Category Archives: jazz

Jazz at the lake

Every year in September is the jazz festival. It’s for 2 days and 4 groups play each day.  They do a great job with some stellar entertainment and it is free to attend!  Very generous benefactors.  We decided to see a couple of the groups and headed on up by bike.  There was a lot of traffic headed to the outlet mall!

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That snakes back aways and the light is behind me here. Good thing we can ride on over this.  It was a beautiful day. Pretty windy, but the temps were nice.

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The concerts are held outdoors if the weather cooperates.

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Brubeck Brothers:

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The crowds were great, too!

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After that, it was time for a treat!

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One of our favorite places to go in Lake George. Everything is so good there.  I chose a black and white cookie, only the white was caramel!

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Guess that makes it a Black and Tan. 😀  John had a napoleon, which I didn’t get a picture of, but really good (and messy).

We then bike down to my parents’ house to feed Boo while they were gone.

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“Why you take my picture, lady?”

Then he got some loving:

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Then a short 5 miles to home.  Days are getting shorter! Eeek!  Ended up with just about 29 miles on the day:

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The other group we wanted to see didn’t play until after dark, so we couldn’t bike back to the lake.  It was weird to go there via car LOL.

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This last group was called the Divas and it was an all-women big band group.

 

Very, very good. It would be really nice if this wasn’t a thing and women jazz players made up half the groups out there as a norm.  Someday.

It was really great to relax this weekend, which I actually did!

Biking for jazz

What a gorgeous fall weekend!  Both days were nice, but Sunday was the nicest day.  Lake George was having the jazz festival all weekend, so we wanted to ride up on Sunday.  Now Sunday is also bagel day, which meant a double dip ride on the day.  We had a rewards card earnings of a free bagel, so we went to Panera Bread to start the day.  It was 41 degrees this morning!  That is close to the cutoff for riding temperature – and it is only mid September!

My loverly bagel:

Panera Bread is 16 miles round trip.  We went home for a bit and I packed up a lunch to bring to the jazz festival.  I wanted pastries, so that meant packing a lunch.  It had warmed up a bit into the 50s by the time we left.  We took the paths all the way there today.

We stopped for a quick snack.  This was around mile 11 or so (or 27 total miles).

So beautiful out today.  I think I kept saying that, too.  I had some dried pineapple.

Just starting to see some change in the sumacs now.  Color will be changing pretty soon.

I love biking – yay!

We arrived at the lake ready for some music!

The first group:

The sax player also brought out a bass flute, which is pretty cool.

And did I mention how beautiful it was?

We ate lunch while listening.

My mother came up for a while to listen as well, so we met her on the other side of the stage for the second group.  This one had a slide trumpet – which was interesting.

We had stopped at the Lake George Baking company for a few pastries to have in the afternoon.  John got lattes:

It’s pretty!

My mom and I each had one of these sfogliatelle, which is a shell shaped pastry filled with an orange ricotta cheese mixture.  I had to look up the name – they should make it easier for such a delicious pastry!

I might have also consumed a fantastic cannoli that I forgot to get a picture of.  I love long ride days  :mrgreen:

Lots of boats docked right on the lake behind the stage and listened to music. How cool would that be??

 

You just can’t make up these gorgeous colors.  We are lucky to have this jewel of a lake in the Adirondacks.

It was starting to get chilly and John and I were getting tired of sitting on the ground LOL! One thing about biking, you can’t bring your sitting chairs or even a blanket really.  Time to head on out.   I was a little stiff at first, but then loosened up and felt pretty awesome on the hills.  Still in good bike shape right now for the season.

I took a picture of John’s computer today 😀

Ride stats:

Total miles:  47.3

Average speed:  12.4 mph

Top speed: 27 mph

Calories burned: 1410

What a great day!  Fall is my favorite time of year.  I really want another weekend day, though.  I am not ready for Monday yet!

Bagel Wednesday and jazz in the park

There was a small front that went through last night and the temps fell down into the upper 50s.  It was glorious!  I slept like a log – hooray!  John said Pixie managed to get into the bedroom and got in his face and I didn’t even stir, which is pretty amazing.

It was 58 degrees when we left the house this morning.  Awesome! We biked to breakfast today, taking a loop around town before ending up at the coffee shop.

I had a honey wheat bagel today.  With Minnie in Paris:

Then we looped around to home for a total of 11 miles today.  Now the next heat wave comes.  The temps rose 30 degrees in the space of about 5 hours today – crazy!  Not much biking going to happen in the next few days.  Too hot and humid. Booo…

I broke for lunch and did my usual hot weather fix:

This is a new cereal, which I may not be able to buy again because this is what I snacked on the other day.  It is really good, though.

Watched some of the tour during lunch.  It is very exciting this year, I have to say!  After following it for a few years, now I think I really understand how it works and the strategies.  It just takes a while (like learning football).

Here is a shot of Pixie going back to school:

The Queen of Calculus.

Afternoon snack.

Decaf iced latte paired with:

Balance bar because I had the hankering for something sweet and I wanted to avoid the chocolate chips!

I am doing okay on the no caffeine front.  I have been very tired the last couple days, but no headaches or crankiness. At least I don’t think I am cranky. The family may disagree.

Dinner time and time for omelets!

This had some grilled chicken in it topped with laughing cow and carmelized onions.  I will do a post tomorrow on how to make these.  It’s easy, although it takes a little time.

On tonight’s agenda? Instead of mother/daughter cafe night, we did music in the park night.

A little jazz:

A little fruit:

A pretty sunset:

And then some fireworks:

That picture came out pretty good with my little digital :mrgreen:

This was a nice mid week break.

Morning jog and latte art.

Went for a jog this morning. Bright and early, since I was up. Was back on my familiar track. I moved to the center of the track, as I wonder a little if the distance really is 1/4 mile around. So, I still had a new PR today. 3 miles in 33:05 seconds!! Just about an 11 minute mile, pretty damn close – quite pleased with that.

I hopped on the scale this morning, and it shows me up 1.5 pounds from Wed. WTF??? This is really annoying. I don’t normally fluctuate this much, I just don’t – so I honestly don’t know what to think.

Went to a jazz festival on the lake today.
That was wonderfully fun. Good music and then we stopped at a cafe. I really love when cafe workers take the time and make your drink special, like lattes should be.
My lovely beverage: