Day 3- Phish

The next morning, we were greeted bright and early

by a beautiful sunny day.

By "we" I mean Casey, Steven, and I.

Orin decided that, due to his gallant efforts to keep us awake

until the wee hours of the morning,

he needed a little extra time to re-charge.

But it wasn't long until he joined us in the sun.

Although we hadn't realized it at the time,

when we had driven in the night before, we had been given

one of the best camping sites possible.

"Family camping" was close to everything:

the sinks, mist tent, first aid station, ice vendors,

port-a-potties, and the stages.

If it wasn't for Orin, we would have been placed

in one of the far corners of the farm.

He was happy to take the credit.

Before we could get started with the day,

we had a few extra things in our campsite to set up,

including the most important component of the whole site:

the sun-shade.

(the awkward-looking blue thing in the middle of the next picture)

The large majority of the time we spent at camp was

devoted to the constant reshuffling process

necessary to keep ourselves and the cooler

within the 2X4 foot section of shade that the sun-shade produced.

But it was certainly better than nothing.

Music started every day around noon,

so after a lazy morning trying to stay cool,

we joined the amoeba herding into the main venue.

The mid-day sun was brutal,

so we alternated spending time both in the venue

-listening to music, checking out the various booths,

people watching (there were certainly some crazies),

fighting for spots in the shade,

and trying desperately to stay hydrated-

and at camp

-sprawled out on lawn chairs, muttering about the heat,

and storing up enough energy to

make the (very short) walk to the mist tent-

By 6 or 7pm, right around the time some of the best bands

would play, the temperature would drop to a reasonable level.

Music went until 3-4am every night

and we couldn't come up with a reason to miss a moment of it.

The first night, the highlight was the 3 1/2 hour Phish set.

Here they are for all of you Phish heads,

reunited and rocking out.

Stay tuned.

Day 2- Traffic and Tornados

The next morning we woke up early and went on a quick run

to the grocery store to pick up some perishables for the show.

In the parking lot we found a baby.

He seemed good-natured enough, so we decided to keep him.

Next, we packed a unreasonable amount of food, clothes,

baby toys, camping gear, and alcohol into an incredibly small car

(our compromise after our original reservation was denied).

Orin slept all the way to Manchester,

or almost all the way to Manchester...

The traffic jam actually started in the neighboring town.

We joined the ranks at 1:30 in the afternoon.

(Keep that time in mind, okay... 1:30pm)

A line quickly formed behind us, and because it was a dead-stop

traffic jam, people started to abandon their cars and hit the streets.

Orin woke after about an hour and required some distractions.

The side view mirror worked for about 30 seconds,

then we joined the masses in the street.

Around 8:30pm the sun started to set,

but, thinking we were almost at the gates, we did not despair.

"Maybe we will still be able to pop up the tents in the light,

I bet you the entrance is right around the next corner."

I don't know what was going on in our heads at the time,

but I am assuming it was the same thing

that happens when a person lost in the desert

seeing a glistening pool of water in the horizon.

After another hour or two, it started to rain and

we gave up the idea of popping up the tent

in any reasonable conditions.

By this time, we were so close we could hear the festival.

A local man walked by and told us we still had 2-3 hours left.

"Ha, ha"... we thought... nice joke.

Or not, as the hours passed the only thing that changed was the

tornado watch for our county that had been broadcast over the

emergency warning system was heightened to a tornado warning.

The Bonnaroo radio station advised campers

to take shelter in their cars.

At the time, we found the warning humorous.

Finally, 10 hours after entering the line,

we drove onto the festival grounds, only to be redirected

to another entrance where we sat in traffic again.

After we had gotten in and popped up our tent, Orin was so wired

that we decided to walk around the grounds for an hour or so.

Finally, around 4:30am, Orin settled down and we all went to bed.

Despite everything, I think we managed to make the best of the day

and were all pumped for the next morning.

More to come.

Day 1- Nashville

Well, we are back from Bonnaroo.

I am happy to report that despite several small adversities,

including a credit failure that resulted in our rental car

reservation being denied (leaving us stranded at the airport)

and, I kid you not, a tornado,

we all had a fantastic time.

