"My Old School"

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I packed up and headed to Williamsburg. We left the NoVa area a little late, and stopped for dinner, and so ended up hitting Williamsburg around 1:15 AM. I got out, shook hands with her parents for the first time, and went to bed an hour later. Her parents were very nice, but it was very late so I don't even remember what was said other than " I hope you brought earplugs".

We stayed at Anvil Camprgrounds in Williamsburg.

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Notice the train tracks convieniently located only 50 yards away? No matter how much warning you give yourself, or how deep your earplugs are in, when the train comes at 4:30 in the morning, the animal part of your brain starts screaming:

"Run!!!!"
The rational part of your brain responds with:
"Where are we, why are we awake?"

"Run away!"

"We are naked in a tent, why should we run and what is that noise anyway?"

"Death!!!!!! Run!!!"

"OK, that's the train they were telling us about, we should lie back down and get in the sleeping bag, it is very loud but it can't hurt us."

"Loud Death, Run Now!!!!!"

"Seriously, I'm already back in the bag, and the train is passing now, it did not hit us, let's sleep now."

"Run!!!!"


It seriously was scary as hell.

We all woke up a little groggy, had a cup of coffee, brushed our teeth, and talked small talk for a brief 2 and a half hours until someone fianly said "Let's go"

Let's go ment IHOP, and then finally the Highland Games. I was excited, but worried that we would miss all the games. But, even though we did not get to the Games until 1:00 PM on the second of two days, we did still get to see a few events, plenty of pipers, and lots of cool vendors.

In fact, about 15 minutes after we arrived, they set up for the event I wanted to see the most, the Caber Toss.

In Caber tossing, an otherwise normal man picks up an 18 foot telephone pole weghing roughly 100 pounds and throws it end over end, trying to get it to land at a "12:00" angle from where he is standing. Distance does not matter, but you have to be a strong son of a gun to flip the dang thing. [all pictures taken by my girlfriend]



Caber catchers push the Caber to a standing position for a contestent.


A large man in a kilt picks up a tree, and after balancing it, runs a few steps.


He then plants his feet and pushes.


The Caber is away!


These guys are bringing it back to start again, pictures of a tossed Caber look like a log on the ground, so I skipped those.

We wandered all over, and drank some cool beer, ate homemade icecream, avioded the Haggis vendor like the plague, and bought stuff. Later they threw a sack over a goal post with a pitch fork, but we missed most of that. Then for the last event, they brough out a 50 pound weight. The men had to throw it up over a bar, and perhaps most importnatly, not get hit by it when it came back down.


Gearing up for a throw.


Aww crap I lost it in the su...


My girlfriend and her sister saw these scetchy people all over the games. Not even one of them in a kilt, or plaid at all. (Hint, I'm the one with the most hair.)

We left as it was closing down, a great time being had by all. I had drank a few beers, comletly forgetting that I was on my back pain meds b/c I had been sleeping in a tent. Appaeerntly I was drunk by the end, and yet managed to not tip my hand to the 'rents.

Back at the campsite by the tracks, we told stories, grilled sausages and made Smores. We also substitued Reeses cups for Hershey Bars on some of them. Smores are awesome, but my beard ate most of mine.

We went to bed late that night, the trains did not come, and after waking up to another beautiful day, I went to Dunkin for breakfast. We finished packing up the campsite and rolled out at 11:00.

I really enjoyed meeting my girlfriend's parents and sister ( I already met her brother) but this was a weekend for us as well, so we headed for The College and CW.

I walked for 5 hours on Sunday; around William and Mary, and all over Colonial Williamsburg. If you have never been, I am sure it was nice, but I was really dissapointed. Big name stores have taken over much of the small town feel of Colonial Williamsburg. the Drugstore, where grilled cheese and sundaes were top notch and cheep, and the location where I became aquainted with cigars, has become a William Sonoma. I like William Sonoma, but who would come to CW for a trip and then buy a melon baller? Across DOG street from William Sonoma was a Talbots. Lots of places were still there though, and we had a great time.


Statue in William and Mary. She's reading a note from a boy asking her not to forget him while she's away at college.

Crim Dell Bridge.

Then we drove back up, and made good time eating fudge from the candy shop.

Next weekend there are birthdays, and the weekend after that, back to southern Virginia.