Luke's 30th Birthday

On Friday (16 May), Luke turned 30.  A couple years ago for my 30^th, Luke and our friends the Garners and Phillips threw me a very classy 30^th birthday party with cocktail attire and lots of sparkling wine.  So I decided to return the favour and throw a party to celebrate Luke. 

First up was to design an invitation.  Fortunately one of our friends is a graphic designer so I passed along my ideas and he produced the most amazing invitation ever!  It was exactly what I wanted and set the tone for the party.  Luke’s favourite whisky is the Old Pulteney 17.  He will tell you it’s like drinking silk.  So – I pulled images from the web of the OP17 bottle and this is our invitation.

Graphic design by Peter Gurry - www.gurrydesign.com 

Once the invites were ordered, I turned my focus to planning.  Planning a party in the US is so easy – jump in your car, drive to Target, buy what you need – DONE!  For the most part anyway.  What you don’t find at Target, you get at the stores next door.  This is not the case in the UK. 

We don’t have a car so shopping involved taking the bus into Cambridge and then walking between stores.  Not such a bad thing, until you start making purchases and you have to carry them from store to store because can’t put in them in the boot (trunk) of your car.  This definitely limits how much you buy on each outing – and means that shopping will involve a number of outings.  It is also much harder to find things here than it is at home.  However, I definitely lucked out when it came to the glassware and struck gold at Tesco (our version of Wal-Mart) and found high ball glasses in the clearance aisle, pitchers that weren’t £5 ($8) each and champagne flutes for a good price. 

I spent the Saturday before his birthday walking all around Cambridge making purchases all over town and actually fulfilling most of my list.  The only things I had to order online were fairy lights for the back garden (yard) from Ebay and plates and forks from Amazon.  (I about had a panic attack because the plates and forks hadn’t been delivered to the house by the day of the party.  I had also ordered some face wash and received a note that it needed to be picked up from the distribution centre because we were not in to sign for it.  We stopped by the centre on Saturday and as I stood in line, I realized that the slip was for two items.  Royal Mail had attempted to deliver it and it was waiting for me.  My day got so much better once that issue was resolved.)

Without Luke knowing, I contacted his cousin Morgan who has become an expert at making bow ties.  She was kind enough to make bow ties for Luke, Luther and Theo.  All three looked extremely handsome. 

So dashing!

Our good friends JT and Bethany Turner who live in Edinburgh came down for the weekend and it was great to have their help as we prepped for the party.  They’re amazing friends and we really miss living in the same city as them. 

I think we had about 30 people come to the party – which was perfect.  We had just enough cake.  And by the end of the night most of the food was gone.  And it ended up being a beautiful evening.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather during an English spring.  AMAZING! 

Thanks to everyone who was able to celebrate with us.  We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends here in Cambridge. 

Now to find excuses to host more parties and use all my stuff…..

Whisky Line-Up:

Old Pulteney 12

Auchentoshan Springwood

The Glenlivet Master Distillers Reserve

And Sparkling Wine and Sparkling Juice for the non-whisky drinkers

Menu:

Spicy Sausage Rolls

Veggies and Humus

Bruschetta

Cheese and Crackers

Raspberry Jalapeno Black Bean Dip

Fruit Salad

Melon, Mozzarella and Prosciutto Skewers

Birthday Cake:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther

Touring with the Kinates - Eilean Donan and the Isle of Skye

Photo thanks to the Kinates

After our full day's adventure to the west coast of Scotland, we woke (relatively) early the next day to see what we could see.  We hadn't had a chance to stock up on food yet, so we headed to the nearest town to find a place to eat breakfast.  We didn't want Luther to be cooped up in the cabin all day and I knew that there would be lots for him to explore once we got to Skye, so we found a nice little restaurant In Kyle of Lochalsh with outdoor seating and had a nice little meal.  And because you can't go anywhere in Scotland without wanting to take a photo, we did that too.

Photo thanks to Aunt Benja - I mean, really, who can resist taking this dude's photo?

After breakfast, we headed down the road to Eilean Donan Castle.  

Eilean Donan is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland - and you can see why.  Unfortunatley we caught it at low tide - otherwise it would have looked like it were sitting on an island.

The castle was different than any of the others that Luke and I have visited because it is privately owned and the family still actually stays there occasionally.  Someone who works there told us that a college aged family member had been there over the weekend.  Can you imagine what an awesome pick up line that is - "Hey, would you like to go with me to my castle for the weekend?"  That dude has no problems.

