Stone Mountain Highland Games

We were at the Stone Mountain Scottish Highland games today, and we enjoyed seeing an army of bagpipers, learning more about our tartans and clans, watching games from the stands - like caber tossing, hammer throw, weight over bar, and the sheaf toss.  We looked around shops, watched Scottish dancers perform and listened to some music from the stage.  We ate... pizza... but later I came through on my vow to try out haggis... Maddie met her friend Lilia there, and we hung out with the Armstrong clan for a bit, but we had fun walking around watching and taking in the scenery.  We'll have updates in a bit...

We got up at a decent time today to make the short drive across the park.  I had the "Brave" soundtrack playing in the car, as we drove around the mountain for a visit to the Scottish Highland games!

It was an easy time parking, and we walked right in without problem, finding the different booths and tents all set up for the various clans.  Mom is park of the Armstrong clan, through her mother, and so we went there right away.  Another reason for the visit is that we knew some others there.  Maddie and her friend immediately hooked up, and from this point on she was there with her for the remainder of our visit, largely.

Mom and I walked around the different booths and tents, checking out all the displays and the information.  We found the Lamont Clan, which is a part of my heritage, as well as the McDonnell Clan too.  Also, we visited the MacLeod Clan tent, which was busy with visitors too.  There were lots of people wandering about, visiting tents, conversing about heritages and lineages and ancestors.

Clan MacLeod!

We headed over to the main field after that, and that's when we were in for a real treat.  There was a group of three hundred and something musicians marching in for the opening ceremonies for the game, an army of bagpipers and drums... the sound of bagpipes being played all day filled the air around the grounds, but here it was all in unison, and it was thrilling.

We got some gluten-free pizza at the booths, and Maddie got some wings - but don't worry, we tried something more Scottish a little later on.  For now, we were content to grab a bite to eat, and then watch the games themselves.  For a short while, Mom and I sat on the stadium seating area and saw the caber tossing, hammer throw, weight over bar toss, and the sheaf toss too.  The large crowd there cheered as the big burlap sacks would be tossed thirty feet high over the bar, or when the girls were running forward with the caber - this huge log - tossing it into the air to get that perfect roll over and landing. 

Doesn't Mom look great here?  I love her outfit.  She got a lot of compliments today.  She got us these new hats for the weekend, and of course you can see my grandfather's kilt fits me okay.  It's a little bit of a process getting all this on, but it was great.  So many kilts today!

Afterwards, we were walking through the marketplace area, and there was plenty to see.  We visited the tent of the Tartan History Museum, that place we visited not long ago.  The booth featured a few guys that were more than happy to show us our history, our tartans, and even our crest.  Here's the one that represents the MacDonald's, one I picked up to go on my hat.

Ah, Joey was with us too!  As far as I know, Joey doesn't have any Scottish ancestry biologically, but I think he's been grafted in.  The Scotts are very kind to welcome in extra family.

Maddie took this picture of me at the grounds to show the full outfit I wore today - Mom did well getting me dressed properly for the event.

Oh, and one more thing:  the matter of haggis.  I made a vow to try it out at this festival, and today I fulfilled my vow, ordering a meal of haggis and chips.  The final verdict may be evident on my face:  it's not terrible, which is to say I had about five or six full bites of the stuff.  It reminded me of liver, but amplified, and very potent in taste.  Texture was hopeful, but there's this aftertaste the lingers a bit, and so as much as I wanted to like it, I have concluded that haggis is not for me.  Fortunately, I had a bottle of Irn-Bru to wash it down.  That's the Scottish national soda, an orange cream sort of taste that's pretty unique.  

Anyway, we had a great time today, and the weather was gorgeous.  We saw a few musical performers with traditional Scottish instruments playing in the wooded area, and over there by the clans there was a large dance performance that we enjoyed as well.  It was fairly complex, but enjoyable to watch.  The shade in the woods there was just perfect, as we wandered around from place to place looking at the displays.

We left late in the afternoon, and had an easy drive home after that.  It's been a pretty busy weekend.  And look who was in our driveway as we arrived, conveniently popping in as we got home from our trip:  it was Ray and Valerie.  They were in town this week to visit with my parents, and it was our good favor that they were popping in to see us just as we were coming home.  So we sat together in the driveway talking for a bit before they headed by to my parents' place.  But we all decided to do something novel tomorrow: we're going over to carve pumpkins at Nana and Ye-Ye's house.  Should be fun!

Tonight we stopped our regular season programming for a Scottish themed feature:  "Brave."  Afterwards, we were all rather tired from our big adventure.  It's time to get some sleep!  

Oidhche mhath!