Hello, World. The Two For Takeoff duo have missed the blog and are thrilled to share our latest adventure with you all. So, we should start from the beginning with this one.
Back in October 2015, I was brainstorming things to do to help Patrick ring in his 30th birthday. It’s a big milestone for us Americans and I wanted to make sure to honor his first thirty years of life properly, so I immediately thought of an international vacation. After all, traveling and experiences are our favorite things – so I knew I wanted to take him someplace memorable. I started asking around and ultimately decided on Europe. We are both relatively well traveled in Europe, but there were two places that stood out to me that neither of us had visited – Germany and Scotland.
I started researching, looked into using my Delta sky miles and asked his buddy Jordan for help exploring flights. I was deadest on Germany, and then I told my former boss at Edelman that I was leaning in that direction. We started talking about her experiences in both places and she said… honestly, I think you should do Scotland. It’s so much fun! Especially for a 30th birthday, she noted. At that point, her feedback threw me for a loop, but I agreed with some of the things she shared and was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of planning I’d have to do to coordinate Germany on my own. I took some more polls of folks who had traveled to both places and the overwhelming response towards Scotland both surprised and excited me. Plus, as many of you know, I’m currently at the end of book four of the Outlander series and have a serious obsession with the Jacobite revolution… So really… The rest is history.
I booked the flights, ordered the Fodor’s book on Scotland and started researching the pants off of things to do, places to stay and foods to eat (haggis, haggis and more haggis).
Our eight days in Scotland were planned long before Patrick’s birthday – April 29th – and keeping the secret safe was the absolute worst part of the process. Patrick switched jobs in February, so I had to let him know that we were going on a week-long vacation for his birthday in order for him to clear it with the new bosses, but other than that he had no idea what was in store. In fact, I even packed for him and so far, it has totally worked out.
This past Friday, Patrick celebrated his 30th birthday as one might normally expect – delicious donuts for breakfast, lots of texts and Facebook messages, and a drink after work with me. But after that, I shoved him and his suitcase into an Uber and headed for JFK. Once we were settled into the Delta lounge, I gifted him my thoroughly used Fodor’s book, a lovely red kilt (thanks Amazon) and some Scotch. The wait was finally over and our adventure had officially begun. SuRpRiSe! SuCcEsS! ScOtLaNd!
We landed in the UK on Saturday (just yesterday… but it already feels like days ago) and have been loving every second of our time in this beautiful country. We flew into Manchester because of timing/connections/cost reasons and picked up our rental car, exhausted but mentally geared for the 4 hour drive to Edinburgh. And the it started hailing, and I remembered that I had to drive on the right side of the car, on the left side of the road. Shit balls.
The first five minutes in the car looked like a seriously deranged episode of Meet the Kardashians combined with a splash of Survivor and a drop of The Amazing Race – basically chaos. Patrick was doing his best to help but it seriously felt like cars were just zooming all around me in no organized way, shape or form… But then I got the hang of it, tried to ease my white knuckled death grip on the wheel, and settled in for the next three hours.
It was easy to relax when we started to see the rolling hills, scattered sheep and blazing sunshine in the distance, on top of signs for Scotland. Wow! The views you guys… I have truly never seen anything like it – the closest example I can give is Switzerland (but with less grandeur and more authenticity). It was one scenic landscape photo after another. We had such a fabulous time trying to stay on the road, not hit other cars, and take in all of the beauty surrounding us.
The drive was an experience I will never forget – and thankfully – one that we both lived through. Along the way to Edinburgh, we decided to stop at Melrose Abbey as it was highly praised in Fodor’s…. So we will share more on that tomorrow! Plus all the details on our Edinburgh experience!
We are so grateful for this trip, and to each of you for reading along.
We love you,
-Two for Takeoff (#Scotland)
