Whitefish and Glacier National Park!

Our annual trip to Canada started with a couple of nights in Couer d’Alene.  (See previous blog.)  Next, we made our way to the Okanagan and Vancouver.  I have blogged from those locations numerous times.  A couple of “out take” pics before we move on to our Montana visit.  Trombone happens everyday no matter what.  Nice location for warming up:

Looking down from a hike up above Skaha Lake:

Charcuterie paired with 6, 1.5 ounce pours, for two, at Hester Creek Winery in Oliver (Okanagan)

M and M are long time friends from Utah who now live in Whitefish, Montana.  Whitefish is the gateway to Glacier National Park from the West side.  The town of Whitefish lies at the Southern end of Whitefish Lake.  (Whitefish itself is a bottom feeder fish found in abundance in the lake.)  The town of Whitefish exists mainly as a railroad hub which sports over 30 freight car trains passing through per day.  If it is headed to the Northwest, it probably passes through Whitefish, Montana.  Otherwise, it is just a really cute small Northwestern village about 15 miles North of Kalispell and Flathead Lake.  M and M have a remodeled and expanded 1930’s cabin right on the lake.  It is absolutely beautiful:

M and M take every unsuspecting visitor on a “trip” to Glacier National Park.  It takes about an hour to get to the base of the Going to the Sun Road, which is the pass that takes you up over the peak of Glacier National Park.  In the summer, this is a jam packed narrow 2 lane road filled with campers.  But in the spring, the road is closed……..except for bike travel.  Even then, the road is closed about a mile or two from the summit.   There are fantastic amounts of snow still covering the pass.  We made it in 17 miles and it is all uphill; gentle at first (along the river) and then relentlessly up and up for miles.  We loaded the bikes into the back of the pickup and headed for the entrance.  Although it was sunny at the base, we encountered mostly snow and rain once the real ascent began.  This was a 3.5 hour roundtrip (about 3 hours up and a half hour down).  Some pics from up high:

Moose and black bear are in abundance in the park.  We saw none going up, but on the way back, we encountered a black bear (you wait patiently) and a moose with 2 yearlings.  The black bear is the blob on the right side of the picture, in the grass, just down the road from where we were stopped and waiting:

This bear had no intention of moving on.  So with about 2 dozen of us waiting, we decided to slowly and quietly pass by (with in 30 feet of the bear).  In all honesty, these creatures are pretty used to seeing humans and made no fuss as we “hurried” on through.  A bit down the road, we saw the moose.  They had attempted to cross the river, but turned back when they saw all the bike riders gawking down upon them:

One more shot of the river:

This was a fabulous all day event and it was quite the work out.  We were sweating on the way up, and freezing on the way down.  But what an exhilarating day!  This is an area we will return to again I am sure.

We are back home in Park City, Utah for the next 5 weeks.  The opera season starts later in June so we will spend some time in Logan staying in opera apartments with the rest of the musicians.  The opera runs from late June to early August.  We will then head back to the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria and perform Mozart’s Requiem.  After the festival, we will head to Copenhagen, Oslo and Glasgow for some R and R.  Until then!

 

Boats and Wine Dinners….

Lake Okanagan is 84 miles long and averages 2-3 miles across.  With a lake this big, it only makes sense that getting goods and people from point A to point B, or even point C in the early 1900’s would be facilitated by boat.  Large ferries navigated the lake between the 3 main cities; Penticton at the South end, Kelowna in the middle, and Vernon at the North end.  Goods were shipped via tug boats.  In Penticton, a few of these boats remain as relics of the past.  One ferry, the SS. Sycamous, and a couple of tugs survive.  The Sycamous is pretty well restored and now houses a museum to celebrate its past (and is a wedding venue fave in the valley) while the tugs await restoration.  Below are a few pix:

The paddle wheel above is every bit as big as it looks.

This next one is known as Tug Boat No. 6

Here is a shot from the promenade next to the boats, looking North out over Lake Okanagan:

We are located 5 or 6 miles North in Summerland.  Here is a pic from our deck patio:

Wine dinners are very popular at the wineries around the Okanagan.  The 2018 winner of Best Winery in BC was Road 13.  We noticed that Chef Chris Hooydonk was the chef for the wine pairing dinner this past Saturday night at Road 13.  Not only has he done this gig for the past 6 years, he is also the Chef at his own Backyard Farm where the Bohm clan celebrates an annual dinner with family and friends.  Best winery paired with Chef Chris?  A no brainer.  We signed up and enjoyed a fabulous 4 course dinner with some of the nicest wines we’ve tasted in the Okanagan.  The menu and pics of each course follow.  Chris “kicked it up a notch”(a phrase coined by Emeril Lagasse) and put on a first class dinner.

