USS Highland Games - Orange County, California

**kiltedinUSMC** · 27th May 08, 09:17 AM

sorry I missed the games. I had to work this weekend so I could get leave on Friday to take care of things in Pennsyvania.

**Yaish** · 27th May 08, 11:34 AM

Well it's family first, we all know that. Hopefully everything goes well in Pennsylvania but I did miss you at the Games this weekend.

**ccga3359** · 27th May 08, 02:29 PM

USS Highland Games, now there's a ship for our kilt Marines.

**James MacMillan** · 27th May 08, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by ccga3359

USS Highland Games, now there's a ship for our kilt Marines.

The Marines were there! Retired types walking all over the place! Active duty Jar-heads in Cammies and Charlies, and the recruiters too. The recruiters had a custom red painted (privately owned) Hummer with some nice patriotic art-work on it plus their tent and some freebies.

Oh, and a couple of BAMs too!

**Colquhoun** · 4th June 08, 11:28 PM

What a shame I missed this thread until AFTER the games, as I would have liked to have shared a beer with everyone.

I too passed the fine buch of lads from Pendleton as they stopped to admire the weapons on display at the 42nd's tent. They also looked to be having some fun on the archery range earlier in the day.

A first for me, was that I got to attend the Whisky tasting this year. It seemed enjoyable enough, although, sadly, there was only one brand... Glennfiddich... which is a staple around our house. We are huge fans. About the only real surprise was I now know what the 30 tastes like. A quick stop at the Seaside (Ventura) games tent provided assurances that they will be having a minimum of 3 brands at their games.

We also stayed after the tasting and enjoyed the concert with Alex Beaton and Celtic Spring. I'm not as huge of a fan of Alex's as some others in our party, especially when he performs without Alasdair Fraser, but Celtic Spring is nothing short of amazing and I look forward to seeing them whenever I can get the chance.

And yes, quite nice to have the games back in Orange County again. L.A. was nice enough, but the hike to the athletic field was a bit of a joke. Having the field nearer the middle of the event as they did at O.C. made it far more enjoyable on the spectators.

Even better, we met up with some friends who were doing their first festival and several members picked up their first kilts. They seem to be quite smitten. This was then followed by dinner drinks and dancing into the wee hours of the evening over at the Auld Dubliner listening to the wonderful tunes from one of my favorite Irish bands... The Whooligans.

Yes indeed, a great time was had by all!

Brett