Category Archives: music

Jul24

Replay America

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Since I have the laptop open, I decided to do another quick post tonight! It’s easier than the tablet too.

So I love a good deal. We see lots of musical events and enjoy restaurants through LS and GO….you know who I mean correct?  😉

So a concert called ‘Replay America’ was touring with Martha Davis, Patty Smyth, Naked Eyes and the Go-go’s! I had to look up some of the artists just to refresh my memory a bit, but after I did I thought it would be a fun concert to attend. Their music is still on the radio! It was on the grounds of the PPL soccer stadium in Chester, PA. We had never been. I didn’t see where it said ‘grounds’ but Brian did and said to bring chairs. I didn’t listen to him and he didn’t push the fact that it would be a good idea, and he didn’t show me the website either. I’m thinking seats in the soccer stadium-no.

ReplayAm4We got here a little early and found a geocache right outside where we would be standing. As we walked toward the cache area or ground zero, another cacher was coming around the corner with his GPS pointed there! I said ‘oh a cacher’, pointed to the lamp skirt, and he grabbed it first. That was funny! He said there were a few others around the stadium. We got one more later.

We got our tickets, and walked over to the grassy area, behind the reserved seats. I should have paid a little more to sit down! We ended up near the metal barrier and I was talking to a nice couple from Reading, PA. Even though we stood for a few hours, it went by fast. It would bother my left knee though. (Urgent care visit a week later)

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The lady from Reading took our photo at the venue.

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When the final act, The Go go’s came on, we moved to the other side of the venue to kind of beat the crowds when the show was over (Ya, they’ve got the beat-lol). That’s Belinda Carlisle in the middle. She is a year older than me and has great moves and her voice sounds the same.

I really enjoyed Patty Smyth! She is the ex of John McEnroe and hasn’t been around for a while. I liked ‘I am the Warrior’.

Everyone sounded great! One group pulled from the tour, Cutting Crew. I don’t remember them.

Here is a link with some of the performers hits.

We paid $17 each. Cant’  ‘beat’ that!

We were almost under the Commodore Barry Bridge to NJ, that was pretty neat.

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Nov27

Scenic shots of Atlantic City

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Last Saturday, Nov. 23rd, the three of us went to Atlantic City for the last ‘rah rah’ of 2013. I shouldn’t say that, because now I am scoping out places that will be decorated for Christmas like the home of President James Buchanan in Lancaster County. So the special treat was for Brian and me to go see one of my favorite singers ever, Bonnie Raitt. I even crocheted a scarf to give to her!

Bonnie was playing in Caesars and we stayed in the Tropicana for the 1st time. We have stayed in 5 out of the 12 now (actually the Sands was torn down, so it’s 4 now).

Brian and I were told taking a jitney was our best bet to get to Caesars. We went and stood a few minutes in the cold and one came along promptly. We had a more interesting experience heading back.

We bought a dinner and show package and had to find the restaurant. It was tucked in the corner of the 3rd floor. We both had Caesar salad and salmon. Brian chose cheese cake and me creme brulee. It was a nice meal!

We had some time to kill, and went over to the mall which wasn’t busy at all. We looked around a few stores, but I was anxious to get back to the venue and see who I could give Bonnie’s scarf too. The ticket guys really didn’t know and it took a bit for them to check to see what to do. Finally I was to give the present to a security guard.

We bet 2 whole dollars-that was it! Good for us!

The theater wasn’t really large and we had good seat in the second row of the back section. Unfortunately people kept climbing over us! We had to stand up at least 7-8 times!

Marc Cohn was the opening act for Bonnie and this was his last performance with her. I grabbed this shot off his Facebook page. Thanks for the memories Marc!

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Found this on youtube, but what a strange angle!

I will treasure this evening forever! Bonnie sang ‘Rainy Day Man’ by another one of my favorites, James Taylor; Angel from Montgomery and so many of her new and older hits.  The little boys above are the sons of Marc and his wife reporter Elizabeth Vargas.

So we had a little trouble getting on the right jitney on the return trip. First we got on one going the wrong way. We thought they turned around maybe? Then the second one was the incorrect number for the Tropicana. So finally we got on the right one, got out and didn’t know how to get in the right area for the hotel part. We had to walk from the bottom level and finally found the right area to go. Sean was gone for a bit longer. He was having fun checking out the night life, but not eating a very filling meal.

