Paper Lions: Kathie's boys come to town!

Somewhere along the way in blogland I hit it off with Island Sparrow, aka Kathie MacPhee.

I think we've been reading each other's blogs for about six or so years now and have discovered that we got married the same week in the same year, are both librarians, have the same camera, both of us own orange cats, we grew up on beaches and swimming, our husbands love fishing and oh, most importantly, we became grandmothers for the first time at the same time last year.

We "clicked" as best we could, considering Kathie lives on Prince Edward's Island while I lived in Houston and now Salt Lake City.

At one point in our early friendship Kathie even sent me an Anne of Green Gables hat with red braids!

If that doesn't bond a friendship, I don't know what will.

Occasional notes between us would express how much fun it would to spent time together some day.

Well, someday may come...some day.

Meanwhile, two of her sons are in a cool award winning band called Paper Lions.

And as luck would have it, the band was scheduled to play in Salt Lake City during their "My Friends" tour.

As soon as I found that fact out I booked tickets and was set to go!

Only to find out that Bernie would be out of town.

I asked if either my son or daughter-in-law could go with me.

Turns out both of them went with me, and Luke got to go too due to babysitter scheduling issue.

Now just between you and me and the rest of the universe:

I happen to think Kathie's granddaughter Josie MacPhee is adorable, and I can think of no good reason why Josie and Luke shouldn't eventually meet and marry.

Just sayin'...

So it seemed perfectly reasonable that Luke have an opportunity to try to win Josie's dad over.

 

We ran into Josie's dad John (aka Lead Singer of Paper Lions) before the show.

I handed Luke off and let him work his charms.

 

Luke: So you are Josie's dad?  Kinda not sure what to say here.

Mim said I should try to win you over.

Luke: He's nice!  I like him!

Next my son Jeff (and his wife) met Kathie's son John.

Luke clearly felt right at home with John.

Then I asked if I could get a photo with John too.

Kathie had told him we would be at the show.

I imagine he is just over the moon to have an almost 60 year old grandmother as a groupie at his show. 

And a baby. 

He now has documentation that his band appeals to almost all ages!

 

We got to the venue at 7:30; another group was playing and Paper Lions was to go on at 9.

Easy time kill for us...we went back out to the street to Granary Row where we could grab some food from a food truck and do a little window shopping.

Shipping containers have been set up in the middle of one of SLC typical six lane streets for street music, food and fun.

Clever way to green up the side of a shipping container don't you think?

 

So fun!

Jeff talked with some of the folks around and learned that the street area is where many local musicians first perform.

If they do well they may be asked to perform for pay at other venues.

 

They had lots of "corn hole" games set up.

Rachel scored!

(Corn hole:  Corn filled bag is tossed at a "hole".  Kind of like horseshoes without danger of being hit by heavy object.)

There was some other kind of game with balls on strings.

I think you throw them at a stand and try to get them to stay.

Cosy interesting little shops inside the shipping containers.

The copper press artist was carving a block to use for printing.

I checked out the food carts and decided to go with this one.

Thai taco and Korean taco.

OH SO DELICIOUS!!!

Jeff went with egg rolls from another stand.

Luke eats what we eat.

He really loves spicy Mexican food, but I haven't seen him turn down any food. 

The kid is a great eater!

I've driven by this place a few times...someday maybe I swing in and see the auto museum.

The shoes:

I spent a good hour trying to figure out what to wear to this concert.

I was pretty sure it was casual, but how casual?

I hate to admit it but my wardrobe simply does not include "clubbing" or rock band clothes.

I've got business wear, church wear, ethnic/vintage wear, hiking/snow/camping wear, and cleaning the house wear.

None of those outfits seemed quite right for the occasion.

I dithered between a couple of outfits, thought about sending Kathie an email asking what the heck should I wear to this thing, and laughed at how I imagined she would laugh at the idea that I was worried about it!

In the end I defaulted to black slot neck 3/4 sleeve knit top, black pants and a long burnt orange cotton scarf, in honor of the fact that my beloved Oregon State Beavers were playing the University of Utah that same night.

OSU=Orange and black.

(That I chose the band over going to the game astonished my family.)

