Marilyn took Amanda Hand (above, with Susie) and her sister Ashley to The Bodies exhibit at The Dome in Rosslyn with Susie and Elizebeth. They did lunch together, and then saw the Chinese exhibit of human body parts. What fun.
Marilyn took Amanda Hand (above, with Susie) and her sister Ashley to The Bodies exhibit at The Dome in Rosslyn with Susie and Elizebeth. They did lunch together, and then saw the Chinese exhibit of human body parts. What fun.
Over the weekend after the 4th of July we finally connected with our dear friends from Hartford. Matt and Marla Perlstein came down from Hartford, and Marilyn's best friend Barbara Eckstadt made it down from New Jersey for the weekend. We toured the memorials and did several museums together.
This included Cris getting to The Phillips Collection (I think I saw all the major art museums in DC in the year), and one more standard-photo with us eating gellato next to the waterfalls in the National Gallery underground.
Saturday evening we did our last show at the Kennedy Center, with Rick and Danee Devore joining us for "Phantom of the Opera" and dessert in the Terrace Cafe afterwards.
We had to start cleaning up, and so I learned to take digital photos of the girl's art work to put into our virtual scrap books. Here are two great examples: "Variations" by Susie, and what I call "Miss Dragon" by Elizebeth.
Saturday July 14 Marilyn and I drove up to New York City. We had a lot of couple time while in the car driving to the next friend to visit and the weekend in NYC was fabulous. The first day we were talking so hard we missed the I-95 turnoff from the Inner Loop of the DC Beltway and were almost to the Wilson Bridge when we went, where are we? It was a 30 minute detour. But we didn't hit any traffic jams except a little one where the NJ Parkway feeds the interstate to the Jersey Shore, and made it into the City about noon. We parked, dropped our luggage off at the Portland Square Hotel, ate our picnic in the lobby, and went to the first show by 2pm.
We saw "Spring Awakening" and then went out for a memory-filled Thai meal on 9th Avenue. We loved the Tony-award-winning musical. At first we said, "what fun music, the girls could do this show in high school!" After a while we said, "uhh, a show about sex, masturbation, abortion, sexual abuse, homosexuality, and suicide would not be acceptable by many parents of their high school kids. But a great show in college!" The 1830's German setting lulls you into thinking, "oh, we are so much better nowadays" until it hits you that these are the same problems of modern youth. Lots of theater tricks to pull the audience in, and this is the medium Duncan Sheik has been looking for for his musical talent. A great show.
After dressing back at the hotel, we saw "Frost/Nixon" in the evening. I am a "Watergate junkie" and I found myself literally sitting up on the seat of my chair loving it. And while the Frost actor (Michael Sheen) was great, the Tony-award-winning performance of Frank Langella as Nixon was awe-inspiring. Sure, as Susie pointed out when she saw the photos and the Playbill, he doesn't "look" like Nixon. But he brings the man back to life. To simultaneously play to the audience from the stage AND play to the incredible TV closeup on the array of monitors being used takes a great actor. Then I had to walk back to the hotel and get Marilyn's tennis shoes because her new heels gave her blisters. But we had a Starbuck's and talked about the shows and had a great NYC evening to a great day. We loved both the shows we saw on Broadway so what a great way to end our year in the east.
Sunday, after breakfast at Carnegie Deli (Marilyn has forgotten how to order blintzes), we went to the Museum of Modern Art. The six-story atrium has been decorated with "artistic graffiti" with a hand-out we could take away with political/artistic cartoons that were funny and sharp and mind-bending. But otherwise, we saw the painting collection we both have seen before and loved. I was able to "lecture" Marilyn on Jackson Pollock after helping Susie with her report this spring, but we both loved the huge Monet Water Lillies the best.
Then that afternoon we drove down to Princeton (Plainsboro), and stayed with friends Nancy Basile and Mary Lou Jarczyna. They have a backyard my dad would love to see.
The next day (Monday) was three trips in one. First, we drove up via Montgomery County to the Thruway and up to Kingston NY and saw our dear friend who was in our wedding, Linda Harris. We had lunch together. Linda still has Sean's old furniture we gave her we he left Syracuse long ago! She was bitten by a tick 9 years ago and they didn't figure out what it was in time and so she is without adrenal glands or they hardly function and so she can't hold a job or anything. She rested up for our visit and did great. She is the same wonderful person.
