Emmylou Harris @ Belly Up

This concert was a benefit supporting the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad which is always a good cause.

All ticket holders received an email to not show up until 5:45pm.  I showed up at 5:20 and they were already issuing wristbands and the entry line was forming.  Oh well.  A couple who also live in Turfwood got in line behind me so we introduced ourselves and talked music.  Dan is a musician and sometimes plays guitar with another musician in the next cul-de-sac.  I was invited to bring my djembe and sit in when I hear them playing.

My neighbors and I got up close seats, as close as we could get behind the VIP seats.  I have a love/hate relationship with The Belly Up, but seated concerts (and arriving early) are in the love category.  I would have hated paying $150 and having an obstructed view (which about a third of the crowd would have).

An auction preceded the concert.  Notably, an Emmylou Harris model Gibson guitar, signed by Emmylou went for about $5K.  The emcee finished the auction to see if audience members wanted to donate to the museum.  This started with 2 people donating $15K each then stopped when the emcee dropped bidding down to $2.5K.  Lotta deep pockets in this crowd.

Emmylou and band took the stage and played a full concert.  I wanted to hear something from the Wrecking Ball album but it didn’t make the playlist.  No regrets though.  You don’t get many chances to see a 14 Grammy winner in a small venue.

SpaceX Over San Diego

SpaceX was scheduled over San Diego about 7:32pm.  Of course, I am watching at 7:30 and get impatient.  WHERE IS IT?????  And then it appeared: you could not miss it.  Very fast, about 4.76 miles A SECOND!  Out of sight in < a minute.

I waved.  Not sure if they waved back.

Yeah, This Happened…

My dermatologist was concerned about a mole.  Turns out he was right to be concerned.  Hope the surgeon got all of it.

Annual Trip to Upstate New York 2021

Still affected by Covid, the trip originally was scheduled to include NYC but that was cutout mainly due to Leonid and Friends postponing their Connecticut concert.  Oh well.

Wendy requested our presence in her family’s cottage on the evening I arrived.  I begged off, requesting a Liverpool overnight to clear my head from redeye travel.  Bill and I drove north to meet Wendy at her cottage the next day.

Such a beautiful, quiet, and serene cottage.  What else to expect from Wendy?  Just walking in the entrance and seeing the dining chandelier – Yup, that’s a Wendy creation.  I’ll say it again: beautiful, quiet, and serene.  You feel the stress of the world melt away by just walking the pathway to the dock to overlook a still inlet.  We talked, catching up on family and life and stopped whenever (1) an egret/hawk/eagle flew overhead or (2) a loon took a quarter-mile to complete a water takeoff.  Live in the moment.

Wendy, Bill and I took out SUPs to investigate the waterway.  Surprisingly I did not end up in the water.  Gordon arrived and proceeded to put on a fly fishing demonstration from the dock.  Poetic.  The sunset was seen from their skiff.  So beautiful.  The next morning, I missed a Gordon text asking how I like my coffee, being that I was on the deck, deep in a yoga pose and appreciating the goodness that comes into my life.

I am fortunate to have friends in Wendy and Gordon.

Thursday evening was spent at Borio's catching up with Craig, Dick, and Charlie (Bill’s regular Thursday night crowd).  Another friend, Phil, joined in.  Most of my evening was spent catching up with Charlie due to dinner seating but it was worth it.  

Bill had a weekend regatta that was little interest to me so we bid “see ya later” and he took off.  My weekend was one of decompressing, walking the neighborhood and an additional Onondaga park walk.

Time for a road trip.  Tuesday, Bill and I took off for the first stop, a day visit to SUNY Brockport.  Yes, my old college stomping grounds.  Well actually one of several colleges but that’s another story…  Our plan came together well; we were to walkabout Brockport village first then campus.  We parked then walked to the village just in time for the impending rain to start.  Time to stop in Barber’s Grill and Tap for a pint and nosh while watching the rain come down.  Good times.  

The rain let up just as we stepped out to check out downtown and the Erie Canal.  Then we walked to campus.  There were plenty of “I don’t remember any of this…” but it has been 38 years.  

Next on the day’s agenda was Rochester.  First stop was walking around Highland Park.  I lived sooo close to this park in the ‘80’s and rarely visited.  We checked into the downtown Holiday Inn and walked the walking trail to Genesee Brewery.  Great view of the High Falls for happy hour.

Then on to Dinosaur BBQ for dinner.  We caused a bit of confusion for the Hostess when we gave up our table to sit at the bar for dinner.  

Wednesday, breakfast was at a diner near Highland Park.  Beautiful area.  Then on to Letchworth State Park.  Regrettably, I did not see much of NY State beauty until I left it – and now I crave it.  Letchworth calls itself “The Grand Canyon of the East”.

