Thursday, September 6, 2012

Kasey's Trip Recap: Scolty Hill and MacAllan Distillery

After a busy weekend in Edinburgh, I thought it best for us to have a low key couple of days to allow us both to re-coop! After sleeping in on Tuesday and picking up Angus from the kennel we headed out to Banchory to climb Scolty Hill. Scotland is notorious for beautiful hikes and I wanted Kasey to get a little taste of my favorite activity in Scotland. Since I hadn't done Scolty Hill yet, this was a treat for both of us. It's only about 2 miles round trip but it's straight up with a gradual decline back down. And as you can see, there are some beautiful views of Deeside and Banchory once you make it to the top.

Making our way to the top; I love the heather that comes with summertime
Beautiful Deeside
Village of Banchory

On Wednesday Kasey, my friend, Laine, and I headed Northwest to the land of whisky distilleries. One of the best things about Kasey's trip was that most of the things I had planned, I hadn't done either, so it was exciting for both of us.  I visited the small Royal Lochnagar Distillery a few months ago but this was my first 'big' one and it really is interesting to learn about the process. It makes you appreciate why the good stuff costs so much and why you don't ruin it with Diet Coke or Sprite :-)

We made a quick stop right before the distillery to get some shots of the beautiful Craigellachie Bridge spanning over the River Spey (which is the river that supplies the distillery).



Once we arrived at the distillery, we still had some time before the tour so we made our way around the estate to have a photo session with the oh so photogenic Highland coos (Scottish word for cows). These bovines slightly resemble the Texas Longhorn and we were all in agreement that they should adopt this as their new mascot. However, Laine was right in saying that these thick furred creatures probably couldn't stand the Texas heat! I'm not even sure I'll be able to stand the Texas heat again after living here.

After our photo session with the coos we made our way to the tour to enjoy our two wee drams of MacAllan's finest!


Another fun day in the books and the week was starting to fly! Our next stop was St. Andrews....home of golf and the beginning of Kate and Wills' love story!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Kasey's Trip Recap: Fringe Festival

The next two days were packed full of Fringe Festival shows but not before Kasey and I visited the Edinburgh Castle on Sunday morning.







Fringe Festival is another Bucket List item! Fringe is a month long festival of comedy, improv, music and theatre from around the world. We saw 5 performances in two days and I will go back to 4 of the 5 again next year (the last show we saw, you only need to see once).

After scarffing down lunch at The Spoon and saying a quick good-bye to Ryan, we ran to our first show because we were cutting it close on time and we didn't want to be denied entry! It was a fun little escapade because we weren't exactly sure were we were going but we made it!

Our Saturday shows included Out of the Blue, The Vocal Orchestra, and No Shoes-The Improvised Musical.  Out of the Blue is an a Capella group from Oxford who remind me of the Warblers on Glee! Such talent and so much fun to watch! There are no words for The Vocal Orchestra; this group probably will come to a city near you and I highly recommend you check them out. They had the #1 beat boxer in the UK, Ball-zee(check him out!), making beat and bass noises with his mouth like I've never heard. In fact, everyone in this group makes the instrument and beat noises with their mouths but you would never know it if you weren't watching them. Absolutely amazing and so much fun! The Improvised Musical was also a treat because every single show is different. They take suggestions from the audience for song name, setting, musical title and completely come up with every thing off the top of their heads. That's true talent!
With 2 of the members from OOTB, they wore kilts for their last performance
During our breaks between shows we enjoyed yummy desserts at a little gem known as Lovecrumbs.

Because it was too hard to decide on just one, we shared 4 :-)
 And it was Pimm's O'Clock so we couldn't pass that up before seeing The Vocal Ochestra!

After our Saturday shows, we enjoyed some yummy pizza before sending Kristin off to the train station (silly work) then Nary, Kasey and I were off to explore and hit up the town. Even though our day had already been jam packed we couldn't stop there. We headed over to the very posh but very cheap (Sunday is the night to drink!) 99 Hanover Street bar to enjoy some cocktails and rest our feet before heading out for a fun night meeting backpackers from the US, having a quick dance off and finally calling it a night. Such a fun day with my girls!
We tried to think of a way to get this couch out of the bar without notice!

