What Is And What Should Never Be

To celebrate two full years of living in Edinburgh we went to visit Edinburgh's first working distillery in almost 100 years. Holyrood Distillery is in our neighborhood. If you are visiting Scotland but have to miss the Highlands/Islands, you can now get a whisky tour in anyway! They had just opened when we toured, are in the gin phase now, but whisky coming in what... three years? I think it was our 9th ever distillery tour (counting whiskey and gin) and 7th in Scotland. We liked this one because of the flavor profile room, where you guess the different notes you are smelling in a fun interactive way. I also liked that because it is a short walk from our place it was a very chill visit and low-key activity to mark the end of another year here and the beginning of our... wow... third! In our 2nd year here we went some new places, tried some new things, and made some new friends. But mostly we settled in. We cozied up our house, found a haircutter we both like, and institute...

How did I never post about our trip last June to France and Germany? This was our first trip outside the UK together and when I originally tried to plan it for the previous summer, doing so just felt so complicated. I felt less sure about the logistics of getting around and mostly I couldn't figure out how to narrow down everything I wanted to show Craig or see myself. Fortunately, as always, I worked it all out perfectly. We rented a car to get from Frankfurt to Colmar which ended up being a really nice drive and not at all complicated until sorting out the parking situation as described by the AirBnB owner. Apparently there's free street parking in certain very random places and apparently we did find one of those places, down the way and around a couple corners, though I went back to check on whether the car had been booted a number of times. And then we were in charming Colmar and aside from me being very cranky about everything for whatever number of reasons (...

Hey - come visit me! It is really fun and I love to plan trips. Last July, my mom, and her aunt and cousin were a bit spontaneous and ventured over. This was a very laid back trip. The highlights have to be our day trip to the Kelpies, Loch Lomond, and Stirling Castle. I also dragged us to the Botanic Gardens which is one of my favorites, and my mom took us to North Berwick which is one of her favorites. We also gorged ourselves on Afternoon Tea. My first! Later that month our friend Steve stopped by. Steve is tied for most visits from a non-family member, so you all have some catching up to do. I'd sent my parents off on a no-phone/no-map adventure to Cramond Island one time when I had to work, but this was my first time there. It's worth visiting. Even on a drizzly day, I loved it. It's fun because you have to go at low tide to get to and from the island. Then the island feels like you're in some adventure book (if you have a fun childis...