156th Annual Victoria BC Highland Games

17MAY19 After practicing in the The Canadian Scotish Regiment Armory.  So much piping history happened here.
LtoR: Pipers Nick Shrum(PS), Ian Williams, Rob Patterson, Sande Storms, Melinda Hughes, Marie Hollinger, Dan Davies, Tanner Atkin, Gordon Atkin, Rose Hadden, Ryan Bradley, Chris Johnson, Trevor DeMass (PM)
Drummers: TKariAnne Johnson, Alana Williams, Triona McMaster, BJ Gunn, Jessie Frye (DS), Caitlin DeMass, Logan Warner, Chris Hughey

Preparation

In late 2018, the band decided we would compete at the Victoria Highland Games in May in Victoria, BC, Canada, rather than do Ventura again.  Scotland was way out of our price range, and probably out of our league, too. Tunes were selected, sets were created.  In March, Jack Lee was invited out to give us some coaching. I wasn't planning on attending because Grandbaby #3 was due on 14MAY and I didn't want to miss him/her.  Finally we came up with the following sets:

MSR:  

            Seige of Dehli (march), 

            Dorrator Bridge (strathspey), 

            The Ale is Dear (reel).  

Timed Medley:  

            Cha Till McCrumien (march), 

            Out of the Air (Jig), 

            The Water is Wide (slow air), 

            Molly Connell (strathspey), 

            Strathan (reel).

Fees were paid, tickets were purchased (very late, on April 9), time off was requested, and we worked and worked and worked on those sets!  Pipe Major Trevor DeMass even requested that we each record both sets and send them to him.  Twice!  That was embarrassing!

Baby Hannah Rose Christensen was born 22APR19 10:04, 8 pounds, 20".  I was able to go to Victoria! I booked an AirBnB because I thought Ian had already booked the hotels, and I booked flights for me, and standby flights for hubby Todd.

Practice

I struggled with the MSR, but didn't have a lot of time to practice (I thought).  I told Trevor I wasn't going to play the MSR at Victoria.  Finally, I lost my practice chanter, and decided to work on the sets with my electronic chanter, which offends nobody, and really catches crossing noises.  And so I worked, going slowly through the tunes, replaying over and over and over the parts that were difficult until I got them right, and by the week before departure, I thought I could play them well.  I told Trevor this, and he agreed. He thought I could do them.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We departed on 16MAY19.  Some of us were booked to fly Salt Lake to Calgary to Edmonton to Victoria, and some of us were booked to fly Salt Lake to Vancouver to Edmonton to Victoria.  Most of the drummers--as well as Ian and his family--drove.  Those of us that went through Calgary had no problem, other than waiting around in airports all day.  Those that went to Vancouver arrived there at the same time as about 4 other flights, and Customs was overwhelmed. Customs officials did not work any faster than DMV officials, nor did they call anybody else in to work, and so that group took 2.5 hours to get through Customs.  And they missed their flight to Edmonton.  They creatively took a train to a bus, a bus to a ferry, and a ferry to Victoria, where Ian met them and took them to their hotel.  

Oddly enough, those that went through Calgary arrived at Victoria at the same time as those that took the ferry.

Friday - Free Day (mostly)

Friday was a free day, so many of us went to Butchart Gardens and saw the beautiful flowers.  We especially loved how busy the bees were there. Here are my favorites:

The bees were busy all over the gardens

Fish fountain

The Sunken Garden was built in an old quarry

Flower border in the Sunken Garden

Huge trees and quiet places

Harbor view

Japanese Rock Garden

Large dragon fountain

Stepping stone bridge in the Japanese Garden

Zach on a donkey colt.

Tiny dragon fountain

This device was created to make noise to keep away boars.

Totem poles

At 3:30, we all met at the Bay Street Armory and got a tour of the museum. Ryan, Ian, and Todd really liked this part of the afternoon.

This uniform was the property of the late
John Low of Duncan of the 50th Regiment.

Placard for above uniform

Wallace the Piping Dog memorabilia

Then we practiced for several and a half hours.  The outside of the Armory was castle-like. . 

but the inside was a Quonset hut with a rounded ceiling . . .

. . . and our music echoed and re-echoed so that it was hard to know who was playing what. But we carried on, because of the piping history there.  We also had tons of room to march in and out, contrary to our regular practice location at the 1st Presbyterian Church in downtown Salt Lake.  

The first night, some of us had Dim Sum in Chinatown.

Chinatown Victoria BC

Competition Day 1

The medals smelled of maple syrup!

Many of our band competed in solos the first morning, and we got some medals!  They didn't have ribbons on them, but they all smelled like maple syrup! 









Usually in Massed Bands, everybody is out of tune, nobody plays together, and there are always trailing drones at the end.  In these massed bands, none of that happened!  It was the most amazing massed bands I have ever heard! We played Bonnie Dundee marching in, Highland Laddie for the Chief(even the Salt Lake Scots knew it!), and Scotland the Brave marching out.  Other bands were warning us about the hill we had to march down, but Sheepdog Trials had more than prepared us for the tiny hill in Topaz Park!

Massed Bands march in (10 bands)

Ryan and Pierce Bradley crossing swords while waiting for something to happen.

