We wrapped up our 55th anniversary day with  a few good sets. Jake Shimabukuro at Geva Wilson stage was phenomenal. He had been one of our favorite performers of all time when he last performed  in Rochester eight years ago. In the intervening time he has grown in stage presence and in musicality . The line to pick up wrist bands at 4 PM was already long at 3:30, for a 5:30 performance. It seemed that everyone we spoke to had heard him 8 and 9 years ago and couldn’t wait to hear him again. No one was disappointed. The only problem I see was having this very high exciting performance for the first show of the night and the first show of the Festival. 

We wandered over to the corner of East and Chestnut that has been a parking lot since they tore down the Regent Theater (probably 30 years ago). It was opened up and ringed with food trucks and vendor booths and tables in the middle. We ate to the sound of Bonerama on the Chestnut Street Stage. We were far enough away to be able to converse yet still hear the sound of too many trombones and a Sousaphone. We eventually made our way into Eastman Theater for Steve Gadd Band. We were still jumping from Jake and the cool melodious jazz coming off the stage was not sufficient to get us moving again. As the set progressed they moved up tempo and Steve’s drum rides with his son Duke backing him started to take off. He is a great drummer, but we wanted more.

We left the theater after the show and were surprised to be able to get into Max for Sasha Berliner Quartet. The vibraphone work was wonderful, but we were still under Jake’s thrall and wanted more. Thus we left at about 10:35 and headed for the Hyatt Jam Session with Karl Stabinau on Sax in the lead. We stuck around long enough to hear the Leo Richardson Quartet take the stage for a set (they were featured at Christ Church – Made in the UK). I’m not sure whether it was better hearing them in the close and noisy quarters of the Jam or in the echoing vastness of the church. Two members of Bonerama came on stage, the Sousaphone and a trombone. after that we decided that was altogether enough for night 1.

The Plan: Peter Johnstone & Tommy Smith at Hatch Recital Hall at 5:45; Patti Labelle at the main stage in Eastman Theater (I know it is Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater, but really!!) then maybe SNJO (Scottish National Jazz Orchestra) sextet at Montage, or The Empire Strikes Brass in the Big Tent. Maybe both.

Not to compete with Carol who just put up her latest post but today is a very special day. 55 years ago on a Sunday, Father’s Day, the first day of summer we were married. Some would say: How can you go about your usual day on such an important anniversary? I am headed off to lunch with my Monroe High Class of 1960 reunion committee leaving Carol to do her thing until 3:15 when we will head out to get in line for the line to get in to hear Jake Shimabukuro for the third time. The answer is we live as if every day is special as indeed they have been for 55 years. 

We celebrate in so many ways. Last night we had a magnificent dinner at a new restaurant, Native Eatery and Bar.  We will  burn way to much energy for 9 nights of Jazz Fest, tonight, after Jake, we will make our way to Eastman Theater for Steve Gadd Band and I expect we will end up at the jam Session at the Hyatt. Things will calm down after Jazz Fest with visitors from California, the Muellers, and then two nights in the Berkshires with the Londons from RI. The biggest, grandest celebration will be in December when we will travel with the entire family to Morocco. 

But first the jazz Fest! Still not sure what we will do between 6:30 and 8:00, There are many good performances we could sample if we can get in. Certainly after Gadd we could try to get in to Max for Sasha Berliner Quintet or Scott Sharard in the Big Tent. Watch for my post tomorrow with a report and the plan for tomorrow night.

We have been busy since coming back from Brown. We have had get togethers with friends and family, Meetings and events where we have seen people who we seldom see even when we are in town and doctor appointments. Oy! are we good at filling time with those. It seems that since we retired many years ago now, we have replaced work time with doctor time. Or maybe I’m just imagining that. 

I think we have it all under control now, not that we are going to be having fewer appointments, but we have a plan. After all we are in Rochester and have only three months to catch up with the medical people we have here before we return to our west coast medical team. 

Starting Friday June 21, our 55th Anniversary, we will spend every minute from 4:30 PM until ?? attending Jazz Festival concerts and jam sessions for 9 nights. We will celebrate the anniversary with a performance by Jake Shimabkuro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gaWuadgL3g This video has been around for a while, I may have even posted it in the past so here is another I haven’t posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj-Js1fp4y8  (not exactly what you expect to hear on Ukulele). Then we have main stage tickets for Steve Gadd Band.  That is just the beginning. Stay tuned as I report on what we plan and how I respond to what we actually attend. 

