What's going on?

(Hawaii continued) So, uh, M.L. is twirling her belt impatiently waiting for the hostess to say it's dinner time. Meanwhile Randy is day dreaming, thinking about that nice lobster that is boiling in the water. Kevin, Bev, and I are just laughing at the looks of the aforementioned. Maybe it was just the ship being tossed around on the waves. Who really knows?

WHALE OF A GOOD TIME!

Ah yes, a breached whale jumping out of the warm Pacific waters. Not to mention the baby at its momma's side. Pretty cool, huh? This was the second day of our trip to Hawaii and off the coast of Maui on a whale watching tour. And yes, the proof is in the picture. We saw whales. And lots of other cool stuff which I'll probably be showing you in the next few weeks. Actually, I just missed the third "daddy" whale jumping when I took this picture so needless to say, it was quite a show.
We had a blast while we were on the Islands, even when it rained. Who cares? We were in Hawaii!! And the best part - I didn't even get sea sick. That is great news - for me, for M.L., for everyone involved. In the two hours we were on the boat looking for whales we probably saw 10 -12 whales which is a good outing. From December to April they make their way to these waters from Alaska to mate and then return to Alaska. Lot of miles, huh? Anyway, it was a pretty amazing sight. Stay tuned for more pictures and comments. Aloha!!

BIG BAND AND THE BLUES

I hope some of you had a chance to got to the Count Basie Orchestra concert last Monday night. It was awesome. Those guys could play. And Melba could definitely sing. Everyone who was there thoroughly enjoyed it, even the kids who are not exposed to that kind of music very often. I think I enjoyed the drummer most of all, Mr. Butch Miles. Wow, was he good. And what about his facial expressions? You could tell he loved doing what he was doing.
As great as the concert was, I was disappointed in the crowd. I thought the auditorium would have been close to full but only about a third of the seats were filled. That's too bad. How often does a big time group like that come through western Kansas? And it's too bad for the high school band students who were hoping to make some money for their program. More than likely they lost money.
Many people said the ticket prices were too high ($20). But you can be sure if it would have been a sporting event, twenty bucks would have meant nothing. Others mentioned that "we're not that cultured". That may be true, but it never hurts to do something a little different, especially when it involves supporting the kids in band. I imagine that a few went with hesitation but I guarantee that they left not regretting a moment of the two hours of great entertainment. It really was that good.
I JUST want to encourage the community to do a little better job of supporting these type of events that come into town from time to time. If we choose not to do so, we really will be singing the blues.