We plan to head back to Road 13 later this week.  The wines at the dinner were first rate, so we would like to taste the rest.  Tomorrow, we will head in the other direction and check out a few wineries in the Kelowna area.  So much wine, so little time!  Cheers!

Couer d’Alene!

Our annual trip to the Okanagan and Vancouver takes place each May.  Usually, we drive straight through (13 hours).  Sometimes we stop for an over nighter, and when we do, it’s usually Walla Walla, Washington.  This time, we decided to stop in Couer d’Alene, Idaho (pop. 45,000). CDA, as it is locally known, is located in the pan handle of Idaho about 100 miles South of the Canadian border.   Couer d’Alene translates to “heart of an awl” coined by French fur trappers who encountered the native Americans/tribal leaders as shrewd traders and businessmen.  Like much of the mountain West, CDA is known for it mining heritage, first for gold (there wasn’t much) and then for lumber and silver.  The lake stretches 23 miles long and is 220 feet deep.

The lake and surrounding mountains are beautiful.  The town, not so much.  Instead of preserving the architectural heritage, the city has allowed a few high rise condo structures and a very imposing resort right on the lake shore.  That said, they have preserved open space including Tubbs Hill which is a small mountain of 106 acres with plenty of hiking trails.  The following are pics of the area.  We hiked and walked quite a bit around town, and signed up for the 90 min boat tour so that we could see a good chunk of the lake and coastline.  First pic is one of three condo high rises.  The second pic is of the resort hotel taken from the base of Tubbs Hill.

The next six

are from the hiking trails along Tubbs Hill.

A selfie from the boat:

Waterfalls at the entrance of Tubbs Hill:

The resort is impressive none the less, complete with covered dock for the boats and the a 3/4 mile long floating surround dock that acts as a breakwater for the parked boats.  Heated water around the boats enables the owners to leave the boats in the water year round.

Boats enter and leave the dock area under the arch.  The floating dock is used by walkers and joggers and climbs up and over the arch.

There are many sculptures in the beach area.  This was by far the coolest, called Allium.

Inside the resort was an aquarium of some of the biggest carp I have ever seen.  18 inches minimum length.

CDA has pawn shops, eateries, antique stores, coffee shops and tattoo parlors.  We decided to head to Post Falls, the next town over, and make reservations at a French restaurant (Fluer de Sel) that is attached to a private golf course.  The food was good, not great, but was only $110 including a bottle of wine.  We ordered Pork Rillette, Fried Goat Cheese Salad, Steak and Lamb.  The lamb dish was a stand out.  (Lamb dish not shown)

Now on to the Okanagan!  We will stay in Summerland from 5/4-5/10 and then head to Vancouver for a few days.  Chef Chris from our annual dinner is cooking a wine dinner at Road 13 Winery in Oliver.  We decided to get tix and check it out.  Next blog will definitely be for foodies!

 

 

3 Extra Pics – Nibley Grocery

Transport, in place, and new siding.

Couch Surfing Part III: Dry Goods!

When we left our home on Feb. 22, we knew that we would be couch surfing for the better part of 10 weeks.  It seemed daunting at the time, so I decided to break the time frame in to two chunks; 6 weeks of moving from place to place (broken only by trips to Park City to clean the condo for the next ski guests) and 4 weeks bouncing back and forth between Park City (ski season over) and Logan.  As such, we find ourselves in week 6 of the first chunk and in our 4th set of digs since we left on Feb. 22.

After a successful week at P and P’s, we have moved on to C and J’s airbnb studio apartment in downtown Logan.  C and J are good friends and in fact, C is the Dad of Liz’s fiddle player in Leaping Lulu.  (He was photography professor in the Art Department at USU for several decades.)  About 25 years ago, they bought a turn of the century dry goods store at 900 N 600 E in Logan.  For $1000 they moved the store 8 blocks to its new location, and spent another $1000 building a foundation for the roughly 12X25 building.  (It is my hope to show you some pix from before it was moved, the transport, and what it looked like before it was remodeled just a few years ago.  I am still working on this and will add a quick blog of extra pictures if and when I secure the archive photos.)  Yesterday, I happened to bump in to someone who remembers buying candy in the 70’s at the old store at 900N which is quite a coincidence.

