Today we went to the 168th Annual Highland Games presented by the St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit. This is the first time that we have attended this event, having only recently become aware of it. I have watched Highland Games on TV before, but despite trying on numerous occasions to attend the Renaissance Festival on Highland Weekend, have never seen them in person until today. We got to watch some of all the heavy athletics, including the Caber Toss, which once you understand the rules of is very fun to watch! We also watched some of the Highland Dance competitions and wander through the Celtic market. Besides the games themselves, my favorite part of the day was listening to all of the pipe and drum music! There was a continuous rotation of four live bands in the band tent as well: Crossbow, The American Rogues, Stone Clover, and Albannach. The food was delicious as well. We tried some traditional Scottish scones, along with a traditional Scottish Meat Pie and even some haggis! Our haggis was served in a puff pastry and was very good. I will be on the lookout for places to try this again in the future!
After spending the day at the games we then went and tried some of Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken. Honestly, I am typically not a fried chicken person. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, but I can honestly not ever remember a time where I craved it or it was my first choice for a meal. So when Melissa said she was craving it, I acquiesced and we discovered Gus’s. The chicken isn’t just your regular fried chicken, their special blend makes the chicken hot and spicy. I am a big fan of hot and spicy foods, and this may have been the best fried chicken I have ever had because of it. We also ate some fried green tomatoes, baked beans and macaroni and cheese; all of which was decent. I can see us returning here again in the future should the mood for fried chicken strike.
On the way to dinner we passed by the Blues Brews & BBQ festival that I had forgotten was also this weekend. So afterwards we went over their for a few hours as well. This event is a yearly festival that our city puts on that showcases local blues artists, local beers, and lots of great BBQ. Seeing as this year we had already spent the day out and had just come from dinner, we didn’t partake of any of the BBQ or Brews, though Melissa did manage to find the worst elephant ear I have ever tasted (it was baked, not fried). We simply found a nice shady spot to place our chairs and listened to almost 2 hours of blues music before finally heading home for the evening.
Overall it was a long day filled with lots of new things. We had a lot of fun and we will certainly consider attending these events in the years to come.