We never sleep well the first night and it was warm in the room. We had a difficult time getting up for breakfast, but I did grab the Canon for these shots.

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I’m sure that water was a bit chilly!

AC11_13 002Caesars is in front of that white parking garage. We have stayed there, the Taj Mahal and Revel, the place with the mirrored windows and the globe on the top. The lighthouse in Absecon (which I have climbed) is down the middle near the water-it’s a white dot here.

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The curved roof building is convention center where the Miss America contest is now held again.

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That’s the Borgata with the gold windows and the train station area (I think) and highway.

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They do use wind machines for power!

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What Atlantic City looked like before the casinos. I remember we stayed in a place similar to one of these when we were younger. Not that great.

When we were headed down, we stopped in Marlton, NJ where Sean works now. It’s really a haul for him each day. It’s good experience and if he needs to move closer he may have to as it’s 120 miles a day trip for him!

We stopped a few times coming home, but I wasn’t in the mood to shop and actually snoozed in the car. Yep, it was a long night, but a memorable one.

Nov4

Every man should sing like Josh Groban!

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Really, I am not kidding at all. Can you imagine your hubby or significant other belting out ‘You Raise Me Up’ for your birthday or anniversary? I know some guys can sing, but how many can hold a candle to Josh?

A Group-on deal came up to see Josh down in Philly-$25 each-holy cow, that’s the price of a concert in the 1980s!  Brian and I decided to go. I guess it was like a date night.  I knew it would be a low key crowd also.

We left a few hours early which was a smart move. We got a great parking spot and no lines at the ticket booth.

We had to wait to get in, but we didn’t feel rushed. The usher pointed us to what we thought was the correct row, and we made ourselves comfortable.

JoshConcert4-34Beyond the railing were floor seats. As I said, wow, not bad for the price. The big screens helped a lot!

The opening act was a lovely lady named Judith Hill, I couldn’t place her at first.  Here she was one of the finalists in last season’s ‘The Voice’. How neat is it to tour with Josh. She sat at a piano and sang a few snippets of songs, including ‘You’ve Got A Friend’. Woo, love a gal that sings a James Taylor/ Carole King song. She was on about 1/2 hour and then Josh didn’t come on until 8:30.

He ran out singing ‘Brave’

So I thought this was called ‘Gotta Run Away’-lol

Josh is only 32 going on 33. He has such a mature voice, you forget he is such a young guy.

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Here is Josh’s duet with Judith singing ‘The Prayer’. He said he was asked to sub for Andrea Bocelli (stuck on a plane)with Celine Dion at the Grammys one year which made him well known.

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He sang a nice array of songs, some in Spanish, maybe French. I was waiting for him to sing ‘You Raise Me Up’ and he did as an encore! That song makes me fill up as one time when my uncle was sick, it made me feel better and more hopeful that he would get better.

We thought the show was over and I used the ladies room and he was singing ‘Smile’. I love that song too!

All in all a nice evening except the man next to me was way too large for his seat and he really overflowed into my space. He should have turned toward his wife. He had a big beer and I knew he’d have to get up sooner or later and I made Brian change seats. Alas, he never sat down again! And here we were in the incorrect row! We should have been down one as the young ladies who were suppose to be in our seats came in late and I pointed to the ones below us. I wish we could have sat down there.

Oct14

Happy International EarthCache Day!

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Since it was indeed international EarthcCache Day, I ‘really’ wanted to participate. I dropped the shoes sorting, etc but we first went to church. Unfortunately, there were only about 3 in this immediate area. Most of these are near mountains, which in Pennsylvania are up near the Allegheny or Pocono Mountains.

So we went to church and the priest said indeed he had given me a recommendation for my job. Yes! We headed to the one near the White Clay Creek, got very close and the bridge was torn up before the turn we were going to make! Rats! We wasted 30 minutes. This was one I hadn’t printed out a paper anyway. We headed to Delaware near Wilmington and the Brandywine River. We were on a time crunch as Brian had to be at work at 3 pm. We got there about 1:40 and were just blown away by the area! An old mill had been converted to condos!

The fall foliage is just starting to turn

We were standing on a foot bridge here.

