Music and Fine Wine

On June 16th, I had the privilege of playing down in the wine cellar at McMenamin's Edgefield. Todd Bayles accompanied me on accordion and Skip von Kuske played the cello. I had an absolute blast! Thanks to everyone who came out and listened!

O Canadaaaaaaaaa!

Yes....it's true. It's not always snow and igloos up in Canada as you can see.
I went up to Canada to do a couple gigs in Fort St. John, B.C. I had an awesome time up there and was able to do a little R & R as well.








I stayed at a farm....










....made some new friends.










I played at the Lido Theatre. This was very cool to see:










I have to admit, It is a little odd to see a theatre- sized poster of yourself hanging up.
I used to live in this town and would go see movies at this theatre when I was 16.... before it was converted into a performance hall. Now here we are 11 years later and all of a sudden there's a poster of myself instead of a movie poster.
Crazy.













I love this picture. This was taken from my view as I was getting ready to do a soundcheck.
It was a really great gig and a very special crowd.













So, I went to use the bathroom there and realized that the top of the walls are all lined with sketches of movie stars. Imagine for a moment how odd it is be doing your business and having it feel like you're being watched.













The view as I headed back to Portland.

Finally!

Yes....it's been a very long time coming, but the time finally came. The cd is finished and I had a cd release party on Saturday, June 7th. Thanks so much to everyone who came out for it!

Here are a couple pics from the night:

Road Trip Part 6 - Destination Texas

The air conditioning was not on and I discovered that I am not a hot weather kind of woman.







After a while, the heat begins to get to you.


















Welcome to Texas










So you basically got a short condensed version of my road trip to Texas. It was a pretty laid back relaxing trip which was nice for me since everything's been so chaotic as of late. I was in Austin, Texas for just a day and a half and then flew back to Portland.

Road Trip Part 5 -The Carlsbad Caverns

The Carsbad Caverns are truly a great wonder. We took an elevator about 1300 feet below ground and walked around in silence taking in the incredible sight and listening to the constant sound of dripping water.




This was called the Lion's Tail exhibit. Can you see it?
The way they had everything lit up was perfect.















Pictures do not do these justice.
Seriously!










Do you remember going over stalactites and stalagtmites during science class in elementary school? Can you remember which is which? Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Road Trip Part 4 - New Mexico

Welcome to New Mexico.


You want to talk about the middle of no where? This is one of those places. The landscape was the opposite of the northwest that's for sure!



It was H-O-T.








There was a lot of construction happening. Sometimes we would pass through these tiny towns and I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would want to live there in the middle of no where.










From the freeway, we spotted this old cobblestone church that looked really cool and decided we'd go explore it. That's the one great thing about roadtrips...the spontaneity.
This church was an old catholic church called The Santa Maria Mission.











There were these old weathered steps nearby.






















Yee-haw!











Next to the church, was an old run down one room house...with no roof.













Here's a picture from the inside.
Exciting, eh?











After our exploration, we were back on the road again.

Road Trip Part 3 - Utah

Welcome to Utah.


I wasn't expecting it to be so green, scenic and beautiful. It was a great drive.



One thing we kept coming across were these things called pickled eggs. They looked absolutely disgusting and tugged at my gag reflex a little. When ever you'd move the jar, whatever sediment was at the bottom would stir up and swish around the eggs. It was the perfect thing to make you lose any appetite you might have had.





We were almost to Moab, Utah when we realized that our gas was just about out and that there wasn't any gas station anywhere nearby. We stopped at a rest area and ended up hitchiking to go and get some gas.







Along our hitchiking way, a tumbleweed came along. I had to get a picture of that. A tumbleweed is a sure indication that you're in the middle of no where.












Luckily, a gas station was only a couple miles up the road and we were in mormon country, so there were nice people that helped us out. :)
Soon we had our gas and were on our way.















We were on the edge of Moab when all the red rocks appeared along the horizon. These are amazing.









The Colorado River runs through Moab. We ended up taking a boat tour at sunset. It was pretty spectacular to ride upriver in the canyon surrounded by all the red rocks. When the stars came out and it was beginning to get dark, seeing the silouhette of the canyon against the twilight sky left me pretty awestruck.