Concert

This was a busy day! Tonight we all went to a free concert by the National Symphony Orchestra in Rock Creek Park, in the NW part of D.C. Bob and I went last year to celebrate our anniversary, but this year we brought everyone. The paper said it started at 7:00, so we left here around 6:00. Of course, traffic was heavy on the Beltway, and I fretted the whole way there about not leaving in enough time. We got there right before 7:00, and there was still tons of parking. We hurried out, and then we saw a line at the security checkpoint, but no one was moving. We asked around, and it turned out that the gates opened at 7:00, but the concert didn't start until 7:30! So we were quite early and got our pick of seats! This should be our strategy for all future events of this nature! The NSO played a more modern selection of music than I had hoped, but we all really enjoyed it. The theme was "Summer Vacation" so they played light music from for example, Carousel, as well as the theme from Jaws. They played the "Buckaroo Holiday" from Rodeo, which was the one we werer the most familiar with. They palyed a large piece from The Wizard of Oz because they are going to accompany a movie screening of it at Wolf Trap in a few weeks. There were lots of selections I had never heard before, but it was all very good. The poor conductor was sweating away in his suit and tie, while the musicians were fairly cool in short-sleeved shirts. The boys did pretty well up until the very end, where Jonathan and Caleb got pretty antsy. Fortunately it was quite a casual crowd, so it wasn't a problem. As soon as we got back to our car, the skies opened, and we had a tremendous thunderstorm. We were so glad to have made it back before it started pouring! So it was an exciting day, and the boys are exhausted, as are we.