Last night we went with Joyce and Victor to Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival performance at Hunt Country Winery. The Abel Family Quartet with Richard Clark, viola, played two rarely heard quintets, one by Beethoven and the other by Dvorak. The performances were delightful and it was a joy to hear these two pieces performed live in an intimate setting.  We hope to attend more of the festival performances as the season progresses. The two Hunt Country Reds I had were not first choice for me (Alchemy and Classic Red).  While there a former student of Carol’s spotted her and came over to say hi.

Lest you worry we are short changing ourselves on a BIG celebration I will note that in December we are taking the entire family to Morocco on an Overseas Adventure Travel trip that will be just our family. Carol and I will follow that trip with a brief stay in Jerusalem before flying on to Ethiopia for a two week tour with Joyce and Victor. Oh, before that we are booked on a trip to Egypt in September including a Nile River Cruise. Between those two trips we will drive across the country, yet again. We are hoping to vary the route since we haven’t done this in the Fall before. So much for not planning ahead.

We stayed at KOA in Charlottesville rather than climb the mountain road and park the coach for just a few days. Although I am not a KOA fan, this place is excellent. The site was level, roomy and when I determined that the 50 amp outlet was not working they had a tech on the site within 30 minutes, on Sunday afternoon! who installed a new breaker and got us going. 

The primary reason for stopping in C’ville was that our grandson Alexander was graduating from Piedmont Valley Community College to go on as a Junior at University of Virginia next year. We got to see him “walk” and had a fine dinner and gathering with the family including Malena’s Mom, for which Carol and I were both grateful. Here are two pictures taken from way off with my phone of an almost recognizable blur taking his walk.

The next day we set out for Rochester with a planned stop at Shangri-La by the Creek in Milton PA, just over half way. This is a familiar stop for us as it is just the right distance for an easy break. As I was solo driver, the break was more important than usual. Fair weather a pleasant surroundings led us to extend for a second night so we could transfer most of the stuff we needed into the car before getting to Rochester. 

Another uneventful drive brought us to the storage spot I had rented in Victor NY. We completed the transfers and secured Geewhiz for longer term storage and got in the car as an impending rain storm finally broke over our heads. We left that storm behind as we crossed the ridge into the Rochester area and pulled into the parking lot only to find that the one elevator was stuck. I carried the frozen and refrigerator items up the steps to the 4th floor and stashed them in the appropriate places in the refrigerator then sat with Carol and others waiting for the maintenance team to get the elevator working. We were assured that in recent months there had not been any problem with the new system, it quit just as we arrived. An hours wait saw the elevator restored to service and we unloaded the car into the apartment and a day later we are still sorting and storing. 

Carol has been recovering from her broken hip on a steady pace. She won’t be climbing any mountains in the near future, but she is getting around better each day. It is hard for her to see the improvements, but they are visible to me and I keep encouraging her. We are off to Brown Reunion on Thursday and will partake in whatever activities we can. For some reason I booked through Monday so I am not sure when we will return to Rochester as the last events of the weekend are on Sunday. 

Yes I can count by tens. 

As planned, Dan arrived Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning we picked Carol up at Highlands and returned to the coach at El Paso Roadrunner RV Park to begin the journey East. Our destination was open as we rolled out on I 10. We could either drive to Rochester as planned taking about 6 days or head to Charlottesville for grandson Alexander’s graduation from Community College with an associates degree. In either event we needed to take I 20 from its beginning on I 10. We stopped that first night in Monahans Sand Hills State Park, a park Carol and I have visited several times. We arrived after 7 PM and made dinner and took a short walk on the dunes. Up early and heading East on I 20. 

We entered Dallas at rush hour with me driving. Actually between Fort Worth and Dallas we turned on to I 30 bound for Texarkana. Actually we stopped in Greenville TX and Elks Lodge 703. The promised site with hookups was really at Cash RV Park 6 miles south of the lodge. It was not terrible and it was cheap. Leaving Greenville in the rear view mirror we finally left Texas for Arkansas. In Little Rock we exchanged I 30 for I 40 which brought us into Tennessee, just barely. For kicks we stayed the night at Graceland RV Park at the end of Lonely Street. Again we saw nothing other than that they tore down the Heart Break hotel at the corner of Lonely Street to build a parking lot.  Someplace in there we settled on Charlottesville as the destination.