I decided I would glam up a tiny bit on my feet, wear a cool bracelet and necklace,  skip a  hat and call it done.

When I arrived at Jeff and Rachel's house they clued me in that the dress code was definitely more jeans and flannel with a dash of grunge.

I ditched my necklace..

and away we went.

About 8:45 we headed back to Kilby Court where the band was playing.

To get there one walked down a private alley in an old mixed use neighborhood.

Folks were just hanging out everywhere.

The band would play inside a garage like structure with a window so one could also watch from a patio area.

Luke practiced climbing steps while we waited.

He was doing pretty good until just before nine...about two hours past his bedtime.

Rachel drove home with him, leaving Jeff and me to enjoy the concert.

The patio area had a welcomed bonfire going; it had started raining while we were waiting.

 

And then....

Paper Lions cut loose!

 

The audience stood and rocked with them as they played.

Me too.

Jeff was impressed with their sound (whew!  he is pretty fussy about his music)

I had listened to several of their youtube songs (and here  and  here and a whole bunch here) and was glad that John invited singing along as I found myself singing anyway.

(Their instruments were loud enough to drown out my off key warble thankfully.  The youtube songs are their acoustical versions; the concert was far more rock out full drums/hot keyboard and guitar licks. Loved the energy!)

An hour on my feet, keeping up with the music with bopping and bouncing with the crowd.

Didn't want it to end!

After the show I scored the tour poster and two cds...

 

Kathie took the photo on this cd.

She took the photo years and years ago at her daughter's childhood birthday party.

Surely she never dreamed as she clicked the shot how it would one day be used.

And like a good mom, she isn't even asking for her sons for copyright $$$ for usage.

And check me out:

I got the Paper Lions button pin too!

The guys are doing a concert in San Diego in a week or so.

Seriously thinking of flying home to San Diego to catch the concert.

Would that make me a middle aged roadie, kind of?

Maybe I can just be a charter member of the Paper Lions Salt Lake City fan club?

Check their concert schedule: maybe you can catch one of their tour stops.

Clear your calendar, ink in the date and go!

So. Much. Fun.

!!!!

 

(And after the performance Jeff and I hopped in a cab to go home.

 I was treated to the cab's radio tuned in to the winning Oregon State Beavers hammering the Utah Utes.

Fireworks were exploding around the city for two other events as we were driven home through the  rainy night.  Absolutely surreal fun.

I caught the second half of the game on Jeff's tv; the game went on into over time and the Beavers won the game at four minutes past midnight local time.

If only Bernie, Kathie and her husband Roger and granddaughter Josie could have been at the concert too I would have called the night absolutely perfect.

The tour is called The Friends tour.

That title was part of the perfectness:

Kathie...love to call you a friend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travel Journal: September 7-12, 2013: Park City UT

Park City vacation time...again.

Having two weeks of time share time at our "home" resort is in Park City, 20 minutes from our home, also gives us the opportunity to swap our two weeks time for equal amount of time at other resorts around the world and also for hotel rooms if we are on the road. 

The tricky part is the swapping.

With Bernie's on-demand work related travel schedule it is pretty difficult for us to zero in on where and when we might want to go a year in advance in order to make a swap.

The default is doing nothing and winding up in Park City for a week...again.

(We could split it all up for four weeks of resort time but hey, we can barely figure out how to get two weeks off, at one week at a time, at any given time as it is.)

So there we were, once again, vacationing up in Park City last week.

 Bernie is relaxing around the pool, happily listening to his ipod.

Easy to please is he.
(He is also happy because the following week he will go to Alaska for a week of fishing.  Time share time is only part of his vacation time plans!)

 

While the first day up there was quite warm, the second day dawned with fog upon the hillside.

Recently I had read about the value of struggling to master things.

The fog made me think of writing poetry and the many articles I have read about the value of creating poetry to express what one sees.

With a cup of coffee in hand, while Bernie slept on, I spent an hour struggling to compose a poem to mark my window view and the morning fog:

 

The Hidden Wardrobe

 

Foggy morning mists drift over eerie mountain ski lifts;

the still strung necklace

 of skeleton chairs

damply await

their coming wintery task.

