Summer Tour with Phish

Well after seeing two Phish shows in March in Hampton Va, we were ready to get on the road again. This time we decided to do it big!

In our first "leg" of tour we traveled for 9 days, over 2,400 miles through ten states and 6 six Phish shows in 5 different venues. A few months later, we went out to Red Rocks, Colorado to see more shows (4 for Brad, only 3 for Erin since she has no vacation time yet!) at an absolutely gorgeous outdoor amphitheather. Then we wrapped things up with one last weekend trip to DC where we saw a final show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland.

People think we are crazy going to so many Phish shows but I can't explain how much we LOVE going. Brad and I both love love love live music and nothing makes us happier than hanging out with good friends, enjoying the beautiful outdoors and listening to amazing music. Besides, it's not like a normal band where if you see them play more than once you literally see the same show over and over again.

I'll let Brad explain since he's the real expert here ;) ... "Many people who have not seen Phish are like why do you go see so many shows in a row, don't they just play the same show every night. Well I did a little research. In the history of Phish they have played a total of 689 unique different songs (as of mid-summer, it's a bit higher now). In the first four nights that we saw they played a total of 78 songs and only 1 song was repeated. Over the six shows that we saw they played a total of 106 songs and 15 songs were repeated once. This gives you an idea of the repertoire that this band has."

I think it's exciting to go to a lot of shows and see if you hear a new song that you've never heard before or one of the classics that you could hear over and over and never tire of. Besides, even when they repeat songs, they often sound very different - they are a "jam band" after all, so they are known for jamming out a song and improvising solos and riffs along the way.

Anyways below are pictures of the band from a few different venues (all photo credits to Brad!) - they have amazing lights at their shows so it makes for some great pics...

One of the fun things about going to Phish shows is that it's not just about the concerts themselves - everyone also goes and tailgates before the show so it becomes a full day affair.

Wherever they let folks park their cars, the crowd gathers to hang out and BBQ

People sell food in the lots (this woman happens to be making the most delish veggie burritos that I have EVER tasted!) And of course, there is quite a laid-back, hippie vibe so Brad and I are right at home :)

But Brad and I both agree that one of our favorite things about going on tour is meeting up with close friends and running into others we haven't seen in years. Brad, by the way, is the king of the random run-ins - somehow if he knows 30 people at a show with tens of thousands in attendance, he'll run in to those 30 people over the course of the day. It's kooky but super fun. And not only the people that we see at the shows, but it gives us an excuse to travel near and far and see great friends along the way - Erika (and her parents!) in Denver; Ginny and Geoff in DC; A-Rod, Robyn, Brendan & Eva, Alix & Catherine in MD and many others!

A few pics capturing some friends along the way ...

Dan & Monica and Jay & Lisa at Jones Beach, NY

Billy and Erin making the best of the pouring rain at Red Rocks, CO (it was freezing!!) and a little Duke reunion with Billy, Drew and Elyana

Erin & Alex / Brad & Todd hanging out in the lot at Camden, NJ

Erin & Brad in our seats at Red Rocks, CO; Erin & Drew outside the venue

Well, we are done with touring (for now at least!) - it was a blast and we can't wait for some more adventures to come!

31 Candles

Friday was the 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday (somehow that sounds much more fun than saying my "31st" birthday!). Anyways, birthdays are always a good time to reflect on things and I've decided that, so far, my 30's are turning out to be pretty sweet!

Last year on my birthday Brad and I were squished in a tiny apartment in VA and I was stuck in a job I wasn't loving (was actually literally stuck in the car on my birthday ... driving 2 hours each way to visit a client on a military base and present our team's recommendations on potential IT solutions ... borrrinng!). Anyway, this year I'm in a new job that I'm loving, in a new city/state, in a new house that we love, happily married and truly, truly blessed with amazing friends and family (and not just my actual family, but also blessed with amazing in-laws - now, how many people can say that?! :)

What can I say - I'm lucky girl :) Here's looking forward to another year!