I think it’s prettier.  Certainly greener.  

It’s about 17 miles end-to-end so we stopped at several viewpoints and hiked into some.  Then we had our usual late lunch at the Glen Loch Inn near the middle falls.  Just beautiful.

We traveled onto Ithaca for our Canopy by Hilton hotel room.  Impressive hotel, in the Ithaca main (walkable) commons area.  A quick shower then walkabout for dinner.  Every place was a 1+ hour wait.  We walked, looked over the Carl Sagan Planetary layout in the commons then decided it’s time for a pint.  We scored outdoor seating while dining and watching the world go by.

Thursday we went up to Cornell University.  What a beautiful campus.  Disappointed the Bell Tower wasn’t opened (Covid) but we found great viewpoints everywhere.  Incredible gardens.

We discovered the Big Red Barn was again closed for our visit – this makes it twice in the past three years it has been closed.  Plan B was lunch at the Cornell Dairy Barn.  We got there just in time to see yet another rain drizzle.  Bill thought I had been here before with him; nope this was my first Cornell Dairy Barn visit.  We settled that he miss-thought I was Vance/Cathy when they were dropping off their daughter at Ithaca College.

So down the Ithaca hills to get to the car.  On the way I discovered the Nanotechnology building, tried the door (unlocked!) and walked in.  There were several active labs but when walking by an office I spied an ASML shipping box!

We took off for Skaneateles Lake for a village walkabout.  But since Howie/Diane were elsewhere we skipped the usual Doug’s Fish Fry and continued to Liverpool.

Tina and Mark invited us to Sylvan Beach for Saturday afternoon.  Their Liverpool home was showing for sale so they escaped to an offered beach home for the weekend.  It was somewhat cooler and brisk for late July but the sun was shining.  And Adam showed up.  Good conversations centered on the Del Rosso moving picture known as their family.  Mark grilled up some excellent cheeseburgers.

The rest of the trip was spent in Syracuse.  Monday, Bill and I went to Syracuse University and walked the campus and Marshall Street.  Campuses are so inspiring.  A late lunch was a slice of pizza and pint at the Varsity.  Indulgent.  Tuesday was time to visit the Irish section of Syracuse.  We saw the upside-down traffic light and also discovered a monument nearby.

Another late lunch was at Coleman’s for a Smithwicks and split a Corned Beef sandwich.  Living large. Wednesday, we met Tina and Mark for lunch.  Tina shared that their home sold over the asking price and they got to stay in the home until the end of October.  Staying later worked for Tina so they could get in the two weddings, associated parties, and then plan to move out.

Karen and Mackenzie’s Excellent California Visit

Karen and Mackenzie arrived Friday evening.  They were planning on a San Diego visit, buying a car for Mackenzie, and then driving up to the California coast to drop Mackenzie off at UC Berkeley.

Mackenzie previously emailed a shopping car list.  I reviewed several of the cars and responded with an ‘objective’ review, with a 2012 Ford Escape (low mileage!) as the best choice.

Saturday's primary objective was car selection.  We texted/emailed/called the car lot owner Saturday morning and got a delayed response (Lance was at a funeral) but we were referred to Calvin.  We arrived and Mackenzie test drove the Ford and a 4x4 Jeep.  Mackenzie wanted the Jeep due to the 4x4 capability but realized the Ford was the economical choice.  So the primary objective was done.

Lunch was at Liberty Station, getting tacos and a burger.  Now on to car loan and insurance.  We travelled home to work the online choices and also used phone calls but since it was the weekend we didn’t get much accomplished.  John also worked on some car loan research from home.

We had stopped by the Torrey Pines Gliderport on the way home to watch people jump off of the cliff.

Gliderport

Dinner was a flank steak grilling at Casa de Randy.

Dinner at Casa de Randy.

Sunday was a play day.  We traveled La Jolla and walked around, watching people, seals, and pelicans.  All were equally entertaining.  The Living Room was great for an afternoon nosh and drinks.  Dinner was fish stew at Casa de Randy.

Children's Pool @ La Jolla

The Monday objectives were car loan and insurance.  Karen and Mackenzie worked online and phones beginning at 6am (9am on the east coast).  At 12:30pm I made a Board & Brew sandwich run, to keep everyone fed and hydrated.  And by 3pm-ish we had an email saying the car loan was approved.  Lance (car lot owner) was kind enough to say having this email is good enough for him to turn over the car to Mackenzie, so the email was forwarded to Lance and off we went to pick up the Ford.

Monday early evening was a walkabout Encinitas (Mackenzie drove the new car!) to get out of the house and stretch our legs.  We then had a celebratory pint and pizza at Pizza Port for dinner.

