Williamsburg Scottish Festival

Well, The great Marquise and I made it to the old homestead and the Williamsburg Scottish Festival this past weekend. We left on Friday around noon and had a really nice drive up there. The weather was perfect for driving and the traffic was good, until we hit 664 and 64. We ran into the normal 5 o'clock Friday traffic that started at about 4. All in all, not that bad. The original plan was to head on out to the Yorktown Pub for dinner and drinks Friday evening. Unfortunately, the Pub has had its liqueur license suspended for 30 days, so no drinking for us. We asked the server how much more time they had left and she said 27 days. They had just started their suspension. I kinda feel for them. The place was empty. We ate there and then walked around the Yorktown waterfront for a little while and then headed into Newport News to Keagan's pub. My mom had said that they have music every Friday night there. The place was busy. The beer was not so good. The Marquise and I both ordered Smithwicks. When they arrived, they were .....horrible. I don't know if it was old beer, stale beer, flat beer, or just plan bad beer, but it did not taste like Smithwicks. I am fan of Smithwicks, so I am familiar with how it is supposed to taste, and it should NEVER taster like a cider, or even remotely fruity. The Marquise kept hers, but I sent mine back and got a Guinness instead. The Guinness was a little on the "robust" side, even for a Guinness, but it was much better than the Smithwicks. Keagan's did have music. The band was good, the singer was not. All in all, not a stellar night out.

Saturday afternoon, we went back down to the Yorktown water front and walked around a little there before heading on up to the Yorktown Victory Center. I had been there before, but it was several years ago. I had not realized that they had expanded the facilities a lot. We went out to see one of the reenactments (firing a mortar cannon) first and then went inside to see the "museum" part. We went in through the back door and so actually started from the end of the exhibit. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why none of this seemed in the least bit familiar to me. It wasn't until about 1.5 - 2 hours later that I realized what was going on. Of course by that time, we were tired and heading out the door for lunch.

Just an aside, the next time someone says that previous immigrants were quick to learn English as their new "native" language, there is an exhibit in the museum praising the German immigrants of the late 1700's for managing to keep their native language and customs. There was even a German language newspaper that circulated throughout the colonies. Something to make us all go Hmmmmmm.

Saturday night, we meet up with my brother, his wife and my nephew to head on out to the music festival. One rule: if you drink the "harder" beers, don't order first, or at least watch what the rest of your party is ordering. I was the first to order and everyone else kinda followed along. I ordered a porter. I ended up finishing my brother's beer, my nephew only managed to drink about 3/4 of his and that was over about 2 hours. My sister-in-law finished about half of hers before throwing in the towel. We got there at about 7p and heard 4 bands. The first 2 were not very good. The would have been fine for "daytime" gigs, but I would have preferred something a little more exciting for the evening shows. I was worried that the rest of my family would not really like the experience, and I think that was true of the first half. They seemed to enjoy the second half a lot more. The last two bands, Rathkeltair and Albannach were very good. I had never heard Rathkelter before and was quite impressed. They have one of the most talented bagpipers I have heard so far. Albannach gave probably one of their best performances I have heard this year. Actually, it was the best by far this year. The only better was last year at Tir Na Nog when I first heard them.