Tartan Day in Balboa Park, San Diego

[FossilHunter]

Costa Mesa is a much better Games than San Diego, hands down. Easily the best in SoCal (maybe the only one now?)

I’ve been to it once and enjoyed it. I definitely prefer it being held in May rather than June. Whoever it was that decided that an event where many men wear heavyweight wool should be held in June in Vista aught to be drawn and quartered. Lordy.

[SF Jeff]

Dixon is a small, low key event. No pipe comps or massed bands, just a handful of vendors. But it was fun. $8 bucks at the door and free parking.

Also a bummer about Portland. I know covid killed a lot of small local games here in CA but some of the big ones are also gone and not coming back. Queen Mary and Monterey for example. Let's hope Portland and SD return. Hate to lose any games, big or small.

[OC Richard]

Whoever it was that decided that an event where many men wear heavyweight wool should be held in June in Vista ought to be drawn and quartered. Lordy.

That's the thing- they're the San Diego Games and they used to be held in San Diego.

Those Games are part of a much larger, puzzling picture:

-San Diego Highland Games

-Caledonian Club of San Francisco Highland Games

-United Scottish Societies of Southern California Highland Gathering and Games (Los Angeles area)

-Seattle Scottish Highland Games Association

So we have four organisations all located in coastal cities renowned for their remarkably mild climates.

But three of the four don't hold their Games along the coast! Rather, they hold their Games in hot, dry, dusty inland valleys far from the cool sea breezes.

-San Diego Games: Vista

-San Francisco Games: Pleasanton

-Seattle Games: Enumclaw

And the Los Angeles area Games, before they came to Costa Mesa, were held in places near the coast but oddly cut off from coastal breezes and blistering hot, like Santa Monica's Corsair Field (1958-1976).

My first Games were in Santa Monica in 1975 and it was over 100 degrees on the field.

[FossilHunter]

That's the thing- they're the San Diego Games and they used to be held in San Diego.

Those Games are part of a much larger, puzzling picture:

-San Diego Highland Games

-Caledonian Club of San Francisco Highland Games

-United Scottish Societies of Southern California Highland Gathering and Games (Los Angeles area)

-Seattle Scottish Highland Games Association

So we have four organisations all located in coastal cities renowned for their remarkably mild climates.

But three of the four don't hold their Games along the coast! Rather, they hold their Games in hot, dry, dusty inland valleys far from the cool sea breezes.

-San Diego Games: Vista

-San Francisco Games: Pleasanton

-Seattle Games: Enumclaw

And the Los Angeles area Games, before they came to Costa Mesa, were held in places near the coast but oddly cut off from coastal breezes and blistering hot, like Santa Monica's Corsair Field (1958-1976).

My first Games were in Santa Monica in 1975 and it was over 100 degrees on the field.

I imagine some of that may be cost. Venues on the coast are pricey.

Obviously there wouldn’t be a better place in San Diego county than the Del Mar fairgrounds on the coast but I expect the cost would be enormous.

I’d prefer just about anywhere than Vista. It’s not centrally located at all for the county.

[YOJiMBO20]

I’ve been to it once and enjoyed it. I definitely prefer it being held in May rather than June. Whoever it was that decided that an event where many men wear heavyweight wool should be held in June in Vista aught to be drawn and quartered. Lordy.

I’m guessing you’ve never been to the Pleasanton games. Despite the name, the weather usually isn’t pleasant. 112 in the shade is miserable on its own. Adding in the kilt and the rest of the band uniform just makes it unbearable.

[FossilHunter]

I’m guessing you’ve never been to the Pleasanton games. Despite the name, the weather usually isn’t pleasant. 112 in the shade is miserable on its own. Adding in the kilt and the rest of the band uniform just makes it unbearable.

I’ve not and at 112F I doubt I ever would. ;)

Man, that’s as hot as Yuma, AZ in September and that’s deep in the Sonoran desert.

[jsrnephdoc]

I’m guessing you’ve never been to the Pleasanton games. Despite the name, the weather usually isn’t pleasant. 112 in the shade is miserable on its own. Adding in the kilt and the rest of the band uniform just makes it unbearable.

Um, last year's high temperature in Pleasanton on Labor Day was 67°F. I know the East Bay CAN get very hot in the fall, but 112°F is no more typical than 67°. I've been to the Pleasanton games only once (I think it was 2016), and I was quite comfortable in a 16 oz eight yard kilt and an Argyll, and I enjoyed myself immensely. My stepson (former Marine marksman, VERY proud of his IRISH—not Scottish—roots) enjoyed himself as well, enough so that I'm now trying to convince him he should take advantage of Rocky's plans to have USA Kilts do a dedicated weaving of the Marine Corps tartan to obtain a kilt for the Corps's 250th birthday this November.

Those extremely high fall temperatures from the offshore breezes can, INDEED be devastating. No one knows that better than I, having lost my Santa Rosa home to the 2017 "Tubbs" fire fueled by those winds and high temperatures (as did about 5000 other homeowners/renters in Sonoma County), but those extremes are atypical.

I have a sister who lives in Traverse City, MI. We grew up as "YUPERS" (residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula). 7 decades later, we're best of friends, and just this morning I was looking about on the web for summer highlands games festivals in Michigan, but found none in casual driving distance from Traverse City (which itself is situated deliciously on the Lake Michigan coastline). Has anyone here strong positive memories of summer highlands games in the Wolverine State?

[YOJiMBO20]

I’ve been there about a dozen times over the last 19 years since I joined my band. It’s been upper 80s to 90s more often than not. Last year I think was the first pleasant Pleasanton I’ve experienced.

[OC Richard]

I’m guessing you’ve never been to the Pleasanton games. Despite the name, the weather usually isn’t pleasant. 112 in the shade is miserable on its own. Adding in the kilt and the rest of the band uniform just makes it unbearable.

I remember that year!! The Pipe Band judges told all the bands that they were waiving the requirement to wear Highland Dress, that the bands could wear shorts and t-shirts or whatever.

In Pleasanton's defence I'll say that that year was an anomaly. I've been going to Pleasanton since its first year, and to Santa Rosa when they were held there.

Yes there have been hot years (at both venues) but there have also been mild years.

Two years ago at Pleasanton the weather at the Friday afternoon solo Open Piping competition was so chilly that people were scampering over to Target to buy jackets. (I was one of them! I hadn't thought to pack a jacket for Pleasanton.)