Cleveland to Denver, then
Denver to Burbank, then
Burbank to San Francisco, then
San Francisco to Honolulu

Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am Cleveland time and finally arrived in Honolulu at 6:30 pm, 18 hours later, after taking four separate flights—at least they were all on the same airline and I didn’t have to go through customs! In Denver and San Francisco, though, I only had five minutes after exiting the previous flight before having to board the next flight. Did I sleep on the plane? Absolutely not!

I did have a three-and-a-half hour layover in Burbank where my sister picked me up and together we repacked my suitcase, putting in the 1000 postcards I had printed in Burbank for my upcoming “Dueling Bach” concert plus a bunch of other small items. It was a good thing I have Premier Gold status and am allowed 70 lbs. for a single bag—otherwise I was definitely over 50 lbs.

Something that I did not anticipate seeing in Cleveland were the beautiful fall colors! Being a California girl and living in Hawaii for the last 46 years means that this was only my second experience seeing the red, yellow and orange colors of fall (the only other time was when I lived in New Jersey) so I kind of went crazy snapping pictures of colorful trees. I am so glad I came to Cleveland at the height of the fall season!

The other thing I was amazed at was that when I got home and weighed myself, I was absolutely astounded that I did not gain a single ounce on my trip, in spite of the fact that we had many lovely meals, many of which we were treated by Joan Ishibashi‘s generous friends. Did you know that Cleveland is getting a reputation for being a city for foodies?

Here are the meals I remember:

No sooner had I finished unpacking my suitcase, my project was to work on next week’s Early Music Hawaii concert in which the Baltimore Consort will present early and traditional music of Scotland. Just reading all the names of the performers and their instruments means that it is going to be an extraordinary concert.

Mary Anne Ballard treble, tenor, and  bass viols, rebec
Mark Cudek  cittern, bass viol
Larry Lipkis  tenor and bass viols, soprano recorder, crumhorn
Ronn McFarlane  lute
Mindy Rosenfeld  flutes, whistle, crumhorn
Danielle Svonavec  soprano

I’ll be hosting one of the players, so I’d better get the guest room ready. My guest will be the first to use my guest bathroom with its new shower curtain!