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Yesterday we crossed the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, crossed Iowa, gained an hour into CDT, and arrived in Omaha NE. Saw lots of corn and wind turbines. 

Last night Our dear friends Keith, Pat and my Colorado ski buddies “the bagel boys” (and spouses) feted us and helped celebrate Sophie’ 18th birthday in grand style. There was great food at Biaggi’s followed by a party at Tom and Sue’s beautiful home, complete with epic sing-along with piano, guitars and ukes. I’ll add pix to this post as soon as time permits.  Suffice it to say that the 4 of us had a grand time. I think the girls want to join our next ski trip. Thanks  so much Keith et al!!!

Happy Birthday Sophie!!!

Hi, everyone!  Relaxing by the pool and finally starting to feel like myself again after an absolutely gorgeous and wonderfully exhausting Csipke Tabor, a little annual nirvana of Hungarian friends, folk music, and folk dance near Brooklyn, Michigan.  I’m starting to get caught up on sleep and energy after having stayed up until 2-4am most nights for a week, and dancing and singing all day to boot.  Even my aching knees are almost back to normal.

The pics below are in reverse order–I’ll fix everything later from a larger screen and with an internet connection

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Chicago was great, as Noel reported.  Very fun city just to walk around in. The architecture is amazing:  such a contrast between the old buildings and the new architecture, beautiful parks, flowers, and monuments, great food, and crazy drivers and pedestrians.  (Yes, crazier than the ones in NYC.  And New York pizza is still the best.) We walked down to the beach at Lake Michigan, right in the city, which was completely weird for us.  It feels just like an ocean, with sand, birds, etc., but of course, without the stickiness of salt water. Sophie especially was blown away by the fresh water.
We stayed at the beautiful James Hotel in the middle of the city, which was quite a treat after being at camp all week.
Another highlight of our visit was the amazing and incomparable Art Institute of Chicago. I have a minor in Art History, and it was amazing seeing so many original works of art that I had studied about over 30 yrs ago.

Now we are staying in an absolutely sweet place (Stoney Creek Hotel) in Moline, and we plan to leave soon across Iowa, heading to Omaha for dining, making music, and hanging with friends tonight.  I hope there will be fireworks somewhere to start celebrating Sophie’s 18th bday (7/4).  After that, we head for the Badlands in SD!

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.

The first day of dance and singing classes were great for Judy, Dalia and me. Quite a good workout for brain and body. Dalia was thrilled how much she enjoyed it. Sophie played her accordion a bit and chose not to dance so far. Judy and I got in naps.