So we went back to the teeny tiny town where #2 Son was attending music camp at, on Saturday.
Daughter attended college her freshman year in a town that she said was
Podunk, PA.
I told her that the college town this camp was in was even smaller and so small in fact that if you blinked, you'd miss it. ;-)
Finding the theater building, where the concert was to be held, wasn't easy with the map we had. In addition, because of the ongoing construction, some roads were closed and NO ONE put any signs up to help direct us to the appropriate place.
But despite the powers-that-be's best efforts to thwart us, we found the venue.
A photo of the stage before they began.....
An amusing note here**
#2 Son is known far and wide for his forgetfulness when leaving the house. He always has to make multiple trips back to his room before he leaves the house, as he is forever forgetting stuff.
We saw the camp kids file into the theater and take their seats down by the stage door....only we didn't see #2 Son among the crowd.
Hubs turned to me and without missing a beat said, "I bet he had to go back to his room for his flute."
Yep, we know our kid....
So here are the gratuitous photos of #2 Son with others playing their instruments.
They opened with Boismortier's Allegro in A Minor. The person on the far right is the flute professor.
Here's a video of the piece being performed by others....
Then the flute choir did "Rockin' Roses" from "The Flute Garden" by Ricky Lombardo.
You will notice the ratio of girls to boys here(one of the guys pictured wasn't a student either).....
Here again, if you want to hear the music, is another group performing it...
There was also an oboe/bassoon camp going on....
And a clarinet camp as well....
The clarinets performed
"Crazy Train" as one of their numbers. lol
Ayh, Ayh, Ayh......
*Not the Music Camp students.* lolz
And the 2 girls in the Clarinet Camp photo above on the right hand side were playing Bass Clarinets, which I have never seen before.
Basically this instrument looks like the illegitimate offspring of a clarinet and a saxophone if they had sex......
How about a little Lady Gaga on the Bassoon?
Here is a video of the flute professor's flute choir at the university performing.....
#2 Son had a grand time and hopefully is jazzed to practice more frequently now.
He is lusting after the bass flute one of the girls had at this camp....
Keep dreaming kid.....at $4K this ain't happening!
We stopped to eat lunch just outside of town after the concert at
Eddie's Restaurant....
I had the beer battered fish and chips special.
It was
NOT very special is all I am going to say.....
Then we made one other stop before we arrived home. We had passed something called the "Surplus Outlet" and I had meant to have Hubs stop on the way home from dropping #2 Son off at camp, but I forgot.
This trip I remembered to have Hubs stop after we got south of Williamsport.
I thought from the outside of the building it was sort of like
Ollie's but it was a
Grocery Outlet.
It's a cheap ass grocery store and it's Amish owned so closed on Sundays.
I told Hubs after we went down a couple of aisles that is was like shopping in my stockpile in the garage, because some of the stuff was past the "Sell by" dates. lolz
I did find some good deals however.
Crushed tomatoes for .59¢ a can. These have a touch of salt in them but still ok for my RS diet.
Large cans of green chiles for .50¢ each. These go for $2.49 at the local Weis PMITA Markets.
Containers of Equal(equivalent to a 5lb. bag of sugar)for $2.89.
And then there is my favorite find......
No Salt Heinz ketchup for $1.09 a bottle.....and it has a Dec. "sell by" date.
This stuff is $2.69 a bottle in the stores in my town and the cheapest place to get it is Wegman's for $2.29.
It was
less than half that at this place!
5 bottles I picked up plus the 2 I had at home in the stockpile should last me awhile.
I picked up these as a treat for #2 Son.....
$1.50 a box. Still pricey for my blood but more reasonable than they are at the Holidays.
And I bought myself these.....
$3.39 each
I don't know how much this stuff runs when you can get it at the Winter holidays but I know it's nowhere near that price.
Plus it's chocolate and nuts and it's low in sodium.
A heart health snack of sorts. ;-)
And then I couldn't resist this. Just repeat "Precious, precious" in a Gollum voice in your head as you look at the photo.....
A case of Reese's PB Easter Eggs for $5.99
On sale at Rite-Aid as Easter time you can find these for about $2 for a 6 pack(reg. $3.99) which comes out to about .33¢ each.
I got 36 in my box so these are about .16¢ each.
I also picked up a nice watermelon for $2.99. They had some deals on frozen foods and refrigerated things(like Heluva Good dips for .99¢)but we weren't equipped to cart that kind of stuff home in a hot car trunk.
Now I have to find a good cool place to hide these PB egss from #2 Son and not eat them all at one time myself.
It's tempting....lol
And looky here what I saw at the intersection ahead of us when we pulled out of the Surplus Outlet.....
Didn't know there were Amish this side of Williamsport.
Learn sumthin' new everyday, dontcha?
After the Surplus Outlet I read on this book until we got home......
It's one of the books Firstborn had to buy for some college class, that he cleared out of his old room when he was home.
It didn't even look like he opened the thing!
Anyway it's all about all the behind the scenes goings on and history of the development of Valley Forge area as a public park/historic preservation site.
Details all the shenanigans, in-fighting, back room deals, power struggles between individuals, groups, the state and the federal government to control this historic site.
Man, just shameful behavior by most but not surprising if you know anything about politics and human nature.
Read this and you will never think about your government or view a national park/site in the same naïve way again.
Between the crap in this book and the current culture in this country, me thinks we are all doomed......
I'll try to be a little less morose tomorrow, promise! ;-)
Sluggy
