Down By The Bay/Party at Rocky Point (Day 3 + 4)

Howdy once again to our followers - Nicole here with an update!

Appologies for not posting for the last two days - it's been jam packed and 3G coverage is quite spotty in this area.

Last left you writing about my home stay in Palo Alto. My roommate, Christine and I stayed with a couple from Finland that had two young daughters. It was a really fun experience to stay with such lovely people with really sweet children (we played instrument show and tell before breakfast - their mother actually had played string bass from age 6 until high school. It was really interesting to learn about the differences in music education in Finland in comparison to here.) They had moved to California for the husband's work - he is part of the Nokia phone company originates from Finland.

We returned to the bus to head to the Monterey Bay Area. The church that we were playing for that evening gave us free passes to the aquarium.

IT WAS AMAZING. As someone who has grown up by the ocean and experienced a lot of aquariums in different places, Monterey is by far the best one I have ever experienced.

It used to be a fish cannery - sardines circled overhead in the entryway.

 

They had a jellyfish exhibit that was full of rare breeds.

And my favorite rare fish - the sunfish! It can grow up to 5,000 pounds by eating jellyfish. They had a stuffed animal version that I caved and bought.

His name is Pudge.

After exploring the aquarium and Cannery Row, we went back to the church for dinner - chicken bakes and gelato! Our performance was very good that evening despite having major oboe issues (its lower register is just not playing for some reason). I had a great time conducting the Sousa at this location - it really sang that night.

After the concert we headed to our home stay - it's this really cute little ranch up in the hills about 30 minutes from the church. Our home stay "mom" Jane actually has a son that is PLU USO alumn - he was in orchestra the first year Dr. Bell-Hanson was there!

The next morning we got up for a high school exchange and our Rocky Point lunch gig. The high school was very impressive - they only have one person running the entire program which is thriving! They were the most behaved and enthralled high school group so far - I was very impressed that they were able to sit through the Mahler Adagietto and focus (it's a very intense piece to listen and play).

We departed for our Rocky Point lunch and concert. For those of you that don't know, the Rocky Point restaurant is currently owned by the Wangs - the same people that helped start and fund the Wang Center for Global Education back at PLU. I had a great time meeting and performing for such wonderful people. And the view was breathtaking.

Until later,

Nicole Laborte