Chicago Highland Games

[Brewboy]

This past weekend was the Chicago Highland Games, which is held out at the Oak Brook Polo Grounds (about an hour outside of the city) for some reason. The first night saw a rather powerful thunderstorm that blew several tents away (including our own Glen C's Chisholm tent), and put an early end to the festivities. Saturday was a day of sun, heat, and numerous mud puddles that was fun for the whole family. Here are some pictures:

This is what my girlfriend looks like when we are standing in a field during a thunderstorm and tents start blowing away:


Here we are the next day, with sun, fun, and good company-AcuteEnigma, AuldArgonian, belloitpiper, myself, and McFarkus:


My nephews find their true calling:


I participate in the nobbly knees contest:


How come the renfair guys get all the girls...wait:


The caber is tossed:


McFarkus, beloitpiper, and some very excited guy escape the heat:


A group shot with AcuteEnigma, the Earl of Caithness, myself, Glen C, AuldArgonian, McFarkus, and beloitpiper:


I understand, WARPIPER, carlb, TheKiltedCoder, phantomws, and Hellequin were also there, but I did not run into any of them. We left at about 3:30 on Saturday as I had some things that needed doing, and the girlfriend was about to die. If you can't tell, she's a bit fair skinned. By the end of the day she looked like a lobster, and that's with 2 applications of sunscreen (35 and 50).

If anyone else has pictures, I'd love to see them!

[SFCRick]

Even with the early rain, looks like a great time

[GMan]

Wow even with that "Celtic Storm" glad to see that you all survived and by the looks of it had a great time.

[Lady M]

Looks like a fun event, great group shot too, thanks for sharing!

[ghostlight]

Thank you for sharing your outing with us. Now you can say you've been "blown away" by the Chicago Highland Games.

[Dan R Porter]

By far CHicago is my favorite city, I still have dreams about the L....and that darned Pizanos pizza mmmmmmmMM!

[McFarkus]

I skipped Friday evening (though I'd prepaid for a ticket) because of reports of foul weather. I understand the main tent next to the bandstand which was anchored by 3 foot long stakes was uprooted and blown away. Apparently there was a line at Home Depot on Saturday morning to buy new tents and they were shortly sold out.

Saturday was an unrelentingly hot and sunny day. I applied sun screen about 4 times. It was great to meet up with some of the Chicago Rabble and to meet the Earl of Caithness, chief of Clan Sinclair. Unfortunately there are no pics of his chief's bonnet with the three feathers. By the time AcuteEnigma brought him over to meet the rabble he was dress somewhat casually as you can see. He had with him a large floppy hat to protect him from the sun and was very cordial and down to earth, introduced himself to us as Malcolm.

All in all a great day. A special thanks to Glen C for his hospitality at the Chisholm tent. My dog, Parker, and I were most grateful.

Oh, and Brewboy, IMHO your girlfriend is a definite keeper.

[TheKiltedCoder]

Hi, All,

Mrs. Coder, and I were there (along with the gent that got me kilted and addicted to begin with). I tried to call McFarkus, but, unfortunately, I couldn't get the call to go through. And even then, we were only there from 3 to about 5 (Baby Coder was there too, and was getting pretty overstimulated by about 5). We also wanted to beat the rush out the door.

My friend is a pretty durned good piper, and so we spent some time over with the piping competition. He'd piped with a group up in Milwaukee for a bit and had wanted to see them. We missed their competition, but we got a chance to chat with them for a bit.

Looking forward to Retro Red's return!

Brian

[heilanner]

some good pics. looks like a fun day.

i never meet anyone i know at the highland games

[WARPIPER]

I am sorry I missed it. Would have been more fun than pumping water out of the baling water out of the basement from the storms.