So this weekend we had our tri-annual gathering at “a secret country mansion in Colorado known as ‘The Meadows.’”
We headed up to Estes Park with our good friends Stu, Shannon, Tim and Lexi. Shannon has Scottish ancestry, Tim has Irish in his blood, so it was only fitting to pay a visit to the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Heritage Festival.
It’s quite the festival — in fact, it’s probably one of the best events in Colorado throughout the year. I attribute this mostly to the ubiquitous drinking and the fact that they fire cannonballs into Lake Estes trying to hit an inflatable Loch Ness Monster.
Another reason I love this event: the animal pelts. And the bagpipers. And the $27 one-ounce shots of aged Irish whiskey, though I stuck to a frothy cup of Guinness. It’s more my style and my budget.
Haggis anyone?
I will say that eating the meat pies was like chewing on bits of wet bark wedged between cardboard. And the bangers…ugh. The bangers. I’ll have to head over to Scotland and England someday, because surely their food is not as crap as I’m lead to believe.
Piper solo!
We had our fill of pipers. The pipe band competition was held on Saturday afternoon, and as much as I love the peeling, primal sound of bagpipes, I can’t decipher one song from the next.
In fact, this festival is extremely difficult to shoot. For one thing, I have had terrible light both times I’ve gone: 80% cloudy, which ends up being diffused light. Too many of my shots look flat and colorless. Secondly, it is crowded and cluttered and finding a focal point to stand out is a challenge. You can only crop the porta-potties out of the frame so many times before you give up.
Take for instance, these two shots:
Diffused light on the left, cluttered background on the right. I have this vague idea that next year I’d like to show up with the white seamless and try and charge people $30 for a portrait. Who knows if it would work, but I’d love to see the results.
In the mean time, I’ll continue to drink too much beer and wish that the Day clan was Scottish just so I could have an excuse to learn the pipes.
I’ve been to… “The Meadows”… and I’ve even had me a Scottish-Style Old Chub on site…
Really – the food is not a bad as they make it out to be. A meet pie is actually quite yummy and bangers and mash is a childs favorite as it is terrible stodgy and fun to eat. At least you didn’t have to face pigs in blanket or spotten dick.
The meat pies were tasty. Very! It was those imposter pasties that we had the first time that were dry, leathery, and pretty gross. The onces we attempted to eat before we discovered where the real meat pies were sold.
Good times all around, though. I still wish we had seen some sheep-hearding action.
[...] eating meat pies (aka wet cigar in a pie crust) and drinking pints of Guiness at Scot Fest, we loaded up the cars and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. Stu, Tim and I were in one car, [...]