Ed & Jack @ Blossom

Up near 6am to another sunny and warm morning. After calisthenics I took a more leisurely approach to the start of my day. Enjoyed coffee and internet until 7am. Jacob left for school – his last one – at 650am. Somewhat a wasted day given that there wouldn’t be any learning. No book bags allowed.

Started working around 7am. Stayed busy until Mindy left and then even after. Headed out to walk the pug just ahead of Bella catching the bus for the final time. Bella had a number of gift cards for her bus driver and teachers. I watched Bella had one to Ms. Vanorder. Finished walking the pug then headed home for a brief meditation and a stretch. Recorded my BP too. Yikes, it was high 140/88 and that was after meditation. Headed out for a run near 835am. Because it was Friday, I planned to run only 3 miles which I completed successfully by 905am.

Mindy and I hoped to be on the road for Blossom Music center somewhere between 330-4pm. I’d be driving but working via my iPhone until 5pm or so. Even at 9am, I was beginning to feel the stress of needing to be prepared to leave before 4pm. Mindy expressed feeling stressed, too. To help reduce the stress I decided we would drive straight to Blossom and not check-in to our hotel until after the show. I figured that would save us about an hour.

In addition to taking care of my work responsibilities I needed to pack my overnight bag, ready a cooler with snacks, and mow the lawn at lunch. From a reactionary standpoint, work was calm. I opted to dive into another one of the training classes I have to complete. This one was a 3.5 hour class. I spent about 2.5 hours on it before taking a much needed break around 1230pm when I headed out to mow the lawn.

I planned only to mow, no trimming, edging, or blowing. Push mowed first. That took about 25 minutes. Finished up completely in just under an hour. Took a shower and finished throwing together my overnight bag. I had short pack list so not to forget anything important. Not only were we seeing the Edward Sharpe/Jack Johnson show, but we planned to hike Saturday morning and then visit the Hoppin’ Frog Brewery’s tasting room for lunch.

Rejoined that training class. In between sections I packed two small coolers, one with liquids, the other with snacks. Dad was coming over to hang with the kids for a while, or until 5pm or so whenever Jimaken was set to arrive. He showed up around 3pm while I was actively engaged in my training class. The 3.5 hour class was more like 5 hours with all the little tests and review. Yikes! That was something I hadn’t planned on. Jacob was home from school around 250pm and quickly out the door to play with friends.

Mindy got home around 320pm. She greeted dad then rushed off to the shower. There wasn’t any chance of us leaving at 330pm, but since I planned to drive straight to the concert venue I wasn’t too concerned. I figured if we left by 415pm we’d have enough time. And from a work perspective, that felt better anyway. Since I was all ready to go, I stayed on my training class until the last minute, coming painfully close to completing the entire thing. Had only one section of about 12 left to complete. Figured I would jump back on that come Monday.

Apologized to dad for not having a lot of time to banter but Mindy and I needed to hit the road. We said goodbye to the kids and left near 405pm. I stopped at Thorton’s for gas. We were driving the Accord. I had directions to Blossom Music center programmed in my Navigation, but also 3 sets of printed directions: one directly to Blossom, another directly to our hotel, and then lastly from Blossom to our hotel. I was prepared.

Once on the freeway, Mindy shared a story. Her principal called an impromptu meeting after school to resign. But because she needed scurry immediately home after a day with her class at the Big Splash swimming park, she didn’t get to attend. Instead, she got the rumor through the grape vine. She was stressing over the thought of having to break in another new principal, the third or fourth in the nice years she and I have been together.

She ended up calling her principal on the drive around 270 to 71N. Apparently he didn’t plan on divulging his plans until the following week, but when a janitor for his new school and district showed up at the school to meet him, the word was suddenly out. He felt he better tell everyone that day to prevent them from hearing it elsewhere. He and Mindy have been pretty tight. She took the news OK. Wished him well. I reminded her how much she dreaded him taking over two years ago. Nice drive. Lovely weather. 115 miles to the 71N/271 interchange. And after 10 miles we followed navigation for Blossom Music center which is in the boonies big time. I’d later learn that it’s actually part of the Cuyahoga Falls National Forest. The last 8 miles or so was some serious country back roads but very ,very gorgeous scenery. We made good time pulling into the venue parking near 615pm. We were parked and enjoying a beer by 630pm.

