Salome with her Grandpa (my father)

My farmer friend Phil hangin' out at Willow

Busy, busy weekend! Saturday was Farmer's Market and then the kids and I headed out for the Willow Creek Folk Festival that is held in a picturesque little churchyard in the country about 25 minutes away from here. Willow attracts a ton of amazing talent from all over and is a big thing for all the crunchy/ hippy/ liberal folk around these parts, but believe it or not, we've never been. We made a special effort this year, as my husband's brother's band had secured a timeslot to play. My husband was feeling really low with a rib injury, however, and decided to stay home and rest.

We had a WONDERFUL time. I had a few welcome but unexpected encounters, including with my parents! My parents had decided to take a little mini-vacation and stayed in a hotel in Stockton with my four youngest siblings. The sibs decided to sit out the festival in favor of swimming in the hotel pool. But my parents had a great time. It was nice to visit with them a bit. The kids ran me a bit ragged, especially at the end, when two of them disappeared into the darkness and it took a little while to find them. We enjoyed hearing my brother-in-law's band... They played a really fun cover of Folsom Prison, by Johnny Cash, an original murder ballad that my dad deemed "inappropriate for a churchyard," and a White Stripes song.

Today, we had Salome's birthday party in a local park. Nobody blinked when we served a watermelon cake. Aside from a lot of sweating and my nephew Sam's dramatic spill off of a swing, a rolicking good time was had by all.

Food from today and yesterday (* denotes local)

LOCAL WATERMELONS ARE HERE! I am so excited.

I ate a lot of watermelon* and some cukes*, tomatoes*, lettuce, peaches and a few grapes.

Chicago Saga: Part 1

Cover Art for the The Decemberists' latest album The Crane Wife

Our driving force behind our visit to Chicago was to hear The Decemberists give a free concert at Millenium Park with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Decemberists are cool, Millenium Park is cool, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is cool. Put them together, for free? And you get way too many cool people in one place. LOL!



It helps if you get there more than 10 minutes before the concert starts. We got there 10 minutes before the concert started. The seats were filled, the lawns were packed, the sidewalks were body-to-body with people on their cell phones frantically trying to locate their friends who just MUST have magical lawn seating, not that you could get to said seating without teleporting. We were also supposed to locate our friends with magical lawn seating. My husband got out his cell phone and tried calling. When he reached voice mail, he immediately went into a panic, accelerated by the fact that a large storm began to gather overhead. Sigh. I started having fun, however. The band took the stage and they sounded GREAT.



People were smiling at our children, who were remarkably blithe about being pressed body to body with crowds of hipsters. Eventually we found our friends. Their lawn seating wasn't so magical--it was on the outer lawn and the sound out there was good, rather than excellent, as it is on the inner lawn. But still, it was seating and we could hear. We ate some grapes and celery and nectarines and enjoyed the show. The Decemberists played The Tain, a rambling 25 minute song which lent itself well to the presence of the orchestra, but which also happens to be my husband's least favorite song in their catalogue. However, they redeemed themselves with a rousing version of The Mariner's Revenge. Nature joined in with several dramatic cracks of thunder and lightening. But the heavy rain held off until we were safely deposited on the train to our friend Rob's house.



If you would like to see photos and a review of the concert, check out the Chicagoist.

Next up, the family visits a cool neighborhood fruit market and tries Cousin's Incredible Vitality, a raw restaurant in Chicago.