Summer Concert Series! Music

This summer we were able to go to several concerts (boy are we varied) and had a great time enjoying the music, the entertainment, and the wonderful friends who shared these evenings with us. Here is a banner from the last concert, it seemed appropriate!

We attended the LA County Fair on opening day to see Al Green and the Spinners in concert. The LA Fair in always an experience. We did a lot of the usual things, the Art building, looking in the buildings for all of the winners in their varied entries, the flowers, looking for Piggy Wigglies (never found them), a tradition we couldn't continue, how sad (it's true Utah daughters, no Piggy Wigglies). But we did find Chocolate covered Bacon, but alas it didn't have the appeal for me. Here we are waiting sooo patiently in our seats. Notice the corn dog.

Here is a pic of "The Spinners" they were very good at motivating the crowd. We did get to see and enjoy all that they had to offer.
Who could not enjoy yellow suits? But with our seating situation during Al Green we heard him but couldn't see him, lots of Gospel, lots of his great deep voice. It was a fun night. Here is the true pic of the night, the fair in all of it's glory, complete with fair food.

In between these concerts we went to see Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, at the Ontario Convention Center. No pics of the event but we really did go. We went with the Ellsworth's and the Kirtley's. If you know me you know I really like Chicago, but I was disappointed, they sounded like a cover band, not the band of my youth. I had tickets to Chicago when I was 16 but wasn't able to go (you know teen age drama, boys) and I have been waiting a long time to finally see them in concert but something happened, they turned old! and many members were missing. Yikes. I thoroughly enjoyed Earth, Wind & Fire, particularly the percussion guy. Great entertainment, great stage presence. Speaking of entertainment there was a women close to the stage dancing, and her moves were indescribable and entertaining, laughs are always good.OK, so I alluded to our trip to the Hollywood bowl to see Aretha, and we went to the Hollywood Bowl again last night to see Diana Krall so I'm going to combine pictures from the two because I didn't take a camera either time and Lisa did the first time , so I stole some pics off her web site and Tada! here they are. It was a great night with great friends. The Gamboa's, The Kirtley's and us, what fun, what great music. We all contributed to our meal in the park (part of the Hollywood Bowl tradition) and the food was great which added to the evening.


Looks almost like a Barbie Dress, I said almost! If was a very warm evening, and she wore the fur coat through her performance. Show a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T, the woman can still sing and belt it out. I was impressed she never sat down during her performance except to play the piano briefly. She was impressive, and a great performer.

Diana Krall was spectacular! She was my favorite concert. I only had 5 songs of hers on my ipod, but there are more now. What a great performer, moving music, multi talented, all around enjoyable evening.

Check our her sultry voice, and music.

A summer of music, friends, and fun. I guess it really started before summer when we went to the Belly Up Bar to see James Morrison who put us in the concert mood. I hope there aremany more concerts in my future.

Saturday Night--Belly Up Bar

Saturday  Night  we headed to Solano Beach to attend a concert of James Morrison with the Kirtley's.  The tickets were theirs and they generously shared with us.  We met them for a fabulous Greek dinner first, yum.  Then off to the Belly Up Bar.  My first standing only concert with a room more than full of fans.  It was a fun concert with good music and good people watching.  Here's a video of one of our favorite songs that he preformed that night.

Pre Holiday Fun.

I have the whole week of Thanksgiving off from work, so what a great way to start the week by spending it with great friends.  Ken and Lisa invited us to their boat for two days of friends, food, fun, biking and talking and in Lisa's words Chill-axing.   The weather has cooled off, with rain forecasted in the next couple of days.  The clouds provided many great photos but in the end we arrived home before the rain.

We took off for dinner and site seeing on our bikes, this is a great bike path (it went most of the way to the shops) it's been way too long since I've been on a bike, I need to bike more often it felt great.

Before he fixed his pant leg that he had rolled up so that it wouldn't get caught in the spokes.  We rode our bikes to the shops on 2nd street in Long Beach.  This pic was typical, there seemed to be some sort of coffee shop every few stores.  We stopped at "Taco Surf" for dinner and were going to stop at "Sweet Jill's" for dessert, but were too full.
Lisa posed for me Monday evening when we where walking the shops on 2nd Ave.   I couldn't resist the sky, so I added Lisa, and voila a nice picture (no photo shop here).
I saw this restaurant featured in "Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins" located in San Pedro so off we went for breakfast.  It says diner, but the place looked like a dive, but the food was home cooked and great.  All the food this week-end was a stretching excercise for our Thanksgiving meal coming up.
Warming up in the sun at the back of the boat after a cool morning.

Taken on the side of Ken and Lisa's boat "Bella"  isn't she pretty.  Getting ready for our bike ride.

We went for another bike ride today, look to the left of the photo, this is where Ken's boat is and where we started out.  On the right is the Queen Mary which was one of the stops of our bike ride.  As you can tell there wasn't a direct route, so away we went.  The weather and sky couldn't have been more beautiful!!

     On one of our stops to enjoy the scenery.

This is a wave--water fountain.  It was very cool.
This is out in front of the Aquarium in Long Beach.  I have to say it again--What a wonderful two days!