Orientation complete

We had an orientation meeting tonight for first-time attendees at 4 Bayview Street, the SummerKeys headquarters.

There were about 12 students in our "first-timer" group. They were a mix of cellists, vocalists, pianists and one violinist I believe.  Naturally, I forget everyone's name immediately.

I was shocked to find out I'm not the most inexperienced cellist in the group. There was another student who has only been playing 6 months.  Of course with my luck, it's probably 6 months on cello after a career as a concert violist and she warms up with the Haden C.  But regardless, it seems like we have an interesting mix.

We were told earlier classes in the summer were much lighter on the student numbers.  Last week apparently had 4 students. This week, however, there are nearly 50 students.  Crazy.

We also got our schedules today.  A group class each morning at 9 am, 3 hours of scheduled practice time and 1 hour practice session.  Going to be interesting to see how my fingers hold up.

I'll have pictures of the SummerKeys facilities and practice sessions tomorrow.

Lubec, Ho!

We have arrived.  Really.  Well, not musically or economically, but at least geographically.

We drove through a misty Maine rain today.  Fortunately, the rain is supposed to end tomorrow.

Lubec is beautiful, even in the rain.  The temperature can't be beat either (currently 67 degrees.)

And now some photos:

 

Scenery?  Yeah, Maine has a bit here and there...

We went on a Mose Safari here:

Of course we're probably the first people in the history of Maine Moose tours to not see a moose.  And no, they don't give refunds. 

But, we had a beautiful canoe trip.

Allie on the pond:

Matthew gets his paddle on:

After the unsuccessful safari, I did manage to find one moose:

Also, blueberries are apparently a big deal up here.  So much so, that we just had to stop here.  Sadly, despite my prediction, it is not owned by Violet Beauregard.

 

 

 

Oh, and did I mention scenery?

And finally, the view from our cabin:

Apparently, I'm not 19 anymore...

We did not arrive in Roanoke until about 1:30 am.  7 o'clock departure?  Who's stupid idea was that?  

Because of our late arrival, we did not end up departing until around 9:30 am.  The scenery in Virginia was gorgeous.  The mountains were awesome, as was the Shenandoah Valley itself.  I knew we were driving through mountains the night before, so it makes me sad for whatever gorgeous scenery I missed.  That's particularly true because the last time we drove through Virginia along that route was in our younger years on the way to a wedding in D.C. and we had decided to drive all night, so I didn't get to see it then either.  

Once on the road again, the drive was fairly uneventful.  Pennsylvania was pretty too.  Not quite as pretty as Virginia, but certainly pleasant at which to look.  I received a pleasant surprise when we hit Allentown, as the sign said 115 miles to New York City.  I was shocked it was so close.  It looked much farther on the map.

However, it wasn't long before we passed through New Jersey and into New York.  New Jersey was quite pleasant too, with lots of green and not much industrial-stuff.  While I knew New Jersey's reputation was no doubt a bit exaggerated, I was surprised to see almost nothing but green nearly all the way until Newark.

We did have a moment of concern in Newark as we accidentally ended up in the "local" lanes for 98 rather than the express lanes.  It slowed us down a bit, but we eventually ended up in the same spot.

Now the mistake.  We had decided to follow 95 through New York, so the kids could get a view of the city.  However, it was now 4:30 pm on a Friday, and once we passed through New York, we would be going outbound.

We got a decent view of the lower west-side as we went up the New Jersey Turnpike, and actually ran into very few traffic problems as we crossed the George Washington Bridge and trekked through the Bronx.  I was happy we didn't break down in the Bronx.  It didn't look like the best place for a stranded tourist.

But then we hit Connecticut.  And we sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Ok, so probably not the best plan ever.  However, I'm still glad we did it so the kids could get a glimpse of New York (or as they used to call it when they were little, "U Nork City."

After we finally got out of Connecticut, it was a short drive through Massachusetts, a shorter drive through New Hampshire, and finally into Maine.  We arrived in Freeport about 12:30 am.  So, 9:30 am to 12:30 am.  15 hours.  Wow.  Apparently I'm not 19 anymore.  I was dog tired.

We had planned to go to kayaking class in the morning at LL Bean (since archery and skeet shooting were full).  However, we decided we really didn't need to know kayaking that bad.  We've slept in this morning to the late hour of 9 am.  Shortly we'll be heading off in search of breakfast, a visit to the LL Bean store (I need a new medium-weight jacket) and then we're off to hunt moose (with a camera) at Moosehead lake.  We'll spend the night in Bangor, and head to our final destination of Lubec on Sunday.

 

And away we go...

Today's the day.  We start our trip to SummerKeys.  

1 van, 2 adults, 2 11-year-olds, 26-total-hours

I'll add some photos later.

 

Today:

Nashville-to-Roanoke, VA:  436 miles, 7.5 hours

We'll depart today around 4 and arrive in Roanoke around midnight.  

Tomorrow is the big day:

Roanoke, VA to Freeport, ME, 787 miles, 14 hours

I'm hoping we're on the road by 7 am tomorrow, which will put us arriving in Freeport around 9 pm. Unlikely to be any blogging done as I drag my dead butt into bed.

Planning for travel

Planning for this trip to SummerKeys reminded me I needed to make sure my instruments are covered by insurance.  So, a quick call to USAA established coverage for our 2 cellos (mine and my daughters) and one guitar (my son's).

I'll be keeping any instruments we take in the hotel room at night, so I'm not really worried about theft, but should it get lost or stolen while at SummerKeys, this protects me.

Homeowner's rider policies only work if you're an amateur.  If you're a professional, you'll need to get coverage from any number of insurance companies that specialize in musician coverage.

Just a small logistical detail about which it's easy to forget.

Blog, oh how I neglect thee

Wow, have I neglected this blog.

Let's see, how to summarize the last 6 months since I last posted...

Cello-wise, I think things are going well.  I'm becoming more and more comfortable on the instrument and my intonation has improved by leaps and bounds.  It's still miles away from any decent cellist, but the improvements give me faith that over time, I may one day have good intonation as well.

I'm working on more "advanced" positions now, such as second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.  Most cellists probably wouldn't consider those as advanced, saving that designation for thumb position.  However, they're certainly more advanced for me and it's a struggle to think of the fingerboard in the "blocks" my instructor is advocating.  But, like all things which seem impossible at first, I'm sure it will get better with time.

One of the things I have thoroughly been enjoying since starting with my new instructor is the ensemble she runs.  It's comprised of about 4 of her students, all of differing ability levels, with me being on the bottom.  However, it's the one time I feel actually musical, so it's a lot of fun.

The big news is that we're preparing to leave for my first SummerKeys in a couple weeks.  SummerKeys has the advantage of being a cello camp that accepts all levels, which is quite rare.  Some camps expect a lot of experience and some are even audition-based.  SummerKeys is different in that it is open to anyone, even someone who has never played the instrument before. 

SummerKeys is in Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the congenital US.  The good news is the scenery should be gorgeous.  The bad news is, it's a 25-hour drive. But, we're going to take the whole family and make an adventure of it.  Whether 25 hours (one way) on the road with two children is a good adventure or a bad adventure is yet to be determined.