We crossed Tennessee in a day stopping the night at Raccoon Valley  SKP Park just outside Knoxville. We have stopped at this park a few times in the past. Sunday morning we got up determined to make Charlottesville. We finally left behind I 40 and ran I 81 to I 64 to end in Charlottesville 1,892.6 miles later. Dan drove about half of those miles starting with never having driven the coach. It was a pleasure and a relief to have him as a wonderful co-driver. I doubt that Carol and I could have gotten cross country without his help. All that remains is two days from Charlottesville to Rochester leaving on Friday. 

We made Las Cruces in plenty of time on Friday to set up the coach for a three night stay and arrive at Leora and Stuart’s home in plenty of time to greet their family and friends most of whom we know from previous visits. For those who don’t know a Seder has a fixed order (actually that is what Seder means) that is followed in most homes. We learned it from our parents and Carol and I have lead many in our own home when my mother was ready to let it go to the next generation.

Since getting on the road we have experienced many variants from just the two of us in a campground to Sedarim (plural) lead by our children. This year also followed the “order” but with a musical family given to enjoying the humor to be found, or created, in the service.  We sang, laughed, addressed questions raised by the Seder itself until it was well past midnight before we returned to our coach. 

In the morning, for reasons I do not understand I extended the small awning over the door hoping to create some shade. Later I elected to retract it as the wind was rising. It came in 3/4 of the way and stalled. After much button pushing and attempting to spot the cause while standing on a ladder, I called Richard Mobile RV  since I cannot drive down the road with this awning extended.  He returned he call promptly and agreed to come by on Monday. We went about our business. A bit of shopping and wandering around Messilla which always results in some small purchase – Carol is wearing the new earrings at this moment. The salsas will wait for the end of Pesach. 

It is Monday and Richard has come and gone, the awning is in the storage bay needing a new motor which will be dealt with when time allows. After some other minor fixes Richard was on his way. As always I am grateful to know a competent RV tech who gets the job done with a minimum of fuss and for a reasonable charge.

Tuesday Carol has another fall. We made it as far as Van Horn Texas where we stopped at a garage to have Texas inspections on our vehicles. Carol had driven in to Van Horn, While we were parked she had a reaction to a med she was on. I was in the garage with the Jeep and she decided to get some fresh air. I found her sitting on the sidewalk, in pain. The Van Horn Culberson Hospital saw the broken hip on xray and transported her to University Medical Center in El Paso retracing the last two hours of driving. I followed with the motorhome towing the Jeep. I arranged with the hospital to park the coach in a back lot overnight. Security met me and directed to a parking place. 

No more detail needed, that was Tuesday, it is now Friday. The hip has been “repaired” and Carol just transferred to a Rehabilitation Hospital, Highlands Rehab Hospital. She has a private room and the facilities are gorgeous. I am with the coach in El Paso Roadrunner RV Park. We stayed here one other time in 2003. We met the Hoggs in the laundry. and became friends until they had to hang up their keys. It isn’t that we aren’t still friends, but they must stay in Canada for insurance reasons and it is a long way north of us. WE do talk from time to time but we miss their company. Hope you are reading this.

We will stay in El Paso until Carol can walk onto the coach on her own. Stay tuned!

The best of times, the worst of times. And then a full stop.

We arrived in Panama City to find that Carnival was about to start  the country as it is throughout Latin America and Louisiana. The Panamanians take ti seriously and most abandon Panama City for the outlying countryside they come from or areas that are reputed to have “better” festivals. This results in massive traffic jams on the highways all over the country on the day preceding and the day after, we presume as that is tomorrow  as I am writing. 

The festivities are wondrous with two Queens for every festival, the “up street” queen and the “down street” Queen. Their regalia costs  into the tens of thousands of dollars, the currency is US Dollars. We saw one queen wearing strands of US gold coins from the mid 1800’s. and a visit to a maker of the dresses priced them from a low of $8,000 to over $40,000 for the finest handmade dresses. They ride on elaborate floats through the parade route accompanied by dancing crowds and music. 

