End of Day 5, BP Tour

Today was a very relaxing day. It started off with me having a therapeutic massage at the Massage Envy in Nampa, then Kevin, Carol, & I took a campus tour of the Albertson College of Idaho, from which they both graduated.

Sonos played there 4 or 5 years ago, so I saw the Performing Arts Center then, but it was nice to see the rest of campus.

Here's another bit from the Small World Department: it turns out that Carol's father once lived in the basement room of Nancy Hascall's parents! Nancy is a handbell soloist & teacher in Oregon who I have known for several years. She's also a C-of-I alum.

Anyway, the College has a Natural History Museum which we visited today. They had lots of skeletons & taxidermic exhibits, plus insects under glass & snakes in jars. One of the curators was there & told us about organizing some freshwater snail specimens (from the Snake River? Not sure, but it's the big river in the area) to send to the Smithsonian. Neat!

After lunch in Caldwell, we drove back to Burley to stay the night @ Kevin's parents' house again. They've been so nice & I really appreciate their hospitality!

Tomorrow, we drive to Big Sky, MT. I had hoped to stop at the opal mine/store that Brian & I stopped at when we drove to Saskatchewan for a family reunion back in 2006, but it turns out that that's in Spencer, which is not on our route & would add almost 2 hours onto our trip. *sigh* I'll have to wait for another trip to buy more opals! :-)

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

From the Small World Department

I forgot to mention this about last night's concert!

In the first half, Kevin plays a harp solo, "Bernera Boat Song" by Allison Kinnaird. Bernera is a very, very small island off the coast of Scotland.

During intermission, a lady came up to Kevin and told him that her father was born on Bernera & lived there as a child.

How cool is that??

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

End of Day 4: BP Tour

Kevin & I played a concert tonight at 1st Presbyterian Church in Nampa, ID. Amazingly, on a summer Monday night, there were 110 people there!!

The concert went very well! Not flawlessly, but well. We got lots of compliments on our "ensemble" - that is, how well we play together, rather than as 2 soloists.

Phyllis is the perfect host! Not only is her church lovely, but she really goes the whole 9 yards to make sure everything is well taken care of. We really appreciate her attention to detail - as a performing artist herself, she understands what needs to be done.

Tomorrow is a day "off" for us. I have a therapeutic massage scheduled for 8am the Kevin, Carol, & I are doing a tour of the College of Idaho (their alma mater), then we head back to Burley before heading to Big Sky on Wednesday.

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

Hagerman, ID

We stopped to see the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. They've got fossils of the "Hagerman Horse", an extinct species of horse, plus other "camelops" skeletons.

The visitor center also holds the temporary display site of the Minidoka National Historic Site, a WWII-era Japanese-American Internment Camp, until a permanent site can be built.

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

End of Day 3, BP Tour

This morning, Kevin & I played for the 10:45 am servie at Burley (ID) Presbyterian Church. Here's what we played:

PRELUDE : Kevin played a medley of 2 Swedish tunes, "Emma's Waltz" and "Fransosen"

HYMN OF PRAISE : I played "Be Still My Soul" with church accompanist Mayna on piano (sorry, I don't remember her last name)

SPECIAL MUSIC : Kevin & I played our new arrangement of "Be Thou My Vision (Slane)"

CHILDREN'S SHARING TIME : We gave chimes to the kids and I led then in playing "Jesus Loves Me" while Kevin played along on harp & the congregation sang

OFFERTORY : Kevin & I played his composition "Anjuli's Lullaby" (recorded on our CD "Sampler")

POSTLUDE : Carol & Kevin played harps & I played tambourine on a medley of the traditional tunes "Chanter" & "La Rotta"

After the service, we came back to Kevin's parents' house for lunch with them & some other visiting family, then Kevin & I went back to church to rehearse for a while. Now we're back at the house for the evening, getting ready to drive to Nampa tomorrow morning.

We'll be playing a 7:00 pm concert @ First Prebyterian Church in Nampa tomorrow night. Our good friend Phyllis Tincher is hosting us & we're really looking forward to seeing her!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

End of Day 2: BP tour

We arrived in Burley, ID, at about 4:30 Mountain time, unpacked our personal stuff @ Kevin's parents house, then headed over to the church to setup & rehearse a bit for tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, the email on my new phone (an HTC Fuze) had some "issues" with switching over to the new time zone & it took me awhile to sort that out - I ended up having to delete the account on my phone & set it back up again. *sigh*

Anyway, it's almost time for me to shower & go to bed. I've been going to bed early lately since I'm still not sleeping through the night (though the vicoden *does* help).

Tomorrow, we play for the 10:45 am service then will have some time with Kevin's folks and then will rehearse for our Monday night concert.

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

1 mile south of Jackpot, NV

Stopped for a picnic lunch @ this lovely rest stop.

Gonna go dip my toes in the water!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

E Clampus Vitus

Patti commented on my previous post telling me to Google "E Clampus Vitus" so I did!

Here's an interesting article I found: http://itotd.com/articles/586/e-clampus-vitus/

Cool! Thanks, Patti!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

Beowawe Rest Area, NV

Found this sign at the Beowawe rest area.

Look at the date.

A quick Google search tells me that "Credo Quia Absurdum" means "I believe because it is absurd".

????

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

On the Road again

Leaving Winnemucca!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

End of Day One, BP Tour

We stopped @ the Santa Fe Inn in Winnemucca, NV tonight. The room is HUGE!! (pics tomorrow, I hope.)

Carol read to us today from "The Shack" by William Paul Young. It's a wonderful, gripping story - I don't want to give any spoilers, but we're really enjoying the book so far. We start Chapter 6 tomorrow.

We had a good dinner @ a local Basque restaurant here in town. I did my PT exercises & took some vicoden. Now I need to ice my arm & shoulder then go to bed.

We've got an early start in the morning & need to get to Burley, ID, tomorrow. Should be about a 6 hour (or so) drive.

Good night!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

Love locks in Lovelock

We stopped for a bit it Lovelock, NV, and saw this!

Hoping to make it to Winnemucca tonight.

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

Kevin @ Donner Summit

Kevin pressing the granite smooth at the Donner Summit rest area. After you lie on it for a while, the bumps smooth out. Honest!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)

Bronzewood Paedeia on tour

Kevin & I are on tour to Idaho & Montana, accompanied by his wife Carol. We stopped for lunch at Sweet Pea's in Auburn, Ca. Yum!

-Michèle (sent from my mobile phone)