Give a Hootenanny

Last year, we were able to attend the First Annual Cold Spring Pond Hootenanny which included a performance by Owen as well as a lot of sing-a-longs. When they announced the date this year, we knew it was going to be a bit tight, but figured with a little ingenuity (and taking two days to drive out) we could make it.

The plan was to pick up Nora Friday afternoon from their camp on artificial intelligence and code breaking located at George Washington University Mount Vernon campus - which is incredibly inconvenient from our home in NE Washington, but happens to be directly on the route to Iowa - and then drive to Cleveland, spend the night at a hotel, and then have a reasonably easy drive to Iowa Saturday morning, putting us in West Branch in plenty of time for the festivities. But the plan hit a snag when Allen started packing up the car only to discovered that one of the tires was about to explode (probably due to my rubbing up against a curb while driving Nora to said horribly inconveniently located camp a few days before). Allen quickly ran to Costco to get the tire changed and I contacted Nora's friend Violet's (who was also in the camp) parent's to see if they could pick Nora up and bring them home. Allen beat Nora by 45 minutes and once we actually had everyone and everything packed into a newly serviced minivan, we slowly made our way to Cleveland (just two hours later than planned).

The second half of our drive was mostly uneventful (save for some rainstorms and a lot of construction), and so we made it to the pond in time for dinner and some socializing before the main event.

The kids wanted to play Simple Gifts, so I had ordered a viola and cello/bassoon duet book for the kids (or Uncle Steve if Nora every grows tired of Owen) which included it. However, they hated the harmonies in that version and so spent the week before we left creating their own arrangement (without a lot of time to practice it). Despite the rush job, they sounded wonderful. Afterwards, Owen treated the crowd to some pop-culture treats including Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.

But our kids weren't the only performers for the night. Grace performed a dance solo and then had a trombone duet with Troy (you haven't heard A Whole New World until you've heard in on the trombone). Dick Fawcett was able to perform again, this time including an original composition dedicated to Linda. There was a poem, a pirate shanty, a Hawaiian ukulele protest song, a parody of Memories, and a lot of sing-a-longs.

Which was a great way to celebrate our arrival in Iowa.