Opera at the Kennedy Center

For growing up in a suburb of Paris, my friend Mathieu has had no exposure to the opera. It is shameful. Are you sure you are even French Mat?

Now I can’t really say much because I have only been to 3, maybe 4, operas in my entire life. My wonderful friend Michelle Kirby arranged for us to go see La Traviata in California when I was in high school. I really enjoyed it, especially because they provided supertitles. I don’t understand anything about singing or composition, but I know I liked what Verdi put together.

In Austria, Seabreeze, Shelley, Elise, and I watched about half of an opera (something in Italian) at the Vienna State Opera House (we only watched half because we had to make the three hour drive from Vienna to Maria Alm) and it was a beautiful production. If you are visiting Vienna, go to the opera house about an hour before the performance and you can get standing tickets for 2 Euro. It is a great deal and the Vienna State Opera House is beautiful.

What might count as an opera is a Spanish form of operetta and folk opera called Zarzuela. In Madrid Seabreeze, Shelley, Katie and I saw a Zarzuela performance that was fantastic. It isn’t as heavy as opera and often introduces some comedy. I would say it falls more on the Gilbert and Sullivan side of theater. I was impressed that I understood as much as I did of the performance. Poor Katie had to have one of us translate for her. I bet she missed a lot of plot points because Seabreeze, Shelley and I all speak cheap, gringo Spanish.

And my latest opera was back in May – Siegfried. Mathieu decided that he needed to see an opera and I am always game to participate in something that makes me sound cultured and smart. I don’t actually have to be cultured and smart – I am merely looking to appear cultured and smart. So Mat picked Siegfried. Siegfried is the third of a four part opera series by Wagner called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It is essentially part of the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with less fighting and more sword forging. Siefried’s father had a sword that was broken and Siegfried has to reforge it so he can fight the dragon Fafner (best name ever) that has a ring that gives the owner the power to rule the world. Sound familiar?

Overall it was a great night and good performance. Let's fact it, any night at the Kennedy Center is a good night. At four hours, it was definitely on the long side, but I still felt like I learned something - mostly that German isn’t a very pretty language. Also, if I have to listen to a story about “One ring to rule them all…” it is going to be on DVD and have Viggo Mortensen fighting orcs.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our night at the opera.

Mathieu and Andrew


Emily and Me


Andrew, Mathieu and Emily

Tiffany Visits!

In April one of my oldest friends, Tiffany Cook, came out to visit. It was such a joy to have her come because, as usually happens when my friends have kids, they can never leave home for very long. Luckily Tiffany had an “ace in the hole,” she was pregnant with her third child at the time as was able to garner enough sympathy from her husband, friends, and family earn a brief getaway. Nice job Mike, you earned a lot of husband points!

Tiffany served as a missionary for our church here in the DC area. As a missionary, you rarely get to have any fun, so this was Tiffy’s big chance to do some of the things she couldn’t do before. Of course, at seven months pregnant I don’t know how much fun you can have, but Tiffany was bound and determined to try.

And now, the many adventures of Tiffany in DC:

Tiffany went out to dinner with single people.
I consider this a brave move for someone that has been married for over 8 years. I must say that Tiffany was a total sport as we talked about love, jobs, dating, and places to get good Mexican food. We ended up eating at El Paso Café, which is probably the best Mexican and Salvadoran food I have had on the East Coast. While that isn’t saying much, I would definitely eat there again.

Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Monticello.
Tiffy did not have a long list of places to see, but she did want to go to Monticello and Mt. Vernon. It is about a 2.5 hour drive down to Monticello from Reston, but it is a lovely trip. I had never been to Monticello in the spring and it was, as always, delightful. Sadly, it was the busiest I have ever seen because everyone was in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival and made daytrips to Monticello. Regardless, it was a lovely day and I totally wish I was a Jefferson descendent so I could have more access to the place and be buried in the family plot.

Tiffany survived a trip to Baltimore.
It wasn’t actually supposed to be a trip to Baltimore, but boy did it end up that way. We attempted to go to Mt. Vernon, but it was so crowded and just sitting in traffic was totally annoying. Being the wild girls that we are, we decided to drive up to Philadelphia. The trip started off so well…we found a Krispy Kreme, traffic was light, and the weather was fantastic. Then we passed through the Harbor Tunnel outside of Baltimore. Just as we excited the tunnel my car just lost acceleration. It was awful.

