Tartan Day in Balboa Park, San Diego

[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.