The following are pix of the exterior and interior of the studio apartment.  C does really nice woodwork and ended up doing all of the remodeling and upgrading.  The sliding barn doors on the left, third picture down, are original from an old barn in the neighborhood.  For scale, the bed is a queen and the sofa bed is a 6 footer.  The Bosch compact washer/dryer in the bath is quite handy.

We made our way here last Friday and will head to Park City on Wednesday.  Since our final ski guests leave tomorrow, we will be able to spend TH-Sunday “moving in” to our condo.  This will begin the final 4 week period of time traveling back and forth to Logan for work, concerts, gigs etc.  We will be revisiting P and P, and R and T for our final couch visits over the 4 weeks that remain.  The couch surfing journey will end on May 1, and on May 2, we will head to the Okanagan for our annual family reunion/mayhem in Canada.  I will blog from there!

Couch Surfing: Part II

After spending a week at R and T’s home, we have moved on to new digs.  Like R and T, we have known V and S for the 28 years we have been in Utah.  They lived around the corner from our Hyde Park home (1991-2000).  About 10 years ago, they built a new home up on the Hyde Park Bench which includes geo thermal heat (in floor system), 30 plus solar panels, hot tub and a basement with 2 bedrooms, large family room and kitchenette.  So, on Thursday, we moved back to our “old” stomping ground in Hyde Park.  The view is similar to our North Logan home, as many of you know, is/was stunning:

Liz took this pic this morning at 7am.  Spectacular!  Yesterday, as we were moving in, she snapped a couple more; one of the same view and one looking South.  It was a pretty cloudy day with temps around 50:

A few weeks ago, V and S came by to see what we were selling/donating/throwing away.  They decided there were a few pieces they wanted, and some things they would hold for us during these couch surfing days.  For those of you who have been to the old house, you’ll recognize a few pieces from our home:

They really liked the Natuzzi sofas (love seat shown here) and the coffee and end table (coffee table shown here).  The silver and black modern bench in our entry way is here as well and looks great in this modern home.  With no room anywhere for an 8X12 Afghan rug, V and S have been kind enough to enjoy it under their dining table:

Kind of nice to come somewhere new and to enjoy some of our own furniture at the same time!  Feels like home, you might say!

This will be a longer term stay.  With a full basement, V and S are allowing us to stay til the last week in March.  We brought Liz’s bike over so that she can start riding to work again.  March is an iffy month weather wise, but I bet she gets plenty of days in to the office on two wheels.  The distance is maybe a half mile more than our North Logan house and the route just about identical.

Liz is finishing up the run of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Celtic Night at the Egyptian Theater in Ogden is next weekend, followed my Mahler Third Symphony just after that.  We will play on the Heber Creeper (train) for St. Paddy’s day with Leaping Lulu as well.  And all that before April 1!  So busy times are good times and we are so fortunate to have friends who are willing to keep us off of the street.

I will blog again in Mid March.  I will send you some pics from the Egyptian Theater and from the train.  Until then, enjoy the warm weather and the onset of Spring!

Couch Surfing…..!

Welcome back to euro916!  It has been awhile since I last blogged.  Once the sabbatical trip (2016/17 school year) was over, I wanted to blog if there was something new to tell you and pictures to see.  So, life has been pretty predictable for us as we have been marching through the past two years of work and gigs.  But, change is afoot!

We have been planning early retirement for the past 6 years.  In short, get to the sabbatical year and then work 1-2 more years.  Time flies and we are indeed at the end of the 1-2 year post sabbatical period.  So, we will take advantage of the university’s early retirement program and ride off into the sunset come May 1.  With both kids living on the East coast, we will have no real reason to stay in Logan.  So we decided to sell our house and re-locate to our condo in Park City, Utah.  We listed our house on Dec. 6 figuring it would take a few months to sell.  Well, it took a few weeks!  On Feb. 21, we closed on the sale and vacated our home.  This was difficult for us.  We designed and built the home in 2000 and it was pretty rough saying goodbye.  On the other hand, the 25 acres to the East of us, and the 50 acres to the South of us, are all slated for homes.  The pristine pastures and acreage will be consumed by houses, cars and neighbors.  In addition, our road will go through and we would have to endure increased traffic.  In the end, we spent 18 years bringing up the kids and sharing our home with family and friends.  It has been the perfect place for us.  Time to downsize, simplify and have a home base that will make retirement travel easy.  Park City, 30 minutes from SLC and the international airport, will be ideal for the start of our retirement…………Except one little hitch.  It isn’t May 1 yet……..

