 |
| Welcome to the British Isles! |
11 January 2026
We had to hustle this morning because the church service today would be held in the park. Clark, being in the band, had to be at the park at 8:45 (early for us). Service started at 9:30 and I just barely made it there ahead of time.
Time got away from me a bit (playing Wordle, etc.) and, leaving the boat at 9:15, I had to walk fast to make it there on time. I passed Andrew going the opposite way on a golf cart (he works at the marina) and thought about asking him for a lift to the front gate but decided to just step up my pace a bit instead.
Even so, on the walk to the park, I had to stop and take a picture of the Ibis crowded together taking a bird bath in a puddle.
 |
| White Ibis bathing |
The park had three gates open for the festival yesterday, so I chose the closest one and marched (head down watching my step on the sloping terrain) almost all the way to the gate only to look up and find it padlocked! 9:28 Yikes! I had to backtrack and then walk all the way around to the back of the park to find the next closest entrance. As I came out of the pathway to the locked entrance, I saved a couple from my mistake by pointing them in the right direction to get in. Interestingly, as I hurried on my way, I heard the woman say, "God sent you to us at just the right time."
The "pews" (folding chairs) were already packed when I arrived at the church tent, so I grabbed one of the last seats at the very rear of the tent. We had a good turn out with many of the congregation being visitors from other churches like St. Joseph's Episcopal Church.
 |
| Good crowd for services |
Services concluded circa 10:30. Clark helped John, who worked the sound system, pack up his equipment and take it to his car. That took a while. "Johnny Live" had a "gig" to get to at a nearby venue and had to hustle for that engagement. While Clark was helping John, I sat vigil over Clark's guitar to be sure it didn't accidentally walk away by itself.
By the time Clark came back and we were ready to go, the gates had opened (at 11:00) and folks were flowing in to the event. Clark needed to get his guitar back to the boat, and we needed to pick up tools for our late day work assignments. With that in mind, we headed back to the boat to switch out gear and grab lunch.
Checking out today's program, we decided we definitely needed to be back by 2:30 to hear the "Screaming Orphans". We got back early enough, however, to hear the "Piper Jones Band" as well. Although today was a shorter day program-wise, the afternoon was well worth attending!
With time on my hands this afternoon, I wandered the vendor booths with my camera in hand.
The art contest tent ...
Celtic jewelry tent and Celtic Country flags ...
 |
| American Highlander Kilts |
I also wandered by the food trucks.
The "Holy Grail" whoops I mean "Grill"
 |
| Order spot at The Holy Grill |
 |
| Making ice cream |
Unlike yesterday, where we got a mix of sun, clouds, and rain showers, today we got only the hot sun. Given that, I grabbed a folding chair under the viewers' tent and sat to enjoy some music for a couple of hours. A man sat next to me and said, "Yesterday I only got wet when it rained". It was humid today for sure.
Late afternoon, I took another walk around the park and noticed that some things had already closed down. The athletic fields were deserted and all the participants and trailers were long gone.
 |
| No more bouncy houses |
The last Celtic Festival program event of the day was entitled "Shenanigans", and Clark and I both wondered who or what that would be. Interestingly, it turned out to be all the afternoon performers getting on stage together to do a jam session. The announcer basically said they were going to figure out the music as they went along as this had not been rehearsed. The band members clearly loved it as did the audience.
The stage was just a bit crowded!
The resulting music motivated many people to dance and clap along.
Two of the church band members got into the spirit ... Nancy and John
I caught some folks watching the show.
 |
| "Sing alongs and Drink alongs" |
 |
| Friends - Steve & Nancy |
At the very end of the day, the music director called Pastor Deb up onto stage to thank her for the hospitality.
 |
| Pastor Deb |
A lot of effort goes into the festival. The money collected goes to support the children at "Hammock House".
Those in charge work on the event all year long. The dates for next year are already marked on the calendar.
Pastor Deb joined in the singing for the last song of the day "Wild Mountain Thyme".
Although we were enjoying the music and the amateur dancers, I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. Our job description changed multiple times. First we thought we would be tearing down the faux castle entrances this evening but were told that would be done on Monday. Then we assumed we would be needed to take down the Pub tent since we had built it. They had that covered.
What Nancy (in charge) said she needed was for us to take down the banners all around the park and keep the commercial banners labeled and sorted separately from the church banners. A few minutes before 5:00 I tried to push Clark to start on the banners. He wouldn't budge away from watching the stage. I said, "You'll make me stand here until 5:01 before we can start, won't you?!" He just smiled.
At 5:02 we set off with wire cutters and a tarp to collect banners. We should have brought a bin for the oodles of plastic wire ties we cut off the fencing. I shoved them in my pocket as we collected them! I had to empty my pockets periodically as they filled up and those buggers hurt when they poked into my thigh!
We started at the eastern side of the park and worked our way around. I quickly lost count of the number of banners we cut down!
We collected a stack of them and delivered them to the truck to return to the church. We thought we were done, but Pastor Deb pointed out we missed the banners (not on the fence) located on the back of the stands at the athletic field. Oops! Didn't think to look there.
We needed help with one banner that was on the outside of the fencing facing Route 1. With the exit blocked by the skate park development, we tried to disconnect and capture the banner from inside the fencing. A man showed up on the other side of the fence and asked if he could help. We cut the ties, he caught the banner and tossed it up to us over the fence.
We thanked him. He walked away and then proceeded to jump over this 8 foot tall fence to go back to working on tearing down another booth nearby. Holy moly! Clark said, "Did he just jump over that fence?" Neither of us could believe it.
We managed to collect all the banners and flags scattered around the park and have them back on the truck but not until well after sunset. Earlier, as we were taking down the banners, I looked up to see the sky blessing the day with a brilliant mix of colors.
By the time we left the park (near 7:00 p.m.) the police had packed up and gone. They were there, since there is no traffic light at the park, to stop traffic for pedestrians. We used their help multiple times over the past two days, but to get home tonight, we were on our own. We had our bikes, since Clark was wearing a tool-heavy backpack, and pedaled to 33rd street to use the traffic light to cross the street.
The steaks I hoped would thaw out in the fridge for tonight's dinner were still too frozen to cook, so I threw together a pasta dish instead. We were both groaning from overusing our muscles today, so after dinner we turned on a Netflix romcom to relax. I managed to eek out a blog update.
Clark disappeared after the movie. I found him after I posted my blog update fast asleep in bed! He still has one more Celtic Festival job to do. He will be over at the park again for 10:00 a.m. to help tear down the castle walls!
No comments:
Post a Comment