DC Bound...Gordon Lightfoot...

For 20 years Claude and I lived in Montgomery Village, Maryland. Claude worked in DC and we truly enjoyed our time there. After retiring, we have found 2 food items that we have not been able to replicate anywhere. One is the 'crab cake'. The very best we have ever had anywhere is at Pelican Pete's in Germantown, Maryland. The other food is the 'Milano', an Italian sandwich made at the Italian Store in Arlington, Virginia. Claude is really good at making a Milano but there is still something about getting an original one that is just sooooo good. Claude received an eMail notice about Gordon Lightfoot doing a tour. We loved his music years ago. In fact, when we did the Western Caribbean cruise in January 2007 our table mates for dinner were John & Carol Anderson. John was a TV personality of some renown in Canada. I believe he was an anchor for the evening news. John gave this career up to start his own high-end limousine service. One of his constant customers is Gordon Lightfoot. They are so close that Gordon Lightfoot attended John and Carol's wedding. But again...I digress. One of the places that Gordon Lightfoot was performing was Wolf Trap in Virginia. This is a great outdoor pavilion setting. We saw River Dance there when we lived in DC. So the lights clicked on in our heads and we thought...a trip to DC to see Gordon Lightfoot AND eat at our 2 favorite places. Tickets were purchased and this last weekend we made our little get-away trip. The concert was just great. It was just Gordon Lightfoot and his 4 person band (a keyboard, a bass guitar, drums/percussion & a lead guitar). Gordon just sang to us for 2 hours. He is older and has had some VERY bad health over the last few years. He is very, very thin but he still sings a wonderful song. His music has a 'songs of the open sea' kind of quality to it. He sang my favorite, "Sundown", before his break. This evening was just mellow and totally relaxing and enjoyable. A gentle Virginia evening breeze blew across while we listened and sometimes sang along. It was a great way to spend and evening. As usual we tried to find some places along our journey that we have never seen before. The next few blog entries will show you some of these sites and tell of our experiences at each.