Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary, Oban

We were lucky enough to receive a 'Breakfast with Seals' experience at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary near Oban as a wedding present from an old school friend,, David, and his lovely lady friend, Claire.  We have both been very excited about this.

We visit this neck of the woods a few times per year as Alan has family near Oban.  Granny Marie lives in Benderloch, and Auntie Mo and Uncle Colin are in Taynuilt.  Mo and Colin kindly let us stay at theirs when we visit.  It's a beautiful part of the country.  Unfortunately, the past few times we have visited it has been a bit dreich.  However, this weekend was a scorcher - 22 degrees at one point!  It was great to have such lovely weather as it meant we got a few good pictures of our wee trip.

There are four seals at the Sanctuary, three ladies, Lora, Pippa and Macey, and one gent, Boo.  Each of them have different conditions which mean that they would not manage to survive in the wild.  We were able to feed them their breakfast of herring and they did some wee tricks for us, including giving us both a big smooch on the head.  Alan likened them to 'sea slug dogs' and I think this summed them up quite accurately.  

We had cereal and a bacon roll for breakfast in the cafe, and then had a wee wander around the rest of the Sanctuary.  The whole experience was fantastic and I'd definitely recommend a visit.  The staff seemed very informative and it was mentioned to us that they are currently refurbishing many of the zones.  I'll look forward to seeing the progress on our next visit.  

Thanks David, Claire, Mo and Colin!

Breakneck Comedy, Blue Lamp, Aberdeen

We were lucky enough to receive a Breakneck Comedy gift card as a wedding present.  We go as often as we can.  It's a fantastic gift to receive and will be renewing the card when it expires, although we have no idea when that is, sometime soon I would think.  It's a bargain, £99 for a years worth of laughs for two folk.  £50 each.  The shows usually cost £10 per person so you only really need to go  five times, as a couple, within a year, to make this card worthwhile.  It's a steal.

Waaaay better than the rip off Cineworld card we used to have!

A Cineworld Unlimited Card is £208.80 per person per year so £417.60 for two people.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean that you would have to visit the cinema roughly twenty times each to make it worthwhile?  There's no way Alan and I would agree twenty times per year on which films are worth going to see.  It just wasn't worth it for us, but I'm sure it works for loads of people.  I'm sure it doesn't help that we live outside of the city.

Anyway, back to business...

We love our Breakneck Comedy gift card.  It gives us a great opportunity to perhaps organise a date night, or to just get off of the sofa and into a more sociable atmosphere, as well as giving us the chance to see some fantastically hilarious people.

Headlining at the Blue Lamp last night was Dana Alexander, and she was great, She lit up the stage as soon as she came on and made one lady, sitting behind us, fall off her chair laughing.  I really loved the way she dealt with a woman near the front who kept speaking over her - there's always one!

However, there was a young chap who was on stage prior to Dana, a guy called Andrew Sim, who really did it for me.  Both Alan and I agreed that he was our favourite of the night.  He's a local lad, apparently from Lumphanan, who has a fondness for NECR, so he immediately won a place in my heart as I am also a fan of this top quality radio show.  (Honestly, they should be paying me here.)  He took them off to a tee and really the only thing he missed was a mention of the 'Lamb Bank', a regular feature on  the station around this time of year.  If his career in stand up doesn't work out, I have no doubt they will gladly take him on as a presenter!  I really hope we see more of him at Breakneck nights.

Aberdeen Country Fair, Belmont Street, Aberdeen

I've been wanting to try Little Squares of Heaven for ages.  This a a local, family run business based in Aberdeen and they make brownies using almond flour, which I am led to believe is the best flour for the job!  Today I picked some up at the Belmont Street Market.

"One of each flavour please...oh wait, can we have two of the caramely ones please?"

They are delicious!  It's awesome that they can send them to you by post too!  Look, LOOK, LOOK!

Next to their stall was Keith Brewery.  The chap selling the goods pushed the hard sale on me,
"Can I tempt you with some beer to go with your br-"

"Aye, of course!"

Poor guy.  I've not actually tried it yet, it's on my to-do list for today.  What a tough Sunday eh?

Capurro's Restaurant and Bar, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

We only had approximately five hours to explore San Francisco and in this short space we did our best to take in the scenery, the most important part for Alan being the Golden Gate Bridge.

The very, very kind man..
Shame I can't remember his name (I must be getting old).
Please excuse the blurry photo.