Then we headed to the Wilmington Blue Rock cache. It’s amazing!

This is suppose to be a  horseshoe shaped gorge. It’s so grown up, I didn’t realize it had that shape until I got home The rock is way in the back.

We had to answer questions about the Bancroft Mills (above) and the colors of the natural rocks in the gorge.

We had to rush a bit and got home with only 20 minutes for Bri to eat and change!

Sep3

Potomac and DC area exploring-pt 1

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The three of us went down to National Harbor, MD on Saturday the 1st for  Abbey Road on the River, the musical tribute to the Beatles. We went last year and stayed at the Gaylord and had a fun time. I changed the room this year to the atrium area so we wouldn’t have as far to walk. That helped,  as did bringing foods for a few meals, but that’s about it.  It was very humid and just standing in the sun for a few minutes was miserable.  We purchased ‘general admission’ tickets and not ‘preferred seating’. Even though it was suppose to be half price for two days, it was still $70 and we had a hard time just standing and finding a place to stand. Last year they had seats open and we usually got to sit down, almost at every venue. Many times  this year, there were empty seats for the P.A. and people standing elbow to elbow everywhere even up and down the walkways for G.A.. To me that isn’t too safe and not very organized. Saturday night we sat in a little area  for hotel guests near the pool with tables-we could barely see the singers, but we could hear them fine. That isn’t right.

We took a few shots of the bands-I have to ID them by looking at the schedule later, but I think we saw maybe 4-5 bands and last year twice that many.

See all the empty seats for the preferred seats? Behind this fence it was jammed.

That evening we did have a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmicks Seafood right on the waterfront. Sean and I had their McCormick Seafood trio of salmon with grilled shrimp and stuffed shrimp with green beans (under cooked-ugh) and cheesy kind of potatoes.

Brian had Mahi Mahi with  a corn bisque. We also got a huge, delectable piece of  carrot cake to share.

We took a little walk to find a cache. It was about 1/4 mile away and we had to cross over 4 roads, two which had a lot of traffic on them. It was near an interesting rock formation:

This is my early 1970s look.

The hint for the cache made it a little too easy to find. I ‘always’ look at the hint since I have gone to the trouble to go and look for the cache in the first place. It was down from this area behind a rock. Not in good shape. I forgot to bring my bag with my geocaching stuff, so I had no travel bug or swag to drop (really didn’t want to take it to the restaurant). The pen was between another rock which I didn’t see right away, so I used a crayon from the swag-lol.

So we walked on back up through the town to listen to more music and I started to have a coughing attack. It happened when we drove into the place a few hours earlier.  I think my sinuses decided to act up. I was okay after I got into the hotel’s air to revive. I am spoiled by a/c. So we ventured out to ‘good ol’ general admission and right smack in the middle were 4 hotel chairs-with papers on them. I had seen them earlier with papers on them. I watched those chairs for 10-15 minutes and then decided to go sit down. You don’t save hotel chairs in this area. I was the only brave person to do so and another 10-15 minutes went by and sure enough a woman came back and said they were their chairs because they put papers on them. I said you don’t save chairs in this area and I needed to sit for a few minutes. She had a chair next to Brian and her hubby was very nice and said to stay. I said we will leave in a few songs anyway which we did. (We did see her later at another concert and she decided to sit in the 1st or 2nd row-now that’s not a good idea in a closed room with big booming speakers).

Look at the nice view they were stealing from other people. If they wanted preferred seats, they should have paid for them.

On the pier

It felt like about 94-that fan with the mist was worth every penny I paid. I seemed to be the only person with one-crazy!

So after the above fiasco (this was at the night show) Sean took a water taxi over to Alexandria like he did last year. Brian and I walked along the river and still heard the band and saw them from the back. And then…

the lightning show began….

in all my years I have never seen lightning like that-truly spectacular and scary at the same time! We decided to go in as the rain began and they cancelled the show!  Inside everyone was going upstairs, so we did also. They did the firework show anyway which was pretty awesome.

‘Fire and Rain’

Not a fun way really to watch fireworks

We sat and waited for an indoor concert and listened to a few songs, but we had Sean on our mind as the rain was coming down in buckets and the power had gone out in the bar he was in. He asked the bartender how often that happens and he said about once a year! The roads in those old towns tend to flood out and Sean had to wait a bit to come back on the water taxi. We could have driven over to get him, but thank goodness that worked out well.