 

Summer,

lightly clothed in her hillside greens,

bejeweled with gay Michaelmass clusters,

threatened by the new morning chill,

slips away quietly,

hidden by the mist.

 

While packing away her fields of flowers

she finds a hidden wardrobe,

dazzling designs of goldens, bronze and brown.

 

It is time,

she thinks,

to re-invent myself

as autumn.

(Did you know one medical school in Indiana had a state poet laureate come to teach young doctors how to write poetry to unearth clues about a patient's illness?  The doctors were asked to write about the person they examined.  By using a different part of the brain to write about what they saw, they identified things in the patient that they had not connected with in their usual reports.

 Interesting, yes?)

 

The next day, Monday, I awoke earlier than Bernie once again.

This time the view out our window was the one above, the one with the billowing thunderheads.

 

Time for working to create another poem:

 

Win-Win

 

Morning sunshine warms my face.

Leisurely I plan my day;

hearing the call of the nearby roadways

which wind through the shimmering aspen groves.

 

I dream of early stands that have given themselves over to

glorious autumn

and

gold.

 

I gloat at the thought of a sun drenched day,

blue skies

white bark,

yellow leaves.

 

The east promises sunshine.

 

The west speaks of rain.

 

My thoughts regroup.

 

Yellow contrasts wonderfully against the black of clouds.

Wetted woodlands scents release in ion charged air.

 

Thundering echoing through the mountain tops...

 

Sun.

Rain.

 

It looks like I have a win-win weather forecast kind of day!

 

(I am still not sure if the "which" in the fourth line is properly placed.  It just sounds better to me  than "that".  Feel free to fire away with corrections as needed! And yes, the whole poem could use a lot more work!)

 

Shortly after that poem was written we took off for a drive, intending to wind through the Mt. Timpanogos area.

The road goes through breath taking views when the aspen has turned gold.

For now the aspen remains unrelentingly green.

At higher elevations, above 10,000 feet, there was a good smattering of color, orange colors,  but no aspen gold as of yet.

The storm clouds stayed away from us, no rain drops fell to make the forest scent thicken, no lightening or thunder came to add drama to the scenery.

Oh well.

I am not complaining in the least...not with views like these.

One small oak branch was gearing up for color change.

(Wouldn't that photo make a great painting? Somehow it doesn't look quite real to me, but it was.)

 

Shortly after the stop for that photo we had decision to make:

 

1. Drive back the way we came

or

2. Go to Cascade Springs and home through Heber Valley

or

3. Drive back to Park City through Salt Lake City, on the freeway, with a stop at our house to feed the cats.

 

The cats got stiffed.

 

(They had plenty of food; we had fed them the day before and they would be fed again Monday morning by our local relatives.)

 

 

And just to help out folks who want to know where the heck we were; here's a map.

By the by...the town of Draper in the upper left corner is where the NSA information storage facilities are being built.

Park City is about where the period is after the word "relatives" in the sentence above the map.

Cascade Springs falls.

The water levels were low, but the springs were still active enough to produce lovely waterfalls.

In the pond areas, the water weeds make a cushiony landing for the few dropped early autumn leaves.

The sounds of so many water falls is just lovely.

I thought of the time my friend Sara visited the falls with me a few autumns back. 

One of my dreams is to be able to snow shoe into here in winter, as the water is geothermal, and warm.

To see the falls surrounded by snow would be amazing.

(For me to snowshoe into the area, and remain alive, would be a miracle....)

I get a kick out of seeing brook trout in the ponded areas.

The water is so clear the fish look as though they are suspended in air.

See the trout dead center in the photo?

No fishing allowed.

And the big fish bully the little fish.

Such is the way of nature.

A few skippers worked the late summer flowers.

I swear skippers are always the last butterflies of the season.

Caught with a tongue hanging out!

Seriously, doesn't this trout look like it is just floating in the air?

That was about it for us in terms of vacation time scenic exploring.

The rest of vacation was spent swimming, soaking in hot tubs, watching tv, reading, napping, eating, and I did watch Les Miserable in the in-house movie theater Monday night.

Gee that movie is depressing.