After eventually managing to take the BART (with a little help from a very, very kind man) from Oakland to centre of the San Francisco, we walked the rest of the way.  I'm glad we did.  I loved seeing the arty buildings, and the hilly streets are just like they are in films.  I must admit though, some parts we walked through were a little grubby and could have been done with a bit of a scrub.

We reached the water and had a stroll up the Aquatic Park Pier to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get any closer but we made the best of our visit and , luckily, the weather stayed on our side.

We saw Alcatraz too but didn't really get any great photos of it as it's so far away.  We would both love to go back and explore San Francisco more thoroughly.  

I was hungry and my feet hurt, so we stopped in the Fisherman's Wharf area to grab some lunch before heading back to our hotel to collect our bags before continuing our journey home.  The first place we came to, yes we were really that hungry, was Capurro's Restaurant and Bar.  We had pizzas and beer.  Two of our favourite things.



Mother Hubbard always said if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all, so I'll list the things that I did like about this restaurant -

• Nice outside seating area - we appreciated being able to sit in the sun and soak up as much of the San Franciscan atmosphere as possible.
  
  
• The beer was good - it was a local beer, the name of which I can't remember.  Can anybody help out?
  
  
• I loved the artwork on the outside of the building.

I think this may be my last honeymoon related blog post.  It's been a hoot!  Back to regular old married life now....

Hawaiian Airlines, Honolulu - Oakland

We're starting our journey home, you'd think we would be sad but look how smiley I am in this photo...

Why is that?

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FREE FOOD AND WINE!

Waikiki Brewing Company, Waikiki, Hawaii

We have returned.  It's our last day and we have spent the morning wallowing in the turquoise water at Waikiki Beach.  It's thirsty work.

We visited here again to await our taxi to the airport as it's only 30 seconds from the flat where we have been staying and so ideally located for us to refresh ourselves before our flight to Oakland.  

I knew what I wanted - Jalapeno Mouth- and that's what I had.  

It's been great, Hawaii, we'll miss you.

Red Lobster, Waikiki, Hawaii

We don't have Red Lobster in the UK and so I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  I've never tried lobster, so I must say I have had nothing to compare this experience with.

I must admit, the place was lacking in ambiance, perhaps I was expecting too much from this chain restaurant, maybe it was because we had arrived fairly late in the evening, I really couldn't put my finger on it.  The young waitress showed us to the bar as they were 'full', although we could both see numerous empty tables.  We had a drink and waited.  We must have been there about 20 minutes and were discussing just leaving and going somewhere else when a different waiter came to ask if we were waiting for a table.  He seemed surprised that we were, and seated us in one of the numerous empty booths.

We had already decided what we were having, as we had to chance to view the menu when waiting at the bar, and so ordered straight away.  I had the Ultimate Feast as I was keen to try both lobster and snow crab legs, which I believe are somewhat of a delicacy in Hawaii.  I'll admit I was a little nervous about them, not knowing how to eat them or what they would taste like.

Our waiter seemed very nice and spoke to us about being Scottish, "I used to work with Jim from Edinburgh, do you know him?", and whizzed around the other tables without a second to spare.  He brought us Ceasar Salads and a basket of biscuits (the American kind, which is sort of like a scone, as opposed to a selection of custard creams or bourbons) which we did not ask for, but enjoyed all the more for it.  I'm unsure about whether or not these are complimentary to all Red Lobster diners, or if they were perhaps included in the particular meals that we had chosen.  As we awaited our main courses, I watched in awe every time a waiter placed yet another empty plate on a particular table in the middle of the floor in our section.  There must have been roughly a hundred dirty plates and sets of cutlery and glasses on the table, which nobody seemed to be clearing.  I couldn't understand why they were putting the dirty crockery there.  It was nowhere near the kitchen.  Some of the other waiting staff from other sections of the restaurant even seemed to be walking the whole length of the place to put dity plates on this table.  Some of the piles of plates were so high they were teetering and wobbled every time our speedy waiter walked past them.  I guess I'll never know why.

Our mains arrived and I think you'll see from the photo that I was absolutely delighted with what was placed before me.  Our waiter saw a flicker of apprehension on my face and quickly showed me how to eat the crab legs.  It really is much easier than it looks and I gave it my best shot.  I don't think I did too badly.  They were buttery and delicious, as was the lobster.  I couldn't finish all the food, having been filled up by salad and biscuits - I'll bear this in mind if I ever visit again.


The food was fantastic and very reasonably priced.  I felt the restaurant needed spruced up a wee bit, just a lick of paint here and there.  The waiter we had was really lovely, I'm annoyed I can't remember his name.  I must remember to keep an eye out for Jim next time I'm in Edinburgh though.