L Rizzy's Adventures: Aberdeen, Scotland

After an excellent night sleep for all three of us (thankfully), we got up, crushed breakfast (with a plastic surgeon from New York City and his wife from Dayton, Ohio) and quickly were on the road towards Aberdeen. Our first stop on the way was in Forres to see the Sueno's Stone, which at 21 feet tall is the largest surviving Pictish stone of it's type in Scotland. Local legend states that this is where Macbeth first met the three witches. Now local legend states that this is where the Henn family roll by for a few pics. It was barely drizzling outside but this was far too much rain for L Mama who barely got out of the car and then proceeded to run back to it when the rain picked up just a bit.

Next we traveled to The Macallan distillery and visitor center where we perused the finest tasting whiskey made. Within a few miles there were many famous distilleries including GlenFiddich and GlenLivet. I had planned to make the purchase on a decent bottle but found that the prices were actually higher than the prices of the same bottles in good ol' 'merica. Never one to overspend on alcohol (40 ozs), I decided to hold off. Nevertheless, not wanted to drive on an empty belly, I found a 50 year anniversary bottle priced at 2,000 pounds and discretely swilled half the bottle immediately prior to running out the door away from the guards and into the car that L Mama already had prepared with the engine running. Now fugitives from the law, we made a beeline for Aberdeen stopping only to slowly walk through a huge grocery store admiring all the products in beautiful English.

Once in Aberdeen we checked into our Hotel: Skene House Whitehall. This place is amazing. First of all we are basically staying in a two bedroom apartment complete with a living room, kitchen, and free laundry service. Quite simply, this place is better than the flat we lived in for the past year. So we set to washing all our dirty clothes and then headed out to check out the town. Aberdeen is quite gray. Just about every building here is some hue of gray, which does not present itself well. However, there is a gorgeous statue of the man himself: Sir William Wallace. After a photo session with Bill Wallace, we found some dinner at a local joint called, "Wild Boar," and the entire dining room was adorned with multiple taxidermic boars. L Rizzy loved pointing and yelling at these stuffed beasts. Strangely enough this place was located on Belmont Street and I venture to guess the crime on this Belmont was decidedly lower than the crime on Youngstown's Belmont.

Tomorrow we will be head south down the east coast checking out Dunnottar Castle (http://www.dunnottarcastle.co.uk) and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews where I will carve a set of sticks out of a fallen Oak tree and set the course record. No big deal. We will stay in Edinburgh again tomorrow night, however this time we will be next to the airport because the following day we fly to Ireland. We need rest now, though, because a long day of bogey free golf awaits us.