Saving for a rainy day

Jed and I drove to Thanksgiving Point yesterday


to attend the
Utah Scottish Festival and Highland Games.

We had fun experiencing a little bit of Scotland! Here are some of our adventures of the day.

At noon they had the Massed Bands march out onto the Tattoo Field. They were followed by the parade of the Clans. All day long they had pipers playing at each end of the park.








I made Jed try a few "traditional" treats.
First he tried Irn Bru which is fizzy juice (a Scottish phrase for pop) made in a Glasgow based company.


Dairy Milk (YUMMY) was my all time favorite chocolate treat while tracting in Scotland. (That's right I said while tracting. I always kept a handy supply in my coat pocket to snack on while people were slamming doors in my face)
I only shared one teeny little bite with Jed


And finally HAGGIS. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this traditional delicacy with my handsome husband! I found it slightly humorous that they served the haggis with saltine crackers instead of "neeps and tatties" (aka rutabaga and potatoes).


Then we watched some of the Highland Games

This is the Caber Toss. One man at a time takes a shot at balancing a caber (a wooden pole similar to the size of a telephone pole)and then tossing it away from himself. Points are determined based on the toss and the landing. I told Jed he should put on a kilt and give it a try. He said "Nah, I'm good."



In true Scottish fashion it began to rain, so Jed and I took cover in the barn where they had Irish Dancing (I use this term loosely though because really all it entailed was a bunch of little girls jumping around the stage).

After the dancing the Address to the Haggis was read.


In one of the clan booths they had maps to search and find where your clan resided or resides in Scotland. While we were searching for Pollock the owner of the booth came to help us. I asked her if she was Scottish, she said "No, but it's where my ancestors come from." So I asked her if she has been to Scotland. She responded, "No, but I would love to go sometime." I found it strange that this lady had an entire booth set up at the festival. So it got me thinking, "Has anyone here been to Scotland?" While waiting in line for our Haggis I asked the ladies behind us, "Excuse me, are you Scottish!" They excitedly yelled "Yes!" So I enquired a bit further to find out that their ancestors came from Scotland, but they too had never been to the bonnie land. Oh well, I guess nobody there has been to Scotland.

On our way out, on the side of the road I found this growing like a weed. It looks like the Thistle which is Scotland's national flower


And now for a little Scottish dialect, if you can correctly say this you can officially consider yourself Scottish:

Och aye the noo, it's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht ower auchtermuchty