Memorial Day vacation

Well, as usual, I took off the week of Memorial Day, and went back to the Lake of the Ozarks to play. This trip held a little anticipation, as I had the interior of my boat redone over last winter, and had not seen it except in pictures. I was happy with the result- it looks like a brand new boat! The weather was as forecast - warm and sunny the first part of the weekend, which made for some fun boating, and hanging out with friends in the cove. Sunday we tripped down the lake to a couple of bars on the water, and enjoyed some adult libations.


Then, as you can see by the picture, Monday (unfortunately) was as forecast as well. It rained most of the day and night, but that allowed for some grilling out and relaxing, as my parents made a trip to the lake house to visit. We even had time to watch the also-very-wet NASCAR race from Charlotte. Tuesday was back home, but the nice part is I still have the rest of the week off to relax and catch up on some stuff!

On Thursday, being somewhat caught up with errands, I took the day off to head to Lake Pleasant and hang with some friends on their boat. It sure was nice to relax and leave the driving to someone else!

An artsy, jazzy weekend

Well, this weekend started off by zipping back down to the Chihuly exhibit at DBG, as I spoke of in the last blog. It was cool to see how the lighting added effects to the artwork. We even got to see a AZ King snake out taking in the exhibit and grounds as the night ended!

Then it was off to Stingray sushi in Old Town for a quick bite - yum!!


On Friday night, I tripped up to a local shopping district, as they had a outdoor jazz concert series in their little amphitheater area. Once the sun went down, it was a nice night to sip some wine and listen to some jazz. I even ran into a couple of friends, Leah & Diane, who had come for the evening as well.

Then on Saturday night, Caryl and I went up to a local resort which was hosting a live jazz concert. Craig Chaquico, formerly of Jefferson Starship, was in concert, along with a couple of local brothers who duet on the guitar. Having always been fond of guitar music, this was a great night under the stars listening to some fine jazz.

An everything Saturday.....

Well this past weekend was fun, but really covered the gamut as to things I did. Friday was catch-up day, so I could play on Saturday, and play I did. I started out with getting a facial ??? Caryl had bought me a gift certificate for this, and I finally decided to use it. Actually, it was pretty nice and relaxing. I wondered if they would put those cucumber slices on my eyes, but thankfully it did not happen. I guess this makes me kinda "metrosexual", though, eh?



Then it was on to the Desert Botanical Garden. A renowned glass artist, Dale Chihuly, had joined with the garden to showcase some of his talent by creating and installing pieces throughout the garden. It was partly cloudy and breezy, a perfect time to take in a stroll through the DBG and see this stuff. It was incredible, and glad we got to see it. We are going to make a quick trip back down this Thursday night, as the pieces are illuminated and supposedly give an even more beautiful view.


Then the day got decidedly more casual. I hurried Caryl into the truck, and we sped up to a sports bar near the house to catch the Kentucky Derby. I got Caryl to try a mint julep, even !! As we got there just before post time, I told Caryl to run and put $2 on every horse to win, just to add a little drama to the "most exciting 2 minutes in sports", as they call it. Turns out the horse that won was a 50/1 long shot, so our $38 netted us a $103 win - yeah !!!


After that we headed home, and just relaxed with dinner and watching the NASCAR race. I have to say, though, a fun and very diverse Saturday for the books.