2015 St. Louis Scottish Games

It’s that time of year again…on Saturday, our whole clan drove out to Chesterfield for the St. Louis Scottish games! Yes, this was a change of venue, as it was previously held in Forest Park. I won’t lie, we missed to the old location, but that wasn’t because there was anything wrong with the Chesterfield location itself…it was just farther away from us, and not accessible by MetroLink, so it took longer to get there, which was not pleasant, especially given the traffic on the Poplar Street Bridge that day.

The first thing we did upon arriving was watch some of the athletics. The caber toss is always my favorite:

We also saw the sheaf toss:

And the weight over the bar:

And a little more caber toss, just because it’s so cool to watch!

We also saw all of the trophies lined up, waiting to be awarded. This was the first year that the Masters World Championships were held at the St. Louis Scottish Games, so there were a lot more awards than we’ve seen in the past!

One of my favorite parts of the Scottish Games is the highland dancers (accompanied by a bagpiper, of course!):

While the bagpipers are the most prevalent (and loudest!) musicians at the Scottish Games, there are other opportunities to hear music as well, including the Celtic rock band Cleghorn, and lots of folk music:

The food is one of the whole family’s favorite parts (of course!). There are always tons of people in this area, and really long lines, but they move unbelievably quickly. We all had our favorites, including fish and chips, a cornish pastie, and shepherd’s pie. Plus, Schlafly’s special-event, 80 Schilling beer!

We saw a lot of different animals, including birds of prey, sheep (and sheep herding), and cows:

The children always love the dog parade. There seemed to be less dogs this year than we’ve seen in the past, but we still saw all of our favorite breeds. I love the really big dogs, including the Irish Wolfhounds, Scottish Deerhounds, and Airedales! And we all love the Scottish Terriers with their adorable beards!

The Parade of Tartans is always great to watch. I love seeing all of the different clans in their unique plaids, some carrying banners, come together, and then parade around the ceremonies field led by bagpipers and drummers, and a colour guard:

We also enjoy visiting all of the tents belonging to the clans, and learning a little bit about each of them while the children collect their stamps:

There’s plenty of things for the children to do, in addition to collecting stamps, in the children’s area, and spread throughout the festival grounds:

The best part, though, is seeing the great love of Scotland and Scottish heritage everywhere you look!

This is definitely one of the highlights of the year for our family. Maybe one of these years, I’ll do some research, and figure out Ryan’s Scottish heritage, so we know which clan is “ours!”

2014 St. Louis Scottish Games

Today we took the whole clan on the train to Forest Park to attend the St. Louis Scottish Games. This was our second time going, so we knew what to expect, and how much fun we were going to have!

We met some really nice people!

As was the case last year, the children’s area was a huge hit with our bairns!

We made it by the British car show this time…I loved the WWII vehicle!

We saw some of the athletics, but not much.

And just a bit of the highland dancing.

We also saw some other demonstrations.

The children all loved the dog parade!

Not to mention the parade of tartans…we even witnessed a proposal, which was unbelievably sweet!

The children also loved visiting the tent of each clan and getting their “passports” stamped, while learning a bit about the clan.

And I, of course, loved the pipers!

I also loved all the Scottish pride everywhere!

It was a great cultural event, and I think the Scottish games are now part of our family’s permanent calendar. The children are already talking about going back next year!

St. Louis Scottish Games

This morning, I took my lads and lassies down to Forest Park to check out the St. Louis Scottish Games. We’d never been before, but since we’re wrapping up British history and starting Scottish history, I thought it would be the perfect event to attend. There was so much to see and do…we had a fun (and exhausting!) time!

There was great stuff for kids, including a play area and getting “passports” stamped by all of the different clans in attendance:

There was a sword-fighting demonstration (Turkey’s favorite part):

And sheep-herding:

There was a dog parade, which was very popular with the children (especially Chickadee), and I learned that there are a lot more breeds of Scottish dogs that I had imagined!

There was also a parade of tartans, with representatives from all of the clans there (Clan Ferguson was the honored clan of the event):

Of course there was food. We tried fish and chips (naturally), Cornish pasties, a Scottish soda called Irn Bru, a deep-fried Mars bar, and, for those of us of legal drinking age (me), the special beer brewed by Schlafly (Eighty Shilling), just for this event. We did not try the haggis, though!