I had the great opportunity to learn from and know more about a great friend of the EMC, John Cohn, over the past several years.  One of the stories John shared to us a while ago told touched our hearts.  In short, pulled from his website, this is the short story:

Sam was an exuberant boy with a 1000 watt smile. He loved his friends, family, dog, and bird deeply. Sam was passionate about guitar, snowboarding, lacrosse, and having fun. Yes, having fun was important to Sam.

Springtime meant lacrosse for Sam and a time to play hard with his buddies. Ultimate frisbee at the park were memorable times for Sam and he would come home with a big smile on his face and grass stains on his body. Summers you could find Sam floating down the rivers, swinging from a rope swing, biking, or just hanging with friends. A summer would be complete with time spent at Camp Abnaki and jamming at Burlington Rock Camp. Fall would be the season Sam would try and stretch summer out a little bit more until the snow started to come. That time was then spent at Bolton Valley Resort on his snowboard. He enjoyed ariel tricks and hitting the rails. Mostly he enjoyed just hanging with his friends and little brother Gabe.

Sam loved music and was always plugged into some song. Guitar was second nature to Sam. He could play “Asturias” on his classical guitar to heavy metal on his Gibson. He enjoyed playing bass and wailing on the drums. His favorite times were when he would jamming with one of his friends, or his big brother Max.
It is hard to capture Sam’s true spirit in a few paragraphs. He taught us so much. Mostly he taught us to have fun, ease up, and to be there for each other. He is a true best friend to many and deeply missed.

Sam was born on May 28, 1992. He was hit by a car on November 20, 2006 in Florida while visiting friends. His beautiful body stayed strong long enough for organ donation. He gave his heart, liver, kidney, and kidney-pancreas so that four others would live. His spirit continues on through them and surrounds us today. Sam lived his life to its fullest on this planet.

To help with Sam's passing, John and his family create what are called SamStones.  Here's a short description, found on his website, of what they are:

SamStones are made with love by Sam’s friends and family. Our intent with these stones is to pass on some of that love.  If you have found a SamStone please feel free to keep it, move it or pass it on. We hope that you will pause and feel the love that is being passed on to you. 

If you would like to know more about Sam Stones, you can find out more here:  http://www.samestone.org/.  Corinn and I wanted to contribute, so we were given a bag of stones from Diane, John's wife, and will now bring them on our McBe Adventures.  My goal is to, as accurately as possible, track where I placed them with a photos of the location and to document that location within something like Google Maps.  So if you see future posts of SamStones, you'll know that we've traveled recently.  Below is our first map of where we placed many Sam Stones while in the UK.  Click on each marker, as the map is interactive, to learn more about the location we placed the stone and a short story of the site.  You can even change the terrain, move the map around, and zoom in and out!

Below are photos where we visited with Sam being part of the shots.  We tried placing Sam where we though he'd have a great view of the locations we visited.  Some shots were difficult to obtain while others we though were really great.  We figured this would be good to compliment the map above as a way to visually see more of where we traveled with him.  Hope you enjoy them! 

Now that we are halfway through our trip, I realized I may have left out a tiny bit of explanation from my blog posts.  Who are the Nasmyths?

In 1994 my family and I joined Operation Friendship, an international exchange program for high school students.  The way the program works is that the families participate in a series of fundraising events with their chapter (mine being Schenectady) over the course of the year and the one summer each family hosts an international student for 3 weeks and the following summer one student gets to travel to an international destination.  In the summer of 1995 the Schenectady chapter hosted students from Dunganon, Northern Ireland.  The hosting chapter plans activities and events, such as a trip to Montreal, day at The Great Escape, a weekend at one of the hosting family's camps in the Adirondacks and activities at each others homes.  Both my brother and I participated in Operation Friendship (he hosted a student from The Netherlands and traveled to Northern Ireland).

In the summer of 1996 it was my turn to travel, and OF had assigned me to Edinburgh, Scotland.  I was actually disappointed; I wanted to go to Northern Ireland, and see all the people who had stayed with us last year.  It turns out my assignment was for the best, as the Nasmyths were my hosts!  After three weeks of living in their home, eating meals, being escorted around and taking a small "family weekend" to the West coast I was hooked.  They were my Scottish Family and we have been close ever since!  In the summer of 1997 Mary, Charles and their son Richard came to NY and stayed with me and my parents for a few weeks.  The following summer, my family and I stayed with the Nasmyths as part of our trip to Scotland and Ireland.  The choice of location for my semester abroad was strongly influenced by my desire to see them again (and go to school somewhere the natives spoke English) and they frequently hosted me for weekends and even a bit of a holiday to the Lake District.  Some of my favorite memories of my semester abroad are sitting in their kitchen, chatting, while Charles made dinner and we all drank a bottle of wine.  They even made the trip to the states for my wedding!

