June 22, 2003, Sunday, 30th Annual Scottish Highland Games and Gathering of the Clans, Vista, CA. It is interesting that Lorri's grandmother's maiden name is Watts and that my great-grandmother's maiden name was Watts. Although we don't think we are related, there is an extremely remote possibility that our Watts ancestors came from Scotland by way of Ireland and England. Therefore, we felt it imperative to investigate the Scottish Highland Games to see if we could connect with some of our long lost relatives. Besides, we heard there was good food and cold beer.

This was the opening ceremony, There were an awful lot of guys in skirts at this affair but these were the only ones with really big hats.

There are many, many Scottish clans and quite a few were represented. Each clan has it own medal, coat of arms and tartan plaid pattern. The Scottish "Watts" clan apparently is part of the larger Forbes clan. The Forbes tartan is pretty ugly. I decided not to buy a custom-made kilt in that pattern but I could have. I could have purchased almost an entire Scottish Highlands outfit. The only things I didn't see for sale were the black wingtip shoes they seem to favor and Scottish underpants. Wait, do they wear underpants under those kilts?

There were hundreds of bag-pipers, all of who played different tunes at the same time.

Here Lorri is saying "I'm going over there where I can't hear all these dang pipers! My ears HURT!"

They do look colorful, though.

Next we went to watch the Boarder (Border? Boreder?) Collies rounding up the sheep. This was actually fun to watch. Those dogs take their job so seriously! They have those poor sheep well trained.

The handlers actually communicate to the dog what it's supposed to do. The dog circles around the sheep one way or the other, hither and thither and somehow, the sheep all end up where they're supposed to go. Amazing. Even the dogs who should be taking a break and waiting for their turn, watch intently hoping that the dog doing the herding will make a dumb mistake (tripping over a gopher hole, letting a sheep escape into the crowd, stopping to pee on a tree, etc.) so they can make fun of him later over a couple doggie biscuits.

Lorri met a new friend. His name is "Bunky" Watts, part of the Watts Clan. See what I mean about the Watts plaid? Not very attractive.

Here are two of the "Games" - "Braemar" (throwing a heavy stone) and "Weight Throw" (weight throw). Other exciting Scottish Highlands games are "Hammer Throw" and "Caber Toss" (throwing a long log). I don't know why they call these "games". Of course the Scots invented golf too, so maybe they needed something to do after a tough round to relieve their stress and frustration. You'd think they would have invented the "Club Toss" or perhaps the "Golf Bag Toss" or the "Throw the Stinking Little White Ball into the Lake", or should that be "...into the Loch"?

Anyway, we actually had a lot of fun. We ate bangers with onions and mash for breakfast and Cornish pasties and scones with strawberries and cream for lunch. We also quaffed a few McEwan's pale ales and John Courage amber beers while listening to some fine Highland tunes, bagpipes and all.