Adventures of Beth and Dan: Are you Scottish or Irish or Does It Matter?

Monday, August 7, 2023

Are you Scottish or Irish or Does It Matter?

After we left the 90th birthday party we headed back to our hotel. We had enough good food there that we didn’t need dinner. But we did take our stroll around the hotel which takes us around a lake. The blackberries along that path were ripe and ready and huge! We should have taken a container to collect some but everywhere we have been there have been lots of bushes just not ripe yet. Our plan was to leave early on Su day and get to the Scottish Highland Games and Clan Gatherings in Enumclaw which was along our way home. It’s a three day gathering for the Pacific Northwest and it was pretty spectacular. We had never been to anything like this before; I was excited for the music and Dan was excited for the food first and then bagpipes and drum corps. We really had no idea what a “ big deal” this was. Everyone was outfitted in their kilts and fancy dresses. There were even dog demonstrations for agility, herding and obedience! Lots of different musical groups performed with names like, The Seattle Knights, Celtic Spoons, That Irish Guy, Fiddle in the Forest, The Surly Goats! I think you get the gist. The amount of volunteers needed for something g like this was tremendous. It was a warm day also so folks were looking for shade. Sone music was inside and sone outside. There was a location to find out about your heritage too and Dan found out that on his moms side he was From the clan MacLellan. So Scottish it is!!! They gave us handout on it with all the history (4 pages long) and said we were always welcome to join them! There are lots of changes to the spellings over the years but we are official or at least he is. This was the 77th annual games. We missed the Scots Gaelic Choir presentation and Celtic Haro presentation as they were Saturday but at least we had fun and learned a lot.