It’s been a minute since school ended and I haven’t done much picture-taking, but I figured I could bundle a few updates together for the back half of June and beginning of July.
Six Flags and Connecticut
We discovered there is a Six Flags in Springfield. Aaron loves Six Flags, while the rest of us are pretty much over waiting in lines for hours and/or dislike roller coasters at this point. A friend of his was available to go, so on Juneteenth we trekked the hour or so out to Springfield, dropped the boys off, and the rest of us drove down into Hartford, Connecticut to explore a food hall until it was time to pick them up.
Nature Walk
Miriam took us on a walk through the hiking trails maintained by her school. It was a fun walk with nice views, but we should have sprayed for bugs because we ended the walk picking ticks off ourselves and Luke.
Independence Day Concert
Worcester has an annual July 3rd concert by the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. They did a variety of “Americana” music, including excerpts from Hamilton, some Great American Songbook favorites, and some Copeland. Apparently it is tradition to set off fireworks at the end while playing the 1812 Overture and some Sousa marches. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good footage or photos of the fireworks because (I’m guessing due to an incorrect logistical decision) they were largely obscured by a massive tree close to us. Maybe next year they’ll change where they set them off. We also met up with some friends of mine who just moved to Worcester from Houston this past weekend. It felt nice to welcome people to the area who have a shared Texas history and were equally glad to escape the weather and terrible politics. The whole thing had a very “wholesome”, old-school, casual community feeling to it. You showed up, listened to some nice music, watched some fireworks (when not blocked by a tree), and went home – all in absolutely gorgeous mid-70’s evening weather. It turns out after years of thinking I hate summer that I actually love it. I just had to live in a place where it’s not miserable all season. They’re doing two more park concerts this month that I hope to attend – one of big-band jazz and the other of Disney favorites.
And Virginia apparently also came for a visit! Family fun! Your park symphony is very reminiscent of the concerts in Prospect Park that the Brooklyn Philharmonic does in the summer. One of the things I loved about those, other than the great music and fireworks at the end, were the fireflies. ✨ In your case why are people so far from the stage? Seems like everyone is seated very far back.
I think everyone took the sound mixing area to be the cutoff for how close up you could sit. Maybe someone was even policing it, but I doubt it. Throughout the concert lots of kids went up to the front and did cartwheels, danced, etc.