This is the first blog in a series that will track the next 8 weeks of our couch surfing existence.  We have wonderful friends in Logan and they have been gracious to say the least.  We will be living with these very friends for the next 8 weeks; in basements, mother-in-law suites, spare bedrooms and even an old turn of the century dry-goods store converted into a studio apartment.  I thought why not blog and share the experience?

First, we will say goodbye.  The following are pictures from our old digs; backyard with a furry critter (we will miss them and the ducks), inside the living/dining/kitchen area of our house, and the front yard looking toward the Wellsvilles Mountains.

Our first stay is at R and T’s house up on the bench in Logan.  We have known them for all 28 years we have been in Utah.  They have a 1980 Cape Cod style house with a walk out finished basement.  We have the whole downstairs for about a week and I would guess this includes about 900 square feet or so; family room, bedroom, full bath, laundry with fridge and freezer and wait for it……….hot tub!  Oh yeah, Liz is in heaven.  We will protect the privacy of our hosts and just post a few pictures.  We are here trying not to irritate them from Feb. 21-28, but I suspect we will sneak back in some time in April.

The pix are of the family room, backyard (canal runs right behind the house) and of the Wellsvilles, albeit a bit shrouded by clouds.  This is less than 3 minutes to USU and yes, Liz has cross country skied along the canal and over to the golf course already.

On Thursday, we will head out to Hyde Park, less than a half mile from our first home that we lived in back when we arrived in 1991.  This coming weekend, I will send you a blog from there.  Not only will they have to put up with trombone warm ups, but also Leaping Lulu rehearsals too.  We will be there for almost a month, unless they kick us out sooner!

See you in Hyde Park, Utah!

Florence

In 2010, Liz, Ethan and I visited Kimberly in France.  We then set out on a journey through Germany, Switzerland and Italy.  It was our first time in Venice and in Cinque Terre.  But we skipped Florence.  Florence is no place for tourists with cars, and we had a car.   So we stopped at Michelangelo Piazza above the city and then made our way to CT.  This time around, we wouldn’t have a car.

Florence IS Italy.  Just ask the locals.  The old town center is where the action is and we spent two days exploring.  There are many museums in Florence but at the end of the day, I just wanted to see David.  So off we went:

Here we see the Baptistry dating back to the 6th century.  Behind that, the cathedral (which is free, but with 2 hour long lines.)  Behind the cathedral is the Duomo and since you have to take a side entrance into the cathedral to get to the Duomo, there is no point in standing in the long line.  Seeing and climbing the Duomo is by appointment only as there are only so many people that can fit/climb the hundreds of narrow steps to the top:

The view of the bell tower from the observation platform at the top of the Duomo:

We climbed the 400 some odd narrow steps to the top of the bell tower as well.  The cathedral:

Back to the Baptistry;  the floor:

These buildings at night:

On to the Galleria dell Accademia.  (This is also by appointment only.)  David is here and he is larger than life.  They also have a musical instrument collection from the Medici era.  The painting is of the musicians who actually played the instruments photographed below. I include only the cello in this blog.

1500’s choir book and the cello, above.  David:

Notice how dark the back shot.  No lighting on that side but funny enough, there is a long bench that was full of tourists, facing his butt!  No one was taking pictures from that side…..except for Liz (at my request).  I can see the Haiku coming!

I found a few more  CT photos, so I include them here.  Finally, a shot of us with Kimberly.  She was off to Manhattan yesterday (all checked in to her apartment and good to go) on her way to Columbia University.

The night we arrived in CT, from our balcony:

The vineyards.

That concludes our 3 week trip to Austria and Italy.  It was great to play in the music festival again and of course fabulous to revisit one of our fave destinations – Cinque Terre.

