...With the Sound of Music. I had such a wonderful day yesterday! Mischa and I went up to Sundance, one of our favorite hiking places in Utah. Instead of hiking above Sundance along the ridge to the waterfall, we followed the bike trail that switchbacked all the way up the mountain under the chair lift. It was a beautiful hike with snowy mountains in the background, wild flowers at our feet, aspens and pine trees to walk under and no poisonous plants to infect the baby. It was the hottest day of the summer, yet Mischa was a trooper and didn't asked to be picked up once. I just love it up there and I am making the commitment to ride there at least once this season!
After that, I grabbed my favorite bottle of wine (Fetzer- Gewurztraminer), bought a childs size lawn chair, cheese, crackers, fruit and a twinkie and headed over to Deer Valley for their annual summer music festival to watch the von Trapp Children Singers! The three granddaughters and one grandson of Curt, the youngest von Trapp who in the movie says, "I'm Curt and I'm incorrigible," came to Deer Valley to sing the music from the movie, The Sound of Music accompanied by the Utah Symphony.
I have always loved the movie and when I was in Austria, I went to Salzburg and went on the Sound of Music tour and saw the real house, the gazebo and the famous trees. The kids (ages 16-23) said that their dresses were actually ones worn by Maria, and no, they were not made out of curtains!
The whole show was kind of a hodge podge of different music, not all from the movie. My favorite song that they sang outside of the soundtrack was a traditional Austrian song that the original von Trapp family sang during their 20 years of touring and singing once they escaped Austria. The whole family ended up in Vermont and Curt moved his family to Montana later on.
I still love the song Edelweiss from the movie, which pictured above, is the national flower of Austria. The importance of the flower is that it only grows at or above 9,500 feet in elevation and only in limestone. The Austrian tradition is that when a man loves a woman, he will profess his love to her by braving the elements and elevation to retrieve an edelweiss flower for her. Many do not live through the journey and those that return are guaranteed their lovers hand. The von Trapps sang; Edelweiss, The Hills Are Alive, My Favorite Things, Do- Re-Mi and upon their exit, So Long, Farewell. I absolutely loved sitting out there, watching the sun set on the mountains, listening to the beautiful symphony and ending under a clear sky with millions of stars. I hated to leave! But....
I was able to catch the last showing of the night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Part 2. It is actually over. There are no more Harry movies or books!!! (Unless J.K. Rowling listens to her devoted readers and writes about Albus Severus Potter and the other children of Ron and Hermione and Harry and Jenny! We can only hope! It has been quite a journey for me and Harry. I got on the Harry bandwagon very late, but still loved it nonetheless. I will never forget making a promise to myself that when I graduated with my Bachelor's that I would reward myself that summer with the first book in the Harry Potter series! For the past five years I had been unable to read for fun because double majoring takes up too much of my reading time! So, being able to read for fun was a BIG deal! I am thrilled that I chose Harry, upon Spjute's recommendation and prodding! It's been 6 years and I could read that series over and over again and I am sure that in my lifetime I will read the whole series again.
