Heaven, I'm In Heaven . . .

. . . and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. Yeah, I know it's a bit lame but that is pretty much how I feel!

Friday night this is where we were:

Yes, that is in fact the F Street Entrance to the Verizon Center and obviously we are headed to a Caps game. That is Andrew H. on the left. He and Josh have been best friends since preschool. Spence came to town specifically to go to hockey games. So it was to be a great night. HOWEVER . . .


This is my ticket to the game. If you look closely, you will see that is for Section 190, Row A, seat 5. Dan and I were given tickets by friends who have season tickets through UBS. Yes, were were SITTING ON THE GLASS ! ! That made it a spectacular night! This is the view from my seat (sorry for the crummy quality, I had to use my cell phone for the picture):

The player with his back to us is Mike Knuble, new acquisition from the Flyers. The player facing is none other than the Great 8, Alex Ovechkin, the best player in the NHL. Yes, his head was slammed into the glass right in front of me! And, yes, I pounded on the glass. How can anyone not love this game? Dan and I had a ball. The boys had tickets up in the nose bleed seats so we spent a fair amount of time looking for them and waving like lunatics.

I AM NOT DONE YET ! !

Twenty-four hours later (that would be tonight) Dan and I were at:

For those unfamiliar with the fountain, it is on the river terrace at The Kennedy Center where we went to see the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. I know that I look in distress but I am actually trying to appear sophisticated which is remarkably painful for me. I bought tickets at the last minute thinking that I was buying seats on the far side. We ended up second row center. I know those aren't supposed to be great seats but we loved them. Three very good sopranos, one of whom was actually excellent and one amazing. Unfortunate tenor. It happens. Poor guy wasn't even the understudy but got thrown into the role tonight for some reason and just couldn't handle it. But the rest were quite good and the production was great. I still struggle with German opera but I'm trying to learn.

So, that's the perfect weekend for me, front row seats at hockey and nearly front row seats at the opera. It doesn't get much better than that.

Escape From Alcatraz? No, Just From Florida

OK, maybe that's overstating it just a little bit but I REALLY do not like Florida. I never have. We spent two days in West Palm Beach visiting a close friend and I must admit that every time I am in southern Florida it is reconfirmed to me just how much I dislike it. In fact, I played a little game with myself while flying out of Ft. Lauderdale: "What Horrible Place Would I Rather Live In BEFORE Willingly Moving To Florida?" My answers:

1. St. George, Utah (sorry Lori)

2. Phoenix, Arizona

3. Flint, Michigan (I probably would put Detroit lower than Florida but since I've never been there I don't really know)

4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

5. Buffalo, New York (Upstate New York is gorgeous, it's just colder than the dark side of the moon)

Anyway, we made it out alive and are now enjoying Washington, D.C. in my favorite time of year, autumn.

This is looking over the Potomac River from a foot bridge that crosses to Roosevelt Island. That's Georgetown in the distance, the spires of the University on the left and the towers of the National Cathedral on the right.

All I can say is that it is just a little cool and it smells the way autumn should!

First Stop

GREETINGS FROM . . .
No, Paris is one place we are NOT going. Hello from Las Vegas, first stop of a long trip. It has been a successful start to our adventure. Meetings for Do The Write Thing went very well and it was so fun to see old friends from all over the country. Especially fun is that my good, good friend Lisa is now starting work with the Program which means that she will be at all the meetings!

And a chance to see my friend Pat who is the DA of Houston and the toughest woman I have even known (and the biggest sweetheart).

So, tomorrow it's an early flight to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. See you in West Palm.

Aloha!

It may not look like the Hawaii you think of, but Hawaii it is - Kapalua Bay on the northwest side of Maui. We took a luxury vacation on the cheap, an absolutely beautiful condo at the new Ritz Carleton Golf club which Dan received for playing in a golf tournament earlier this year and free tickets using points on United. What could be better?

Dan played golf four days in a row and was happy as the proverbial clam. I joined him once for a drive around a beautiful course that is part of the Ritz. Yes, the wind is blowing so hard that the pin is bending. There were times when it was difficult to stand up straight! We were told that it was very early in the year for such hard winds. I spent my free time doing my favorite thing - reading by the pool.

A real treat was a trip to the center of the island, up in the mountains to visit the Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm. I stood on the slopes there and decided that this is one of the places I could move to in a flash, as long as I could live, literally, on the farm.

