Day one of the summit was a "Day of Adventure" with several activities provided for the delegates to experience the local area including whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking, nature walks, deer hunting, rock climbing, and canoeing. I was thankful to have the opportunity to get a spot on the Spey River Canoeing and whiskey tasting trip. It was hosted by David Craig who owns and runs http://www.speydescent.com/ , a small adventure company specializing in open canoe runs of the history rich Spey river. David was an amazing guide with an encyclopedic knowledge of the country side, local history, the river and of course Scotch Whiskies. 
We began with a short van ride to the put-in point where the boats were already waiting for our arrival. The weather was cool with what would become a strong tailwind and thankfully no rain. Our group of nine included writers, river guides, travel consultants and me, a firefighter.
After a short paddle lesson and introduction to David's mistress (the Spey), we paired up and began the day on the river. I shared a boat with a freelance writer based in San Fransisco, Don, he was a great paddling buddy with just enough experience to make it a fun day. That's us, I'm in the blue Smurf hat.
We floated the initial easy water and listened to David's descriptions of early Scottish river life. As we passed various geographic features, plants and homesteads David would expand his stories to included botany, geology and intriguing descriptions of bloody battles fought on local soil. Most of the names and titles allude my English speaking tongue but the pronunciations sounded romantically beautiful. Even if it was just a rock on top of a hill. The river led us through farmlands supporting sheep and cattle. Long ago the river banks were thick with trees resulting in a new fly fishing technique suitably called Speyfishing. Due to the dense woods at the fisherman's back a special style of casting was invented to eliminate the need for the traditional fly fishing back-cast. Eventually the local land owners mowed down the trees for improved view and easier river access. So today the dense woods are more like spots of random trees. 
The river meandered lazily through the country side and soon expanded to form a wider body of water. Just prior to crossing the open water we stopped for a breezy lunch of tea, coffee, homemade sandwiches and biscuits sweets. The company was friendly, the weather was lovely, and the service was over the top personal. David's wife had lovingly prepared three different sandwiches for the lot of us to enjoy and enjoy we did. There was mature cheddar with fruit chutney, salmon lox and ham sandwiches to choose from. 
All were equally as delicious. After lunch we made our way to the open water choosing not to tie up and raft but to make our way as several separate boats. The threatening whitecaps reached higher and higher as we crossed the lake. 
Thankfully we all reached the far side with not one capsized boat. Safely back in the calm waters of the Spey river main channel we continued our float toward the awaiting whiskey tasting. The next section of water brought with it a couple small areas of textured water requiring a greater level of concentration. 
Having cleared all but the final rapid we were welcomed to the take-out point by a set of pipes belting out into the heather and aspens.
Yet we still had a small section of technical water. The romantic sound of the pipes combined with the late hour and the anticipation of some of the world's finest whiskey distracted us all resulting in a rather hilarious log-jam of canoes at the sharp left-hand bend. 
All went well and again we averted a capsize. After a small duty of loading boats we were led like piper-mice to our destination nestled in a carpet of ferns and heather. 
The tall trees hugged the small yurt where we were treated to mystically intimate tunes, wonderfully creative yarns of flavour planets, aging processes and the finer arts of Highland Scotch Whiskey distilling and aging. 
We had the immense honor of having Dr. Andrew Forrester, the Balvenie Ambassador to the UK, educate us on all that is Scotch Single Malt Whisky. 
So began our meandering of a path through the best of the Balvenie elixirs starting with the Signature moving to Single Barrel, then Double Wood. 
We made a short stop to examine the true pure spirit in its raw form before continuing on to the Portwood 21. Then a treat, we were blessed with a half dram of the wonderfully rare Thirty, a bottle of bronze goodness none of us would choose to afford. 
Finally we rounded out the pallet exercise with a tasting of the latest experiment of Peatwood, a malt with wonderful accent of peat introduced during the drying process of the barley. Our day of adventure ended with a late return to the hotel. We had passed the time of using the shuttle van and had to cram into David's personal vehicle, it was one last bit of fun before returning to the Summit.............................
