Day 9131 in pictures

Yesterday was as wonderful as it's possible for a day to be. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot, as our Silver Wedding day journey took us from the heart of vegetarian Edinburgh, to revisiting the scene of the crime wedding reception in South Queensferry to Carnivore Central, otherwise known as the Champany Inn near Linlithgow.

We had thought we might take in a show on the last day of the Festival, but neither of us wanted to be inside on what might be the last scorcher of the year. We did, however, stop off at the scene of our first Edinburgh date, Henderson's restaurant for an early lunch:

I had mushroom and tarragon soup and their trifle which I've always loved, and Bob had salads and their dried fruit, ginger and sour cream, which he's always loved.

In the shadow of the Forth Rail Bridge. By the way, viewing platform or not, we will always keep our feet on the ground.

Then we headed to the Champany Inn for what turned out to be our best  meal out ever.

The Bar Area

Pink Champagne

Our table. That wine was deliciously smooth.

Bob's not that much of a steak fan, so he had cod and chips. Anna had a small sirloin - small being 12 oz - which she polished off along with some mushrooms, potato dauphinoise and all but one of the delicious chips. 

This was mine. The Porterhouse. Sirloin with an undercut of fillet cooked rare to medium rare. Clearly I wouldn't be able to manage it all, but I have found Steak Nirvana. Bob cooks steak beautifully, but this was even better than his

Steak sandwich for my lunch today..

When it came to pudding, I was really conflicted. Anna went straight for the chocolate tart with raspberries, Bob for the Stilton. I, on the other hand, had a dilemma between the famous cheesecake with rhubarb 3 ways and a mint and earl grey delice with pink grapefruit sorbet. I knew I'd love the former, wasn't so sure about the latter, but knew it was more seasonal. Which would I choose?

I couldn't resist the lure of the Earl Grey. On its own, the mousse was way too sweet. With the sorbet to balance that, it was perfect.

We were very well looked after by the staff, who were attentive but not intrusive. It was a truly special experience. When you book something like that you get a bit nervous about whether it'll live up to expectations. This actually exceeded them and it was the ideal way to celebrate our quarter century of marriage. All in all, I feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful time with my family.

The next landmark, I guess, is 10,000 days which should happen around the beginning of 2016...