, this is the second picture Bean has taken of me downing a cupcake. The first one was from our second trip to NYC in 2008.
The plan for dinner was to go and have a couple of free drinks, then possibly leave for dinner elsewhere. Little did we know we wouldn't be able to leave, but we wouldn't want to either! Dinner was about 30 minutes away at an amazing mansion. It took 3 pictures to capture the whole thing. This is the front center:
Looking to the left from that, this is where our dining room was:
And to the right of the center, where the other dining room was: Ok this picture got deleted because of some weird typing I did. Very sorry, but it looks the same as the left side.
We were able to walk through the house and have champagne (quadruple check!!). Of course I fell in love with the library:
Here's a bedroom. It's weird how the beds were so small because the people were so small!
And a baby crib:
The mouldings were so detailed and painted with gold leaf:
In the food prep area there are bells for each room. So cool!
We even walked up about 100 flights of stairs to look out from the roof. Here's the tiny backyard:
And another self-taken picture:
Here's the ballroom where we had dinner:
And the table layout:
Bean planned his shirt so it would match the napkins, probably because he knows I like when he matches.
The dinner was delicious. Each of the 5 courses was served at the same time for everyone at the table. Very fancy! One waitress looked like Peter Pan. We had to call the wine boy over because they kept skipping our table. We sat with people we didn't know and didn't really talk to them. The first course was some kind of carrot soup:
The dinner entertainment came in next: of course dancers and a bagpipe player.
A salad (not our favorite):
And steak! (check plus!) It kinda reminded us of pot roast but was really delicious. I think Bean even ate his vegetables. YUM.
Dessert was some kind of cake, with espresso jelly- I don't think anyone ate that- and chocolate butter and some mint thing. I loved that mint thing! At this point, we started talking with the people at the table, and when they asked if I work, they actually knew what Sherwin Williams is! :)
The last item of the evening was a whisky tasting.
Yucky. But we said we'd get haggis and whisky so we did!
At the end of dinner, we walked outside to wait for the bus and I guess someone told the organizers it was my birthday, because they did fireworks to celebrate!
We figured out the fireworks mode on my camera too.
We also found our Canadian friends from the first night and when we got back to the hotel bar they coached me through getting internet on my phone- a very complicated process that only gets you 30 minutes free and it only works in the bar and lobby- and I was able to at least read the messages on my Facebook. I also got a text from Terri and Maggie (to which I couldn't respond, but I at least got them earlier in the day and felt special), and my mom called while we were there (again I couldn't answer but I saw it!).
We had got get up early and head to the airport so we didn't stay out too late, but it was a great ending to the trip since we really enjoyed talking with them.
No pictures from Day 7- it was all day at the airport and on a plane. We didn't get to sit together on the flight back, and I formed the opinion that British Airways is nicer than American Airlines, but it went just fine.
It was certainly an adventure!
As it stands now, here are our vacations in order of best to worst:
California Adventure 2010- it was just the best adventure yet. Not planning everything worked that time.
Honeymoon- we did some fun activities, and made a few friends from eating with them each night.
Cancun 2009- it was relaxing and we were with our friends. And they got engaged.
Scotland 2011- fun overall, we're glad we went but we made lots of mistakes and crammed in too much.
Cabo 2006- kinda boring, but another free trip that we're glad we took.
Every other trip was a weekend thing and they were all good. Bean has a little different opinions on the exact order, but for him California was still #1, and this was still #4.
We are working on plans for Peru 2012, and crossing another adventure off my bucket list.
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