Author: Noel

We just arrived in Moline! Chicago was awesome I loved the art institute so much! I got a paint pallette key chain. I loved the hotel we stayed in, the James it was so bougie. The trip is going great so far. We went to an awesome game today called Escape the Room and then we went to the spy bar for lunch I had the best bean burger in the whole world and we pretended we were secret agents on a mission. Then we listened to The Endless River album by Pink Floyd in the car. The hotel we are staying in here is very nice. We watched the sun set and went salsa dancing and desert searching and ended up at TGIFriday’s! Trouble by Cage the Elephant came on the radio inside I love this song. Today was a lot of fun. Tomorrow is pretty free so we will have time to explore. We can walk along the Mississippi River here and there are beautiful parks. It’s very nice here and I’m excited for Omaha tomorrow! -Dalia

Hungarian dance camp turned out wonderfully for each of us. Dalia continued to enjoy the dance and singing classes while hanging out and becoming friends with one of the few kids her age. This year the camp had about 100 adults and 60 kids, Sophie spent much time with the younger ones solving jigsaw puzzles and collecting rocks;she also learned and performed several tunes on accordion.  Judy and I were both thrilled with the dancing and singing and grateful that our bodies survived the week😀 We had one hot muggy day and one evening  of heavy rain but otherwise were blessed with cool days perfect for strenuous (for us) exercise. Late night parties are Judy’s forte. She danced and partied til 2 most nights. I went to bed by 1 most nights, and Dalia stayed up until dawn the last night. 

We brought 4 types of artisanal cheese made by friends Jonathan and Nina (cowsoutside.com) and shared it at midnight snack one night, as we’ve done before. We got lots of appreciation for that. Other high points were the gorgeous live music sets and late night jams, berry picking and eating and hanging with friends.. Saxophone and cymbalom is my new favorite combo! 

We repacked the car and headed out Saturday by noon.

Here in Sauk Valley Camp we have busy days and nights having too much fun plus very flaky wifi. Gorgeous Photos, video and music uploads and more extensive posts will hopefully be forthcoming later points in the trip.

The music and dance has been spectacular. Cool weather continues to make the intense workouts slightly less sweaty. Tonight the teachers and 2 bands performed a concert before the dance party. My leg muscles are very tired so I am taking it easy in the hopes of dancing with gusto tomorrow and Friday. Oh no! Only two more days of camp!!! 

Making gulyas in a very large pot to be served at the late night party:

Late night free dancing to live music by Sarju and Duvo bands with various guests;

I plan to post our itinerary soon. We leave here Saturday, next stop downtown Chicago, then Moline, Omaha, and the badlands.

Best dance warmup after a late night of partying – stretching to live sax and cimbalom playing melodies from Bukovina. A bit warmer today – cool windy last few days was so pleasant! We’re all having a great time.

Leaving Garrison on the lovely day of Sophie’s graduation we fully appreciated the beauty of the Hudson Highlands.  Garrison castle (Castle Rock ) was magnificent perched amid green hills. We got stuck in traffic for a while because a truck was wedged across one of the lanes of traffic, and Noel had to get out to direct traffic in order to get by.  

The girls played ukes and sang in the car which was sweet. The 2016 Sienna minivan is very comfortable and handles well even when stuffed to the gills.

Since we got an early start we made it all the way to Csipke camp (www.csipke.org) near Brooklyn MI by 1:30am and three of us settled in for the night while Judy danced and drank brandy with her buddies.
This morning when awoke we heard a loud croaking, which turned out to be three Sandhill Cranes having their breakfast on the hillside outside our cabin.  We have a private room although the walls to our neighbors are paper thin.  After breakfast we took an energetic dance class with young couple teaching dances from the Bucovina region.

This camp is wonderful although the accommodations are somewhat basic (for example our room has no shelves, cupboards, hangers, not even a towel hook.

I’ll post more pictures soon, and hopefully have more interesting things to write once I catch up on a bit of sleep.  For now we are having a wonderful time, and glad to have safely completed the first 600-odd miles of our trip.