Picnics will be all of our beginnings.

Sandi has already described how our first date included a wonderful picnic and was one of the first experiences that brought us together, and now our newest beginning has one too. (Thank you Puett family!)

Tonight's dinner was cheese from the cheese-shop, hand-formed sourdough from the baker, cured meats and local berries from the corner market. We found some ginger wine at a liquor store that looked like an apothecary. All giant glass casks from which our liquor was poured into littler glass jars with stoppers for us to take home. We mixed our single-malt scotch into it and it was all earthy smoke and sharp sweet ginger kick. The memory of our first date accentuated every bite of the same kind of incredible, complex poignant food that brought us together in medley of sharp swirling flavors and a light alcoholic haze.

We started our day early with an incredibly full Scottish breakfast and then a few more recovering jet-lagged sleeps until we were ready for the next part of our adventure.

We went to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens and saw rooms after rooms of rare and tropical plants that couldn't survive this rainy and frosty clime (Thank you Smith Family!!).

On our way down the river to our next location, we ran into some vintage clothing shops and Sandi found a florist who knew our photographer in Skye, and Sandi commissioned the wedding flowers. I don't know the details, but there was something about wild grasses to go with the dress. Meanwhile, I found a wine shop and picked out a Bordeaux and a Burgundy to fortify ourselves for the rest of our trip. After shopping we continued our journey down to the Kelvingrove museum, which was basically a quaint and local version of the New York Metropolitan and Natural History museums. The highlights were the Viking-era artifacts, a particular obsession for Doug. Our breakfast was enormous, so we were satisfied with a simple fennel salad and potato, leek, and chorizo soup for lunch. (The Scots apparently really, really like chorizo.)
 

On our way home, we took the main trendy West-End street where we carefully selected all of the necessary ingredients for our most wonderful late-night picnic. We also wandered into a music shop that blew my mind. The recommended section was incredible. The Decemberists, Iron and Wine, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the list just goes on. And it was all just right there. Just out in the open. Wondrous.

After a bit of catching up on news and sleep, we had our picnic while listening Doug's portable stereo and the beat of rain outside our window. We decided that Scotland was perfect compromise on the weather... Sandi has rain but oppressive heat in Tennessee, and while Doug is cool in San Francisco, he simply does not have enough rain to truly flourish as the Oregonian he is. So we ended up in a place perfectly cool and rainy, and smile at all of the people we meet here who dream of get-aways in Miami or Spain.