Scots Fest

This is one of those blog posts a long time in the making. Actually, The past month just got away from me. Anyway, about a month ago we traveled up to Estes Park for one of the largest Scottish Festivals in the nation (supposedly). On our drive there, we realized that we didn't pay attention to the football schedule and were stuck in traffic in Boulder, as the freeway takes you right through the center of town as the main road. Next, we underestimated the quantity of people traveling into Estes Park that day. It took us at least 30 minutes to drive the last 5 miles into town. When stuff like that happens, you end up with a few of the following pictures. 

Notice the house 3rd up from the bottom. Almost the entire thing is lifted on beams.
You have got to be desperate to build a house like that.



I was curious about the Cider Cherry (other stores sold Cherry Cider) but I wasn't sure about the Elk Nuts.

We finally made it into Estes Park, found a parking spot, and entered the festival. They had all sorts of booths, vendors, and activities. Jake loves watching the Scottish sports; barrel toss, beam throw, etc. We started by wandering around the Clan tents.
 

For Uncle Jon and family (sorry about the behind in the pic)

After looking at the Clan tents, I suggested to Jake that his family set up or find their clan info. Although Watterson's aren't Scottish, they are from the British Isles (the Isle of Mann) which shares similar histories.

We walked through some vendor tents and not a single place carried on hand the Manx tartan (or whatever the family line name is). We could have paid or even ordered a kilt but it would have been close to $1K and right now, we don't have that kind of cash flow.

The food area smelled delicious. Some places had your typical fair food (deep-fried anything) while others strived for a Scottish/Medieval feel. After Ellie played on the giant playground, so Jake could watch Scottish games, and after grabbing food we headed over to the rodeo/jousting arena. Yes, they had live jousting and it was awesome.  

Real-ish Jousting

To finish off the day, we stopped by the bag-pipe contest area. Although they were loud, Ellie really enjoyed the music. 

The Utes played later that day, hence the red outfits.

And you should know Ellie enough by now, that if there is music, she is dancing. Notice the people on the stands start to watch her. Most people around us laughed. We loved it.

The drive home wasn't as bad as the drive there. We did take a different route home. Of course, Ellie was exhausted and slept almost the whole way. Must have been a fun day.