Enjoying Our Scotch

This last Sunday we may a last minute decision to head up to the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Festival up in Estes Park.

It was a beautiful drive since the leaves are already turning for the Fall. It was a great day since the sun was shining but there was a light breeze so it wasn't too hot.

Dylan took this picture on our way back down, pardon the railing!

Lake Estes

We decided to go up since we both have some Scots-Irish heritage. My dad's mom is MacPherson and Dylan's mom is Thompson. They have booths for each of the clans and we each had a chance to learn more about our histories.

I had no idea the clans were still going strong! Chiefs and everything. The MacPherson's still own a couple properties in our historical lands. There is a clan association that comes complete with a quarterly magazine. The lady we met was definitely very involved and said they had been having issues with people being involved in the clan. There are events in Scotland every year, which I would love to check out sometime. Here is my clan motto: Touch not the cat but a glove. The "glove" being a cat's paw with the claws retracted.

Dylan's family was definitely much more on the friendly side. Dylan asked if there were any distilleries in their clan lands, and they said, "Well since you asked..." and poured him a shot of scotch. Mind you this was after we had each already had a beer and Dylan had already checked out the scotch station.

There was music from various Scottish and Irish rock bands, which was very entertaining!

They also had more traditional music, including a pipe band competition. Of course the pipes mean bagpipes!

Dylan definitely wants to buy a kilt from his clan and we may even try to march with our clans next year in the parade, depending on what all we have going on.

We did a lot of shop-looking, but didn't buy much. Just a sweet shortbread cookie pan!

The whole experience was so neat. We both had a lot of fun and it was a great way to spend our Sunday, much better than cleaning the house :)