Preview of Upcoming Features (and Meeting Stonehead!)

I try to keep a cache of posts plugged into Blogger so that I can just login in the morning, find the next post in the queue, and hit "Publish". This is great for my busy schedule, because unlike my original blog, I don't tend to spend an hour or two out of each day writing blog posts. One of the drawbacks, though, is that posts tend to be delayed - for example, I went to Shetland in early April, and I'm still not quite done with posts from that trip. We haven't even started on my trip down south to raise hell with Captain John! I say this because I had a fantastic weekend of sight-seeing, and I want to give a bit of a preview. The reason why will become apparent by the end.

A couple of weeks ago, while riding the bus, I met three law students from the States. When I meet Americans here in Aberdeen - it's counterintuitive, but we're a rare breed in this corner of Scotland - I tend to give them my card and say, with all sincerity, "We ought to get a drink." Anyway, the law student to whom I gave my card (we'll call her Navigator) E-mailed me, and was eager to go out on a pub crawl and see some stuff in the area since she and her coursemates had different ideas of what to see. I brought her out on a pub crawl with a bunch of the usual suspects. We wound up coming up with a plan for some weekend excursions, and executed accordingly. It will probably be a few days before I can get them written up, at which point I'll probably post them all in short order. Here's a quick list.

Taking Inverness by Storm: Navigator wanted to go see some highland games while she was in Scotland. After a bit of a challenge sorting things out, we ended up taking Inverness by storm and attending the Inverness Highland Games.

RAF Edzell: My buddy Chops used to be stationed at RAF Edzell, and wanted me to go get a couple of pictures of his old digs. So, we did.

Balmoral Castle: Navigator wanted to go see Balmoral Castle, the royal family's Scottish hunting lodge. So, we did.

Stonehead Croft: I've been following a blog called Musings from a Stonehead, and one of my goals has been to drop by and thank the blogger in the flesh. The reason why I'm posting this preview is because the man himself, who goes by Stonehead/"Stoney", has already posted about our visit. I'll obviously discuss the visit in more detail soon, but I wanted to publicly thank Stoney and his bride, "the Other Half/OH", for their hospitality. He was even gracious enough to pose for a photo - with the family's ubiquitous border terrier, Harvey - before Navigator and I got back on the road. I've been invited back for lunch, and that's an invitation I intend to honor - let's face it, Stoney's strapping young lads deserve an hour of unrestricted American Question Time! I'm already thrilled to have met Stoney and OH, and I look forward to getting to know them and the lads (and Harvey) a bit better.

In addition to these posts, I'll be writing on Aberdeen's public gardens (with pictures of all sorts of pretty flowers for the ladies out there), Aberdeen's major houses of worship, my weekend down south with Captain John and his lovely bride, and CN Homeboys's rock concert. There's a lot of content to squeeze in during my waning tenure here in Aberdeen, and a lot of it should be pretty interesting stuff. Stay tuned.