The girls just graduated from uni. and they are exploring
Europe for the next few months, so fun!
It's not a K&J trip without tearing up the dance floor
Don't ask ;-)
We slept in on Sunday morning and rested up for another fun-filled day. Since the shows we booked (Flash Mob and Brides of Comedy) weren't until the evening and our train back to Aberdeen didn't leave until almost 10, we had all day to explorer Edinburgh and do some shopping. Nary and I couldn't miss the opportunity to go in to Anthropologie (we miss our American shopping!) and we had to show Kasey what Harvey Nichols was all about. We started on the top floor at the Chocolate Lounge for a treat before making our way down and admiring all of the designer brands.
Heaven on Earth
Billionaire Shortbread (Millionaire with Glitter :-)
After indulging in chocolate and name brands we enjoyed walking the city before making it to our shows. Oh and we had to indulge in a glass of wine while we waited for the doors to open. Hey, Kasey was on vacation and friends don't let friends indulge alone ;-)


Flash Mob was basically So You Think You Can Dance live and 5 feet in front of us. It was hard to stay in our seats and luckily at the end they taught the audience a dance so that it was truly a flash mob. Last and probably least we saw Brides of Comedy. This was a raunchy comedy sketch that had us laughing mostly but saying what the heck some of the time too. I was glad we saw a true comedy act since so many comedians get discovered at Fringe. And after all, most comedy is raunchy and makes you uncomfortable at some point.

Nary with the street dancers from Flash Mob

A fun filled two days! Kasey was thankful that the next few days were low key. Stay tuned!



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Kasey's Trip Recap: Royal Military Tattoo

When Kasey landed at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, we hit the ground running and really didn't stop the whole week. After regrouping and repacking a small bag, Ryan, Kasey, myself and our friend Kristin were off to Edinburgh for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Military Tattoo is something that is better experienced than described. It's a world renowned entertainment event that features military bands from around the world with the spectacular Edinburgh Castle as the backdrop. "The word 'tattoo' comes from the closing-time cry in the inns in the Low Countries during the 17th and 18th centuries-Doe den tap toe (turn off the taps)". (edintattoo.co.uk) This year's Tattoo was a tribute to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the year of Creative Scotland and even featured music from the Pixar movie Brave (a must see if you haven't already).



The Lone Piper
Though every band brought something different, the traditional Scottish piping was by far my favorite. The sound truly sends chills up your spine and the lone piper brings silence to the crowd as everyone admires the amazing sound. These video don't do this experience justice so I definitely suggest you add it to your bucket list, regardless of where you live!

The Tattoo was the perfect start to Kasey's trip. She got a taste of everything Scottish and it forced her to stay up and fight the jet lag because the next day we didn't slow down!


Monday, September 3, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Today Angus turns ONE! By the looks (size) of him, you may think he was older but if you know him then you know he is ALL puppy!!

Here are some of Angus' favorite things to do:

Visit Castles

Play Fetch

Find Big Sticks Logs

Run with mom-(sorry no picture, I can't manage a self photo while running with a dog ;-)

Going on long off lead walks in the forests


Hiking; especially with Bailey girl





And since I'm giving a shout out to my dog on his birthday, I can not forget my fabulous mom who turned the big 6-0 on Saturday. I hate being away from family on birthdays and special occasions but I know she had fun celebrating with friends. My mom is truly an example of the woman I want to be in 30 years! I could go on and on but I'll get my keyboard wet and homesick. Happy Birthday to the most amazing mom and friend a girl could ask for! Love you!





Stay tuned for posts on Kasey's trip this week! I'm still recovering and we miss her already!


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Kasey Is Here!

When I was scanning through all my pictures, looking for ones of me and Kasey, two things were obvious....1. Kasey and I need to some new pictures together and 2. Man, we had a good time in grad school! Unfortunately, the most recent pictures I have of us are from my wedding because I have only seen her 3 times since we moved overseas (big frowny face). BUT, she is here all the way from Austin, Texas and we have a fun filled week exploring Scotland and there are bound to be some great pictures and stories to add to the repertoire of pictures throughout our friendship. We are starting the week in Edinburgh at Military Tattoo and Fringe Festival and ending it hanging out with Her Majesty the Queen at the Braemar gathering. You'll have to tune in next week to find out what those events are and how much fun we had!




Here's to best friends and new memories!