After the really thoughtful and utterly fantastic weekend put together for my birthday, I was feeling the pressure to reciprocate in kind come June 19. I first thought about another European weekend trip, but with the visit to London and Brussels in close succession we were a little tapped out on travel. Next I thought about a nice weekend away in Scotland. Perhaps a boutique hotel near Inverness followed by some dolphin watching. Good idea, but all the hotels had been booked weeks in advance. So I moved on to a day trip in the countryside, Spey-side perhaps, with a romantic champagne picnic. I prepped well, getting the champagne ready, picking up a couple of lobsters that I turned into a killer lobster salad and baking a Dutch appeltaart (apple cake) to satisfy the sweet tooth.
After a few days of really nice weather, the 19th dawned rainy, grey and cold. Definitely not picnic weather. It seems Mother Nature had let us down. Actually about the only ones that came through were the Dutch national team, who squeaked out a win for Fiona against Japan, ensuring their qualification for the next round.
We ate our picnic inside while watching soccer between bouts of Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii. It turns out my little after-thought of a gift was a winner. The appeltaart and lobster salad were well received and Fiona claims she had a great birthday. I still feel like I owe her, though. One of her gifts was a waterproof digital camera, and I've been dropping broad hints about a diving trip to the Maldives or Seychelles. Perhaps her real birthday will come in March next year, when one of those trips comes to pass.
The next day we had the privilege of hosting my Ome Guust (Uncle Gus) and Tante Miep. They had seen a good deal for a long weekend in Glasgow in the local paper and decided to give Scotland a try. They were nice enough to swing by and see us. I hadn't seen either of them for something like 10 years, so it was nice to reconnect. We caught up on a few years of comings and goings and took a little side trip out to Dunottar Castle, as we usually do with visitors. The weather was great, as you can see from the pictures. There was next to no wind and some nice blue sky. If only we had had that the day before! We had dinner at a great seafood restaurant in Stonehaven called the Tollbooth. It's located right on the wharf, located in the oldest building in town and it has been voted the number one seafood restaurant in Scotland. It lived up to the billing. Everything was excellent - crab soup, lemon sole, smoked salmon, scallops with a ham-flavoured foam and herb crusted halibut. Highly recommended for anyone in the area.
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