I couldn't love them more, and this trip Ray and I are on wouldn't have been possible without them!  Not only did they pick us up at the airport, tote us around for two days and feed and house us this past week - they also helped us plan our Highlands road trip!  They have been an invaluable resource, not only information, but guidance, advice and fun!  Charles has mapped out the route we are due to begin today, and given us all the highlights to see.  We will also have a chance to see the rest of the family: both Mary Ann and Jeannette (Richard's older sisters) live in the London area, and Mary Ann has very generously offered to put us up in a flat she and her husband own in London!  Amazing!

I have known this family for 13 years and really consider them my own.  While Ray only had a chance to meet them briefly during the flurry of wedding events, he now knows them almost as well as I do.  It's a bit of a mutual admiration society: they have seen all of the wonderful things that I love about him, and he now knows why I love them so much - and I think the feeling is pretty mutual!

As we say our good-byes this morning it will be so sad to leave them - but I know another visit will be just around the corner!  That's the thing that is the most amazing about really good friends, it doesn't matter how long you have been apart, once you are together it seems no time has passed at all!

Today was Day 2 in Edinburgh, and we were lucky enough to have gorgeous, sunny weather - very un-Scottish!  After another quick train ride into the city I dragged Ray out of the train station, across Waverly Bridge (all of about 10 yards) and booked us on a terribly touristy open top bus tour!  The Edinburgh Tour promised us an hour out in the sunshine (and wind) with views of the highlights of the Old Town and the New (mind you, New Town was built in the 18th Century, so everything is relative.  Highlights included some great views of the castle...

...the new Scottish Parliment building on the Royal Mile (the "gun" shaped objects are meant to be curtains pulled back from the windows - the Spanish architect wanted these to symoblize the transparency of the Scottish government.... everyone thinks they look like hair dryers, screw guns or hand guns)... ...Grassmarket, where the executions and hangings would take place (X marks the spot)... ...and the school that inspired Hogwarts! Our lovely tour guide kept telling us to "look up" - and we are glad we did - the architecture in the city is amazing, and the amount of detail work in the buildings is inspiring, you can almost miss 90% of it, unless you "look up"! This warning appeared on our tour bus, as the didn't want any of the passengers falling out with a quick start or a low hanging branch.  Our tour guide did inform us that there was one exception to the rule: English passengers should be certain to stand up, on the off chance we happened by a low hanging branch!

After the bus tour it was lunch time - hard to believe, right?  I had a small list of things Ray was required to eat before we left the country: Haggis, Irn-Bru and a deep fried Mars bar, all Scottish by invention.  Today we fulfilled the haggis requirement.  In the off chance any of you clicked on the haggis link in yesterday's post, you will understand why trying haggis was a big chance... I don't think they can be imported to the US as they may have been deemed "unfit for human consumption", but the Scottish are a stubborn bunch, and resourceful.  I had accidentally ended up in a situation during my semester abroad where I was required to eat haggis.  Actually not bad... tastes a bit like a spicey sausage... a good haggis should be peppery and have a good deal of whisky in it, I've been told.

So we headed off to The World's End pub for some pints, haggis for Ray and fish and chips for me!

Ray had a pint of Guinness and I had an old favorite of mine, a pint of cider with black currant.  It was a bit pinker than I was expecting, but just as tasty as I remembered. Ray's haggis was served with it's traditional sides, neeps and tatties!  We paid the extra pound for the whisky cream sauce, which made all the difference!  Ray loved it, an plans to sample it again!

After lunch we marched ourselves down to the bottom of the hill to visit The Palace of Holyroodhouse.  The oldest parts of the palace date back to the 12 Century and to this day it is still the official residence of the Royal Family in Edinburgh.  The Queen arrives every July, on our way up to summer in Balmoral, and is annually presented with the keys of the city and pledged the loyalty of the Scottish people.  She also holds a garden party for 8,000, so you can imagine the lawn. 

There is also the ruins of the old abbey, which I believe pre-dates the palace itself, that was included with the tour.  We weren't allowed to take any photos on the inside, but it was a series of stunning rooms, full of portraits, tapestries and furniture older than any of the buildings in this country! The garden was quite lovely, and backs right on to a large park, which includes views of Arthur's Seat. Here Ray and I both point to the highest peak - where we had been just the day before! Our day ended with a bit of shopping and a rainy ride by bus out to the airport.  We had to pick up our "hire car" as we depart on our road trip to the Highlands in the morning.  The Nasmyths also leave for their holiday in the North of England.  Charles and Mary will be sharing their holiday with their youngest son, Richard, and his daughter, Skye.  As a special treat, they flew Richard and Skye up to Edinburgh this evening so we could see them briefly before we all part ways.