Because there is so much to re-cap, I have decided to break the

trip down into segments.

First off, Nashville.

Without even realizing it, we had planned to spend the night

in Nashville during one of the busiest times of year:

The Country Music Festival.

Broadway was full of "hey y'all"s and cowboy hats.

Orin was glad to jump on the bandwagon

and Casey didn't hesitate to join him.

Nashville is an amazing city

if you have an appreciation for country music.

(If you don't like country, it is definitely not the place for you)

All of the bars and restaurants on the main strip

play music all night long and there is never a cover charge to get in,

but if you don't feel like going inside,

there is plenty of music to be found on the streets as well.

After a long night of delicious food, good beer,

and sappy country songs,

we woefully bid goodbye to the City of Music

and headed back to the motel to rest before our trip

to Manchester the next morning.

When we first made plans to go to Bonnaroo,

we were told that it was an hour drive

and that we would sit in traffic for 4-5 hours to get into the venue.

We thought they were exaggerating.

If only we knew then what we know now.

More to come.

The TN Expedition

Tomorrow we embark on a journey.

It is a journey that has long been in the making.

Months ago, we bought tickets to Bonnaroo 2009.

Since then, we have talked about very little else.

For those of you who haven't heard of Bonnaroo,

it is one of the largest music and arts festivals in the nation.

It takes place on a 700 acre farm in Manchester, TN.

Hundreds of bands play on 6 stages over the course of 4 days

from noon until 4am.

It will be complete madness.

There will be rock stars in bubbles

and giant mushrooms that serve as public showers,

There will be lots of other people

in a wide variety of colors,

and there will be Phish.

(They have reunited and are playing two nights)

Casey is ecstatic.

I, myself, and looking forward to The Boss,

who will be there as well,

although he might have aged a bit since this picture.

I will let you know if he can still rock as hard as he used to

when we return in 5 days.

Wish us luck.

Zooalicious

When Casey and I were trying to decide what to get Orin 

for his birthday, we agreed that we wanted it to be something

he could enjoy for the whole year.

So last weekend, when we went to the zoo, instead of buying 

day passes, we got a membership.

"Now we can go to the zoo all the time" we told Orin.

He could hardly believe the good news.

He wanted to run through the gates.

This time at the zoo there were lots 

of new and interesting things to see.

The baby elephant had grown up quite a bit since our last visit.

And Orin thought the giraffe had grown a little too.

The antique tractor was out, so Orin and I took it 

for a quick spin before

heading to the jungle to do sign language

with an orangutan.

Next we set off for Orin's favorite part of the zoo:

The polar bear caves.

Orin was almost brave enough to high-five the polar bear,

but not quite yet.

It was a good day at the zoo

and we didn't even have to worry about not seeing the cougar

or the gray wolves because we will surely be back soon.

Until next time, I leave you with hippo butts. 

A True Walker

So, Orin is officially walking.

This video was taken the day before his birthday party.

We were in the middle of one of our standard

 nightly practice walk sessions when, all of a sudden, 

Orin just took off and walked all the way into the kitchen.

This video clip was taken on his way back.

In other updates, Orin can now say "baby," "happy," and "uh oh."

While I have tried to catch his new words on video, 

I have so far been unsuccessful.

I will keep trying.

A Proper Birthday

Yesterday Amelia and I threw a joint birthday party at Wilshire Park

for Orin and Layne (born 1 day earlier than O)

It was a more traditional birthday celebration than our

dirt-bike weekend party around the campfire.

There were a wide variety of snacks.

(Amelia and I made one of the classic party preparation 

mistakes and brought enough food to feed 

roughly 4 times the number of guests)

There were toy structures to play on...

Cupcakes to eat...

Friends and family to share in the fun.

And, of course, plenty of other babies to help sing

"Happy Birthday"

So at the end of the day, as the babies filed out in various

stages of exhaustion-induced meltdown,

we figured the party had been a success.

And now that it's over,

I finally have to admit that my little guy is a year old.

Time flies.