Our competition time on Day 1 was 2:32. We were competing against four other bands. It was pretty chilly, so needless to say, we moved into the sunny area at the end of the hurley field and practiced and tuned and marched in.  There were no equipment issues that I remember.  All too soon, the steward came over to get us to march into the semi-final tuning area. As we passed the Simon Fraser University (SFU) tent, Jack Lee came out and shook hands with everybody going by.  When he got to me, he gave me a big hug and said, "You came!"  It was nice to get a hug from that very nice, very great man.  Finally, we were up. We had to march across a large-ish field and wheel left to the starting line.  

Our major issue in Day 1 with the MSR was rushing, which caused several other issues with ensemble.  We really whizzed through those three tunes.  Two of these tunes were new this year, and we just weren't totally confident with them.  I could hear somebody on my left speeding up, and I don't think it was Chris Johnson. 

Marching out of the competition circle, apparently we were supposed to march straight out.  But we had wheeled to get up to the line, so we were confused as to what we were supposed to do marching out.  Trevor was kinda miffed about that, but how could we know if we weren't instructed. I suppose we could have watched how other bands did it, if we had not been tuning up, etc.

At the end of the day massed bands, we did not expect to get anything because we had played pretty badly, so when they announced third place and it wasn't us, we weren't surprised.  We WERE surprised, however, when we got 2nd place! It was a nice reward for all the work we had been doing on that set!

We had dinner together--all 28 of us--at Finn's, a seafood restaurant on the waterfront.  I had salmon and mashed potatoes.  It was yummy, if expensive. 

Competition Day 2
Day 2 was Sunday, so some of us went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints next to Topaz Park and attended Sacrament meeting.  Afterwards, we walked through the secret entrance and back into the park, watched some more hurley and Gaelic Football (they kick and pass the ball, and make goals like hockey; they also driblble like basketball.)  It was very interesting to watch!  More tuning and warming up happened, another massed band (same tunes, only I forgot we were only playing Highland Laddie one time through, and my drone was the only one that trailed). 

We were competing against five bands on Sunday. Our performance time on Sunday was 2:15.  Again we went to the semi-final tuning area and tuned some more. This time, Melinda had an issue with one of her drone reeds and scratched from the competition as there wasn't time to fix it.  

We have known the medley tunes for at least a year, so we were more confident playing them.  There was no rushing.  I was working very hard on focusing, and the only time I goofed was when I lost focus for a minute.  It was a minor goof, and I quickly recovered.  Trevor, to my right, noticed, but I don't know if anybody else did.

We felt good about that performance, but the judges don't judge you on how well you did compared to yesterday; they judge you on how well you did compared to the other bands that day.  

We went back to our tents and took them down before massed bands in preparation for heading quickly to the Legislative Assembly building for photos.  At massed bands, I did not have a trailing drone, but Marie did.  They announced 3rd place and it was not us.  They announced 2nd place and it was not us.  At that point we universally gave up hope for any award.  After all, we were competing against RMM (Robert Malcom Memorial, the feeder band to SFO)!

Then, they announced first place:  the Salt Lake Scots!

They also announced the winner of the Grade IV aggregate trophy:  the Salt Lake Scots!  

Jack Lee immediately came over from his place in massed bands to shake Trevor's hand and congratulate us.

Our Fearless Leaders, Drum Sargent Jessie Frye and Pipe Major Trevor DeMass with the aggregate trophy

Jack Lee immediately came over to the band to shake hands with everybody.

Marie and Jack

Trevor with the aggregate trophy

On the steps of the Legislative Assembly building, Victoria, BC.

Some of us left Victoria the next day, Nick and I through Vancouver, and Gordon's crew through Seattle.  Todd also flew standby through Seattle, but his plane had maintenance issues in Victoria, and it took 9 hours to fix it.  He did not make it to Seattle in time to catch the last flight to Salt Lake, so he spent the night sleepless in Seattle, and came home on Tuesday.

Here we are on the lawn in front of the Legislative Assembly building.

Whale watchers 20MAY19

People had gathered while we were arranging ourselves for these pictures.  They apparently thought we were going to play something.  We were totally done playing, but they stood there, just looking at us. So at the end of the photo shoot, we struck in and played Highland Cathedral, just for them.

Whale-watching crew selfie

Band on the rail

Everybody else went whale watching or sightseeing on Monday!  Here are some of the pics from that fun time.

Tall ship

Lighthouse #1 in the Salish Sea

Logan lounging.

Possibly the same lighthouse

Dinner for the whale-watching crew.

A sea otter also has dinner

Sea Lions look like they've had too much dinner

The Windy Williams Family:  Isla, Alanna, Ian, Cora, and Lochlan

They were awesome games! The people of Victoria were very kind to us (the waitress at Finn's didn't even charge us the 18% tip they usually charge groups of 8 or more, 'because we were so nice' she said, but really because she was so nice). The sightseeing was wonderful.  The piping success was amazing!  All in all, it was an incredible weekend!

Pictures courtesy Ian Williams, Claire Atkin, Marie Hollinger, Caitlin DeMass, myself, and other band members.