So what happened was that my timing belt broke and busted up the engine in the process. I ended up calling AAA for a tow and the Highway Patrol set up flares to make sure no one hit my car as I was blocking a merging lane. The Maryland roadside emergency guy actually pushed my car with his truck so we could get to a shoulder. The tow truck guy took us to his shop, as it was a weekend and most shops were closed. Then Tiffany and I walked down the street and hung out at a McDonald’s in Baltimore until Seabreeze kindly came and rescued us. There was so much crying on my part. For those of you that know I have issues with Baltimore, my car dying and getting stranded in a town I don’t know didn’t help Davis-Baltimore relations.

Things did not go well for my poor little Ford. The repair costs were to range between $1,500 to 3,000 at a minimum for a car that would fetch $1,200 if I could get it running again. I ended up selling it to a salvage yard in Baltimore for $100. I have to say, that if you need a mechanic in Baltimore, go to Curtis Auto Shop in Dundalk. The mechanic was fantastic and didn’t try to rip me off in my fragile state. I would gladly have him look at my new car – a Nissan Sentra that I adore. Seabreeze was an absolute treasure when I didn’t have a car. She let me borrow her car every day so I could take Tiffany around and go car shopping. Seabreeze, you went above and beyond. Shelley and my mom and dad deserve Medals of Valor for kindly putting up with about 15 phone calls a day regarding taking out loans, car shopping, insurance, negotiating, etc. I also still owe Jason a dinner for helping me negotiate buying a car. He is very, very good. Below is a picture of my sweet Ford getting towed away. Sniff, Sniff…


Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Mt. Vernon.
Thanks to Seabreeze we did make it to Mt. Vernon. I love to go to Mt. Vernon and Monticello in different seasons because you really get to see different vegetation and animals. Tiffany has been starting to garden, so it was nice for her to buy some seeds from her trip that she could then plant in her garden at home. I like seeing all the baby animals (I also like how I am 5 year old girl when it comes to baby animals). I even got to pet some baby sheep that were so darling. The new museum at Mt. Vernon is great and I would highly recommend a visit.

Tiffany spent 5 days with me.
I love that Tiffany knows me so well. It was fantastic to spend time with someone that knows when I am full of BS. I just love her to death.

Come back any time Tiffany!

SPORTS!

Since March I have attended more professional sports games than I have in my entire life. I am not quite sure why that is, but I have a couple of ideas. I think one reason is because it is much easier to get to the arenas and ballparks here in DC than in the Bay Area. Also, my parents weren't that interested in sports or attending games. The one team I would LOVE to see play is the San Francisco 49ers. If only I could afford those tickets. Sadly, they totally suck so it would probably just be depressing to attend a game.

Anyway, here are some pictures of us at the games.

In March my friends Seabreeze, Mathieu, Jenny, Shanna, and I saw the Washington Wizards play the Orlando Magic. Naturally, the Wizards lost.



In May Jenny, Shanna, Shelley, Ben and I attended a Washington Nationals game. I don't remember who they played. Naturally, the Nationals lost.



At the end of May a group of us drove up to Baltimore to see a game at Camden Yards. Aside from the Inner Harbor smelling like a combination of raw sewage and rotting fish, it was a wonderful night with AMAZING weather. It was also Mathieu's first baseball game so it was extra exciting. The Baltimore Orioles played the Detroit Tigers. Naturally, the Orioles lost.



In the picture above, from left to right, is: Jen, Ben, Shelley, Mathieu, Seabreeze, Andrew, and Christine.

To top it all off, we went to the batting cages in Herndon, VA to confirm our baseball genius. My friends Frank and Laurie joined Mathieu, Shelley and me.







Who knew I enjoyed going to games? I sure didn't. Although it is one of the few times that I will eat a hot dog - so maybe it isn't an appreciation for athleticism, but rather a desire to eat meat by-products. I am going to have to think about this one.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I thought that blogging would be an easy way for me to keep track of the vaguely cool stuff that I do. How wrong I was – blogging is time consuming! That must be the reason why people do this as a full-time deal. I think my real downfall is that I want to do these blogs in chronological order. If I could just blog at the moment I might be better but I am so neurotic that I there is no way I could actually abandon linear time.

That being said, in February I headed up to Calgary, Alberta. I had never been to western Canada before and I couldn’t believe that my first trip was going to be in February. I am not a snow person, and from what I hear about Canada (the Great White North is not a joke after all) I would definitely be out of my element. Luck was in my favor the week I was there, not much snow, just a lot of cold. I don’t think I have been that cold since I lived in Logan, UT. To make matters worse, I don’t even know how cold I was because they use Celsius. As much as I detest the metric system, it was cool to drive 110 kph – I felt drunk with speed and power.

