Saturday, April 9

Up around 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises so I could be ready when Niece and her husband arrived around 9 a.m. They stopped by for a brief visit before going to the Scottish Festival at the college.

We waited until after lunch to go, so we could take care of Shih Tzu's needs. We arrived at the college shortly after noon, and went to the library area, where the Scottish clans were to line up for a parade.

The colorful parade was at 1 p.m. Afterward, we went to the large entertainment tent to watch Great-Nephew perform with a Celtic group. Unfortunately, he was not called upon to join the group during the 1:30 p.m. set (he had performed in the morning, however).

We were disappointed, but we decided to stick around and listen to a Scottish performer play guitar and sing. He entertained for about 45 minutes, and then the Celtic group came back. Finally, toward the end of the set, Great-Nephew accompanied a singer on banjo for one song.

After that, as we strolled back to the van, passing clan booths, and booths selling a variety of goods from bejeweled daggers, to jewelry, to tams, to scarves, to clothing, to baked goods, I stopped at one and bought a loaf of Irish soda bread and an Irish dark chocolate cake.

We were back home around 4 p.m., and I put noodles in the chicken broth for soup to be served with chicken salad sandwiches. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I settled in front of TV.

It was a beautiful day for a festival, if a bit hot for so early in the season. But there was breeze that helped. We were lucky to get such good weather...for the past several years, Scottish festival weekend has been cold and rainy. Last year, it rained so hard and for so long that the ground became sloppy. Vendors folded early and left, and attendance was way down. That's why there was no admittance charge to the festival this year, the college president noted during his opening ceremony remarks. It was the college's way to make up for the disappointment last year.

Because the admittance charge had gone up and up and up over the years, we stopped going to the festival a number of years ago. We were glad to be able to attend again this year.

The crowd was huge. So much so that we feared we wouldn't be able to find a parking space close to the festival grounds. But luck was with us, because we found an open space immediately adjacent to the campus grounds, making it easy to unload the wheelchair for Mother.

Funny: during the opening ceremony, the Scottish singer was charged with introducing the dignitaries. Before he did that, he commented on how pleased he was to once again be able to entertain "here in Arizona." Oops, wrong state. Strange that he should mistake where he was, since he commented that this was his 26th year to attend this festival.