Welcome back! Iffin you are reading the ‘welcome back’ as well as the ‘part two’ up in the title & scratching your head, this is the second blog stemming from my latest bit of travel to the United Kingdom. If you feel so inclined & want to feel caught up the link for Part One will appear just below this paragraph! With that settled & having us all agreed that ‘yes, we did indeed read the first part of this series,” shall we move on?
THE UNITED KINGDOM
PART TWO:
Day Four
We last left off our romp around the kingdom in Stranraer, Scotland. That too is where we shall resume at the morning after the festival, Sunday. Originally the plan for this day was to do a live broadcast Living Room Session, however we ended up needing to move it to Monday night because of some scheduling conflicts. Totally fine, we’re easy breezy over here. The plan after the originally proposed Sunday show for Evan & I was to drive up to Oban & scoot around the highlands for a bit before we made our way back to London. Seeing how that would now stretch things a little thin we opted for a trip around Loch Lomond instead.
We slept through breakfast at the North West Castle where we were staying, in favor of a recommendation we’d gotten from several people to dine at Fig & Olive. Unfortunately the Fig & Olive was closed for the day due to a private event they were catering (grumble, grumble) (nah, no hard feelings, make that dough y’all!) so instead we opted to try another breakfast spot. It too was closed. Then another. Also closed. Until finally we ended up just grabbing some sandwiches from a chain cafe, of which we shall not name here. Food & coffee (finally) acquired & gassed/petroled up, we made our way up the coast.
We knew the day would be a long one filled with driving, that was a no brainer, so we’d prepared to spend long hours in the car getting lost in the scenery as it passed. We had no real plans of stopping anywhere either, just followed wherever to road decided to take us. We took the A77/78 All the way up the coast until we got to where it cut across headed towards Glasgow. From there we hopped onto the A82 & headed north to Loch Lomond. I think it’s worth stating that I’m a fairly competent driver, I’m fine navigating small, bendy roads but the ones around Loch Lomond were a bit of a different story. The issue was not the roads themselves though, the issue was the people who would fly around the bend going full speed in the complete middle of the road with little to no regard for who or what lay around the corner, but we survived it, we made it through.
Loch Lomond is truly a beautiful region. The last has been designated as national park land as well so the Loch or Lake itself looks almost entirely untouched by human hands. Around Tarbet the road forks a bit, the continuation of the A82 looking like a side road jutting right. At this point I’d abandoned my GPS thinking “oh, I’ll just stay on the A82 until we hit Crainlarich & be fine.” This naturally ended in a wrong turn right at this exact spot. I’m honestly a little glad the wrong turn was made because we ended up stumbling upon The Slanj.
The Slanj is a bar/restaurant/café set inside a former church that was built in the 18th century. It sits in the valley of a few picturesque hills & serves a full traditional UK menu. We’d arrived just to pass a moment or two & I ended up getting a sampling of a local gin before we sat around, taking pictures & enjoying the afternoon. Once some time had passed it was back on to the A82 we went & on up into the highlands.
If you were with us for the previous installment in this UK series you’ll know that Evan set out this trip to capture an OOTD or Outfit Of The Day of mine. So I decided to put some thought in their planning! The OOTD of this day was a Blush Urban Outfitters Pullover Thermal, Black Tellis AG Jeans, White Goodfellow Trainers, Keiko Glasses from Warby Parker.
We hadn’t gone very before we stumbled once again into something unexpected, The Falls Of Falloch. Set just off the east side of the A82, the falls are just a short hike from the dirt lot where you park. Once we’d walked to the falls we were met by picnickers as well as quite a few people jumping into the pools set under the falls themselves. The water here had a very dark rust color to it, due to the iron rich soil, & the water was chilly, chilly, chilly. The falls quickly started to get busy so we packed up & headed on down the road.
Our next turn was at Crianlarich where we ditched the A82 for the A85 & headed farther east before looping back down towards Glasgow again. Along the way we passed Loch Lubhair which had some of the stillest, most pristine water I’d ever seen. If was calm but without the over abundance of algae that usually forms from still bodies of water. We looped through Callander where we stopped for gas & snacks before continuing on back to Dumfries.
We arrived back at the Donowho’s around half six/seven PM. They had lovingly waited for us to arrive to have dinner which I believe ended up being Italian for us. We sat around carb loading before we adjourned to the couch to finish off the night with a cuppa & conversation.
End Of Day Four
Day Five
Now was the day of our newly adjusted plan for the Living Room Session. As aforementioned the original plan had been to do our live broadcast Living Room Session on Sunday however certain things came up that required us to move it to this, the Monday in question. The start of our professional day started with an early lunch at Mrs Howat’s Vintage Pantry where the Donowhos, Evan & I congregated with Ross, Rhonda, & James to chart out the plan for the evening.
Leaving the Pantry more than a little full, each of us having ordered a slew of rather filling items, we returned to the home of the Donowhos to prepare for the evening but not before Evan managed to snag a few photos for his OOTD collection!
The OOTD in question was a Yellow Beanie & White Trainers by Goodfellow, Kaiki Colored Tellis AG Jeans, Keiko Glasses by Warby Parker, & a Blue Knit Sweater by H&M.
