The Apple, River Art, Running and Guitar

Talk about stupid. Wednesday night I was supposed to leave on a 4:00 flight to New York City. We left the gate and of course, I immediately fell asleep. I woke about two hours later, peeked out the window, and saw we were on the ground. I thought we had landed in the Big Apple. But, everyone on the flight seemed tense. Little did I know we were still in Detroit. There was bad weather in New York so we never got approval to take off. We sat on the tarmac for three hours. Eventually, we went back to the gate and they cancelled the flight. Ugh! No more flights that night so I had to go home and return to the airport for a 6:15 a.m. flight on Thursday. I got to my meeting in Manhattan (which I was running) with only 30 minutes to spare. Phew!

Ro did the River Days Art Festival this weekend. Great spot on the grass right on the River. He had to take Friday off and put up with major hail and wind storms again (seemed like a repeat of the Festival of the Arts). The crowd was big but they were there mostly for the concerts, the cars and the food. There were only about 20 artists. No need to say anything more than he read a whole book in his lawn chair over the three days.

Hannah leaves for Europe on Friday for 20 days! Her People to People group got together for a bon voyage picnic on Saturday in Canton. She has bonded with another girl named Hannah and seems like she is going to have a blast! Can you imagine taking 40 8th graders to France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria? Those five leaders have their work cut out for them.

Jackson goes to ROTC camp in Alpena for a week on Saturday. Can you believe Ro and I are going to be kidless? Sure will be weird.

This morning, Hannah, Jackson, Denzel, Patrice, Lisa, Lynn and I tackled the brand new River Days Run. Great morning. We started at the Ren Cen Plaza and did the entire 5K next to the river. (We ran right by Ro's booth.) Awesome way to start the day. I think this run will grow once word gets out about it next year. Man, was I slow! Jackson did the run in 21 minutes. He is in amazing shape.


This afternoon, Hannah, Nathan and Noah had a recital. I always thought recitals were supposed to be stuffy. This was perfect. Very relaxed and supportive of the kids. Hannah and Nathan played the song that Nathan wrote for graduation. One of the teachers played bass along with them. Sure sounded great. Noah played "This Old Man" on the piano and cracked the place up. Way cool.