Paddling in Georgia - Day 1

We met our group yesterday at Magnolia Springs State Park outside of Millen, Georgia.  We are staying in very nice, spacious cabins in the park.  Today we drove to George L Smith State Park to paddle on the Mill Pond.  It is full of bald cypress trees and we had fun paddling among them, in some cases really "paddlewacking" through the trees.

Driving to Georgia

We started out this morning on our drive to Georgia to meet up with the guides we paddled with last year in Florida.  This time we will be paddling in Georgia and South Carolina.  We meet the group Sunday afternoon and then paddle the next 6 days - so much more to come.
Today we stopped in Luray Caverns on our way south.
My favorite spot was a shallow pond that reflected the roof perfectly.
But there were other great sites as well.





It was definitely worth the stop, but since the tour only lasts an hour it would not make sense to make the drive just for the Caverns.  We had considered hiking at Shenandoah on our way back home but most of the facilities there do not open until the beginning of April.
We are happy to be leaving the area, since it snowed hard as we headed to dinner and a motel in Harrisonburg, VA.  Fortunately it did not stick.
Tomorrow we drive to Columbia, SC and then on to Magnolia Springs State Park in Millen, GA on Sunday where we will meet the group.

Snow in March

We appear to have taken the cover off the patio furniture prematurely.  And much more is forecast for next week.

Concert in Princeton

We went to Richardson Auditorium for another concert last evening, part of the Princeton Music series.  The Hagen string quartet played

• Schubert Quartet #10
• Shostakovich Quartet #12
• Dvorak Quartet #14

The Dvorak was my favorite.

MCC Concert

The chorus sounded great in our concert yesterday.  Here we are on our new risers.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

We went to the Bell Works cafe for lunch today.  We thought we needed an excuse to get into what once was the Bell Laboratories building in Holmdel, where we both used to work.  It turns out anyone can just walk in and snoop around, which is a little strange given how much construction is going on.  It was fun to explore.  We learned that over half of the over 2 million square feet of space is already contracted for, which is good news for the developers who bought the building.




We also explored the Toll Brothers construction going on in the surrounding land, including a small 55+ community.

Then we went for a walk in Holmdel Park, which is another of our old stomping grounds.  The distances seemed smaller than when we had two young children to accompany us on our hikes.

Concert at NJPAC

Today's concert in Newark was the Orchestra National De Lyon, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.  They played

• Ravel - Sheherazade, Ouverture de féerie
• Slatkin - Kinah
• Liszt - Piano Concerto #1 featuring George Li at the piano
• Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

It was a great concert as usual.  The orchestra played a couple of short pieces from Carmen as an encore that was just wonderful.

A Typical Week

I thought I'd post my activities for the week so when I look back I can "remember" what my winter was like.  This week is especially busy, but not atypical for this time of year.

• Monday: An hour of aerobics in the morning, one and one half hours of line dancing in the evening with chores and lots of genealogy investigation in between.
• Tuesday: An exercise class in the morning, which was a bit much after dancing the evening before, a concert in Princeton in the evening.  In between, I sandwiched a quilt so I'd have something to sew on Wednesday, and did more genealogy.
• Wednesday: Open sew with friends from the guild.  I don't have my own quilting project to do at the moment, so I'm using up some of my stash to make a quilt for charity.  A long walk for exercise in the afternoon.  Chorus rehearsal in the evening.
• Thursday: A 55Plus lecture in Princeton in the morning.  A genealogy webinar in the afternoon, and I'll need to fit in a walk as well.
• Friday: To the Family History Center for more genealogy research.  Do something for exercise.
• Saturday:  A "day off".  We'll go somewhere for a walk since the weather is supposed to be nice.
• Sunday: Drive to Newark for a concert.

Another Concert in Princeton

We had a great "theater in the round" experience last evening.  We went to Richardson Auditorium in Princeton to see the percussionist Colin Currie.  All the audience was onstage along with the performer.  We were in the first row just 10 feet from the marimba, which is the instrument he played the most.

Philadelphia Orchestra at McCarter

The Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 with soloist Denis Kozhukhin was spectacular.
And Beethoven's Symphony #7 was good too, of course.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has even more string players than the NJSO.  I prefer the balance of instruments of the NJSO and I think they are just as good.  We are so lucky to have them close by.  Of course next season we have elected to drive to NJPAC for most of our concerts because they are during the day instead of in the evening.  The older I get, the less I like going out at night.