day four

my birthday! and i should mention that every night after getting home we would share a few drams with ronnie who would play us jazz, old gaelic tunes, and tell stories about glasgow in the swinger days. absolutely awesome and so amazingly entertaining. we also got to see these lambs run up and down this hill after each other; so very cute.

(god bless the timer shot: davoud and i on the mull of oa)

on my birthday we went for a hike on the mull of oa, which is home to a nature reserve and also an american monument to soldiers who died in WWI crossing the atlantic that died just off of the coast of islay. we took the circular route, which was really beautiful and had to navigate our way through a herd of mean looking angus cows.

(i...can...almost...see...canada!)

after that we drove down to claiggan bay just past port ellen, which was one of the most tropical places i've ever been in my life...except it wasn't warm.

( i swear this is scotland)

then my absolute favourite part of the day: back to lagavulin for a whisky tasting with the distillery manager graham. it was amazing and i couldn't really believe i was there. i had two loads of fresh scallops whilst sitting in the sun with a wee dram after our tasting.

we were smart enough to make a reservation that night at the port charlotte pub and i continued my seafood feast with some scrumptuous mussels and fresh bread. back at the b&b, davoud had arranged for a birthday cake that ended up being baked by the policeman's secretary because the bakery in bowmore no longer did cakes!

(davoud running hasselhoff style)

ronnie and marie stayed up with us for a bit for some cake and a few wee drams before i finally decided i really needed to get some sleep. too much seafood and too much whisky ;)