Change is addictive

I was doing some research for work yesterday and I ran across a video online that I thought was neat. It was a training seminar hosted by the Acumen Fund. .... BTW, Acumen is a really incredible organization - a "non-profit venture fund" which uses philanthropic capital to invest in organizations (non-profit or for-profit) in developing countries that are working to solve the problems of global poverty. They've had some fabulous results and are worth checking out. And I'm proud to say that Acumen was founded by a Stanford MBA, Jacqueline Novogratz, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when I was in b-school. Anyway, I digress...

Acumen was having a training session for students and Seth Godin, a marketing expert and bestselling author, was trying to inspire the students to choose careers that make a difference. Here's what he had to say (paraphrased in some parts)...

Making change is addictive.

Making positive change, doing things that matter to people will change your life forever for the better.

What you need to do is to learn how to lead, how to connect people, how to break rules (that don’t get you in too much trouble). But don’t expect that when you set out to make it happen it will happen right away.

What you are going to do is fail … over and over and over again. But every one of the cycles of failure is going to teach you something. Because if it was easy, everyone would have done it already. But it’s not easy and that’s why you are here. You are here because you are going to do something that we don’t have the formula for yet and everyone else is going to copy you. But you are going to have to decide first [to follow that path] and I really hope you do.

I just thought it was a neat call to arms, of sorts. And I should note that Seth is also a Stanford MBA ... makes me proud to call myself part of the same community as inspirational people like Seth and Jacqueline.

Yum

This post is in celebration of cupcakes :)



In this case, vegan cupcakes. Who knew you could make a super tasty cupcake without butter, eggs or (cow's) milk. Yum.

Tom Watson

Brad and I spent a good deal of the past weekend watching the British Open. I have a new respect and admiration for Tom Watson ... first of all, how cute is he!?!


And to hear him talk - often with tears welling in his eyes - about the "spirituality" of the course, how his old friend and caddie was looking down on him and, even despite a heartbreaking loss, congratulating the winner and fessing up to his mistakes ... very cool.

It's always good to see old-school athletes that truly love and respect the game that they play. It would have been an amazing story had Tom Watson won the Open, but I think it's pretty inspirational anyway.

Hanging out with the 'rents

I just spent two great weekends with my parents. For one of those weekends, Brad and I went to W'burg for the 4th of July and had a blast with my parents and Sharon. We went to Jamestown one day and got to learn all about the first permanent settlement in America and the birthplace of good ol' Virginia. It was a gorgeous day so we had a great time being outside.

We learned about all of that from our slightly bananas tour guide. Seriously, this lady was a bit umm, kooky, but informative ... and I suppose you have to be a little strange to be a tour guide at Jamestown! (I love the second pic where my parents look slightly confused/disbelieving of whatever weirdo joke was being told!)

It was also 4th of July so we, of course, watched lots of great fireworks ...



Admittedly, we watched them from the comfort of my parents' living room - nothing like fireworks on TV!!

Moving on!

Ok, I know I said that the last post was a "preview" with an exciting post to come from Brad about our Phish tour. But ummm, I'm tired of waiting for that to happen so I'm moving on! ;)

Perhaps we'll get a post from Brad after our next trip to see Phish - our trip to Colorado is coming up in 2 weeks! (and yes, Brad - take that as a hint!!!)

In the meantime, here's a pic of the Duke to make up for our blogging absence!

Just a preview

We have just returned from vacation - an awesome roadtrip from New York to Tennessee. We saw great friends, great music (6 amazing Phish shows) and had a blast (although got a little wet during some of the outdoor shows!) Brad is going to post some more pics and a review of the shows but I wanted to put a little teaser out there ...

Proof that we just drove 2300 miles in a week!

Brad, looking hot as always, and joking around with his rain gear during another very rainy tailgate!

We're loving Durham!

