TX Celebrations

My last trip home, we celebrated the life of my grandpa. Although a very sad time, it was nice to all be together for one special purpose. This time around, I'm doing more celebrations but on a much happier note. It's things like this that I miss the most about being away from home. I'm glad I was here for these special occasions though :)

Danica's Baptism and 1st Birthday

Nicole's Graduation - UTSA Nursing School 2013

Gennie's Birthday - we had a few celebrations with the girls

Sophie's 2nd Birthday - Memorial Day

Right, that's all for now. More celebrations to come soon. In the meantime I'll be soaking up some TX sun and filling my belly with good eats. Have fun celebrating your next special occasion:)

Scotland Road Trip Part 5 - The Final Stop - Dunvegan

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, because I really need to start packing for my trip to Texas! We decided to stay in Dunvegan for our last and final night of our road trip because it was closer to The Three Chimney's restaurant, where we were having dinner. 

We arrived to Dunvegan mid afternoon and headed straight to the castle for a bit of touring. We saw a sign for the Seal Boat tours and just had to take it, totally worth the £6 on top of our £10 admission fee into the castle. Here's what you get for £16!

No pics in the Castle but it was definitely one of my favorites!

We did a bit more pottery shopping at Edinbane Pottery and then went to rest up at the Kilmuir Park B&B before dinner. 

I've heard a lot about The Three Chimneys in guidebooks so just had to try it out while we were here. The head chef, Michael Smith,  was recently on the show "The Great British Menu." Anyhow, I won't go into details about our food, just know it was very tasty and very different from anything that I've ever eaten. We both enjoyed our meal very much, ambiance was nice, waitstaff great, and definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Tables book up pretty fast, so I suggest you book well in advance. Here's what we had...

The Three Chimneys

Aperitif - Hendricks and Tonic w/ cucumbers

Our Menu - sealed with their own monogram wax seal; they even provided a letter opener

Bread & Butter

Amuse Bouche - Seafood chowder

1st Course

2nd Course

3rd Course

4th Course - "The Oyster Man's" oysters

5th Course

6th Course

7th Course

The Three Chimneys was a great ending to our wonderful trip out west. We were thankful to have great weather, meet nice people, eat good food and most importantly getting to each location safe and sound. Gerald did a wonderful job driving and even let me sleep during our last 2 hour drive home =) Hope you enjoyed going on this journey with us and if you're loving Scotland after these posts, please come visit. I promise to be an awesome tour guide =P

Scotland Road Trip Part 4 - Isle of Skye - The Glenview

We arrived safely to the Isle of Skye and headed straight to our b&b, The Glenview Hotel, which was located in the northern part of Skye, near Staffin. This was our second time on Skye; the other time was within a few months of moving to Aberdeen, so we didn't know much. This time around, we did our research and found a similar guidebook to the one we used in the Hebrides, but called "Skye & Lochalsh Arts & Crafts Assocation Gallery and Studio Trails." Again, there neat little galleries and cafes to visit as well as shops. Lets just say, I did my fair share of supporting the local artists. And...we had AMAZING weather for a couple of days =) First time for that in Skye!



That night we had dinner at the b&b, and I felt like I was in a 5 star restaurant. I found that dinner at the b&b's were actually better than some of the restaurants we went to. I loved how each b&b had their own different style of cooking, so even though they used pretty much the same Scottish ingredients, the taste was different so we didn't get bored.

The following day, we did a hike a the Cuith-Raing.







After the Cuith-Raing, we headed over to the Fairy Glens. We brought a picnic lunch and sat at the top of the castle area enjoying the sunshine.  It was a beautiful, warm day in Skye so we got amazing views of the landscape all around. I think we both came home with raccoon eyes.





On the way back to the b&b, we stopped by Ellishadder Art Cafe for an afternoon pick me up.



We decided to have dinner in Portree that evening and was welcomed by the most beautiful rainbow. I still love the colorful buildings on the Portree Harbour.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day in Skye, and I could have been satisfied going home at this point. All you can ask for is one good day of weather to make your road trip worthwhile in Scotland, and we've had 3!









I think we spoke too soon, because the next day, it was cold, windy and rainy. We spent the day around the Broadford area, visiting art galleries and shops from the book. Unfortunately, the artist that Gerald wanted to see was not having her showcase until July, so we checked out other stuff. Again, too expensive for what we wanted to spend, but at least we know our options now. While in Broadford, we visited the following:

Skyeline Ceramics - i got these cute little sheep!



Isle of Skye Candles - great candles at a great price!

Creelers of Skye - most delicious lunch. pizza and seafood!





We still had the whole day ahead of us and since there wasn't much to do outside in the icky weather, we ventured off to Talisker to buy some whisky and pick up a blending glass..haha.



Down the road from Talisker is a man known as "The Oyster Man." He harvests delicious oysters from Port Hartcort and we visited his shed. To our surprise, we were able to have some fresh oysters on the spot, shucked by "They Oyster Man" himself. He supplies oysters to pretty much all the main restaurants on the island, including the infamous "Three Chimneys" restaurant. It was good stuff! He said he will ship to ABZ, so I will need to take him up on that offer someday.












After eating all that yummy oyster, we needed something to wash it down, so we drove back towards our b&b and stopped at The Small and Cozy Teahouse {it was small and cosy, that's for sure}. The couple who runs this place wanted to offer something different as far as tea was concerned and it's been a success. She sources teas from all around the world, gives you a description about each one and how it should be served. Her cakes were delicious as well and it was the cutest little place. This is when Gerald and I started thinking, what type of business do we want to run and what could our niche be? After seeing all the different small businesses around the islands, we've picked up a few things here and there and hopefully one day, we'll have something special of our own.  It was back to the b&b for some relaxation and dinner.







The next morning, we checked out of The Glenview to head towards Dunvegan, where we would be staying the last and final night of our trip. Before heading out, I wanted to get a waterfall shot at Kilt Rock, and here it is...