This Fall, we will be performing Oklahoma in the pit orchestra, bottling wine in Sonoma (7th year), performing an Armistice Day concert,  playing the Nutcracker over Thanksgiving weekend, performing with Andrea Bocelli in SLC, and performing in our annual Xmas concert here in Logan.  Busy is good!  Ciao!

 

Cinque Terre – 5 Lands

After the festival, we decided to take some time for a bit of R and R.  Cinque Terre is one of our favorite places, so why not go back for a third visit?  Since the path to CT (from Vienna) is the Florence airport, we might as well spend a couple of days in Florence too.

Corniglia is our favorite town of the 5 Lands.  We stay in one of Lidia’s apartments everytime we visit and this visit was no exception.  At 95 Euro a night and town and sea views, who could ask for more?  Corniglia has 250 residents and sits high up on a rock above the Mediterranean.  The tour boats can not dock here so the town is never over run with visitors/tourists.  I can’t say the same for the other 4 towns.  For this post, I will show the picture and annotate below each shot.  This is truly a fabulous place for hiking along the sea, between the towns (there are no cars allowed) and far up into the hills covered with vineyards.  After the first two pix, all photos are taken while hiking.

The view from our deck and rooftop.

The view in the other direction overlooking the town.

The view of Corniglia from up on the mountain side.

Hiking above Vernazza.

Approaching Vernazza from the other side.

Where the boats come in.

Wine tasting in Groppo.

I can’t remember which town this is.

The organ in the one of the town churches.

Approaching Monterosso Mare, the only town with a real beach (and very overcrowded).

 

We hiked to the Southern most part of CT.  This view covers the span of all five towns.  You can see Riomaggiore up front and the farthest away cove is Monterosso.

We hiked two 6 mile days and one 10 mile day.  It was quite a work out but as you can see, well worth it for the views.  Each day we climbed down the 1000 foot rock face from town and swam in the sea.  It was a magical 4 days.  See you in Florence!  Ciao!

 

 

 

 

 

Classical Music Festival 2018 – Vienna

Two years ago, I posted my first travel blog from my 2016 sabbatical.  The 3 month European tour started with the two week CMF in Eisenstadt, Austria.  Well, we’re back for another round of Classical Music Festivities in 2018.  This year, we decided to travel a couple of days early and spend a night or two in Vienna.  As per usual, we walked the city and enjoyed the 18-19C architecture.  Below are a few photos from our short stay.

City Park has numerous statues of artists, scientists and musicians including Goethe, Schubert, Brahms etc.  Here are a couple:

Concerts are performed in churches across Vienna on a nightly basis.  St Peter’s is one, with a beautiful fountain in front of the church:

A 3pm organ recital is a nice way to escape the afternoon heat.  These massive stone churches are always several degrees cooler than the outdoor temps:

Open spaces, parks and gardens are a feature of most major cities throughout Europe.  The aroma of a huge rose garden is always welcome:

Dinner at a traditional Austrian pub is the best way to end the day.  If you are a meat lover, Austria is the country for you.   And the beer ain’t bad either!

On to Eisenstadt for the 40th something Classical Music Festival.  Musicians from 12 countries (including Canada!) and 26 states converge on this town of 10,000 who celebrate Joseph Haydn on an annual, if not continual basis.  Haydn spent his entire career here (almost 40 years) working as court composer for Prince Esterhazy and as Kappelmeister at the Burgkirche in Eisenstadt.  This year, we performed Haydn’s Creation at the palace (on the stage of Haydnsaal – Haydn’s Hall) in the exact location that Haydn performed numerous concerts throughout his career at Esterhazy.  Then, we performed Beethoven’s Mass in C at a church in Mattersburg (nearby town), St. Stephen’s in Vienna, and at the Burgkirche here in Eisenstadt.  The program and the Esterhazy Brass Quintet on stage in Haydnsaal:

Chorus and orchestra performing at St. Stephens; the church at night:

Haydn’s Burgkirche in Eisenstadt:

 

The trombone section (Hungarians plus Todd)

The flute section – Liz and Jennifer

Brass Quintet performing for food!  (Big Hueriger dinner after the Mattersburg performance)

A piece of the original wall that surrounded Eisenstadt:

Haydnsaal:

Tomorrow, we head to Italy for a little R and R.  We will spend 4 days in Cinque Terre and two days in Florence.  More blogs to come!