DC Trip

We had a great 4-day 5 night trip to Washington DC. We stayed in Arlington VA just across the river and had easy access to Reagan Airport and the metro via the hotel shuttle. Mt. Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, Capital visit to chambers, National Gallery of art, Museum of American History, Air & Space Museum, Washington, WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson Monuments, Georgetown, and the Naval history museum.

Great weather and the tail end of the cherry blossoms!

HAWK vs PIGEON

In Washington DC. just after we got off the metro at the George Washington University stop, we sat down to check our map. A large hawk swooped down and pinned a pigeon to the sidewalk. A few minutes later it flew up into a tree carrying the pigeon, and then flew off to enjoy a meal I suppose. That was the extent of any urban violence we witnessed.

Terrific Trip to Tennessee

Joel plays alto sax in his junior recital, accompanied by Michael. He also played one piece on soprano sax. Wonderful music, superbly played.
Caleb Hall, also a junior music major, shared the recital with Joel. The final number featured both of them, along with three other friends, in a jazz combo.
Joel's saxophone professor, Dr. Brenda Moye. She told us how much she likes working with Joel and how she really looks up to him. :)
The next evening, after Michael and Joel were done with classes and rehearsals, we drove to Chattanooga to a disc golf course called "The Sinks". The guys played until after dark, barely able to see the final holes.

Everyone scored a birdie on this hole. Amazing!

The weather was beautiful so Tom, Carol, and Austin drove about a half hour to the Cherokee National Forest and found a hiking trail. Austin's experimenting with his new camera.

Lee University Jazz Ensemble in concert. Michael on piano, Joel on lead tenor.

With professor/mentor/jazz musician extraordinaire Alan Wyatt. He and his wife, who also is on the Lee music faculty, invited all of us for dinner at their home.

Pigeons in Chicago

Since we are talking about wildlife, I thought I'd show off the pigeons that have built/are building a nest on our porch. Scare the daylights out of me each time I step outside... not beautiful pictures, but neither are the birds.

In other news it sounds like Anders and I are going to be spending our summer in Antioch up on the family compound. We've been working over at his grandparents remodeling his late Aunt Evelyn's apartment the past few months. Everything is about done except the kitchen at this point. Our plan is to try to live there, Anders has already started a garden to feed a small army. I have applied to work at a nearby YMCA camp with his sister Lissy, hopefully they will accept me. If not there are always children that need a nanny. More news as we figure it out!

Chickadees in Tennessee

Here are some pictures of the next-door Chickadees in TN!

easter jazz

Joel and I played usually play jazz with some cats (just kidding, no one actually uses that word anymore) on Thursday night. This past Thursday, we were at a faculty member's house where they were hosting a student function. We were going to play at the student union like we usually do, but we decided there would probably be no one there. So we went to where the people were. Here are a couple of photos from our photog friend. If you cant see the photos, you can visit the photographers website: http://shashankji.tumblr.com/archive/2010/4