Saturday, June 4, 2011
Carl Spindler Marina & RV Park, East Peoria, IL: 4/18-5/19
The month here went by all too quickly! We played duplicate bridge twice a week, went to 3 Live in HD Met Opera performances, and saw the family as much as possible. We usually had dinner with Cathy & John twice a week, visiting Jennifer & the children for the rest of the evening. We saw Jennifer & the children several other times each week and were able to attend 3 musical performances that Devin (14)and Christian (10) were in. Devin plays bass in the Morton Jr. HS Orchestra, and Christian plays cello in the Sixth Grade Orchestra and sings in the Sixth Grade Choir. Morton has a very good music program, and Sophia (8) plans to start violin when she is in sixth grade (that's when music is first offered through the public schools). Aidan (5) is just "graduated" from pre-K and will be in Kindergarten next year. They actually have a graduation ceremony complete with cap & gown for this occurrence. It's quite adorable!!
The Live in HD performances we saw were Richard Strauss's "Capriccio" (with Jennifer), Verdi's "Il Trovatore", and the second opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle, "Die Walküre" (five hours long, and it started almost an hour late due to "technical difficulties" with the million-dollar mechanical stage thing). It is wonderful to get to see these performances at a reasonable price in the comfort of a local theater. We also saw a local production by the Peoria Players, a musical comedy entitled "The Drowsy Chaperone". It was hilariously funny, with excellent singing & dancing. We highly recommend it if it comes to a theater near you.
About a third of the campground was under water for much of our stay, but none of the flooding occurred near our campsite. It made the place a bit soggy, and all the campfires were smoldering instead of burning. We weren't much for campfires to begin with, and the constant smell of smoldering wood did nothing to make us feel differently! We had to hang our laundry inside because it was usually too smelly outside, since our neighbor was the obvious winner in the "Smelly Campfire" competition!
The Live in HD performances we saw were Richard Strauss's "Capriccio" (with Jennifer), Verdi's "Il Trovatore", and the second opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle, "Die Walküre" (five hours long, and it started almost an hour late due to "technical difficulties" with the million-dollar mechanical stage thing). It is wonderful to get to see these performances at a reasonable price in the comfort of a local theater. We also saw a local production by the Peoria Players, a musical comedy entitled "The Drowsy Chaperone". It was hilariously funny, with excellent singing & dancing. We highly recommend it if it comes to a theater near you.
About a third of the campground was under water for much of our stay, but none of the flooding occurred near our campsite. It made the place a bit soggy, and all the campfires were smoldering instead of burning. We weren't much for campfires to begin with, and the constant smell of smoldering wood did nothing to make us feel differently! We had to hang our laundry inside because it was usually too smelly outside, since our neighbor was the obvious winner in the "Smelly Campfire" competition!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 1:16 PM 
