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 - RIBS Boat tour, Puffins, Kilt Rock and Hairy Coos

Photo thanks to the Kinates

For our second day on Skye, we decided to take a boat trip to the outer isles with AquaXplore on one of their RIBS (Rigid hull Inflatable Boats) to see puffins.  Unfortunately because the puffins live a bit further away from Skye, the speed boats are the only way to get there (without the trip taking all day) and Luther was not allowed to join us.

Our tour didn't start until just after noon so we took our time getting there.  We met this lovely mum and her calf while driving down the road.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Much of the northwest coast and the Isle of Skye are made up of crofting villages.  That really doesn't mean much to me except that the animals have free reign.  There are cattle gates (see picture below for those who didn't grow up near farms) at various points in the roads so that they cannot cross but that's pretty much the only place they can't go.  And what that meant for Luke was that he had to be very cautious while driving so that he didn't hit a cow or sheep.

We came across this ruined kirk and decided to snap a few shots.  

This lovely lady was apparently the kirk yard's gardener.

I snapped these while we were driving.  It was too pretty no to try to get a few good shots.

Once we got to the town of Elgol, we still had a bit of time before our tour started so we had a nice picnic lunch and walked around for a bit.  And of course we took more photos.

This little one was hiding in the shade.  That's how warm it was.  

Gaelic and English

Once it was almost time for our tour, it was time to suit up in all of our waterproof gear (see picture at the top of the page).  And we looked HOT!  And we were hot all wrapped up in oil skins - that is until we got on the water.  I was very happy that I had opted to suffer a bit of sweating once we got moving - especially since I was in the front seat.

One of the RIBS

Below are a few shots from the ride.  We were so fortunate to have such a beautiful day for our adventure.  I can't imagine what it would be like on a cold, rainy day.  That would just not feel good.

Red deer on the Isle of Mull.  This is just the group of does.  You'll see the bucks further down.  They hang out on different sides of the island except during mating season.  Seems sensible.

This boat crashed into the island a few years ago.  It would cost too much to have it removed so they took off anything of value or that could be harmful to the ocean and here it remains.

And here are the bucks.

A little seal checking us out

I learned that seals lay on their sides with their tails up in order to stay warm as the tide rises.  I bet they have some really strong obliques.

Part of our tour was a stop on Canna - the westernmost isle of the Inner Hebrides.  We were told that the island population had just gone up to 9 because two Hungarians were moving to the island to open a cafe.  We didn't have long on the island, but it was enough time to explore the little chapel and stop by the honesty market.  Because there are so few people on the island there's not really a lot of crime that happens.  Some of the locals make goods (and carry a few snacks) and sell them in a little shop for the tourists.  Due to the lack of manpower - they just ask you to write down the things you purchase and leave the money in the cash box.  And it seems to work.  I bought some yarn that was hand dyed and some really cute earrings.

Be careful not to drive off the edge!!!!

Once we got back on the RIBS, we headed to the back side of Canna to see the puffins and other birds.  They're hard to catch on camera but I think we got a few pretty good shots for you.

These little guys are related to penguins.

Before we headed back to the cottage, we needed to make one more stop - Kilt Rock - on the northeast side of the island.  And of course we pulled off the road a time or two to take more pictures.

Kilt Rock was named as such because the patterns in the cliff face look like a tartan.

We were just a bit worried about the sheep grazing at the edge of the cliff.  Hopefully he made the decision not to give in to his depression on such a beautiful day.

Yes - please do

All day we had been looking for hairy coos on the island.  They can be a mysterious and elusive creature - but we managed to find some on our way back to the cottage.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

These little guys were playful and gave us quite a show
Photo thanks to the Kinates

I think this has to be my longest blog post to date but as you can tell me did not waste a minute of our days.  And the picture below shows you why.  Uncle Chris took this picture at around 11pm.  As you can see - the sun is still working on setting.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Hope you made it through to the end and enjoyed all the pictures.  Tomorrow we head back to Edinburgh with a stop in Stirling.

Love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther