Things I've Done Pictures

I promised I would show some pictures to go with the Things I've Done tag, so here they are. Above is my Grandpa with the small plane he flew for a while. I loved going up in it!

Below I am playing my snare, in about 7th grade. I hated those glasses, but now they are "in."

In 1976, the Bicentennial, my family went to Washington, D.C. Back then you could tour inside the White House, which we did - we toured everything! Below is the Lincoln Memorial.
This is the overnight train, in our case from Florida to Indiana. I am in front. I look scared, but I had a blast.
This isn't the elephant I rode, but it is at Lion Country Safari, passing in front of our car. You drive around through a nature preserve while all these wild animals run free. It's amazing. At the end, there is a park, where you can ride elephants, see baby wild animals, and all sorts of things.
Here's my little brother getting "patted" by Pluto at one of our many Disney trips.
When I was 8 or 9, my step-dad took us out to a hunting cabin he and some friends had deep in the Everglades. Mom loved to drive the swamp buggy. One time she raced my step-dad; he was driving the Land Rover we'd come in. We were so far away from anything, and we had a wonderful time. I'm in the yellow shirt.
We took an amazing trip when I was 14, camping for weeks and hiking through the West. Here is Old Faithful.

Percussion Summit 2008

I am a happy girl! Recently my husband surprised me with tickets to Percussion Summit 2008. As if that wasn't wonderful enough, he made a quite a date out of it! First he took me shopping for appropriate attire. The event was held at the Naples Philharmonic, which is quite the ritzy place. They did loosen the dress code somewhat for this event, but we didn't want to look dowdy. So it was off for a day of shopping and lunch, too. Then on Saturday we took a scenic route down to Naples a few hours before the concert. We strolled around the Waterside Shops, which feature places I've only heard of, such as Cartier's, Tiffany's, Louis Vitton and restuarants whose menu offerings I couldn't even pronounce. There was a live band and a beautiful, meandering fountain of sorts, more like an elaborate stream, flowing along through varying configurations of blue tile, surrounded by benches and greenery. We went to dinner and then to the show.

We had fabulous seats, 10 rows back, front and center. We could see everything and there was plenty to see. The entire stage was set up with percussion instruments of every description. Snares and bass, tom-toms, gongs and cow bells, marimbas and sets and timpani, finger bells and cymbals and steel drums. Different sets featured different arrangements of instruments and ran the gamut from lullabies (!) to marches to Earth, Wind and Fire and Harry Belafonte arrangements. The headliners were Gordon Campbell on a large set and Taku Hirano, the premier hand drummer. Both have performed and toured and recorded with just about every big star you've ever heard of, everyone from Barry Manilow to Fleetwood Mac, Kenny Loggins to Chaka Khan, Sean "Diddy" Combs to LeAnnRimes to Jessica Simpson to Earth, Wind and Fire. And let me tell you, they were GOOD! Amazingingly good. The concert went an hour before intermission, where we stretched our legs and heard people ordering Chardonnay; then there was another hour of pure entertainment. All of it felt like about 20 minutes, I was enjoying it so much. The place was packed with enthusiastic people as diverse as middle school boys to elegant dowagers, and they all joined in a standing ovation, earning us a great encore.

But finally it was over and we had to leave. I felt like a kid on a roller coaster, saying, "I wanna go again!" On the way home we stopped for what my husband dubbed "a decadent dessert," something called Caramel Apple Crisp alamode and basically it was "diabetic coma on a platter." Boy, was it good! Then it was home and to bed, lulled to sleep by the steel drums still reggae'ing in my head. My husband really knows how to show a girl a good time!

Explanation

It occurred to me that I should explain my pictures better. By the way, unless noted otherwise, all pictures were taken either by me, or sometimes by a relative. The poems are mine as well. As for the pictures below, the large strawberry is a cookie jar. The small ones are from wrapping paper that was around the Mother's Day crock. And the drum! That little beauty was a Christmas gift from my middle son. I played drums and percussion all through middle school and high school in the band, and now I get to play again! I used to wonder what the neighbors thought, when my teenage son played hymns on the piano and I played riffs on the snare drum! Bet they thought it was the other way around.

Red Stuff I Love

Here are some of my favorite things...strawberries, and my snare drum! All for the Red game.