Exploring new restaurants and an ice cream parlor

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
-Mark Twain-

Sometimes you have to indulge, not worry about how unhealthy the food is, and just enjoy it. The keyword here being "sometimes." :)

Friday morning I went to a Nia workout/dance class. It was fun. It was very different from other styles of dance, and it involved really getting outside of your comfort zone. After the class I went to lunch with some great ladies at The Beautiful Mountain Cafe. I had some fantastic onion rings and even better macaroni and cheese! I liked the cafe. It was cute inside (although cold so bring a coat if you go), and the service was good.

View from our table

Friday night, Steve and I decided to just stay at home. We had mozzarella/pesto/tomato sandwiches with leek and potato soup. We eat soup and drink tea more often than we did in Texas. The cold weather makes you want it. Anyway, we stayed home and rented Skyfall. It was good. It was neat to see the scenes filmed in the highlands since we were just in that area a few weekends ago. We were further north, but the land and mountains in the movie looked the same as where we were. 

Saturday we went to Stonehaven with Jessica and James to try out The Bay Fish and Chip Shop. It won the National Fish and Chip Award last year, so we've all been wanting to try it out. It was really good. The fish batter was crispy and not as greasy as some others. They let it drip through racks, so it's not sitting in grease the entire time. A standard haddock supper was about £6. You have to try the homemade tarter sauce if you go there. It was really good too! There is nowhere to sit so plan on eating outside or in your car if it's cold. We ate in the car. For desert we went next door to Aunty Betty's. The link to their Facebook page is here. It was a really neat ice cream parlor. They had lots of candy, and they also sold dog treats and duck food (if you want to feed them outside). It was random but cool. You should have seen the candy though, if you haven't already. There were loads of licorice and gummy things. There were gummy rats and gummy snakes. I'm not talking about the small worms; these were about foot-long gummy snakes. They make some really neat cakes too!

Jessica and James

I love the way they decorated his ice cream. Steve said it looked so pretty that it almost made him not want to eat it!

Just for fun:

At the book club meeting at Falene's house, she had a glug glug jug. It was shaped like a fish, and I had never seen one before that night. Anybody who knows me knows that I love fish (house decor, education degrees, tattoos....etc.,). Well, I was in an antique store a few days ago, and I found one! I love it. It makes me giggle to hear the "glug glug" as I pour water from it. You have to enjoy the little things in life.

Also, on our way to the Blue Mountain Cafe, we popped into Juniper. They had highland cow figurines. I want to have some nice things to remember Scotland when we leave. I want things that will last, so I got one of the iron highland bulls. Isn't he cute?