timeshift

Annabel's newest album, Timeshift, is out. It is available on iTunes, Spotify, amazon, etc. It is available all over the world. Great new songs, unique time signatures. Hope you like it!

summer memories~chicago

On the way home we stopped off to see my brothers. I love my brothers. We stayed with each of them and their families, first my little brother, next my big brother. The kids got to see their cousins. We took Shawn to visit University of Notre Dame and we also briefly visited my alma mater, Saint Mary's College. It was a great way to end of summer travels.

summer memories~pennsylvania

I love the Pennsylvania countryside. My mom is from a small Pennsylvania town, and we spent lots of time visiting our grandparents there when I was growing up. So every summer when we take Shawn to and from camp I am reminded of those happy times.

Sky stayed with my parents and Gary and I headed to pick up Shawn after five weeks of camp. We had an enjoyable road trip. We stayed a couple nights in a beautiful inn. The first full day there we went to Shawn's camp for performance day where parents come to watch what the kids have been doing. It was fun to see Shawn with so many nice kids as friends. He has met kids from all over the world at this camp.

Shawn was a CIT this year so he had less to show us. He had taught drums to younger kids, which was a great experience for him. But he did perform on high trapeze. He did a flip off of the bar and was caught by a highly trained trapeze athlete (phew). It was amazing. I have no idea where he gets that level of bravery and daredevil-ness from! I was a gymnast but I was never that brave.

That night Shawn joined us for dinner out, he was happy to eat non-camp food!!

Gary and I enjoyed the quiet countryside. We took walks, had dinner, watched a movie and really relaxed. The breakfasts at our inn were delicious, family style. Lots of fun.

We were so happy to be reunited with our sweet son, hearing about his adventures on the drive home to my parents' home. Shawn had spent five weeks with NO PHONE and NO COMPUTER. He survived! In fact he was better for it. I LOVE this camp.

summer memories~new york city

This country girl married a city boy. He loves cool cities. He planned a getaway to New York. It was soooo hot (heatwave) but we had fun. We stayed in Soho. We had great meals, went guitar shopping, walked in Central Park, saw some hilarious stand up comedy, and had amazing Jewish food from Katz's Deli.
Some interesting things fell into place organically and during a meal with friends I hatched an idea for a new career. To be continued on that...

summer memories ~ my hometown

In some ways the most simple part of our summer, staying in one place! Sky flew into town to be with us. We settled into our house trade home. We spent lots of time with my parents, hosting them for dinners, visiting them in their home, and we showed them a hilarious Jerry Seinfeld special. Gary and I went clothes shopping, Sky and I went to garage sales, I visited my grandparent's old house in the city, we rented movies from the library and watched them with my parents, and we all went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant for my birthday. I spent a special afternoon with my mom, we went out for lunch and then walked around her charming downtown.

I love my parents so much. They are the sweetest people ever. How blessed are we to have spent time with them!

summer memories~dc and philly and friends

I love the east coast of the United States and all of the history I have there. I love the trees there and the flowers that blossom in the summertime, the sound of crickets at night, eating freshly picked raspberries, and seeing fireflies. I love the architecture and old buildings. But mostly I love the people there.

After time with my sister and her family I drove back to DC and met Gary there. We went to see Amma where she was making a stop on her North American tour. We had a great time with Amma and all of our friends in that community, catching up, enjoying the delicious Indian food, meditating and being inspired by Amma. Amma was very happy to see us as she gave us one of her famous hugs.

Then we stayed with some old friends in DC for a few days and relaxed, sans any of our kids, for the first time ever. We played music, sang, went hiking in Great Falls, and shared meals.

We drove back to Philadelphia and visited one of Gary's college friends and stayed with him and his family for a couple days. It was nice to get to know them and their sweet young adult son with his epic long hair.

We surprised my sister's kids one more time, this time Uncle Gary came too. The boys loved reading a book about baseball with their uncle.

My dear childhood friend Dawn met up with me in Philadelphia. She was visiting the area for her mother's 80th birthday. I had rented a room in a beautiful house for us. Gary ended up joining us because his flight back to NY was cancelled. Dawn and I had a great visit, and we got to spend a couple days together, reconnecting after a couple years of not seeing each other. This is a friend I met when we were eleven years old! So a long friendship. I sadly bade Dawn farewell.

Then Gary and I drove back to my hometown in upstate New York and started our time there. We had arranged a house exchange with a family we had traded with several times before. When we got there, we felt immediately at home.