And not necessarily in that order!

Yes, I missed an update last night so this is going to be a long one… I recommend grabbing a wee dram o whisky (I learn fast?) and sitting in a comfy chair.

To start my Monday, I went straight to the Talisker distillery (owned by Diageo, who owns a lot these days … my bourbon trail friends will remember they own Bulleit — not our fave bourbon but very decent rye?!). Yes I have my priorities. I needed to expand my whisky horizons and I can tell you their Stormy scotch was delicious. Nice and smoky. After 10 bourbon distillery tours I’ll just point out the major differences as I saw them — they don’t use corn! They dry their germinated barley and that’s where the peat and smoky flavors generally come in. And because it’s so much colder here than in KY, the casks are stored in what seems like cellar temperatures — so the “angel’s share” is significantly less. The town of Carbost is also cute and looks like this…So next up, the fairy pools. They’re really lovely but I don’t think my pictures do them justice. They are a series of waterfalls and pools that glow green and blue in the deep parts. For once, I did not feel the urge dip my toe in the water although I saw a guy in a bathing suit toweling off so apparently he took a plunge!

It was about 55 and quite windy so I wasn’t feeling the need to cool off but they do look refreshing! Scotland has quite the history of believing in fairies. I could actually imagine them relaxing in these beautiful pools. The flowers and landscape was also lovely.

It’s the Black Cuillen mountains that are in the distance but their peaks are covered with mist …. beautiful and mystical but again hard to see in iPhone pictures! Anyway I also just need to highlight a waterfall … during the entire (5 mi? RT) walk, I could hear water … the lovely sounds of whispering, running, whooshing, and roaring water, depending on where you were. It was also quite wet on the walking path and my shoes aren’t exactly deeply treaded. So when I wasn’t stopping to admire the pools, I was often staring at my path to be sure I didn’t slip and slide somewhere. And I managed to completely miss this sign. Oops. A very nice English couple, whose dog I stopped to pet, basically warned me from walking any further. Um, talk about someone who is neither well experienced nor equipped for dangerous mountain country! Perhaps they could tell?! Anyway, this is what it looked like just a bit past the pools (as well as past the sign and all other people). Pretty desolate. And again, shrouded in mist. Everything was quite wet … for family, I took a “wet- socks-wah” photo that I’ll share back home but seriously there were lots of slippery rocky areas — the Scots are a hardy people! Oh and just to prove I was there, back at the start of the paths I exchanged photo favors with a young German couple — it was windy and my hair is quite all over the place! That night, I had booked a walking (and whisky) tour back in Portree. A nice young man (I AM old) took 7 of us in walks around the town and lochs, telling us some history of Skye and the highlands. Portree has a nice harbor area that is miraculously shielded from the wind — the colored houses show up in all the postcards! Of course, it started drizzling during the walk but we held on and saw some of the neighboring islands as well as local flora… We ended the tour in a pub where our guide bought us whiskys based on our stated preferences (I got a smoky one, called Ardbeg from Isle of Islay. Since I’d already had a Talisker, it was a good idea to try a new one. It was surprisingly clearish in color but tasted delicious!) And he also provided us with chocolates which, like with bourbon, went very well with the whisky! Yum.

This ended my first full day in Skye.