We began with a short van ride to the put-in point where the boats were already waiting for our arrival. The weather was cool with what would become a strong tailwind and thankfully no rain. Our group of nine included writers, river guides, travel consultants and me, a firefighter. After a short paddle lesson and introduction to David's mistress (the Spey), we paired up and began the day on the river. I shared a boat with a freelance writer based in San Fransisco, Don, he was a great paddling buddy with just enough experience to make it a fun day. That's us, I'm in the blue Smurf hat. We floated the initial easy water and listened to David's descriptions of early Scottish river life. As we passed various geographic features, plants and homesteads David would expand his stories to included botany, geology and intriguing descriptions of bloody battles fought on local soil. Most of the names and titles allude my English speaking tongue but the pronunciations sounded romantically beautiful. Even if it was just a rock on top of a hill. The river led us through farmlands supporting sheep and cattle. Long ago the river banks were thick with trees resulting in a new fly fishing technique suitably called Speyfishing. Due to the dense woods at the fisherman's back a special style of casting was invented to eliminate the need for the traditional fly fishing back-cast. Eventually the local land owners mowed down the trees for improved view and easier river access. So today the dense woods are more like spots of random trees. The river meandered lazily through the country side and soon expanded to form a wider body of water. Just prior to crossing the open water we stopped for a breezy lunch of tea, coffee, homemade sandwiches and biscuits sweets. The company was friendly, the weather was lovely, and the service was over the top personal. David's wife had lovingly prepared three different sandwiches for the lot of us to enjoy and enjoy we did. There was mature cheddar with fruit chutney, salmon lox and ham sandwiches to choose from. All were equally as delicious. After lunch we made our way to the open water choosing not to tie up and raft but to make our way as several separate boats. The threatening whitecaps reached higher and higher as we crossed the lake. Thankfully we all reached the far side with not one capsized boat. Safely back in the calm waters of the Spey river main channel we continued our float toward the awaiting whiskey tasting. The next section of water brought with it a couple small areas of textured water requiring a greater level of concentration. Having cleared all but the final rapid we were welcomed to the take-out point by a set of pipes belting out into the heather and aspens. Yet we still had a small section of technical water. The romantic sound of the pipes combined with the late hour and the anticipation of some of the world's finest whiskey distracted us all resulting in a rather hilarious log-jam of canoes at the sharp left-hand bend. All went well and again we averted a capsize. After a small duty of loading boats we were led like piper-mice to our destination nestled in a carpet of ferns and heather. The tall trees hugged the small yurt where we were treated to mystically intimate tunes, wonderfully creative yarns of flavour planets, aging processes and the finer arts of Highland Scotch Whiskey distilling and aging. We had the immense honor of having Dr. Andrew Forrester, the Balvenie Ambassador to the UK, educate us on all that is Scotch Single Malt Whisky. So began our meandering of a path through the best of the Balvenie elixirs starting with the Signature moving to Single Barrel, then Double Wood. We made a short stop to examine the true pure spirit in its raw form before continuing on to the Portwood 21. Then a treat, we were blessed with a half dram of the wonderfully rare Thirty, a bottle of bronze goodness none of us would choose to afford. Finally we rounded out the pallet exercise with a tasting of the latest experiment of Peatwood, a malt with wonderful accent of peat introduced during the drying process of the barley. Our day of adventure ended with a late return to the hotel. We had passed the time of using the shuttle van and had to cram into David's personal vehicle, it was one last bit of fun before returning to the Summit.............................
The remaining three days of the summit were a blur of activity consisting of 15+ hour days of lectures, networking, and generally taking care of the delegates needs. We ate at meals sponsored by Scotland (haggis), Ecuador, Finland, Mexico, Brazil and others. It was exhausting, challenging and at times really fun. But when it was over we were all really glad. The final night ended with a few hours on the dance floor with delegates from all over the world. Cheryl and I scheduled seats on the buss to Edinburgh departing at 5am the next morning. We hastily packed and made our way bleary-eyed out to the buss. We spent a few hours touring Edinburgh and eventually met up with our traveling group for a train ride to London..........................
London brought with it a time of decompression from the stresses of the Summit, we each processed it a bit differently, overall we were happy to be done. Cheryl and I took a midnight walk on the Thames crossing the Tower Bridge and taking a ton of photos of the illuminated bridge and castle. While shooting the Tower Castle we actually saw a fox, red body and white tipped tail and all, slink out of the landscaping and shoot down an underpass tunnel into the night. (Most of the photos Cheryl took are larger files so I can't post them here, refer to her Facebook page for viewing when she gets them uploaded.) We spent the next day celebrating Cheryl's birthday on and off tour buses seeing the city and the sights. We ended up in the Soho district for dinner and a show, we saw STOMP in an small theatre. It was a blast! We walked around a bit and then caught the underground back to the Tower Station to make it a night. The final day in London we spent as a couple. We covered about 10 miles of the Thames river bank walk, visited the only firehouse in the city of London (had some great tea with the on-duty crew), and checked out a street market just as it was closing. We even enjoyed watching a movie crew filming the second "Jonny English" movie on the street next to our hotel...........................
We departed London the next morning catching a taxi to the airport. A little duty free shopping and a LONG flight home brought us to Sea-Tac only one hour after we departed. I still have a challenge with the math on that one.......................
Tony
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A life well lived my friend, a life well lived.
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