Rick and Judy and Elise and Anna enjoyed a two-week excursion to Europe in May 2018.
Here is a (detailed) overview of our trip… (Click on each section to expand the text. [I am in the process of compiling this, so entries with fewer than 50 words have not yet been completed.]) Continue reading
Back to Banff: Reliving their epic “ROAD TRIP!” from 2015, Rick and Judy returned to Banff National Park, and environs, in Canada.
Rick and Judy even managed to attend a Vikings game this year at the new US Bank stadium, site of Super Bowl LII in 2018.**
After dabbling in fits and starts through various iterations over the past half decade of an “empty (or nearly) nest,” Rick and Judy experienced the first full year completely on their own in 2017—the first year since 1990 and the advent of kids, that is! We still have frequent contact with our girls and their men (We LOVE it and them!) but we no longer have anyone else living with us.*
“Elise’s” room is now the “guest room,” and “Anna’s” room is now the “office.” They both still have things here in storage (after all, RICK still has things at his mom’s house!) but all that is tucked away out of sight.
Judy and Rick marked a musical milestone: They joined the throngs who have seen The Phantom of the Opera. Already the longest running show in Broadway history, its current touring incarnation visited Minneapolis recently.
We are glad we went. We were also slightly alarmed that we weren’t all that impressed. What? It’s a cultural phenomenon. The aforementioned Broadway show is in itself a tourist destination; it’s one of the things you “should see” when you’re in New York. Did we miss something? Was it an off night? Was it a case of “the emperor’s new clothes”? What’s wrong with us? Continue reading
Clockwise from left: Judy, Alex, Grant, Rick, Mike, Andrea, Anna, Claire, and Esther.
“Happy Thanksgiving” is a greeting worth considering.
On the surface, it is a well-intended wish that the recipient will enjoy the holiday. After all, how can one help but be happy if one only takes time to give thanks? It makes sense. If you focus on the blessings in your life, and take time to appreciate them rather than take them for granted—or better still, focus on the good rather than the bad—you are bound to feel better about how things are going.
In a strict sense, there is an implicit imperative to “have a happy ___(holiday)___.” Does your commanding me to be happy then make it so? Not so much. Were it only so simple!
We have always enjoyed live entertainment, whether music or plays—or musical plays. We’ve been Guthrie subscribers for decades; we attended every school performance for our kids; we dabbled in Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra subscriptions. We have seasoned our selections with university concerts, and marveled at marching/pep bands at games (football and volleyball). We have even travelled great distances for Drum Corps International competitions.
Both our girls were in the band for show choir, which competitions exposed us to a compressed compendium of show tunes, albeit without the original storyline. So it was only a small step to add season tickets for the Orpheum Theater’s “Broadway on Hennepin” series of touring shows.
We were first hooked by an amazing production of “Wicked”—which Judy saw first with a friend, and encouraged Rick to attend with her again.
We signed up on the spot.*
All of this transpired while (impatiently) waiting to attend “Hamilton” on Broadway, Elise’s Christmas present to Rick (which should already have been another story, and will be soon).
Continue reading