Finally... ACTUALLY on vacation!!

Holy Crap was it nice to spend an entire day worrying about the show -- did we remember everything, will people laugh, can we get out of the building afterward?

Originally the plan was to spend the day driving around and exploring the countryside but since the show has consumed nearly every minute we have we opted, instead, to stay in the city and explore some of old town.

It was surprisingly cold and rainy today. I wasn't that surprised but the shop keepers seemed to be, as they kept commenting on it. It was the perfect excuse, though, to buy a cashmere scarf. Also, it was a great reason to go take a whisky tour. This one was as if Walt MacDisney had created it. You ride along a track in a giant cask learning about how whisky is made. Then you go into a room that has hundreds of bottles of whisky... a shrine if you will, all locked down behind glass. I spent most of the time in there wiping off the marks Scotch left trying to lick through the glass to the sweet nectar. We did get to taste several whiskys and while my brain has a greater appreciation for the stuff my palette does not, they all made me gag. Writing about it making me gag, is making me gag.  Whisky, we are not friends.

We officially had Scottish food today. Scotch had a semi-traditional breakfast (no meat) which meant he was served a plate of eggs and beans with several other items all of which seemed to be a form of starch in various shapes and no discernable flavor.  Then for lunch, between the 2 of us we ate like one real Scot. He had beer (and salmon) a I had the steak and ale pie (with red wine). Neither were terribly impressive though I think it's because we were eating in the middle of the Royal Mile.

Tonight we've got reservations at The Witchery (a famous restaurant) and tomorrow we're off on some kind of official tour to look at castles and abbeys which involves piling into a bus and letting someone else drive. Which is ideal because I spent about 15 minutes today touring the same 2 roundabouts trying to figure out which direction I needed to hurtle out of it while trying not to hit the oblivious pedestrians and avoiding the oncoming double decker. Scotch crawled into the backseat and curled up into the fetal position until he knew we were home.

xo
kd