Mackenzie and I discussed when we last saw each other.  It was at the Conkling household when they had their pool so it would have been when Mackenzie was in 8th grade.  She recently turned 22 years old.

Tuesday, Karen and Mackenzie took off for stop #1 in Thousand Oaks.

Wednesday, I received a FedEx containing the car loan check so I hand-delivered it to Lance.

Thursday, I got texts from both Karen and Leah saying they met up in Oakland and were having dinner at Leah’s home.

Good People Meeting Good People.

Pizza at The Wolf's

 

A great evening of conversation, laughs, pizza (Thanks Jeff!), and drink mixology (Thanks Bob!).  Great to see and converse with everyone – while we are not wearing a 3/2 wetsuit.

Bill Whalen SoCal Visit

Bill, having completed both Covid vaccine shots, felt a new sense of travel adventure so he booked a west coast/east coast escape from cold and wet April in New York.  Trip expectations were tempered due to social distancing (I have only had 1 of 2 vaccine shots) and that SoCal was still somewhat locked down.

His arrival on Thursday, April 1, was planned so that I would have the two Electra bikes unloaded and ready for use upon arrival.  We planned to pick up Bill at the airport, park the car near the bikes in Liberty Station, then bike to Point Loma Seafood and split a fish taco lunch.  And since the bikes were waiting near Stone Brewery Liberty Station we thought why not have pints first?

Oh my, how things have changed due to Covid.  I had placed a Stone Brewery reservation that morning – good thing otherwise we wouldn’t have been seated.  Once seated, we could order online using a QR code to start the process.  Nothing like a poorly designed UI to get me fired up.  I fiddled with the “app” for about 10 minutes.  Bill was chagrined that Ruination wasn’t available (but was on the menu!#!#!#!#!#).  We then waited and waited for the pints to arrive.  The next step was to message Stone asking where are our pints?  Two responses: (1) that pints of beers we didn’t order were already delivered(????), and (2) No, they don’t have our order.  We were getting thirsty.  Finally, we flagged down someone and asked where did our order go?  That person sent over someone else who needed to hear our story.  Finally, Hillary came over and took our order.  The app UI needs some work.

We biked to Point Loma Seafood for lunch afterward.  Post lunch, we biked around Liberty Station to enjoy the sunshine and being outdoors.  And being Thursday, we stopped at Pizza Port to join the Cymer Surf Crew for pies/beers and socialization within my bubble.

Friday we loaded up the bikes and traveled to Balboa Park for the Seven Bridges hike.  We cheated and biked between bridges.  Notably, we traveled around Bankers Hill area (quit a few stately homes!), learned that I need to read all of the directions (after carrying the bikes down/up steps on the suspension bridge, the instructions said to return to the beginning point to continue), then we abandoned bridge #7 when traveling to it required traversing a high-traffic area.  Lunch was splitting a grilled cheese at Panama 66.  Living well.

Saturday was a walk to Del Mar.  We enjoyed an overpriced croissant from the French bakery while relaxing at the Del Mar Civic Center.

Sunday we took the bikes to Coronado Island to continue our theme of social distancing (outside) and enjoying the sunshine.  We biked and explored Coronado: plenty of beautiful older and newer (McMansion) homes, and great views to San Diego downtown.  Coronado is a quieter and calmer place for biking.  I was getting bike-butt so Bill suggested a bink at or near the Del Coronado.  Good idea!  Seems the Del was under minor construction so we found a beach bar and ordered drinks and tacos.  Good location since I could stand to alleviate the bike-butt. Lunch was followed by a beach walk.

I had invited Bob, Kathy, and Carsten over for dinner that evening.  Dinner/dessert consisted of strip steak, grilled onions, roasted Brussel sprouts, and roasted pears/ice cream.  Oh, also a nice red wine brought by Bob.  More living well.  Great conversation: Carsten returning to NYC for college, Bob/Kathy talking about their recent Croatia vacation, and general fun/laughs.  I love having good people at my home.

Monday we biked north into Encinitas.  Along the way, we used the new Cardiff multi-use trail that took us away from those pesky autos and on a separate trail.  The lunch stop was at La Especial Norte for the obvious choice of Tortilla Soup.  Yummy.  Bill got a Mexican Coke: reading the contents we discovered it contains about 10 teaspoons of raw sugar.  WOW!  The ride back south to home was taxing so we stopped at Culture for a pint.  Much less sugar - I think.

Tuesday we walked about Solana Beach then biked to The Brigantine for lunch.  Lunch was splitting a Fish Taco plate and ensuring that Bill had the preferred view to the DM fairgrounds and dog beach.  More living well.