Highland Games 08

Took a trip to this year's Highland Games, today. Been a couple of times. Last time it was freezing. We had jackets and were hudled together for warmth. Better this time. Nearly perfect.  We arrived just as the joisting started. Meg and Liam found a good spot right next to the action. They could reach out and touch the knights. In the picture, there's a boy with a blue baseball cap. That's Liam. To his right is a radiant red-headed girl. That's Meg. They had a great time. Cindy (imagine this) was worried about flying pieces of wood breaking off the shields or lances and slicing through the air into the kids' sweet neck meat. Of course, all that worry was for naught.

Next up on the agenda: sheepdogs and (imagine this) sheep. And these weren't small animals, either. Full grown ones. About the size of the kids. Anyway, the show was cool and the rancher talked about the dogs desire to herd animals. How he whistles at some. Calls in Spanish to others. And calls in English to the rest.

He also said the matriarch of the group, the smartest dog in the pack, was a girl dog. Named Meg.

Speaking of dogs, we caught sight of one of the biggest ones in South Mississippi, if not the world. An Irish Wolfhound. As in: a dog that is gnarly enough to fight wolves in its spare time. I'm betting if it stood on its hind legs, it would be able to slam dunk a basketball. And it probably had twenty or thirty pounds on me. One ungodly huge son-of-a-gun. I wouldn't want to be on its bad side. And I wouldn't want to have to clean up after the hulking beast.

To end the day and further increase Cindy's blood pressure, I found some antique guns for the kids.  Maybe civil war era weapons. Not sure how it fits in with the Highland Games, but there were historically clad dudes there with these wicked cool rifles and pistols. They let the kids fire them. Meg had a little pistol. The report from the shot was like a shock wave, catching us all off guard. And Meg said, "Cool." Liam hoisted a rifle. It stood taller than he did. But he hoisted it. And when he pulled the faux-antique trigger, thunder filled the air. It was gloriously loud. And the kids loved it.

All in all, a good day for Clan McDougal.