When I arrived in Calgary, I saw a lot of steakhouses. And since I am my father’s daughter, I decided to eat steak. It had been a long day by the time I reached Calgary and I was ready to eat. I ended up going to Cattle Baron, which I guess is pretty well known (at least according to the framed articles in the lobby). I ordered a 6 oz filet and it was adequate. I honestly expected a little bit more from the famous Alberta beef – although I am not sure it is the cows fault. I must admit that the bread they served was amazing. Is it sad that I remember the bread?

I did eat at the hotel (Embassy Suites to be exact) on a couple of evenings because it was cold. I know that is so pathetic but once you get ensconced in the warm hotel, why would you leave? The hotel food was passable although after I ate I wish I had gone out.

One of my students recommended a restaurant called Moxie’s Classic Grill. It was very nicely decorated and trendy but I still felt comfortable eating by myself. I don’t remember the entrée (oops) but I do remember the avocado spring rolls that were super yummy.

Another student recommended a place called Thai Boat. It was nice and they had a pretty good pad thai. I would have liked something a bit more robust, but for the price it was just fine.

My students decided that we all needed to go out to lunch on Thursday. Olive Garden was chosen because it is good for a lot of people. Fortunately for me, one student told the waiter it was my birthday and the wait staff brought out a cake and everyone sang “Happy Birthday.” It was so hard for me to just play it naturally and not crack up. My students were the nicest group of people that I have met in quite some time.

The coolest thing I did was drive up to Banff National Park and see Lake Louise. I have wanted to go to Lake Louise for a while and for a couple of reasons. One, I once saw an episode of the Jeff Corwin Experience (I love Jeff Corwin) at Lake Louise and it looked stunning. Two, I have Webshots on my computer and one of the rotating pictures is of Lake Louise. I guess I just wanted to say when the picture rolled around on Webshots that I had been there.

Banff is about 1.5 hours away from Calgary, so I took off after my class finished around noon on Friday. I drove up to Banff and it was just lovely and even better, it wasn’t snowing. I was a bit hesitant to make the drive up into the Canadian Rockies as I didn’t have any snow gear aside from a glove, scarf, and hat set that my brother got me for Christmas. I definitely didn’t have shoes that would work well. I ended up taking my sneakers and hoping for the best.

Lake Louise is stunning. For overnight guests there is Château Lake Louise which sits right on the lake. I would love to stay there, although I don’t think I make nearly enough money. The alpine beauty of the Château and the lake reminded me so much of Austria.

I walked over to the lake and it was totally frozen. They had ice sculptures, as well as a skating rink, and a hockey rink. I was watching people walk across the lake and I was dead set against setting one foot on that frozen mass of water. I had always thought people hanging out and having funtivities on frozen lakes was an urban legend. It just seems unnatural.

After realizing that this was my one shot to walk on a frozen lake, I decided to take the proverbial plunge. I figured I have had a good life, so if it ended then so be it. I loved walking across the lake. I only made it about ¾ of the way across until the sun dipped behind the mountains and it became very, very cold. Needless to say, I lived to tell the tale. It is, perhaps, one of the most memorable experiences I have had.

On the way back to Calgary, I stopped in the town of Banff, which can only be described as picturesque. I walked around the main streets of Banff with the distinct feeling that someone took Park City, UT and moved it to Canada. I had a hard time finding someplace to eat as everything looked really cheap or really expensive. I finally decided to pick a place and just go – I was on en expense account so what did I care? I would ask forgiveness when I got back to the office.

I ended up eating at the Maple Leaf. It was amazing! They let me sit by the window with a panoramic view of the mountains. What made it even better was that I got to watch the sunset as I ate. The New York strip steak was perfectly cooked and tender. The mashed potatoes were so creamy and the vegetables were just the right and perfectly al dente. I cannot think of one bad thing to say about the place. The wait staff was outstanding and even let me join in their conversation about Lost. For those of you that like wine, they have an extensive selection. If you are ever in Banff, do not skip the Maple Leaf.

And now for two side notes: First, the Canadians are not kidding when it comes to hockey, as every other channel covered some hockey game. And second, I did find a used bookstore called the “Wee Book Inn.” Sadly, it was going out of business because of rising rent prices.

Next Trip – New York City