Then we drove back down, across the Hudson at Newburg, and down into Westchester. It was wonderful to see Adi Bishop, my old opera director. She took us out to dinner and we caught up. Then we finally drove up the Merrit Parkway to Glastonbury near Hartford and stayed in our old "treehouse", Matt and Marla's beautiful vertical home in the trees with "our" old bedroom up in the leaves.
After breakfast at Lottie's with Matt and Marla, the next day we drove up to Damariscotta Maine and I (Cris) got to see where Amy and Sung and the kids are living. Mina and Griffin are smart and healthy (Griffin is growing out his hair for "Locks for Love"). Amy is starring in the town production of "Bye Bye Birdie" with her kids, and Marilyn and I ate seafood while they went out to a rehearsal.
It was great to see Amy and the kids and she let us have a couple of really laid back days in Maine. The second day was overcast but we mostly read, except for a trip to the Pemmaquid Lighthouse and then to the lobster shack where Mar and the girls ate last summer. Many thanks to Nancy and Mary Lou and Marla and Matthew and Amy for hosting us.
On Thursday Marilyn and I drove down to Boston where we stayed at Emerson College in a couple of dorm rooms just on the Boston Commons. We walked around Quincy Market and bought presents for the girls and had dinner at Wagamama's. I then got up at 4am and got my car out of the garage in time to save money and drove home in 9 hours (lots of stops to stay safe) to DC. I got HP7 late on Saturday and finished it 7 hours later on Sunday morning.
My workshop on the Estill singing method at New England Conservatory of Music was great and we were only 5 in the class with 2 teachers so we got lots of individual attention which was so beneficial. This picture is of the class teachers and members (minus one) out to lunch together. I flew home Monday to rejoin Cris.
On July 12 the girls flew out to Lewiston, Idaho for a visit to their grandma and cousins. They HAD to fly as unaccompanied minors (the rules have changed, and Elizebeth under 15 meant she had to and Susie had to to stay with her). Many bad stories again; Elizebeth says she is not travelling again alone without adults until she turns 15. They did get there fine and got to see Harry Potter 5 at the movies the first night with Annie and Mie.
They sandwiched in a visit to McCall and Payette Lake and then Boise to see Baumgartner South.
Susie & Elizebeth spent Fri. night scrapbooking with Annie, & she brought them up about noon on Sat., after they had gotten HARRY POTTER # 7. She hoped to finally get a swim, but we have been inundated with frogs. which she was able to handle. but when she encountered a furry thing, Elizebeth had to go to her rescue, & she got in 30 laps, & we had lunch, & she was off to her Gar, & her HP7.
S&E&I rested, & E finished the pants she started before we went to McCall, & S made cho chippers. We walked with Mary after the sun went down. Well, rather Mary kept me company while S&E danced on ahead clear to the highway. They both finished a summer reading book before they turned in.
Today they needed to wash after I got back from Mass. They are the fastest hanger-uppers I have ever seen. They had a swim today., & E started reading HP. Susie was going to be strong & finish her summer reading books first. But is finding FRANKENSTEIN hard to get into, so I don't know if she had enough fun today. We did have a game of HAND & FOOT (with E being partner to both Susie & I). They won, but not by so much that I felt crushed. They again set a pace far beyond grandma's ability on our after sundown walk with Mary.
Tomorrow we should have a big rasp. pick. And Julie will pack up her WSU office, & join us to meet Annie for the 4:20 showing of HAIRSPRAY. Mary has a friend coming for an afternoon visit, so she & Dave will join us at the MANDARIN PINE for supper after the show.
And Tues. their plane leaves Lew. at noon!
So have a grand week, everyone. God Bless & heaps of love, "M"
I want to thank all the Baumgartners who made Susie and Elizebeth's trip so much fun. They saw 3 movies and had great stories to tell about all. Thanks so much, Don and Kathi, for having them. They loved everything you did. Susie liked the innertubing and the pottery. Mary, thanks for going down to get them with Mie. Annie, they loved the scrapbooking night and all of the fun movie times and meals out. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I wanted to tell you about Cris and my wonderful vacation in more detail but the joke was on me when I got home. I thought I had another week before the movers come but it is this Friday. Okay, I must scurry back to work.
Love Mar
It is Sunday July 29. I sit amongst boxes. The moving van comes tomorrow, and soon I must pack the computer. Don't know when we'll be back on the air, but hope you've enjoyed this month's blog!
---Cris