Sabbatical Wrap Up

Many friends have been asking me about my sabbatical and I have replied with the quick answers I assume they have been looking for... Great, Wonderful, Awesome.

I think in reality my response has not been more robust for a lack of the words to describe it. It was, in no uncertain terms, the best 9 week stretch of my life.

Now, if you shrink the time frame to be much shorter, the list of 'best times in my life' would include life changing events like meeting my wife, first date with my wife, wedding day, day each of the girls were born, day The Ohio State University won the National Championship over Miami...

But if you extend the time frame and make it 9 weeks long... this was simply the best.

The first few days included our first 4th of July in Oak Hills. Normally we are with Steph's family at Lake of the Woods in Southern Oregon, which is where our hearts were this year, but having returned to the US so recently, we decided we couldn't handle the trip so soon. The celebration in Oak Hills was great. Steph's mom and step-dad came up to help us unpack boxes and spend time with the kids. The neighborhood had a parade, a BBQ lunch and then the Portland Metro Area famous Oak Hills Fireworks display. We had friends over for dinner and then took in the fireworks... it was so much fun... won't replace LOTW on a regular basis, but it was great!

Then shortly after the 4th of July and after unpacking a few more boxes we headed to the lake for nearly 2 weeks of family time. Days on the beach with the kids and our good friends (the Wing family). Pink foofoos and beers at lunch, golf with Michael and Jerry... Crazy boat rides with the kids... Family in and out the whole time we were there... it was wonderful!

Then the crown jewel of the 9 weeks... my month in Scotland. I flew out of Portland and headed to Edinburgh (via SFO and London-Heathrow). I arrived and met my good friend Ryan and we headed off on the first leg of my golf adventure. He and I moved from Ayrshire in Southeast Scotland to St. Andrews on the East coast of Scotland, then North to Aberdeen.

I dropped Ryan off in Edinburgh the same day I picked up 3 other friends and returned to St. Andrews. We rented an apartment that was perfect for four golfers and I would recommend to anyone going for a trip to St. Andrews with a similar sized group. The company was amazing the golf outstanding and the whiskey (while expensive) was superb... that is enough adjectives to choke a horse and might lead you to believe I am exaggerating, but I assure you I am not.

At the end of the 8 days with the guys I dropped them in Edinburgh and continued my trek North to the highlands and Inverness. Inverness was attractive not only for the golf, but the scenery and the distilleries. It failed to disappoint. Golf courses, while most not as famous as those in Aryshire and St. Andrews were just as challenging and just as beautiful, the people even more friendly (I would not have expected it to be possible) and the distilleries plentiful!

Having been abandoned by friends removed the distractions that kept me from missing Steph and the kids... Being alone in Inverness, even with the golf, pubs, castles and distilleries, made me homesick like never before... So I called United that first night and changed my flight information, cutting off the last city on the itinerary and coming home 4-5 days early. I surprised Steph and the kids, not letting them know until I hit SFO.

I used some miles to send Steph on a trip to Toronto to see a friend from Shanghai that had repatriated before we did, then to North Carolina to see her best friend from high school... my little peace offering for having been gone for nearly a month playing golf. I packed up the kids and headed to Seattle to see some of our good friends.

Then we all reconvened at home and settled in for the return to work and the start of school for the girls!

That's the summary... here are some of the stats on the trip that'll give you a better feel for the experience I had. It should also answer some of the questions people have asked.

Best Golf Course: Tough, tough call, but based on history and nostalgia I'd have to go with the Old Course. I still struggle to put into words the experience of hitting from the first tee, hitting over the hotel on 17 and putting on the 18th green with people surrounding the green watching - hoping you sink that birdie putt...

Best Golf Course Runner Up: Kingsbarns was a BEAUTIFUL track that I played TERRIBLY on. I was horrible, the course tough, but fair and really spectacular.

Toughest Golf Course: Much of the difficulty of the links courses is dictated by the weather. It's the weather that probably made Prestwick Golf Club the hardest course I played. 30 mile an hour winds, gusts to 40+ and lots of blind shots... this was one of the few times I was truly happy to be done with a round of golf. Carnoustie was a close runner up for the toughest course... part to do with the wind, and part to do with just being a tough track!

