Andreas Welch Photography

Photography from around the world by Andreas Welch.

Browsing Posts in USA

Back in New Jersey, I went to a Baseball game with some friends. It was minor league, but good none the less. I forget the name of the visiting team, but don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget the uniforms (the bad desert camo)…they looked like they were lost.

Continuing the journey… I was near Manassas for work took a visit to the battlefield on the weekend. The short tour was fairly interesting. There was much more to the site than what we visited, but it was a scorching hot day, so we kept close to the visitor’s center.

While traveling around the US, I also visited the Camden Aquarium. It’s not a bad aquarium, but doesn’t really stack up to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where I’d recently visited. However, their “big” tank was impressive and nicely setup for viewing.

The games hosted a wrestling competition for both adults and children.

The tug of war was….amusing if not rather disturbing… Sharing is always best, right?

The stone throw is the final competition game that was held at the games. The same stone from the toss is used, but the scoring is by height.

There were a variety of races at the games. Anything from running from the bottom of the mountain to the top, to kilted mile, to relay races. One relay team wore chainmail shirts for their relay… Unsurprisingly, they lost.

The highland games, of course, had a bagpipe competition. Pipes were heard from dawn to dusk at the games, either from the bands, the piping competition, or the dancing.

The games hosted a Parade of Clans as well, where representatives of each clan marched by with banners. The parade was preceded by a parade of pipe and drum bands.

Another contest held is the hay toss. Contestants use a pitchfork to throw a 20lb bag of hay for height. The National Record was set at these games, by this person.