“Happy Birthday Dad”
The long ago booked trip to Scotland to celebrate Dad’s 85th birthday was starting to look like it might happen. Last pre-trip thing to be accomplished was a COVID test. The ones we took 3 full days ahead of our flight at Walgreens didn’t come back in the 48 hours promised, and so we made a trip to DFW airport for a very expensive 1 hour test. That in hand, we had everything necessary to catch our flight on Saturday afternoon.
The airport was eerily quiet – we were the only folks at all in terminal D security – very unusual. Even Heathrow was relatively quiet and a pretty painless experience. We’re always impressed with the service on the 1 hour flight from London to Glasgow – drinks, full meal, coffee or tea, with no fuss or rush. If only all flights were like those ones. Diana captured the view from the window as we came in to land in Glasgow. That’s the river Clyde in the second picture – where so many famous ships were built in years past.
No security checks at all in Glasgow – all that was to happen in London we supposed. After all the trouble of getting tests and filling out forms, nobody asked to see them. Oh well, we must look trustworthy. A short taxi ride and we were in Stewarton and admiring Dad’s garden. Whew! We made it.
A walk before dinner seemed like a good idea. I took Diana out into the country – up the “Old Farm Road” towards Willie Kennedy’s farm. She enjoyed chatting with the cows – not something we get to do out for a walk in McKinney.
A couple of minutes after these pictures, it started to rain quite heavily and we were soaked through on return to Merrick View. Diana did learn a new technique from my Mum – stuff your wet running shoes with newspaper to accelerate the drying. I’m happy to report that the weather for the rest of our visit was very good overall.
Monday began with a run around Stewarton – I think we covered most of the highlights including Main Street, Avenue Square and a couple of different sections of park. In the evening we walked around the neighborhood – checking out some of the new developments since we last visited, and admiring the sunset behind Ravenscraig castle.
On Tuesday we tried out a new running destination – Elspeth had mentioned the new Lainshaw Woods trail along the Annick River was very nice. This was indeed a great running spot with nice views and a good path. Quite different than what the area was like when I grew up – quite seedy indeed. The trail follows the river for several miles and is really well done. Some calves had escaped their field and were enjoying the river also.
After that morning exercise we drove down to Culzean castle with a stop in Dunure on the way. Our attempt to show Diana the Electric Brae – an optical illusion where the road appears to be sloping in one direction but is really going in the other – was foiled by a ball that had seen much better days (maybe 40 years ago). Dunure is a very picturesque fishing village.
The grounds at Culzean castle are beautifully maintained by the National Trust. We started with lunch at the café onsite, then wandered down to the main castle, got the view from the beach, and finished up in the Walled Garden admiring the flowers, vegetables and huge tomatoes in the vast greenhouses.
To celebrate Scotland’s “Year of coasts and waters”, there were a number of Willow creatures staged around the grounds. We found quite a few of them:
Here’s a picture of Will on the lawn in front of Culzean castle from a bit over 30 years ago:
Mum and Dad had a good story about babysitting Will in Los Gatos. Apparently he was working on a project about barn owls. Mum can still picture Dad sitting on the floor of a bookstore gathering references. The project was nicely bound and sent off to school on the due date. When asked about it that evening, Will said they didn’t ask for it and he still had it – in a crumpled up ball in his backpack. Easy solution – Granny will iron it for you.
What a lovely afternoon exploring Culzean. We made the short drive down to show Diana the Turnberry hotel and golf course, now part of the unmentionable organization.
Lainshaw Woods was again the site of our morning run on Wednesday. This time I stopped to read a sign that identified the butterfly that we had photographed on the “butterfly plant” at the bottom of Dad’s back garden.
We made the short walk down to Bowes Rigg for dinner at the Millhouse, and were quite impressed with the food. My Bloody Mary prawn starter and Steak and Ale pie were both delicious. Diana’s pate with brioche bread and chutney was excellent. We did get some entertainment from Dad having to ask for a finger bowl to clean up after the prawns.
Thursday started with the now standard Lainshaw Woods trot. Then we made a jaunt over to Largs where we encountered Magnus the Viking, before enjoying fish and chips and an ice cream at Nardini’s – a classic art deco restaurant that’s been there forever.
Isn’t it crazy to think that Magnus commemorates the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Largs in 1263, the last attempted Viking raid on Scotland?
We chose well on the ice cream – McD narrowed it down to two and I chose the fudge one – little pieces of really good fudge in there. Yum!
We had to wait on a reservation at Nardini’s and so had a nice wander along the front. This sign about the Vanduara house being used by Lord Mountbatten during World War II to plot the Normandy invasions was very interesting.
Mum had mentioned a pretty view on the drive back from Largs at a spot called Haylie Brae. We were lucky to find the spot (not marked and off a narrow, twisty road) and the view was indeed worth the effort.
I forgot to talk about my experience filling up with petrol prior to finding Haylie Brae. There was no credit card reader on the pump and so I went inside to ask to “fill up on pump 10.” The guy looked at me strangely. “I don’t see any charge on number 10.” “Right, I’d like to fill up,” I said, offering my credit card. “Oh no, go ahead and fill up and then come in to pay.” “Ah, it’s on the honour system.” “Aye, that’s right.” The little different things that trip you up.
Mum made delicious beef olives for dinner – a creative dish that I had completely forgotten about.
I managed a solid 20 minutes of running in the Woods on Friday, before we made the short drive to the Laird’s Table, just outside Fenwick. This is a small restaurant beside a fly fishing loch on Craufurdland estate. I enjoyed watching the fisherman passing a happy Friday afternoon doing what they love.
The food here was creative and very good. My appetizer of Laird’s Wellington was a highlight – pork sausage and Stornoway black pudding in pastry with a delicious salad. I should mention that I enjoyed Stornoway black pudding, eggs, haggis, and sausage every morning for breakfast – Mum really likes to spoil me.
We skipped our run on Saturday and instead drove into Glasgow to get our U.S. reentry COVID tests. This was a very efficient and well organized process and we just beat Elspeth and David back to Stewarton. Heather and Michael arrived later in the afternoon and we gave Dad his presents and cake. It was such a shame that Struan and Emily could join us – both getting over the virus. The living room had been “Bramble proofed” on Friday night, and we were able to measure and see that Diana was in fact a bit taller than Geoffrey the giraffe.
Mum had arranged a birthday dinner at Highgrove House and we piled into a couple of cars and made the drive over. This restaurant has a lovely view and we took advantage to capture pictures of each couple as the sunset progressed.
Dinner was excellent – I enjoyed chicken liver pate and sole meuniere. Diana said that the mussels she had were perhaps the best she’s tasted. Here are some more pictures from the 85th celebration:
Elspeth, David and Bramble spent the night in a local hotel, and joined us again for most of the day on Sunday. We got to take Bramble for a run through Lainshaw Woods – risking off the leash as we were assured she was very good that way. She was mostly fine with only a minor incident when she wanted to join right in with another very similar dog who was waiting for her owner to throw a tennis ball. “But why can’t I play too?” Poor bramble was quite tired out by the time McD had her running up the final set of stairs.
Diana tried out the old school clothes drying technique with her running suit. Not something you see much of around Texas cities.