Best golf value: Western Gailes in Ayrshire. 115 GBP included 18 holes on their beautiful links course and lunch in the clubhouse afterwards.

Worst golf value: Turnberry in Aryshire. It had just hosted the Open Championship the week before, so the stands and leaderboards were still up, which was cool, but at 240 GBP it was overpriced for what you got - which was the golf.

Best golf shot: The 17th at The Castle Course at St. Andrews. 175 yards over the North Sea, into a slight breeze. Hole playing 190ish, I hit a 4 iron to about 8 feet and made the putt for a birdie 2. Runner up includes a 40 foot eagle putt on one of the craziest greens you'll ever see!

Worst round: 100 at Prestwick

Best round: Shot a pair of 77s in the Highlands, the best probably being on Nairn which carries a 136 slope.

Best photo op: Has to be a tie between 3 pictures: 1) Ryan and I in our knickers on the Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course (at the top of this post) 2) The foursome on the first tee at the Old Course (below) 3) Me behind the bar with Mike and Lizzie at the Dunvegan (also below)

Best caddie: John Boyne at the Old Course in St. Andrews. A long time caddie and runs a golf tour business on the side. In between my 2 visits to St. Andrews he headed off to Wales where he caddied for a Scottish woman playing in the Welsh Open.

Worst Caddie: Some lady at Cruden Bay who's name I can't remember that gave bad advice, bad yardages, could not find balls and knew no history about the course.

Best Pub: Without a doubt, the Dunvegan in St. Andrews. A 9 iron from the old course (they actually did this one night, after what I assume was much whiskey), it's a golfers haven in St. Andrews. Visitors to the pub include Open Championship winners and celebrities (as chronicled in photos around the bar) as well as just about every other pint or whiskey loving golfer to pass through St. Andrews. Jack and Sheena (Jack a yank from Texas, and Sheena a Scot) have hired a friendly staff and have a decent menu. Beer is cold and whiskey choices are plentiful.

Great side note about drinking whiskey there one night... We were working on their bottle of Auchentoshen 10 and pretty much drank it all night long... we were sitting in a corner watching golf and playing cards and drinking (a little)... I went to the bar and ordered another round and Lizzie explained that we drank them out of their bottle of Auchentoshen and that normally they would have asked us to drink something else, but given how good of customers we were, they sent someone from the bar staff to the local whiskey shop to buy another bottle for us!

Best new scotch: Auchentoshen Triple Wood; a lowland distillery outside of Glasgow... If you can find it, try it!

Best B&B: The best B&B we stayed in was in Prestwick in Ayrshire. It was Golfview Guest House and was right across from Prestwick Golf Club - home to the first 10 Open Championships. It was clean, friendly and had a large fresh cooked breakfast. All of the B&Bs were nice, but Golfview stood out.

Biggest disappointments:
1) Scotch (which in Scotland is simply called whiskey) is not cheap in Scotland. It's similar to when we were in New Zealand and expected lamb to be cheap. It's plentiful, but not necessarily cheap.
2) Aberdeen... The B&B was not very nice, the gal had lost our reservation and had to put us in a different room than was booked, the city was very commercial and gray compared to the quaint beauty of St. Andrews where we were immediately before.
3) Cruden Bay is a golf course laid out by Tom Morris north of Aberdeen. It is consistently ranked in the top golf courses in the world. I thought it was 16 decent to very good links golf holes, and 2 terrible golf holes that nearly ruined the experience. It also might have had something to do with the worst caddie in Scotland.
4) That we couldn't work it out to have Steph or the whole family join me for part of the trip.
5) I was really excited about visiting a lot of different distilleries... which I did... but after a couple, how many big copper tanks can you see and get excited about? I learned it's not about the number of distilleries you see, but finding the unique distilleries.

The top 3 highlights:
1) The Old Course
2) The Dunvegan
3) Improving my overall golf game and links golf game to reduce my handicap to 8.8

If you know anyone planning a trip to Scotland, have them get in touch with me... I have enough information to choke a horse!