Adventure Day 1!

Thank you to our friends and family who helped to get us to Scotland and sponsored the first day of our adventure: Sandi's parents, Doug's grandparents and Gramma Barbara, and Doug and Sandi's friends Jack Bailey, Megan and Alan Stimpson, and Alex Vaughn helped sponsor the plane tickets! 

Doug's plane left SFO at 8:30 his time and mine was to leave BNA at 1:50; our planes were scheduled to land within 10 minutes of each other, and about an hour before boarding for our international flight to Glasgow. I was concerned about the prospect for thunderstorms delaying my flight, and so I asked about an earlier flight. Success! I flew out of Nashville at 11:50 and was able to meet Doug at his gate when he landed.

We grabbed a quick meal and exchanged our wedding rings: Doug is wearing mine around his High School Encounter cross and I'm wearing his on my Webb necklace chain. This way our rings can be close to our hearts, while we're finishing writing our vows, before we give them to each other.

Our int'l flight was smooth and comfortable - the third seat on our row was empty so we were able to sprawl out a bit! It wasn't terribly long -- just 7 hours. Sandi slept a bit while Doug worked on his wedding vows. We arrived just after 6 am Glasgow time, which is in the middle of the night in the US, and our cab got us to the hotel (the Belhaven) long before a room was ready for us, so we sleepily wandered about for a bit before heading up to our room for a nap.

Doug's grandparents sponsored all of our dinners! Our first dinner was at Curler's Rest www.thecurlersrestglasgow.co.uk Three courses and a pint of beer! Doug had Chicken and Chorizo skewers with red pepper dressing; kiln smoked Salmon, soft boiled egg and chicory salad and mustard viniagrette; and Lemon cheesecake with lemon &lime syrup. Sandi had Carrot &Ginger soup with bread and butter; Pea, spinach, broad bean, & mint risotto; and vanilla pod ice cream with crushed amaretti biscuits.


 After dinner, we started a walk down by the university, overlooking the town a bit:

Then we wandered over to a tea house, Tchai Ovna, where we each had a pot of tea. At 8:00 there was a poetry reading, and at 9:00 (it wasn't dark yet!) we headed back to our hotel. We picked up a bottle of Irish whiskey at the corner market to help us sleep.

This morning we are having a full Scottish breakfast before starting the day's adventure!