Although my wife attended last year, this was my first trip to the Portland Highland Games, held at Mt. Hood Community College. If acres of tartan stir your heart, and you dig guys in kilts, there was no finer place to be this weekend.

And certainly you couldn’t ask for finer weather. The cloud cover kept the temperatures down until shortly after noon, when the sun burned through to make a beautiful afternoon. The games included both athletics and entertainment, with traditional athletic events on the main field, and piping and dancing near the track.

The men and women who were participating in the “heavy” athletics (stone throw, hammer throw, tossing the caber, etc.) certainly looked imposing. However, looking at the fine collection of heavyweights waiting for their chance to hoist a 96-pound rock over their head, and then throw it as far as they could, I couldn’t help but sense something was wrong…

Ah. Well. I guess you couldn’t expect an event of this magnitude to come off without some tiny hitch. In addition to the adult athletics, there was also a kids’ version of the highland events, with a small-scaled stone throw, caber toss etc. If you were of Scottish descent, there were many opportunities to find your clan and check out your traditional tartan and coat of arms.

There were also vendors of kilts, hats, scarves, and an astonishing array of knives and swords. In fact as the day went on I started to see an alarmingly large number of young men carrying edged weapons around. I didn’t find it all that reassuring.

My family probably enjoyed the Border Collie exhibition the most, where we got to watch several experienced trials dogs work a quartet of sheep. I’ve always found watching a well-trained sheep dog to be a fascinating experience. They bring so much intensity and joy to their work, it’s easy to forget that it’s a “job”.

After a full day we’re tired, and a bit sunburned, but it was a good day to be celtic, even if it’s just a little bit.