My Family at the Beach.

Every year we go to Hatteras for a family vacation.  This year we had two weeks at the beach.  Mike and Debbie Kunzer were there the whole time with their four boys (until Aaron went off to college) and the first week we were joined by the Blenner clan.

The second week, the Blenners left, but Dinis Camara (Debbie's brother) and his family came down to join us.

For us, however, the best part of the vacation may have been celebrating our 19th anniversary together.  Here we are en route to our dinner alone:

Surprising Salt Lake City

I'm here in Salt Lake City for the Junior World Rugby Trophy event and to take a class.  Last time I was in SLC (admittedly many years ago) the city was almost dry.  To buy a drink you had to "join" a club at the restaurant.

It still looks the same.  Picture perfect streets.  Well manicured lawns.  The big Mormon temple at the top of the city (that's it next door).  But some things have really changed.

Even though we are staying at a hotel just two blocks from Temple Square, when we went out last night we ran in, seemingly at random, to the big counter culture scene.  We stopped at a tapas bar called Eva where the gazpacho was made firey hot by the addition of jalepno and the sangria was definitely high octane.  The three of us, all in our 50s, were definitely the oldest in the room by a good 20 years.  It was 9 PM on a Thursday and the place was packed.  All of our waitresses had more tattoos than I had seen anywhere in Washington DC.  In short, this place looked and felt like Greenwich Village in New York.  Quite surprising.

And then, on the way home we walked into, of all places, a piano bar.  The two piano players were covering lots of 70s and 80s songs -- some well (New York State of Mind) and some incredibly badly (Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light) but, again, just to find that place in SLC was really surprising.

I guess the place has changed!

Bobbie's 85th

We gathered today to celebrate Bobbie Rosenzweig's 85th birthday.  Here is a photo of the birthday girl, blowing out her candles and below is a photo of the 4 cousins -- Paul, his brother Jim, and cousin's Rick and Scott.

We were joined by most of the Frishman family, most of the Kunzers, and Bobbie's old friends Rube and Joan Miller.  A joyous time was had by all.

More Great Music -- In Manassas

Grandsons  Kyle (5th Grade) and Aaron (12th Grade) both played in the Manassas All-City band concert on Wednesday night.  It was a pleasure to listen too for proud grandparents.  In one of these clips Kyle's band plays a bit of Beethoven's 9th.  If you look just to the left of the conductor you can imagine that you see Kyle playing his trumpet.  In the other clip Aaron's band plays "Into the Storm."  Aaron is the rightmost of the two tubas.

Back from Jazz Fest

Well, we are back in DC safe and sound after yet another wonderful trip to New Orleans (our 15th in the last 20 years, we think).  As always, the main point of going is simply to recharge the batteries and refresh the mind.

Three days is just the right amount of time.  We had some great dinners (especially the one at our new find, Iris, in the French Quarter where we dined al fresco by the pool).  We spent some time with Paul's brother, Jim, and his wife Risa.  We hung out with some of our old friends Sarah and John, with whom we've gone to the Fest before.  [That's them in the picture -- this is one of a series we have of standing with our feet "on a log" at Jazz Fest.  Shudder to think what the series looks like!]

And, of course, we heard great music. We've posted some of the video clips already of some of the great music we heard.  Others, like the Pfister Sisters and Nicholas Payton will have to go uncovered.  But here is a last taste -- late Sunday on a sterling beautiful day (80s, partially cloudy, no humidity) Bruce Springsteen took the stage for a 2 1/2 hour set.  We saw the first hour and then began the long journey home.  Good news though -- we'll see him again in DC on September 14th when he comes to Nationals Stadium.

Sonny Landreth @ Jazz Fest

Here is Sonny Landreth, one of the great Blues guitarists of this generation.   Sadly, the sound engineers at Jazz Fest didn't get the mix quite right, but you can tell he is good ... we hope!

Evan Christopher -- Jazz Fest 2012

Evan Christopher joined Irvin Mayfield in the Jazz tent.  Notice the neat "squeak" at the end.  Other stars of the last two days that we saw include Irma Thomas (singing "He's Got the Whole World, In His Hands"); the Swamp All-Stars (Tab Benoit, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, and others); and some neat new groups like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Guitar Lightning Lee.