DC tomorrow!

Jul14

Lights and Music pt 2

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I got my mom on Wednesday and wanted to treat her to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I’ve been to the one in Lancaster and found some of the sides a bit salty. This one is halfway between mom and me, so we stopped. Lucky for us we got  the ‘early bird’ special for $7.99 each. We got a 6 oz piece of sirloin, two sides and roll for that. We also got onions and mushrooms-$2 more (each). Very good steak. We like deals like that. I think it’s Monday-Wednesday, but double check. And were the sides salty-the green beans had ham in them and they certainly were.

Yesterday I took mom down to the Habitat resale store and she enjoyed looking at the books for 10 cents each or 10 for $1.00. I only bought 3 books, a stainless steel serving bowl and a Birthday bear. I will buy a bear once in a while if it’s really cute-and it was $1.

We went over to Longwood Gardens around 6:15 or so and Brian came too. We got mom a chair and we headed over to the little cafe. She couldn’t decide what she wanted. I knew I wanted the cream of mushroom soup and I got some cold lo mein which I didn’t care for.  Bri got half a large ham and cheese and mom finally got mac and cheese and a hot dog (from the kid’s menu). I didn’t know she had eaten a Hershey bar until I found the paper left on the sofa! She had eaten it beforehand and I think it killed her already weak appetite.  We all nibbled a chocolate pecan tart.

We then went over to the main Conservatory and saw this:

Well that’s the lovely Conservatory

Part of the Bruce Monro light show exhibit…I’ll have to come back to see the Conservatory when it’s darker outside

They like Proven Winners plants here-that’s a big thumbs up!

The lake lights were starting to look pretty-we saw them a few days ago when it was pitch dark, so neat.

The Italian Water Gardens looked neat at night-sat this on a wall.

They also had CDs made in water lily shapes

I sat this on the side of a life preserver case as the shutter was getting so slow

It was a hike to ‘The Meadows’ to see this display:

These are plastic water bottles!

The last part was really hard to photograph without a tripod-it was the woods to a tree house dotted with lights similar to the lake lights. Someone said it looked like ‘The Wizard of Oz’

I think my mom enjoyed being pushed around! It was about a 2 mile walk.

Brian and I took mom home and we headed to a few geocaches on the 13th. This was after hitting Chick-fil-a. We didn’t know it was free sandwich day if you wore a cow costume! So… I knew where one was as a fellow cacher told me. We got to it and it was basically out in the open. The other one, which we tried to find a few months ago was right were I thought it was. We then went to a ‘new’ one and that was so neat! We were near trash bins-ugh!! A cache would never be on one of them. There was a fence there and I leaned over and saw a wooden thing in the extreme corner. I touched it and it moved-it was so cool-

I was so pleased with myself!

We skipped dinner and headed to the Maria Muldaur concert up in Kennett Square. She is a spunky, sassy and bluesy 68 yr old now. I don’t think she enjoys singing ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ that much, though I think it was her biggest hit. Afterwards she went to a counter to sign her CDs and didn’t act too thrilled with having to do so. I have seen a few other artists smile and thank people-not her. I didn’t buy one. We went for some pizza and had the place to ourselves.

We had a busy week! More heat expected too. My flowers are just shriveling up. : (

Mar1

Solemn Sunday in NYC

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The last day we were in NYC, Sean left to go to his meeting before us. We then all met up at St. Patrick’s Cathedral where we went to mass like we did almost 5 years ago when we attended Karin’s wedding.

This was taken the night before:
St. Patrick's at night

It was a nice service and not as long as our church services here! We then decided to head over to Central Park and Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine plaque in memory of John Lennon, the Beatle who was killed across the street outside of his home, the Dakota building.
Sean near Strawberry Fields
Imagine memorial in honor of John Lennon
Brian on the left there, our biggest Beatles fan:
Brian standing near Imagine memorial
Strawberry Fields in Central Park

Strawberry Fields plaque
The Dakota:
The famous Dakota Building
What pretty sights here! I can just ‘imagine’ how pretty it is in the summertime. We’d like to see it all green and lush too. I believe Sean said it had over 800 acres here.
Footbridge and trees in Central Park

