July on spin cycle...
Been a busy, busy month....every weekend except the last has been wrapped up with something. I mentioned our trip to a wedding in Spokane - which was quite a deal with the long roadtrip and fine hospitality, but have neglected the other pending weekend reports...
The first July weekend was spent up in Astoria for an opera-related gig at the newly restored Liberty Theater. Alex teamed up with a bevy of sopranos and mezzos for an evening of arias, showtunes, etc. One of the singers was former Miss America - Katie Harman - who brought her 4 month old son, Tyler to the gig. At one point, Katie had her mom bring the baby up on stage to sing him a Brahms lulluby. Not a dry eye in the house. As usual, Alex tore the roof off with her Delilah and Carmen pieces - garnering many kudos. All in all, a nice overnighter in Goonieville.
In addition to my notes on Spokane, I should mention that the city made another great impression with it's accessable waterfront area and old school architecture. I walked next to the river on Saturday morning, enjoying the public art, waterfowl and unexpected chamber music coming from the central park area. Very cool. If it weren't so far away from everything (and deeply conservative), it would probably be an interesting destination option....as long as you stopped at Dairy Queen for a Key Lime blizzard while driving through the Tri-cities.
This past weekend, I made a break for the Deschutes River and a little raftin' with some friends. Since Alex has no desire to raft, she stayed home with Greer, while I hit out to Bear Springs Campground for an evening of campfires and way too much imbibry. This year, most of the party happened on Friday night - with much less drinking on the river. My crew of seven made a nice mix, taking instruction and helping to drive the 8-man raft through Boxcar and Oak Springs rapids with minimal trauma (despite one overboard on O.S.). After we pulled out at Sandy Beach, I made a suprise stop at the folks for some dinner and conversation. A nice followup to our Spokane trip - and well worth the sidetrip. On the way out of the Dalles, I handed a drifter alongside the I-84 entrance - a bag of trail mix that got lost in the epic pile of food/drink available to us. A little redistribution of the food supply made me feel much fuller than any restaurant meal.
I would have photos for this trip, but Photoshop hosed the image formatting when I tried to look at them on the disk. Lesson learned. Always copy over first - and then check what you've got before monkeying.
Ok...so there it is.
--------------------------------------------------------------
VISUAL - Saturday Night Live music retrospective
AUDIO - Rock Against Bush - Disc 1
BOOK - Kingdom of Fear - Hunter Thompson
EVENT - Rafting the Deschutes w/Rob, etc...
--------------------------------------------------------------
The first July weekend was spent up in Astoria for an opera-related gig at the newly restored Liberty Theater. Alex teamed up with a bevy of sopranos and mezzos for an evening of arias, showtunes, etc. One of the singers was former Miss America - Katie Harman - who brought her 4 month old son, Tyler to the gig. At one point, Katie had her mom bring the baby up on stage to sing him a Brahms lulluby. Not a dry eye in the house. As usual, Alex tore the roof off with her Delilah and Carmen pieces - garnering many kudos. All in all, a nice overnighter in Goonieville.
In addition to my notes on Spokane, I should mention that the city made another great impression with it's accessable waterfront area and old school architecture. I walked next to the river on Saturday morning, enjoying the public art, waterfowl and unexpected chamber music coming from the central park area. Very cool. If it weren't so far away from everything (and deeply conservative), it would probably be an interesting destination option....as long as you stopped at Dairy Queen for a Key Lime blizzard while driving through the Tri-cities.
This past weekend, I made a break for the Deschutes River and a little raftin' with some friends. Since Alex has no desire to raft, she stayed home with Greer, while I hit out to Bear Springs Campground for an evening of campfires and way too much imbibry. This year, most of the party happened on Friday night - with much less drinking on the river. My crew of seven made a nice mix, taking instruction and helping to drive the 8-man raft through Boxcar and Oak Springs rapids with minimal trauma (despite one overboard on O.S.). After we pulled out at Sandy Beach, I made a suprise stop at the folks for some dinner and conversation. A nice followup to our Spokane trip - and well worth the sidetrip. On the way out of the Dalles, I handed a drifter alongside the I-84 entrance - a bag of trail mix that got lost in the epic pile of food/drink available to us. A little redistribution of the food supply made me feel much fuller than any restaurant meal.
I would have photos for this trip, but Photoshop hosed the image formatting when I tried to look at them on the disk. Lesson learned. Always copy over first - and then check what you've got before monkeying.
Ok...so there it is.
--------------------------------------------------------------
VISUAL - Saturday Night Live music retrospective
AUDIO - Rock Against Bush - Disc 1
BOOK - Kingdom of Fear - Hunter Thompson
EVENT - Rafting the Deschutes w/Rob, etc...
--------------------------------------------------------------
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