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If bagpipe music stirs your soul and you regard haggis as a tasty treat, there may be a Scot in your family tree, even if there's not a "Mac" or even a "Mc" in your name. As early as 1890, there were more than 250,000 people born in Scotland living in the United States. And they continued to arrive in strong numbers well into the 20th Century.

Regardless of your ethnic ancestry, there is plenty of fun waiting at the annual "Wisconsin Highland Games" scheduled for Waukesha, Wisconsin, just 20 miles west of Milwaukee for September 5-7. Even if you're unable to visit on that particular weekend, you'll find that the neighboring communities of Waukesha and Pewaukee have plenty to offer for a lively weekend getaway no matter if you're with or without kilt and sporran.

Stop at nearby Ten Chimneys, home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, America's theater royalty---and once a weekend getaway destination for some of the biggest names on stage and screen. It is furnished with original pieces and sprinkled with memories and mementos left by glamorous guests.

While you're touring the beautiful rolling woodland of Kettle Moraine State Forest, stop at Old World Wisconsin. It whisks you back to 19th-century rural Wisconsin when waves of immigrants flocked to America's heartland in search of a better life.

Dubbed "Saratoga of the West," Waukesha enjoyed life as a spa resort from 1868 to the early 20th century. Today, its "Historic Downtown" offers a clutch of bars and restaurants and a variety of arts and craft galleries. Visit the Potter's Shop, once a dance studio, which displays the work of about 20 potters and provides wheels and kilns to support classes at all skill levels. Nearby, the House of Guinness, suitably dark and friendly, is the quintessential Irish pub where the absence of television encourages the Celtic penchant for conversation.

Soon to be a neighbor is the posh, neoclassic Clarke Hotel and Black Trumpet Restaurant, scheduled to open this fall. It will provide 22 guestrooms, individually designed and decorated, concierge service and a formal restaurant with a take on French cuisine.

Look for the trendy beach along the shores of Lake Pewaukee. With beach and lakefront on one side and handful of bars, clubs and restaurants on the other, it is sort of like South Miami Beach in microcosm---although that, admittedly, is a stretch---with menus posted outside and a companionable buzz from alfresco diners. Try Piano Blu, a stylish bistro with piano-bar entertainment in a room where the bar is illuminated with a cheery orange glow from hanging lamps and the Gershwins are featured in a 1920s collage. Try steak au poivre or pan-seared sea scallops.

Burgers fashioned from certified Angus steak are a good buy at around $12-$13. Toppings include blue cheese, white cheddar and peppered bacon.

Attend Waukesha's annual Highland Games and you'll find the rousing music of massed pipe bands, competition on the athletic field in such events as tossing the caber, and competitions for pipers and drummers and for fleet-footed lassies performing Celtic dances. Of course, if there is a "mac" in your name, you may wish to wander off to the many clan booths and maybe find out what is happening with your branch of the family this side of the Atlantic.

Find American and British foods, including ubiquitous burgers and brats and the inevitable Scotch meat pies. You'll also find hot bridies---a vegetable-and-meat turnover that is the Scottish version of the Cornish pasty, as well as bangers (sausages), fish and chips, sausage rolls and Scotch eggs (boiled eggs peeled, encased in sausage meat and deep fried). Then there is haggis, a traditional Highland delicacy made from sheep's liver, kidney, onion, oats and barley, cooked in a sheep's stomach.

Some visitors think haggis is best suited for the athletic field, where, indeed, "Haggis Hurling" is a sanctioned event, with the haggis thrown for distance by competitors standing atop barrel heads.