Day one in Washington

Murray and I flew out from San Jose, CA while Peter and Paul flew from Oakland, CA. They were supposed to arrived 10 minutes before us but ended up having their flight delayed. They arrived a little more than a half hour after us. Not bad. BUT it did make me relieved that at least I had my pianist with me in case the bassist and drummer couldn't make it. (Those little details that one forgets to think about can be pretty intense if something were to go wrong.) Murray and I decided to go and pick up the rental car and then go back and pick up 'peter and Paul after they got their luggage. When we got to the rental place they wanted to give us a PT Cruiser. 4 adults and tons of luggage was NEVER going to fit in such a tiny car. I got a little upset since I had assured them that the car I had rented guaranteed me that 5 suitcases would comfortably fit in the back. The woman attending to us said, "2 big suitcases and 3 small ones!" NO, that just wasn't going to work for us!!. After asking to talk to her manager, we were able to get into a Ford Patriot which comfortably fits all of our luggage and seats 4 with lots of room--all for no extra charge. After dealing with AT&T for that past few weeks, I just really couldn't tolerate any more crap!!

So after getting the guys and checking into our hotel fro 1/2 hour, we were back on the road again to issaquah to go to Bake's Place and set up for the gig that night. What we didn't know, and to our surprise, Bake's Place is located within a gated retirement community!! It is actually a completely lovely room for jazz and particularly vocalists. Craig and Laura Baker, the owners, are wonderful people and fantastic hosts. They took particularly good care of us and made us feel very welcome within the walls of their establishment. It actually feels like a very high end house concert. The sound was great and I think we played very well that night. People are served a very nice dinner while we perform our music for them. Although the turn out was not what we had hoped for, the people that came seemed to be very happy with the music. We definitely gained a few new fans while there. The best part is that Craig wants me to come back in the fall for a two night stint at Bake's Place. That would be fantastic and I hope we can work it out so it can happen.

When we left the club it was snowing like crazy. I asked Murray to drive because I was too scared to drive in that kind of weather. It was pretty tough getting back to the hotel, but we made it in one piece. I think everyone was pleased with the evening, especially after stopping at David's Diner for a quick snack, a little alcoholic imbibing and Murray at the jukebox finding incredibly obscure music to play. It's been fun hanging out with the guys.

Day two tomorrow...