Who knew Russell Crowe had such a good voice.

(After reading about French history and the French Revolutions, I harbor no romantic feelings about French ways.  Blood thirsty savages they are....)

 

By Tuesday we were ready for a day brightener.

 

I regularly watch Luke on Tuesday and I hadn't seen him in almost two weeks because he and his folks had been away vacationing in Oregon for a week before we left.

Did I still want to have him while we were on vacation?

Are you kidding me?

YES!!!

We just asked could he be driven up to our timeshare?

Not a problem!

 

(And yes, Bernie wears a big shoe, size 12 as a matter of fact.)

Luke has some big shoes to fill.

He made himself right at home.

 

After a bit we decided to take him for a walk.

Brown Bear, his lovey, went along with him, being swung merrily about.

The resort has an amusement area, including rides for small fry.

We were the only ones in the area; school had started so the rides were still after a long busy summer.

Next year, maybe, when he was a bit older, we will take him for a ride on the merry-go-round.

But hey...who needs corny old amusement park rides when there is awesome stuff like this to see?

Ohhh....that...is...so...cool!!

Hey Grandpa...throw me the keys to this thing.

(Bernie would not let him climb up on the seat or anything.  Such a buzz kill kind of guy.)

We walked on...

Get this!!!

This place is AMAZING!

I had to laugh as he was just walking along, bouncing like they do at 16 months, when he spotted the tractor claw shovel.

His mouth fell open and he stood stock still in awe.

I am pretty sure no one had ever told him about heavy equipment.

Or told him that little boys just love watching such things.

It just happens, naturally I think.

And I don't think I have ever seen a little girl show the same kind of interest in machinery that boys show.

After a bit we pulled  him away, changed him into a swim diaper and spent quality and quantity time in the hot pools around the swimming areas.

(Borrowed from the internet...we didn't have snow but you can see all the hot pools available in the rocky area above the swimming pool.)

Such fun!

Afterwards it was lunch time.

Bernie went to nap.

Luke looked at him prone on the bed.

I asked Luke:

"Do you want to go take a nap with Grandpa?"

He nodded his head firmly, slowly, yes, his eyes locking on mine.

I placed  him next to Bernie under the covers and climbed in myself.

The three of us took the best nap ever.

So perfect.

That night Luke's mom and dad came up and brought the makings of a fresh fish dinner.

We saw the photos from their Oregon adventures.

Good times!

So blessed are we with such lovely times apart and together, near home and a bit afar.

Our last day full day was 9/11.

More swimming, napping, television, reading....

 

We attended a timeshare "pitch" to up our membership, which we declined.

(Frankly, we can barely use what we already own...and I get really fidgety staying at a resort anyway.  Sometimes I think there is something wrong with me that the thought of staying at a resort in Las Vegas or Florida just creeps me out.  Can't do cruises due to post cruise inner ear issues and why on earth would I want to go to private post Academy Awards parties?  Hollywood folks are icky!)

We spent our last evening strolling through the art galleries on the main street of Park City.

The humble old mountainside mining town hosts the annual Sundance Film Festival; the shops in town carry merchandise to appeal to the uber rich winter visitors.

If one is not careful, one can begin to feel quite poverty stricken as the prices on the artwork for sale is quite eye popping.

Not only could we not sensibly afford the price of the art, we don't even have a house big enough to display a lot of the work.

Oh well.

It is still free to just look and enjoy, right?

(Enjoy one gallery artist's work...his prices were down right modest compared to most!)

We did dinner at a restaurant we had been wanting to try for years (just so-so as it turned out) and then rain began to fall in earnest.

Back in our unit, we lit a fire in the living room, watched a bit of 9/11 history footage, and both felt  oddly unsettled.

Something about watching people say "Oh God...Oh my God" over and over and over again as they watched the twin towers fall bothered me.

Did they really cry out to God?

If I was to find them today, would I find people who worship and serve God now?

I doubt it.

And that troubles me.

 

So now we are back home, back with our swirling cats that are happy to see us again.

The long hot summer with a record breaking number of 95 degree days has given way to rain and chill.

Home feels good.

Really good.

It is so good to be home, humble art work and all.