Believe it or not, this is an avocado tree that has been pruned to grow like this. I love the old guy who runs the farm. He didn't know a thing about growing lavender or avocados for that matter, but just started experimenting. He grows about 50 different varieties of lavender and has great success. Not so much with the avocados. The severe pruning, which was does in an effort to facilitate harvesting, threw the trees into shock and they haven't produced any fruit. Gotta love an "experimenter" though.

The last day we took the Road to Hana drive which is truly one of the great drives on the planet.

With something like 54 one lane bridges and over 200 switchback curves it is a driving challenge, which we not only completed in the daylight but in the dead of night as well. Actually Dan did all the driving so he gets all the credit.

We went to Hana to see the new place that Dan's nephew, Rob Reynolds, bought there.

Yep, the view off the balcony. They are redoing the house but the grounds are spectacular. I think it's 7.5 acres and includes a 9-hole golf course. The Killers are doing pretty well! (Oh, Rob is the rock band's manager/lawyer.)

All in all, a wonderful six days. Dan has decided though that based on the luau we went to with the food and the dancing that next time he is going to Tahiti. He really liked those costumes!

I'm Still Here - Just Being Quiet

No, we have not kicked the bucket. We just got back to La Quinta at the beginning of September and things really haven't slowed down. How can there be so much to catch up? I mean, I get Dan being busy but, really, what am I doing that is all that challenging?

I do have a couple of things to put in before the next trip so I'll get to it - especially since we are leaving in two days!

A Last Hurrah

We are getting ready to leave D.C. but in keeping with last year's precedent Dan, Josh and I went to Wolftrap before leaving. Last year was Les Miserables. Wonderful but THIS year was the Wolftrap Orchestra, Washington Chorus and and enormous screen showing:

Yes, we watched The Two Towers with LOTS of fans who love the movie, the characters, the music, anything that could induce applause.

These are only a few of the fans (dare I say nuts?) who sat IN THE RAIN FOR THREE HOURS to see this performance. You have to admire this kind of dedication. We, of course, were not crazy enough to sit outside in the rain, we paid extra to sit inside to see a movie we have seen countless times.


DO NOT GET ME WRONG. We (at least Josh and I) loved it! I had no idea that there was so much music in this movie. The orchestra played almost non-stop and it was wonderful. The soloists were great. One was a boy who looked to be about nine years old. He had an unbelievably pure voice. How many kids do you know who can stand up, in front of a full orchestra and 3,000 people and belt out lyrics in elvish?


What a great idea. We (at least Josh and I) would definitely be up for Return of the King!

Beantown Retreat

Following the quick trip to NYC we spent four days in Boston - a place we have not been for twenty years. How is that even possible that someone who lived so long on the east coast never went to such a great city?

We stayed at the Marriott Custom House, a beautiful old building in downtown Boston, right by the harbor. There are actually peregrine falcons that live at the top of the tower which we really wanted to see but since it is not nesting season they were rarely there.


That's the Custom House, the building with the pointy tower right in the middle and the falcons' nest is in the topmost window. The guest rooms are all in the tower and have wonderful views.

One of our favorite places was North Boston which is Little Italy where there are great restaurants, naturally, and bakeries and grocery stores that sell the same stuff you can buy in Italy. We did run into a hard rain storm while there and since Dan had not brought along his cap or raincoat he ran into a store and came out with this:

Yes, I walked around with a man wearing that hat.

Some of our favorite places:



Yep, that's a "Don't Tread On Me" flag on the right!

Mike's Pastry in Little Italy. You have to love a bakery with a picture of the Virgin Mary over the counter. The chocolate chip canolis are supposedly to die for. I wouldn't know because I was traveling with Dan.


The swan lake in Boston Common. That is a little boat in the distance which is propelled by. . .

the guy in the back sitting behind the swan. I have no idea how he is able to do that but since there are several of these boats on the lake apparently it works quite well!

Close by the swan lake is a special statue done in the 80s memorializing "Make Way For Ducklings:"
Boston Public Library is an amazing place:

Look closely and you can just make out Dan getting ready to pull a Mussolini pose. Who would not want to study here?

And, of course, no trip to Boston in the summer would be complete without a visit to the Mecca of all baseball:



Oh, and some of us have better "cap-fashion sense" than others:


What a great place, beauty and seemingly endless history.


The last day we were there I sat on a bench in The Common and enjoyed this view:

I looked down and this little brass plaque was set into the cement the bench was on:

You have to love a city like this!