For day 2 — unfortunately a huge storm (even by Highlands standards) was forecasted for the day. So I headed out early (for me) to climb up to see an amazing view of the Old Man of Storr before the storm hit. As you will see, I didn’t quite make it. But to begin, legend has it that a giant was buried here, leaving only his hand emerging from the earth. That’s my best picture of it. I was googling this yesterday and there’s a view of the area that looks like Mordor when Frodo and Sam are trying to get past all the orcs. But as I realized when I was up there, you can just get that off the internet!! I don’t need to risk life and limb for it. Below I’m going to show a series of photos where you should look at the dark threatening clouds that keep getting closer and closer. Oddly in this one below, taken when I was returning to my car after the 1.5 hour walk, the sun was coming out but it was still misty off to the right hand side – I couldn’t see the water through the combination of glare and fog. In any case, back to my harrowing journey. Let me just point out that after a lovely bit of almost paved paths, we get to stuff that looks like this. Rocks. Wet rocks I might add. Wet rocks that roll and slip. On a mountainside. And if you try to walk off path, you get into wet boggy areas as I did. Thankfully today I was wearing waterproof boots. And let me further set the scene. By now it’s misting but the crazy thing is the wind is blowing at 35+ mph. And I don’t mean gusting like we have in Chicago where it PEAKS at 35 — I mean it was pretty much constantly blowing that hard. Several times I sort of stopped near a rock outcropping to try to have it block the wind (only sometimes worked). And seriously, many many times I just squatted wherever I was (thank the gods and fairies — I can do the infamous Asian squat) because I felt like I would otherwise be blown over. But I held on. And got to this. By the way, see the two girls? We stopped a woman coming down just after I took this photo and they both opted to turnaround at this juncture. The woman reported it was pelting rain further up and “really hard to see” on the sharp descent over rocks. And I was worried about the wind?! But I did go a bit further. See that little hill up there? If you expand it, you’ll see teeny tiny people up top (who are NOT fairies). That’s the ultimate viewpoint. The one that makes the area look like Mordor. The one that I can just google and insert here. In fact, here’s the link: https://goo.gl/images/UeXiV3

So here’s where I make the decision that it’s just not worth it to go all the way up. I’m finding this an apt analogy to my overall views on career and perhaps life in general. I’ll work hard. I’ll get pretty far — to where I can see the ultimate goal and know in my heart that I can do it if I want. But I really just lack the ambition to go all the way when it’s going to have too big an impact on my creature comforts! If it’d been sunny and not 35 mph winds, I’d have done it. Perhaps. But it’s just not worth that extra time and effort when I can just as easily find the photo elsewhere and not worry about being blown off a mountain (clearly this girl is never going to be one of those Mt Everest climbing types!!!)

In any case, I gladly returned. I was never so happy to see my tiny Hyundai rental car! By the way, on the downhill, with the wind at our backs, several people were running — leaping over the rocks as they went down. They must be part goat. I actually saw one guy with a cape of some sort (and no shirt) leaping and sprinting with a dog at his side. Seriously. I’m thinking he was auditioning for a Viking show or something.

I have to add that when I got into my car, I played Misty Mountain Hop — um I actually thought it was called misty mountain Top — Zeppelin never does song titles that make sense — but regardless of title, it seemed appropriate to the setting!

At this point, I wisely modified my plans … there’s another famous spot outdoors that was nearby, but with the wind and rain not showing any signs of abating, I decided it was time to visit a castle. This one, Dunvegan, is still owned by the MacLeod (pronounced mccloud) clan (currently at Chieftain XXX). It has a fairy tower as well as a dungeon — and turrets and cannons facing Loch Dunvegan behind it. It was hard to get photos with the heavy rains but you get the idea. It also has beautiful gardens and grounds, but I didn’t spend much time there. Just a quick tour. They have their own waterfalls, bridges, walls, and of course a ton of walkways that I totally missed. Finally, I decided to take the long drive to a lighthouse — wondering if it was even visible in this storm. It was quite an interesting drive. A lot of the roads here are only wide enough for a single car … so you have to play a sort of game of chicken to see who is going to pull over to let the other side pass. There’s quite an art to it but it gets a bit scary when you’re taking curves and “blind hills” with no idea if there’s someone speeding up on the other side. I had fun on the drive for the most part. A couple yahoos but generally people are considerate and competent. That said, the lighthouse was closed (or at least the path one normally takes to it was closed off). I tried to take a video just so I could remember the sound of the whipping winds but I got very wet attempting to do so.

On the way back, more long “chicken” drives. Oh speaking of livestock — there’s a lot here just roaming around. Sometimes penned but often just loose and today some were even in the road. Sheep. Also horses. Highland cows. Regular cows. And then more sheep. Very cute but I can’t really stop to take their photos.

And that’s about it for the day! Tomorrow if it’s not storming I’ll try to see a few more sights on the Isle of Skye and then I’m heading inland. My plan for the outer Hebrides had to change because of this weather– the ferries are being delayed due to the winds.

Bye bye love —

Hello Inverness.

(My take on the Everly Brothers!)