So, Brad and I moved to Durham about 6 months ago and so far, we are loving it down here! For whatever reason, it just feels like home - we loved the DC area (and still do - can't wait to go back and visit) but that always felt like a temporary place for us. So now that we are in NC, we're trying our best to explore the area and do as many random things as we can find (and trust me, random things are in abundance down here in the South!)

Anyway, our first fun activity was going with our buddies Beth and Jason to a local brewery - Trangle Brewing Company. Triangle Brewery is basically run by 2 local guys who bought some brew tanks, set up in a warehouse in a kind of run down area of Durham and have managed to make it all work. They recently added 3 new fermenters to the mix which was neat to see and good to hear that they will be increasing their beer production - hopefully we can find their bottles in the store soon. For now, we have to settle for getting it on tap at some local restaurants and for the (free and all you can drink!) beers at the brewery tour. Fortunately, Beth and Jason are expecting (congrats you guys!!) so we had ourselves a fabulous designated driver allowing us to partake in all the free beer we could drink while we were on the tour or hanging out afterwards playing ping pong or cornhole in the warehouse. Super fun and I think we'll be back in the future for more free tours!



We've also started to check out our local farmers' markets ... the one in downtown Durham is great and has a neat community feel. We'll have to check out the Raleigh market soon - it is supposed to be enormous and brings in farmers from all over the state.





(Check out the lady's shirt - it says "Namaste Y'all". Awesome.)



We also went to the annual "Taste of Durham" where local restaurants come and set up in tents in a big open parking lot. You buy tokens and can go around and sample the various cuisines - the number of really good restaurants is one of the things that we have been pleasantly surprised by here in Durham.


Back in college, the only cuisine we sampled were the food options on campus or Cosmic Cantina (still my favorite burrito joint in the entire world!) But turns out that Durham is actually considered a good food town (Bon Appetit magazine named Durham/Chapel Hill "America's Foodiest Small Town"). So, Taste of Durham is intended to showcase some of that local flavor - plus some live music, a beer and wine garden, and (randomly) a snow sled run!






And finally, topping the random things to do in Durham - we recently went to the Great American Duck Race (rubber duckies that is!). The event is an annual fundraiser for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle which picks up unused foods from local restaurants, caterers, and the aforementioned Raleigh farmers' market and redistributes to hungry families in the area.

We donated some money to the program and were given 2 rubber duckies in return which we could enter in the race. The whole thing was kind of hysterical - imagine a whole lot of people running around with rubber duckies, decorating them and then letting them loose in the little river (complete with event staff wading behind the ducks with tennis rackets to move the ducks along if they got stuck). Our fabulously decorated duckies (ahem, thank you very much) didn't win but we had fun and loved the randomness of it all!




Hopefully many more fun local Durham area activities to come!!

We made the front page of the newspaper!

Ok, I admit it - that headline was a bit of an exaggeration for dramatic effect ...

We did indeed make the front page of the newspaper but it was only the front page of the Chancellor's Ridge (our neighborhood) community newsletter. Not quite the front page of the New York Times but probably about as close as we are going to get!

Anyway, guess not much excitement happens in the 'burbs because our recent home intrusion made the headlines:

Crime Alert: A house on Curriculum was recently broken into while the people were home. A burglar rang the doorbell, heard the dog barking and then went around the back of the house. The burglar opened (or reached into an open) window and stole whatever was in reach (iPod, cell phone, loose change, etc.)....

Ha, we're pretty much famous now, right?! I'm impressed that the neighborhood gossip machine is working so well -- the details of our little event made it in to the very next issue of the community newsletter (and even had the requisite gossip mill exaggeration - or maybe my cell phone (and loose change!?) were stolen and I just didn't know it!?)

Time for a Duke photo shoot

It's been a while since we've posted some photos of our cute pup, Duke, so here they are!



At this point, I was torturing Duke by making him sit far away from his favorite red squeaky toy so I could get some perspective shots.



Right as I was about to snap a close-up of the octopus, Duke decided to take matters in to his own hands. Or mouth, I suppose.



Just a few more shots (love the tongue sticking out in the first one!)