Scottish Highland Games

Last night and today, Gil and I went to the zoo where the grounds were utilized for the first annual Highland Games for our city. Last night was mainly a music and dance concert. Today were the athletic and pipe band competitions. One of the guys we met through the Patriot Guard pipes with our city's band; he actually gives piping lessons, too! Rick's the one on the left in the middle picture below. Rick had come over to talk with Gil and me, finding some respite from the sun in the shade of a small tree, waiting for the massed bands ceremony. While talking, one of Rick's bandmates came over to have Rick help him tune his pipes. After they were both tuned, they played a couple of songs and then more bandmates started coming over for tuning and more warm-up songs prior to the ceremony. In the middle picture, we were literally sitting from where you see the camera shot; you can see it in the first picture, too... the guy was practically standing on my feet! All of a sudden, we had about 8 pipers right around us, playing, and though a lot of people think bagpipes are hideous and loud, I absolutely LOVED it! We had our own personal concert! It was awesome!

There were six bands total at the games, which I thought was a pretty good turn-out for the first Games ever. The bottom picture is from the Massed Bands opening ceremony; all six bands plus a fiddling group marched and played a couple of songs together. We walked through the zoo to check out the animals and watched some of the athletic competitions, too, but even though I remembered the camera chip, the battery died on me after I took about six pictures! Sheesh! You'd think I'd learn to check the silly camera before going someplace!