Because the castle is privately owned, the owners have set up the inside to be habitable and no indoor pictures were allowed.  But I have plenty of the outside for you to enjoy!

After leaving the castle, we headed across the Skye bridge.  Aunt Benja & Uncle Chris wanted to visit at least one distillery while visiting so we opted to visit Talisker Distillery on Skye.  Talisker is the only distillery on the island so it is a popular destination for visitors.  Luckily we had booked ourselves on to a tour and had no problems.

On the way to the distillery, we stopped to check out a waterfall - because they're everywhere.

And after the distillery, we headed to an area called the Fairy Pools.  Uncle Chris had seen picture somewhere and added it to the "Need to do whilst in Scotland" list - so off we went.  And the pools did not disappoint.  They are essentially created by a stream that flows out of the Cuillin Mountains which turns into waterfall after waterfall separated by pools as it meanders down the valley.  For some reason the water in the pools appears turquoise and it is absolutely stunning.

You could see where thousands of years of running water had worn groves in the rocks.

Side note - when Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris were packing for their trip, I told them to bring layers because you never know what the weather is going to do and there was no chance it would be hot.  I was wrong and happy to be so.  It was hot enough that we decided we needed to cool down stick our feet in the cold water.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Photo thanks to the Kinates

After our hike around the Fairy Pools, we decided it was time for dinner.  I had heard great things about a town on the mainland called Plockton and I had read that they had a dug friendly pub, so we hopped in the car and headed that way.  Dinner was great and the town was cute.  It made for a great way to end the day.

Time to rest up for our next adventure.  Stay tuned for PUFFINS!!!!

Love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther

Holiday with the Bridgers - Day 3 – Hairy Coos, More Whisky, Wool, Water, More Water and an Abbey

One of mom’s top must see things for the trip was a hairy coo (highland cow).  I hear you saying “Why would she want to see a cow?  Can’t she see those at home every day?”  And I say “Yes, she can see cows, but not hairy coos!”  Highland cattle have long, shaggy hair that makes them exceptionally cute – when it comes to cows.  When we were on the Speyside Whisky Trip we came across some hairy coos at the Cardhu Distillery.  So of course I knew that we would have to bring mom to see them.  And the distillery is a part of the Classic Malts Whisky Passport – bonus! 

So we started our day with a drive along the River Spey to see the hairy coos.  Steve later said that drive was one of his favourite parts of the trip.  Steve is a fly fisherman and the River Spey is excellent for catching salmon.  (I don’t know anything about all the ins and outs of fly fishing, but I agree that the drive was beautiful.)  We stopped a couple of times along to short trek to take pictures.  Once not on the river but instead to capture some pheasants in a field. 

When we got to the distillery and saw the coos, mom was super excited.  The cows are very tame and come right up to the fence to let you pet them.  They’ll also eat right out of your hand which is fun, even though it’s a little slimy.  After a few minutes with the coos, we headed to the distillery for our tour and tasting.  The whisky that we got to taste was the Cardhu Special Cask Reserve.  It was very good.  So good that Steve bought a bottle to take home with him.  Cardhu mainly exports to Spain so his could be one of the only bottles of this specific bottling in the US.  Pretty cool.

After our tasting, we drove down the road a few minutes to the Knockandoo Wool Mill.  There’s not much there but it was nice to walk around for a bit.

By the time we finished up at the mill we decided it was time for lunch.  Our next official stop was Spey Bay in hopes of seeing a few dolphins.  But we decided to stop at Glen Grant Distillery to visit the gardens and have a picnic.  We went to the gardens on the fall whisky trip and they are splendid.  We got lucky and just finished our lunch before it started to rain.  We decided to push through and walk the paths a bit before leaving.  They have built a bridge over the stream that runs to the distillery and it is really beautiful.  Definitely worth getting a little bit wet. 

And then it decided to hail on us!  Mom and Steve definitely got to experience all spectrums of Scottish weather.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any dolphins in the bay but it was beautiful nonetheless.  And Luther had quite a fun time swimming in the pools. 

I loved the way the waves sounded on the rocks so much that I decided it was worth sharing.

We chose to follow the coastal trail as we headed back to our cabin.  It wound through small towns along the coast – one of which was Kinloss.  There we found an abbey ruin and kirkyard.  It was a very interesting kirkyard with a mix of old and new.  I’ve added a few pictures below.

The moss has grown into the letters.

And that was the end of day three.  Once again – completely successful.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther