June 8, 2022

Woke up to rain. We obviously cannot complain after having such gorgeous weather, and Jeff and Raina were expecting it because it’s Scotland, so it’s all good.

Up for 7 a.m. breakfast and headed over to Edinburgh Castle for a 9:30 entry time. Met up with Jade and Kaitlin, friends of the couple, as well as our son Joe, all of us decked out for sailing on the high seas during a storm. The rain was not relentless but challenging enough when it did come down.

As Al and I had been in Scotland already for ten days, we’d had about all we could handle of Scottish military history. I’m suddenly having a stark realization that although I thought Scotland was all about bagpipes and kilts and drums – and it is – it’s because it is a country that just couldn’t stop warring. The Edinburgh Castle is essentially a war museum with a little bit of royal history thrown in – which necessitated more war. I’m leaving here a bit melancholy that such a beautiful country physically prides itself more on its military history than anything else. The beauty of the music and the dance and the yarn and weaving and all is not lost on me, but the wars are so all consuming.

Long story short we were slightly unimpressed with Edinburgh Castle except for the sheer size of it and also that it is almost entirely intact, but our “meh” was just because we’d already seen as many swords and medals and dirks and headwear and kilt outfits that we needed to see. It was a wonderful museum. Also we agreed we like the castles that are half there – seems more “real” somehow. Guess we’re turning into castle snobs? I dunno.

We all stopped in for lunch at a fancier restaurant than we expected but it was good. I had rabbit terrine and I really didn’t even know what I was ordering but I know I like rabbit, and it was tasty. After lunch we all went our separate ways, Joe did his usual lone walker thing and sent photos of some street that turned into a one lane road and took him up to a wonderful view of the whole city. Al and I found our way past the University of Edinburgh through the Meadow Walk to a little neighborhood where I found my yarn shop. I had bought some fingering yard in Iceland and it was so rough I really wanted to make something with it but wanted something to soften it up a bit. The beauty of a small business yarn shop is the proprietor can tell you exactly what you need for the job. I’ll just be knitting scarves or something but she advised me the exact yarn to get and how much. No thinking required on my part. Much appreciated.

Before you know it, it was time for the “rehearsal” dinner which was pretty much just rehearsing to eat and imbibe. The pub was The Tollbooth that had plenty of history to go around, not the least of which was the information that it had been haunted for 600 years by the ghost of a guy who was on the lousy end of an exorcism gone wrong. He died that night and hasn’t left. We did not experience his presence.

But that is not all, oh no that is not all. Al, Joe, Jeff and Jeff’s dear friend Kevin all went somewhere and just hung out while the girls went out for a bachelorette party, to which I was invited and was even given a t-shirt with a quote from the movie Mean Girls: “I’m not like those regular moms. I’m a cool mom” or something similar. It’s in the laundry bag so I can’t say for sure. They all had cute t-shirts with some variation of quotes from Mean Girls. We just went to one pub and it was perfect, The Black Cat. There was live music but not too live, we could carry on a conversation. It was comprised of an acoustic guitar and a lovely fiddler, some singing involved but all very Scottish and very low key. I have a new tiny drink to introduce to my mahj group – the Baby Guinness. One shot of Tia Maria Liqueur with a little bit of Bailey’s on top (special secret technique) that makes it look like a little Baby glass of Guinness. That’s all I can bring home from the evening as it was all water and Coke Zero for me except for that. Staid Matriarch and all that rot.

We played He Said She Said. Jeff had already given the answers to the questions and Raina had to guess what his answers were. Think Newlywed Game. It was great fun and I discovered a lot of fun things about the two of them – like the night they realized it was going somewhere was when they walked out of a bar and started two-stepping in the parking lot….They had met bowling and played softball together so this wasn’t your typical “we met in a bar and decided to…” business. It just happened that probably that evening alcohol greased the wheels a bit.

The night didn’t end too late but still. The next day was the wedding and I was the chauffeur for getting most people and their luggage out to the Carlowrie Castle which was the wedding venue and hotel all wrapped up into one.