Averagely Adventurous

 We were up at 3am for the sunrise.  We knew we wanted sunrise photos, but I think we forget that during the summer the sun is up for for longer, and also earlier.  So to get photos at the moment of sunrise at 4:19am, we had to get up, drive from the hotel, walk down to the castle and set up our equipment by 4am for the beginning light.  And while the temperature that day was going to be in the 70s like most days, I had not packed for the 40s that morning. My legs were numb and I was close to giving up to reheat in the car, but I stuck through it!  The clouds obstructed the initial sun, which was a bit of a bummer, but it was still beautiful.  Since we were the only ones there, we went down to the beach and had a fun photoshoot as well.  From there, we drove a little down the way to the Stovenhaven War Memorial, a local World Wars memorial.  It was in a very picturesque spot on the top of Black Hill, overlooking the sea, with yellow wildflowers su...

 With Pedro itching for more summer adventures, we decided to explore a part of Scotland we haven't seen before.  Since the weather's been nice and a bit warmer, we went North, this time seeing the East coast. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire has caught our eye one several 'Must See' lists so we aimed for sites around there.  I had two places in mind to see, the ruins at Dunnottar Castle and *possibly* puffins at Fowlsheugh cliffs.  First off, I should say, Pedro got a car.  He diligently went through the somewhat painstaking process of finding the right car and learning all of the UK motor regulations.  All of this on top of going through the entire process of earning a UK driving license, essentially from scratch (road rules test, permit, driving test and all).   Pedro did all this to make his extra mural studies easier - driving to farms and hospitals at all hours is certainly easier than finding a train or taxi, but it also has the (not overlooked) ...

Last week Pedro finished his finals and was in the mood to celebrate.  We had a little dinner with his friends at West End on the last day of finals, where they all decompressed and shared their own horror stories from individual evaluations. When the weekend came, I knew he was itching to get a taste of his new found freedom and get out to explore.  He hopped on google maps and went to looking for attractions near us.  What he found was definitely worth it - Blairskaith Linn was less than 20 minutes away and promised a short walk to beautiful waterfalls and caves. We had a decent enough day for exploring, which meant it wasn't freezing or raining.  And from what we could tell from google reviews (always helpful), there were two waterfalls very close to each other. We found the first one easy enough since we could hear it as soon as we walked down the path. It was small, only about 4ft tall, emptying into a small pool that then trickled down the way towards the bigg...

I took the day off so Pedro and I could go adventuring before his next EMS.  We figured we could explore our little corner of Scotland a bit more.  I knew of a place, called Devil's Pulpit that is a part of Finnich Glen, which has these beautiful rock formations.  Pedro found another place, called Queen's View, with interesting rock formations as well that was on the way to Devil's Pulpit.  So we figured we'd go there first.   From what we briefly saw on maps, Queen's View was a look out point, but we knew the Devil's Pulpit was a trail.  We packed up some water, rain jackets, and our cameras and set out in our best hiking boots. We never actually made it to Devil's Pulpit though.   When we got to Queen's View, we saw beautiful mountains, and a small trail that we assumed led to the cool rock formations we saw online. We followed an elderly couple with hiking gear going towards the trail as well, so we followed them and found the entrance to ...

Today we made the journey to Costco. Pedro was curious to see what they might have in terms of meat, dairy and eggs, since Morrisons has been a bit short as of late.  We still have the limit of 2 on eggs, and chicken, beef, and even cheese prices are going up, all of which Pedro eats a lot of.  One thing we hate about the limit is that it is a limit on a unit of eggs, not the number of eggs.  So by the time we grocery shop sometimes, there's only the dozen or half dozen cartons left.  The bigger packs of chicken are usually the first to go as well, so we were thinking about visiting Costco for awhile.  The prices for a membership weren't too bad, £30 per year, and we both get a membership card.   When we got there, it was busy. Maybe we shouldn't have gone midday on a Saturday, but it was busier than I'd ever seen one and wondered if we missed a UK holiday again.  We made it over to the membership desk, luckily only the next in line and while we w...

 About two weeks ago, Pedro and I went to Vet Ball.  And a week before that, Pedro got me my new favorite video game, which is why I'm writing this two weeks late.   We had considered going last year, but Covid was going around some of the classes, so we avoided it. This ball is also open to all the years of vet school, so the attendee list was huge. This year, our friend who is on the planning committee invited us to come along with him and his partner.  We figured it would be a nice double date and a chance to get all spiffy!  The ball was held at a hotel in the city center, which was perfectly accessible, even in heels. Our friend guided us to the right ballroom and the hotel staff greeted us with champagne.  ( I always forget the drinking age here is 18) Just before the ballroom where the dining tables were, there was a small reception area with a bar and a photographer working a photo wall and 360 video platform. Pedro and I took our turn in front...

There have been two times in my life now,  where I thought, "this is it.  You're about to wet your pants in public."  Probably too much information, but this happened on our way to the zoo.   Spoiler alert, I didn't.  This year, instead of trying to find a gift for Pedro for Valentine's day, I figured we could have an experience.  So I bought us tickets to the Zoo in Edinburgh (this seemed like the best one).  And luckily, it's a big enough attraction to have its own bus stop. Its about 4 miles from where we'd normally take the train into Old Town, so I had to explore other options.  I found a double decker express bus that took the same amount of time and a bit cheaper.  I was a bit weary though. As with all the other busses here, if you don't clearly indicate you want the bus to stop, it will speed pass. So that meant I had my bus tracker up as well as my Google maps GPS going. And we still missed our stop!  It would have been fu...