You know you've had a great weekend when you can hardly walk up the stars to the office on a Monday morning. Scotland was at her very best this weekend and I had an absolutely epic weekend in the outdoors. With a sweet wind forecast for the west coast I headed down to Troon on Saturday with the family for a spot of kitesurfing, don't worry my two year old wasn't kiting, at South Beach Troon. Troon was at her very best, pumping cross shore south westerlies and sunshine meant I couldn't tear myself off the water for four hours, apart from a quick 20 minutes to change from a 12m to a 9m kite it was just non-stop blasting and boosting. Wow, it just makes you feel so alive! My GPS clocked up a max speed of 46km/h before the batteries packed in after 20 minutes. Ali and Robbie had a great walk down the beach to Prestwick and we eventually rolled back through the door after 8 feeling totally windswept and exhausted. After meeting a German walking group at the airport in the morning we headed to Go Outdoors, is this a brilliant outdoor shop or what? (I'll have to dedicate an entire post to it at a later date) We are going camping in the Hebrides for our summer holidays so needed to pick up some last minute essentials, although of course ended up buying nothing that we went in for. Sunday afternoon saw us pootling along with the Forth and Clyde Canal Cycleway from Bearsden to Erskine and back, only about 20 miles but as I was towing Robbie in his trailer the legs feel slightly worse off than normal. It's been a couple of years since I used the cycleway and what a huge improvement. Well done British Waterways, Sustrans and the local councils. The cycle route is hugely improved and really is a real pleasure to cycle with the family. If you are thinking of cycling in Scotland I would recommend the Sustrans Website which has a great mapping resource for planning local and long distance cycling journeys. So, getting back to the title of my post - 3 great reasons to live in Scotland if you love the outdoors! What did you get up to this weekend? Let me know. Neil