We drove up Route 20, along Lake Erie and through acres of grape vines, to Westfield. This is big grape country, and there are some wineries, but there is also a huge Welch's factory in North East. Westfield calls itelf the "grape juice capital of the world."
We stopped for a snack at a tiny deli on a side street across from the City park. The gentleman behind the counter basically ignored us for several minutes while he continued cleaning the counters. When we finally ordered, I just got a bottle of water and figured I would eat some yogurt and fruit I had in our cooler while John enjoyed his ice cream. I went to the car to get my yogurt and we sat at a table in the sun out front. The gentleman taped a sign to the front window about not using these tables to eat food not purchased there. We ignored the sign. Then he came out and asked if we could read. So we walked across the street and sat on a bench in the park. There were no other customers while we were there which made his actions seem rather odd. Oh, well. It was too beautiful a day to get upset over a grumpy deli owner.
On to Chautauqua Institution. We're here for Week 8 of the 9-week season. The theme this week is "Music: Heart, Soul and Dollar." When we were here two years ago for a week, we stayed at a campground about 3 miles south and commuted. Staying on the grounds will be a pleasure.
A friend we met two years ago is working as an usher at the amphitheatre five nights a week. She fell in love with Chautauqua and has come back for two summers to spend the season. If you work part-time you get your gate pass and parking as part of your compensation. Hopefully, we'll get to spend some time with her this week.
At 3 p.m. we got a 45-minute pass to drive to the Ashland and unload our "stuff." Cars are discouraged on the grounds and unless you own a home with a parking place, you can only get a 45-minute pass to a specific destination. Then you park your car in the parking lot across the street and walk back on the grounds. There are shuttle buses and trams that run continuous loops through the grounds and you can wave them down for a ride.
The decision to come to Chautauqua was rather last minute and I made several phone calls before I found a room for this week. It's pretty tiny, as you can see, with a sink in the corner, twin beds and a bath down the hall (actually next door). We had to put the chair on the bed in order to get to the sink. But we won't spend much time in the room.
John and I first learned about Chautauqua from Jared Jacobsen, our church organist, and the organist/music coordinator for Chautauqua's Department of Religion. He is gone from San Diego every summer and we were curious to see what he did. Like most people who come to Chautauqua, we fell under its spell and wanted to come back. When we looked in the Program Guide for today, we saw that Jared was having a choir rehearsal at 6 p.m. and went to Lenna Hall to see if we could listen. We could and enjoyed hearing what they were rehearsing for tomorrow's 10:45 service. Anyone can sing in the choir as long as you attend two rehearsals and can read music. There were about 150 people at the rehearsal.
Tonight the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performs Bach, Beethoven, Gershwin and Rachmaninoff for the North Carolina Dance Theatre in residence with the Chautauqua Ballet Company in the amphitheatre. The amphitheatre seats about 7,000 and it was packed.
No comments:
Post a Comment