Since as long as I can remember I have gone somewhere on holiday every year during summer. As a child I was brought up in a working class family living in Glasgow, but my mother and father always managed to save enough money to take the children to the ‘seaside’ every year. And what happy memories I have of these holidays. Even after I got married it was always the talk around the table at the turn of each New Year ‘where will we go on holiday’?
Dad with his cool hat! 
Happy days at Eyemouth 
Dad ‘photo bombs’ the picture! 
My family in Cornwall
This year we planned a holiday in Oban and Tiree, made all the arrangements, booked hotels and ferry, only for it all to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 virus pandemic. So like countless thousands of others we were disappointed. The Isle of Tiree on the West Coast of Scotland was our ancestral home, so we were particularly keen to revisit the island after many years. I’ve been reading T C Smout’s book ‘A Century of the Scottish People – 1830 – 1950′ in which he describes the potato famine of 1846 which devastated and decimated the people of the Western Isles and Ireland, and which brought our branch of the McKinnon clan over to Glasgow in search of work. Potato was the staple diet of the people, and Smout records the story of the little boy being asked, what he had to eat for his three meals each day? to which he replied ‘mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes’, when pressed further by the enquirer, and with what else? He replied with great artlessness and surprise – ‘a spoon’. We were hoping to get something more with the potatoes when we revisited, but it looks like we will have to forego this destination in 2020, and will just need to hope for another opportunity to arise!
One other destination in life that I missed, which I always look back on with some disappointment was a visit to Machu Picchu in Peru. I was a Sugar Engineer, and back in 1980 I was asked by my company to spend some months in Peru assessing the equipment needs of the nationalised sugar factories in Peru. Since I was going to be there for sometime I had set my heart on visiting this famous world heritage site.
Machu Picchu is the remains of an Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains above the Urubamba river valley at a height of 2430 metres. At the last minute my trip was cancelled, and I was sent to another destination in the opposite side of the world. But last year my great nephew Joe Mackinnon set off from Scotland on a tour of Central and South America, and, yes you guessed it, he got to visit Machu Picchu! He arrived by train from Ollantaytambo, and then followed part of a traditional trade walking route between Cuzco and Machu Picchu, before visiting the village of Zurite near Ancascocha. He got some really interesting angles of the site and surrounding area. With his permission you can see some of them below. Well I guess this is a destination that I will now need to write out of my ‘bucket list,’ but how good to see it tho’, through the eyes of a family member – Thanks Joe, great pics!
There are many routes to the worlds destinations, and its great if we have time and opportunity to explore them. When it comes to our final destination it’s a different story. We are told there are over 2300 religions in the world and 2500 gods to go with them, not to mention the faith of the new atheists and humanists, so humanity is treading many different roads, some like to think they all reach the same destination.
One Destination NOT to be missed: As a Christian I am ultimately looking forward to a heavenly destination. Jesus said to His followers ‘I go to prepare a place for you‘ and He also said that He alone is the Way to heaven! Now that reduces the options! But why else would God send His Son to die for our sins if there were many other ways?
So to finish, may all your dreams of travel and visits around this amazing world come true, and be sure not to miss the way to the final heavenly destination, as alternative routes Jesus warns will lead to eternal disaster! (The Gospel of John – Chapter 14 verses 1-6)
If you know this Jesus, we surely will get the opportunity one day to review the way He led us to our heavenly home – it’s going to be an ‘out of this world’ destination, with the ultimate host!
Matthew
Matthew McKinnon's Blog 