Charles very thoughtfully checked the weather forecast for us this morning.  It seemed Edinburgh was expecting some showers, but that it would be clear in the West - so West we headed!  As Ray and I will be renting a car on Friday and driving ourselves out to the Isle of Skye, Charles thought we might benefit from seeing where we would be heading and teaching us the single-track road etiqutte.  Our first stop of the day was Stirling: here we did a drive-by of the Stirling Castle and Stirling Bridge, location of a famously victorious battle in the fight for Scottish independence in the 13th Century.

Ray and I visited the Wallace Monument, the memorial created to honor William Wallace of Braveheart fame, while Charles and Mary took a coffee break down in town.  The monument is a brisk walk up a rather steep hill.  When we reached the top we were fortunate enough to meet one of Wallace's men, who gave us the tale of Wallace's life, capture, execution and the 500 years between his death and the construction of the monument.  A long time to remain in the hearts and memories of the Scots, as he said. The Wallace Monument has 246 steps... up one very narrow spiral staircase.  Ray's first spiral staircase - and he didn't even let his claustrophobia get the better of him!  While 246 maybe doesn't sound like a lot, they have certificates and t-shirts in the gift shop proclaiming the accomplishment of climbing them all! The views from the top were great! To celebrate our accomplishment (all 246 stairs in both directions) Ray and I awarded ourselves with wee claymores.  Ray documented the "pinning" ceremony.

On our way out to Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond we made a quick stop at Doune Castle, famously used in the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  "...I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries..."

On to Loch Katrine, and the first of Ray's experience with Scotland's lovely lochs!  Charles, Mary, Ray and I took a stroll around the shore and experienced some lovely views, and a few moments of the puzzling Scottish rain. Our final destination was Loch Lomond; Charles took this as an opportunity to drive us down a single-track road.  The Highlands, and Skye in particular, have lots of single-track roads, and it sure was a good thing we'd had a chance to be driven down one by an expert before we made our own attempt!

And we've landed!

After a fairly uneventful day spent in Newark Airport, awaiting our 7:50pm flight, and a (fortunately) fairly uneventful flight (not mentioning the 6+ hours spent in non-reclining seats...) we arrived at Edinburgh Airport and got big hugs from the Nasmyths.  They thoughtfully wisked us home for showers and breakfast.  By midday we were ready to hit the road.  A low-key day was in order, and a little bit of casual site seeting in and around Fife was right up our alley.

First Charles and Mary took us to Lower Largo, a quaint little fishing town, which also happens to be home of the statue to Alexander Selkirk, the man whose adventures inspired Robinson Crusoe.

It seemed the plan was a bit of a tour of the small, and lovely, fishing villages on the East coast on our way to St. Andrews, where I had done my semester abroad.  Ray was geared up for lots 'o photos.  Our next stop was Elie, for some photos and chips by the beach - complete with vinegar and brown sauce.  Yum!

Crail is the quintessential East coast fishing village and is very near St. Andrews, so it was our third stop.  We saw lovely views, a very low tide and encountered our first Scottish rainstorm - this means that we were getting wet, but there was blue sky directly above... and no real clear explanation for where the rain was coming from... As we wandered around town, we passed a Bed & Breakfast which seemed to have an interesting tradition.... flag of the day... Our final stop of the day was St. Andrews, my old stomping ground.  I was very excited to show Ray the tiny little town I had spent my semester abroad in.  Funny thing... in 8 years a few things had changed....  I was shocked to see the number of tourists and the fact that there was an open top bus tour of the town!  For crying out loud - the downtown is made up of 4 streets each 3 blocks long, and the grocery store is the size of a gas station!  Well, as it turns out a few rather large hotels and new golf courses have been built, to take advantage of the fact that St. Andrews has the oldest golf course in the world.  Wow!  We did a quick driving tour of the town and took Ray to the cathedral ruins - his first! We stopped at the beach, which is out near my old hall of residence and gives the best vantage points of the town.  The wind was unbelieveable, and the fine sand was whipping down the beach like we were in the middle of the desert! The final part of our trip to St. Andrews was a visit to Andrew Melville Hall!  The building was designed to look like two ships passing in the night.... well... no one is quite sure they got it right, but ironically the concrete building is sinking into the ground.  The lawn out front was designed to look like the rolling waves of the ocean... and thus there are several large "mounds" near the building.  As a resident of Andrew Melville Hall, you had to be "inducted" via a process referred to as being "mounded".  At a most inopportune time, usually when barefooted, in the winter and preferably in your PJs, your fellow hallmates would pick you up, carry you outside and dump you on top of the closest "mound".  Once "mounded" you were officially a member of the hall.  So while I couldn't carry him, I did get Ray up top of the mound for a photo!