But, sometimes you have to go and find the excitement.
On Friday, August 26th, Eric and I had tickets to go and see Josh Groban perform at the Rose Garden in Portland. It is the city's big indoor stadium, like the Staples Center in So. CA. We were in the 29th row on the floor. But we had a treat! There was a mini stage just a few feet away from us and he started the show there! I didn't take this video, because this is a New Orleans show, but this is about how close we were:
It was my 4th time seeing him in concert, but I've never been this close before. Security allowed those of us with floor seats to stand right at the edge of the mini stage and for a good 1/3 of the concert I was about 5 feet away from him. That was awesome!
The rest of the concert was a lot of fun. He sounded great, did his drum-playing bit,
answered questions from the audience, and even sang "Happy Birthday" with a girl from the audience (she sounded good!) He also brought an older couple up on stage for about half an hour and just really interacted well with the audience. It has been a few years since I've seen him live and he has really grown as a performer. Eric had a good time too. We drove home, made a midnight burger run, and got to sleep a little after 1am.
Since Eric took a couple of days off so we could go to the concert, we had some extra time for other adventures. On Wednesday we drove the 70-odd miles to Seaside, Oregon, which is the end of the Lewis & Clark trail. The drive was lovely and scenic through windy roads surrounded by huge fir trees. We also drove through Astoria, a cute coastal town with houses up on steep hills.
Seaside is your basic coastal tourist town...gift shops, restaurants, everything from seedy motels to upscale hotels, a little indoor mall with bumper cars and an arcade. One of the big attractions is the aquarium, which is really just the outer room with the sea lions and in the inner room with the tanks. You can see the whole thing in less than half an hour, but it is still fun. My brother and I went there back in 2004 when he lived in Oregon for a year. For $1 you can buy a little handful of fish to feed the sea lions. And there is always the smart one who learns that if he slaps the water and gets your attention, he'll get more fish:
(I didn't take this video either....YouTube is a wonderful thing! LOL)
And the last big news is that I'll be heading back to California at the end of the month to visit my family. Although it is kind of my mom's turn to travel up here, she wanted me to come down there. The upside of that is that I can check on my house and I get to see my cute nephew and niece. This time, though, we're doing something different. My mom hasn't had a vacation in a while (except to come and visit me,) so we're going to drive up to Carmel for 5 days. We are taking her dog, in the past we've always taken my dog, and we are driving in her car instead of mine. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. We were lucky to get one of the only remaining rooms available for those 4 nights at our favorite hotel, the Cypress Inn:
Last year Eric and I spent the day in Carmel while on our honeymoon. We stayed in Monterey, but I got to show him all of my favorite places to shop and eat and visit in Carmel.
Carmel is my favorite vacation place, so I'm really thrilled to be able to go there again. It is upscale, but everyone is so nice and most people bring their dogs. The shops and restaurants accommodate the dogs. There are mountains and trees and the ocean all in one place. You feel safe and you pretty much walk everywhere.
Recent adventures and upcoming adventures!
1 comment:
I think it sounds like your life is still pretty exciting - maybe just in a different way. And minimizing drama in one's life is always a good thing, right? =)
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