Playing Favorites 10/14/2022

Years ago my wife Muri and I used to take a mini-vacation every Valentine’s Day.  I’d pick a place that wasn’t too far from home then search the web for things to do there: museums, concerts, tours … and, of course, restaurants.  This all stopped when our first grandson, Reed, was born on Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day became Reed’s Birthday.   The year before Reed was born, we spent a long weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In searching for entertainment for Saturday night, I found a group named Leahy performing at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.  I’d never heard of the group, so I navigated to their website to find that Leahy is a Canadian folk group made up entirely of family members from Lakefield, Ontario.   The eight member band features fiddle-based music that ranges from traditional jigs and reels to their own folk-rock compositions.  All the members play multiple instruments and all step dance as part of their act.   We discovered before the show that Leahy had a large following of people who had seen them before and traveled a long way to see them again in Santa Fe.  It was simply one of the most enjoyable concerts we’d ever attended, made better by the fact that it was a complete surprise.   And so, Leahy qualifies as today’s favorite.

Friday Favorites 1/20/2012

Years ago … six to be exact … Muri and I used to take a mini-vacation every Valentine’s Day.  I’d pick a place that wasn’t to far then search the web for things to do there: museums, concerts, tours … and, of course, restaurants.  This all stopped six years ago when our first grandson, Reed, was born on Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day became Reed’s Birthday.  In fact, the year Reed was born, we were spending the weekend before in a bed and breakfast in Lake Arrowhead, CA.   The plan was to drop Muri at the airport Valentines Day morning to be with Amy, with Older Eyes coming on Friday.  I was working then and needed to finish some work.  A dense fog settled over the mountains that morning, so we had to navigate the windy roads with ten foot visibility, wondering if Muri would make her flight.  She did and the rest is history … including our Valentines Day vacations.