The Crabtrees

invited some friends to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary with them over dinner at the Bavarian Inn restaurant Frankenmuth, Michigan. Chicken and ribs--the ribs a first for us--family style with good stories and good-natured kidding. Marietta's maid of honor Rae Ann and her husband Foster were there also.

After dinner a stop at their bakery for a few goodies. Then on to Birch Run outlet mall to pick up some items, notably four pairs of Bounce tennis shoes for Kathy, a style she has not been able to find for many years.

Ein guter Tag wurde von allen gehabt.

Fascinating Exhibit

at the Detroit Science Center called Our Body: The Universe Within.

Yesterday we went to the exhibit with Leo and Marci who is a nurse and found it especially interesting. This has been in the plans for some time and finally our schedules meshed.

The exhibit displays specimens of the human body usually seen only by doctors and scientists showing us bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, etc. Some displays are whole body, some are parts. One whole-body display showed all the muscles, another all the bones, another nerves. Some case displays showed organ comparisons like cancerous lung and healthy one, enlarged stomach and ulcerated one.

The exhibit was so stimulating, had so much visual information, that at the end of the two-hour tour I felt mentally and physically exhausted. I could take only so much.

The body is remarkably complex. There are so many things in so many places that can go wrong that it is a wonder it does so well for so long.

After the body exhibit we "played" with exhibits in the science area--generating electricity, lifting half-ton weight, testing dexterity, and so on.

On our way home we had lunch at Detroit's Breakfast House and Grill on Merchant's Row, one of Robert Porcher and associates' several restaurants. Stuffed French toast, chicken and waffles, meat-lovers frittata, and seafood omelet. Delicious.

Great trip.

Into the Woods

is a musical presented at Bonstelle Theatre, the undergraduate performance venue for Wayne State University students.

The first act of Into the Woods reviews the major events and happy endings of several fairy tales including Jack and his beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, all living in the same kingdom. Then the second act follows up on the happy endings and shows us what might have happened if time were to progress past the happy endings and the giant's wife, angry over the loss of her husband, had confronted the people of the kingdom.

I am always impressed with the level of the students' performances. Singing, dancing, acting, speaking all indicate successful days in their future days in professional theater.

Can't We Blame Someone?

Those same talking heads who posed speculative questions about the three Duke University lacrosse players are now posing questions about how the shootings at Virginia Tech were handled .

As with every serious incident, whether criminal or not, whether someone is killed or personal files are compromised, events and actions surrounding the incident will be investigated and corrections to the process will be implemented. Let's wait for their report.

Dinner with the Waltons

The Waltons live in Huntington Woods just north and west of Rackham Golf Course, a few miles from our first house in Oak Park. Bobbi and Denny invited ten of us join them for a reunion of sorts on Sunday.

Bobbi prepared a sumptuous meal. Beef tenderloin, two different salads, twice-baked potatoes, rolls, and green bean casserole. Both red and white wine and a couple sparkling drinks. Coffee and tea accompanied her grandmother's carrot cake for dessert.

Most of us are retired, most are getting social security, all grandparents. Six of us were confirmed into Truth Lutheran Church together back in the day where I grew up in Detroit.

Randy, Doyle, Ken and I (who were at the dinner) along with Ken Jones, Dan, and Jerry were best of friends through our teen years and even kept in close touch through college. Then, as the song goes, "those wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of mine." I have been fortunate to reconnect with them after a period of time, once at another reunion at Bev's and at a couple funerals.

Then a heated game of Pictionary--how do you draw a picture of ugly? Lots of laughs, poor drawings, and random guesses.

A wonderful time yesterday with a summer get together at Doyle's and Pat's is in the works.

Color the Imus Issue Green

The Imus issue is not black, white, brown, or pink. The color I see in the proceedings is green.

Imus said those things because past history made it clear that such talk got good enough ratings to attract sponsors.

Sharpton and Jackson got into it because it adds to their attraction with groups willing to contribute to their causes and pay their speakers' fees.

Program sponsors abandoned the program because they did not want much of the fallout from the events to hit them; although those types of rants are common on his show, the sponsors continued their support as long as they felt their sponsorship contributed to their bottom lines.

CBS and MSNBC dropped them for similar reasons--sponsorships seemed to be failing.

Cable news shows continued their coverages because viewership would probably be up and their sponsors would be happy (as soon as they see viewership dropping they will drop the subject).

