Precious metal

They called Argentina "Argentina" because they wanted people to think there was silver there, and that, therefor it would be worth exploring, colonizing, investing in. Turns out, there's no silver in Argentina (save imported to various jewelers, etc.) but people still explored, colonized, invested.

A little over a week ago, we Hoopers were some of those people, but the prized treasure we sought wasn't a precious metal, or even empanadas or tango or dulce de leche (although we had all those things and they were great), but the time and place to experience any and all kinds of new and less-new things together, the whole family,for the first time in years, in homage, remembrance, and celebration of Grandma Old in specific, and family in general.

Money and precious metals are all well and good, but, really the most (only) precious things we can have are those imbued with meaning and importance derived from time, experience, and love, whatever the finite details or definitions, with and from other people.

Argentina was awesome, in short, silver or no silver. (No silver, in my case.)

Aaaaaand other Islay things

And then mostly everything else on Islay was whiskey-wonderful. Okay, there was one other very cold and very wet ride, from Port Ellen to Bowmore, but that taught us:

1) never, never think you'll be fine without shoe covers.
2) Charlie had never had IronBru; Charlie thinks IronBru is gross.

And we tried a lot of whiskies. Twenty-three single-malts from five of the world's best distilleries, in order of our visits:

1) Lagavulin
Their Double-matured is my new favorite. Never has a drink left me with such a satisfying mineral aftertaste. Their Distillery special edition is also really, really, good. Like honey-smoke. This is the one we brought back with us, since you can only get it there. Clever, that.

2) Ardbeg
Found the whiskies a little harsh for my taste, but their cafe and postcards were good. Also, they gave us a free book of walks around the island, so bonus points there.

3) Laphroaig
Previously my favorite, now slipped down, despite them having all the olden-timey "technology" that they still actually use in their malting and peating processes. (See photos).



4) Bowmore
To be honest, I was so cold when we got to this one that I remember the free cookies more than anything. Though I'm pretty sure we had three or four different drams... .

5) Bruichladdich
Like a fun fair for whisky lovers! We tried thirteen different whiskies here. All sorts of insane and great concoctions. There was a series matured in different types of wine casks (called A-F. D was the best), and Octomore 3 (152), the peatiest whisky in the whole world ever, ever, at 152ppm. 152ppm! Laphroaig, for all it's hyper-peatiness, is 40ppm. Think about that. We also tried the Black Art, which is a secret recipe that nobody except the maker him/herself knows, that was very, very good. And so on. We spent a lot of time in the converted barn of the Bruichladdich tasting room, and it was a very good time.



There are still four more distilleries to visit. Our bed and breakfast served us buttered fish for breakfast. I left my bike glasses by a bunch of rabbits. Supposedly it's not always freezing and drenching. And sleeping on a moving-train bunk-bed is awesome. Can't wait to go back.