We had decided at lunch that in loo of the stage setting of the Royal Theatre we were going to use Ali & Carolann’s living room for the site of the first ever actual factual Living Room Session where a few select guests would be invited in & the whole thing would be simulcast over a number of different streaming sites.
We set up the room in preparation for the broadcast, moving many items of furniture to accommodate the space. We brought in a full speaker system, lighting rig, & a streaming rig, all were set up with a curtain backdrop. Ross then came in & began setting up each of the streaming portals & adjusting the live feed audio mix. We ended up starting a little later than anticipated but the show flowed easily & with only limited hitches along the way!
I did do a wardrobe change for the LRS, of which Ali referred to it as my “Jake Owen, ‘Barefoot, Blue Jean Night’ Moment.” It was exactly that. A Light Green Rag & Bone Sweater & Light Wash Blue Tellis AG Jeans. Naturally, I also went barefoot!
After we’d wrapped up the set & finished socializing it was time to eat. It had gotten pretty late in the evening, 10 or 11-ish, so Carolann & Ali opted to skip dinner but Carolann had spent the day making her incredible sweet potato curry recipe & I was on the verge of eating my arm off so Evan & I indulged.
End Of Day Five
Day Six
There wasn’t much planned for this day, I had asked Ali what his favorite dessert was given that his birthday was a few days later in the week. His reply was cheesecake which I immediately knew I had in the bag!
My mother has had a cheesecake recipe that she’s made for as many thanksgivings as I can remember. I’ve made it myself a few times, having had the task of its construction handed over to me in the preparations for the holiday & every time it is made it ends up being the belle of the dessert table. So off to the grocery store we went.
You don’t think about the discrepancies between UK & US culture, & if you do, I promise you’re probably not doing so when it comes to the grocer. Naturally, this didn’t cross my mind either until I was in the middle of the aisles, bobbling around, lost, looking for the things I needed that don’t exist on the standard United Kingdom shelf. For example. Graham Crackers. You know, graham crackers, one of the key ingredients of a NY Style Cheesecake? Having a loose understanding for the fare of the British Isles, I was able to improvise; two parts Digestive Crackers to one part Biscoff. It ended up being a pretty solid sub out! I put Evan to work on crumbing the dry ingredients while I took care of the wets.
I was a tad nervous when I’d pulled the cheesecake out of the oven as it didn’t quite look right. In a bit of a panic I called my mother who reassured me just to let it set & it would be fine, she was right. It turned out immaculate!
After the cheesecake was complete Evan & I decided to book a last minute distillery tour just down the street from Dumfries in Annan at Annandale Distillery. We got in on literally the last distillery tour of the day & were put in with a family visiting from England. Our tour was around forty-five minutes in length & went very in-depth on the incredibly interesting history of Annandale. Another discrepancy between the US & the UK is the lax drinking & driving laws that the US has compared to the UK. In the US the legal blood alcohol limit is .08, not that its a score to aim for, Scotland that legal limit is .02, & in England it is .00. So no drinks at all. When we booked the tour I had no realization of that until it came time to do tastings along the way. Since I drove, Evan got to do the tastings & I was promised a take home tasting at the end. Totally fine by me. However, when we got to the end of the tour I was met with a dram of one singular tasting, completely missing out on five of the other tasters the group had gotten along the way. So I purchased an additional tasting set to take back to the states for my own tour.
When we got back to Ali’s I broke open the dram. I was curious after all, I’d spent the last hour surrounded by people trying different whiskies & commenting on their characteristics that my FOMO had definitely gone into over drive. I enjoyed a peated whisky called The Man Of Swords which I enjoyed thoroughly! I still have yet to break into my sample stash, maybe I will once I finish this blog!
Gathering a bit of a buzz it was time for us to go eat. Ali & Carolann decided it was time to take the Americans to an American themed restaurant in town called The Hitching Post. I’m curious to know what all my Americans out there imagine a Scottish based & operated America themed restaurant consists of. Please, form your mental image, let me know what you think & what you would expect to find on the menu before I go ahead & tell you.
For my Americans, what an American restaurant in Scotland consists of is a bit of a love letter to Texas. The theming is definitely Wild West with little cactuses adorning the table & wagon wheels & cowboy paraphernalia dressing the walls. There is of course an American flag or two, most of them are painted on barn wood, as you do. As for the menu. It did have a rather large array of American cuisines. From burgers to bbq to pizza & philly cheesesteaks, all are present & accounted for, which then prompted to the question at the table between Evan & I, if we were to design an American restaurant, what would it be like?
After a lengthy discussion we landed on the need for a BBQ section, sorted regionally, a cookout menu, a regional specific menu (Philly cheesesteaks, Maryland crab cakes, Meat & Threes, California burritos, etc), & general American (wings, mozzarella sticks, quesadillas, etc.). The theming would also be regional, carrying different influence from room to room.
Once we were stuffed full of pizza we returned once again to abode Donowho where we broke into Ali’s freshly baked birthday cheesecake & had a cuppa before sharing what would be the last of our late night conversations until we meet again!
End Of Day Six
END OF PART TWO