There wasn’t any signage pointing to the main concert venue so we figured we’d simply follow the largest group of folks moving in one direction. As it was, there were folks were walking in all directions. The parking was well organized in a very large grassy, hilly area. We made sure to identify a couple landmarks for later when looking for our car. We spotted a #2 sign and then an oil or gas well.

Because the venue is cut into the forest it wasn’t obvious even as we neared the main entrance. Very beautiful park. Could be Disneyland, only without the rides and visual stimuli. Wow, the pavilion is lovely too, and blends nicely with the natural setting. The weather couldn’t have been nicer. Simply gorgeous – clear skies and mid 70s. Before finding our seats, we stopped for a bathroom break and then grabbed a hot dog and beer. We opted for Great Lakes Brewing, me a Burning River, Mindy an Edmund Fitzgerald.

Our seats were in the back of the pavilion on plastic benches just right of center. There was just one more row behind us before the lawn seating area. Though I like both, I was way more pumped to see Edward Sharpe than I was to see Jack Johnson. In a perfect world, their roles would’ve been reversed. The day prior I got an informative email from the venue sharing details about parking, what I could and couldn’t bright in, as well as an alert that the show would begin at 7pm in lieu of the stated 730pm. Appreciated the head up. Still, Edward Sharpe didn’t come on until 730pm.

They didn’t disappoint. Fun, exciting, good. We noticed right away that Jade wasn’t on hand. Hmm? Sharpe played for just an hour. Must’ve played about 8 songs. Could tell a lot of folks in attendance hadn’t an ear for their music or simply hadn’t heard of them before. By the end the youth in the lawn seats, especially were up and dancing in harmony just as they were when we first saw them at the LC pavilion in Columbus last August. They gave me goose bumps, need I say more?

Going into the event, I knew they were the warm-up act, so my expectations were in check. Satisfied, we could have left for the hotel right then and I would’ve been fine, but we both like Jack Johnson’s music too.

I could see it coming like a freight train. The Jack Johnson crowd was shaping up to be more docile and way more female oriented. My one knock on JJ is that all his music sounds pretty much the same – slow, beachy acoustic love songs. I really like his music, but just because one likes certain music doesn’t mean it’s well suited for a live show.

Sure enough, four or five songs into his show, which started promptly at 9pm, I was ready to get out of there. In fact, far more entertaining that JJ himself was his keyboardist, Zach Gill. He’s very talented. We especially enjoyed him playing a melodica, which is a cross between a harmonica and a keyboard. I asked Mindy how long she wanted to stick around. We both agreed to hear one more song then beat the crowd out.

Wise move. Must’ve been 10pm as we made our way back to the car with few others, though we got a kick out of a group of 20 something girls, one of them particularly drunk and stumbling. Also along the way we saw a few guys who sadly got their car stuck in a deep mud puddle in the parking area. The car and the two guys attempting to push were completely, and I mean completely covered in sprayed mud head to toe. Bad day! We found our car with relative ease and were careful not to find a large mud puddle on our way out. And because we baled early, we had little concert traffic to contend with. Good plan. I asked Mindy to find the printed directions to the hotel. I also turned on the navi.

Like it did on the way there, the navi would tell us one thing then change it a time or two as we progressed. Not cool. Good thing we had the printed directions. Again, because the venue is in the forest lots of brief travel on several different roads. We went 5 miles before we saw a house. The hotel was only 9 miles from the concert venue. With just a small glitch in the directions, we arrived at the Country Inn & Suites near 1030pm.

I’d actually called earlier and talked with Amanda letting her know that we wouldn’t be checking in until after the show. She was still there. Said they expected a mad rush for their remaining rooms after the concert. We beat the crowd. We were in our room which was a two room suite by 1045pm. I cracked another beer then tuned to the end of the Miami Heat/Indiana Pacers playoff conference championship game. The heat were up by 30 points with 2 minutes remaining. Mindy quickly got into bed and fell asleep. After the game, I tuned to the Wedding Crashers and watched about 30 minutes of it before turning it off and going nighty-night.