Horse Drawn carriage in Central Park
For it being a brisk day, there were still a lot of people milling around.
Our next ‘must see’ place was the new WTC Memorial which was in lower Manhattan. We had timed tickets for it. Sean paid for the almost $20 taxi ride as Central Park was on his ‘wish list’ of places to see, so that’s why we went. I am really glad we did though.
When we got to the memorial area, we were a bit confused as to where to go as they had fences with blue signs all around the area (lots of construction here). We went down one way, though the signs had arrows pointing the other. I saw other people walking the wrong way. We got in the line, which moved quickly, but they have a security check point where we had to put our coat and belongings through the x-ray machine! I believe our tickets were checked 3 times. With all the walking, etc. and no lunch, I has a bit light-headed going in the memorial area-so I was keeping my head up, believe me as it was hard to go in there. It was quite a place to see-such large flowing squares of waterfalls where the twin towers use to go. You start to read the names, but then you start seeing names like ‘Sean’ and you can’t read them anymore.

This is the museum under construction
South Tower Memorial-Museum in background will open 9/12

I read that the remains of about half the victims will be placed somewhere in the museum as they couldn’t be identified.
Basin in middle of Memorial

Names of victims in bronze
I happen to look up Vanessa’s name and read a little bit about her. Her mom is a writer who said 3 days before Bin Laden was killed, an angel fell off her table and the wings ‘perfectly’ broke off the back of the piece. She feels her daughter earned her wings then.
We only stayed about 20 minutes or so. We stopped to hear an excellent guide say how the letters are chiseled out to make the names, so something is missing, like the people here. The falling water is like ocean tears. He stood near a tree that survived the attacks, it was being nursed back to health and had wires, etc. to train the branches. It may have been a sweet gum tree. I had no desire to have my picture taken here, though Sean did and his face told it all. We nodded to the police officers standing near the exit to pay our respects to their deceased brothers and sisters in uniform.
We found a little place to eat a block down from here, after we had gone through the gift shop. We bought pens, a wristband and a ‘gold’ sweet gumball tree leaf to symbolize the trees they will be planting in this area. Most of the money goes to the memorial. They had moving videos playing and items like a wallet from a victim with his lucky $2 in it as he asked his fiance to marry him, it being the second time for both.
The restaurant was near the Freedom Tower
New Skyscraper
I believe they said a floor a week goes up. I heard there is also a Subway Sandwich shop a floor or two below that follows the workers up so they have a place to grab lunch or a drink.
The restaurant was nice with Picasso like painting and the shine from the Freedom tower coming in through the window

I ‘check in’ at the different places we go to with the phone app ‘FourSquare’ and this restaurant had a link to another NY app and we got $20 off. Too bad they didn’t take any off the price of beverages. I tell the guys to get water, but they don’t listen. They made me peppermint tea as I was chilled to the bone.
So we walked up a few blocks-it was about 4:30 and not one taxi was stopping. When we thought we had one, the guy asked where we were going and we said 42nd and he shook his head. The young woman said we should have just climbed in as they aren’t allowed to refuse passengers. After 20 minutes or so, a taxi did stop as he was headed in the direction we needed to go. A few times the 3 of us were squeezed in a Ford Escape taxi. We gave him a good tip for helping. He said that time of day the shifts change so they won’t stop that much.
We had a busy 3 days and saw a lot of neat things and we’d go back again! The more you go, the more you can find your way around. Not driving was a good idea. The bus was convenient as were the taxis.
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I got a Connect My DNA kit from a LivingSocial.com offer as I thought it would be fun to see the distribution of my DNA. I knew I was English, Danish, Swedish, German, French and Irish. They send you the cotton swabs on sticks to collect DNA off the inside of your cheeks and you send it back in an envelope with a barcode on it. I remembered to look last night and low and behold, they must have messed up or mixed me up with someone else as I am not, Russian, or mostly Irish or Syrian! I wrote to them this morning and let them know I know my heritage from genealogies from both sides of my family. I’d like a re-test for the money I spent. We don’t have one Russian that I know of in my family.
I guess I’m off to go shopping with my mom soon. The above info made my mind wonder a lot last night until I told myself it just couldn’t be true for goodness sake. : )
Last but my least:
Our view going home Sunday night:
Sunset coming home