We were engaged on October 26th, 2008 during our vacation in Scotland. The location was magical: within the grounds of Saddell Castle on the Kintyre Peninsula. The edifice was itself celebrating its 500th anniversary during the fall that we stayed there, and we shared a fabulous weekend with twelve wonderful native friends. During the days, we hiked around and explored the grounds of the castle and the nearby Abbey, and at night, we occupied our time playing games, cooking gigantic feasts in the great hall, or quietly splayed in overstuffed chairs taking on various hobbies and crafts. Lara brought her harp, and the winding stairwell often carried haunting, lilting tunes through the entire castle. Marianne painstakingly hand-painted botanical studies in the style of Besler and Redouté. Darren, of course, was fervently flipping through local histories to envision the legacy of the place in which we slept. And we all playtested Sandy’s brilliant, unreleased game of abstract strategy. It was a wonderfully grand time.

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