Another feature of Carnival is “throwing water” it seems everyone has a squirt gun or more elaborate means of wetting down everyone in sight. Just in case this isn’t enough there is a line up of water tankers with low pressure water cannons manned by people to wet down all who dare pass. They also soak each other. We were prepared with minimal quick drying clothes and nothing that could be damaged that wasn’t in a zip-lock bag. The ambient temperature was in the mid 90’s so getting soaked actually felt good. We also attended a parade of beautifully dressed women – ages about 4 to 70 – who danced around a square repeatedly. We left after two circles. During our departure Carol tripped on a very uneven road edge and banged her head and cracked a bone in her right wrist so we are now in a hospital waiting to get permission to board a plane for home in California. 

The biggest downside on Carnival is that the normal slow service has deteriorated. Restaurants where OAT had contracts for our meals closed  without any notice. Even half the hospitals are closed. Everyone wants to be at Carnival. I’ll write about hospitals another time. 

I will post many pictures when I am not on a stringent data diet. 

This small city on the back roads of Spain between Ramona and Madrid provided us with a fascinating day. We started by harvesting olives and following them to the San Francisco Olive Oil plant where we saw them being made into olive oil which we then consumed as part of our lunch of tapas, along with wine of course.

We returned to our Paradore to clean our shoes and rest a bit until it was time to follow Andres, our tour leader to a special place he had arranged for us. He knows we started on a Jewish History tour and are interested in all things Jewish. Here in Ubeda is yet another supposed synagogue and mikvah.  I qualify the description only because I am no authority, but I saw nothing to cause me to doubt. 

To quote Andres, “but wait, there’s more” The previous day we had stopped in Cordoba to tour the Mosque/Cathedral (again) and to walk through the Jewish Quarter. This day the Synagogue which was closed for renovation when we were there in October was open. Here are some pictures of the interior:

Look for the Hebrew lettering in many of these pictures.

Tomorrow Madrid. I may have some time to write while we are there, or not.

This post has been gathering dust for 3 days as we had lousy connection in Lisbon and little time to do battle with it. Here it is without my planned pictures just to get it up. Posting from Evora in the Pestana  Monastery from a former monks cell.

In short we joined our OAT tour group after our continued museum/art gallery extravaganza and began doing some touring of historical and interesting places. Our hotel, the Grand Hotel Porto, is located on a walking street with permits for buses and taxis to pick up and drop off passengers. It is an old hotel with much history harking back to the times of British desire for Port. Actually Porto predates the British by many centuries as the Romans founded a settlement here, but the hotel isn’t quite that old. What it lacks in some amenities it makes up for in location. 

We have been to the northwest to the Douro Valley where Port   the comes from and we tasted it on location. and we have been to the northeast where “green” wines come from and where the country claims to be the to be the birthplace of Henry the Navigator is in that region. The “green wine” not so much, the pastries filled with pumpkin sugar are phenomenal. The green means young, not color and it is sparkling and served chilled.  

After touring closer in parts of Porto today and a lovely lunch in Gaia – the section of town across the Douro River Carol and I were dropped as the Casa De Musica a modern concert hall designed by Rehm Koohlhaus, a Dutch architect. We took a tour of this unique venue and were again overwhelmed by the creativity of the architect and the community that has adapted to the shapes provided.

This day started with a visit to a privately run Jewish Museum in Granada. it is a work of passion by a couple who feel the powerful need to preserve something of Jewish heritage in a place where it has been extirpated. They have a community of 3 families and put out a sandwich board sign each day to point the way and take it in at night because that is all that the authorities will permit.

We met the couple in a small plaza in the Realjo neighborhood which was once the Jewish quarter. From the left Ziva, our Spanish guide,  the museum owner, Kayla, our tour leader from Keshet and the husband of the museum owner. 

Thbis is the entrance to the museum and their private home on the floors above. 

From there we wended our way back to the bus which took us to Alhambra which is a fortress, a palace and a city set on a hills adjacent to Granada but removed enough to be defensible. It is here that Isabella signed the documents to charter Columbus’ voyage of exploration and the order of expulsion of the Jews. 

Fountain of 12 Lions

Key fountain leading to the lions

One gorgeous ceiling among many

View of Granada from the Palace

We returned to Granada exhausted  after four hours of touring on uneven stones and many changes of altitude.  And we were not done.

We had a group dinner in a cave where the featured entertainment was local flamenco. The pictures are all pink from the lighting so I will not post them. This was the most energetic and forceful flamenco I can ever remember seeing. 

We crawled in to bed  prepared for a long bus ride to Madrid the next day.