The only group seemingly not in it for the green is the Rutgers University women's basketball team. They accepted an apology and are moving on from there. (Some cynics might argue that even there the publicity will likely help Rutgers U attract better recruits and more paying fans to their basketball games, and so it is still green. I do not see that as their motivation--they seem to be innocent bystanders hit by shrapnel.)

Our free enterprise system exemplified.

MeadowBrook Theatre

presented Macbeth last night. I don't recall having seen a Shakespeare tragedy before, and I will have to think hard about seeing one again. The set was terrific and the acting superb, distinguishing features of MBT. But it took an enormous effort on my part trying to understand the dialogue. By the end I was tired and understood only about 10% of the dialogue. It's good for me this is his shortest tragedy.

When reading Shakespeare, I don't get as tired (granted, I don't read much by the Bard). But when reading I look at the notes, check word definitions, and re-read sections for better understanding.

I should have at least read a synopsis before hand. Lesson learned.

The next MBT show is a musical tribute to the Andrews Sisters who gave us their famous rendition of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy during WWII (Bette Middler had a fine rendition herself). Now that's my kind of music; I love the music of that era though I have little recollection of WWII itself.

Lookout Mountain

provides a spectacular view of Chattanooga.

On our drive with Brenda to Chattanooga this morning, the three of us had brilliant sunny skies and cold temperatures. The closer we got, the more interesting the terrain--bigger hills, even some mountains, Tennessee River. Interestingly I-24 dipped into Georgia for a short stretch just before reaching Chattanooga.

And the city is very interesting. Unfortunately we visited on the Saturday before Easter Sunday when many other families decided they would join us. That meant long lines for the aquarium, very few tickets for the IMAX version of Happy Feet. Can't imagine what it must be like in the summer!

We had lunch at a highly recommended rib joint and were not disappointed. Later we took a driving tour of the city and Lookout Mountain.

On our return to Nashville we got off the interstate and took some of the old highway between Nashville and Chattanooga, along the Tennessee River and then into farming country.

A fun day trip. And a return visit is in store.

The Highest Waterfall East of the Rockies

is in the largest state park in Tennessee, Fall Creek Falls State Park. So we went there this morning.

Driving east and then south the hills began to roll more and more. The roads entering the park had us switchback up one side and then down the other side of a very good-sized hill.

We parked and dressed for the hike to the falls--it was in the low 40s so some outerwear was important. We found the trail to the falls behind the visitor center. First took a side trail to the cascades below the falls.

Then the trail to the falls took us on a swinging bridge over the entrance to the cascades, up one and down a hill, across the two streams that feed the falls.

Around the far side for a spectacular view from an overlook.

There seemed to be more people at the overlook than we saw on the trail, looking not nearly as tired from their walk. We watched some of them as they left the overlook walk down a path different from the one we just took. They were returning to their cars parked in a lot not 100 steps from the overlook! But we had the experience of hiking the trail to the overlook. And the hike back to the car.

The return trip to Hermitage that afternoon took us out of the park on the same scenic road that we took in. But instead of taking the interstate we got on US 70, the old road from Nashville to Knoxville. Off the interstate we saw a few farms, mostly livestock. A few small towns and of course a reservoir or two.

Great drive, great walk, great scenery, great day.

Geocached

today and found two more by the Percy Priest Lake Dam. Great day with temps in high 40s to mid-50s, sunny, but at times a stiff breeze. Still one cache we cannot locate. Spent the better part of an hour searching. Understand it went missing just before our last search in December and had been replaced, but again no luck. Maybe next time.

Kathy with cache at Percy Priest Lake Dam

Seemed strange to us to hear Nashville weathercasters warning listeners that we are in for about four days "like the dead of winter". But when compared to their averages for January, our next few days will be much like them--lows near 30, highs near 50. Sunday night is to be near mid-20s. Checked Romeo and they are about 15 degrees colder and snow showers--Tigers game cancelled due to cold. I now realize why many people move to Tennessee.

A Woman Gets Out of Her Red Convertible

and she has the top down. Parked beside us at a strip mall near Nashville. Beautiful day, sunny, warm, just what one wants for a convertible. She walked past the back of her car, turned with the key fob poised in her hand, pointed it at the car and pressed the lock button--I heard the door locks click. That taken care of, she walked off to the store.

I hope that's not how our federal government approaches national security.