Travel report: A visit to Music City

Cathy writes:

Last week I traveled to Nashville, Tenn. for a mini-vacation with some friends. We packed in a lot of sightseeing, eating and a concert.  

My companions included ladies from West Virginia, Indiana and Minnesota. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a delicious dinner at Demo’s Restaurant downtown. From there we went to The Stage, one of Nashville’s many honky-tonks on Broadway, to see a new artist, Matt Mason, perform. Having spent much of the day traveling, we all called it a night after his show.

First thing Thursday, we took some time to walk up and down the streets of Music Row. This is the area of town where all the recording studios and music labels are located. Even though breakfast was included at our hotel, we wanted to experience a Nashville tradition, so we had a late breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. It was worth waiting in line outside the restaurant.

After that, we spent a few hours in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The current special exhibits include memorabilia from Chet Atkins and all of Taylor Swift’s costumes from her 2011 "Speak Now” world tour. The Hall is also home to plaques commemorating every artist that has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame over the years.

Next we visited the Ryman Auditorium. After a brief video of the Ryman’s history a couple of us got our picture taken on the stage as a souvenir. We were then free to explore the exhibits -- but we saw that Opry member Vince Gill was in the balcony being interviewed on camera. Naturally, we snuck up to get a closer look, and once he was done, a few of us were able to get his autograph.

Click above to see Cathy's photos. Click below to read the rest of her report.

Art, dance and shifting into summer on Cape Cod

"Waiting and Watching," acrylic on canvas

"Waiting and Watching" by Tish received an award at the opening reception of the Cape Code Art Association's exhibit, "Points of View: Artists' Interpretations of Photography." The exhibit runs through July 9 at the association's gallery in Barnstable.

Tish also is one of the artists in a group that will be exhibiting every Monday this summer on the Village Green in Dennis.

During May, Tish took a break from painting to prepare costumes for a spring ballet show by the Academy of Performing Arts, where daughter Lizzie is a dancer.

The show was called "Ballet, Broadway and Beyond" and played to a sold-out house on May 20.

"Ballet, Broadway and Beyond" cast backstage.

Assistant teaching at Academy of Performing Arts

Tish writes: "Lizzie has had a busy end of the dance and school year with finals, SAT's, performances, a photoshoot at the beach, and assistant teaching the little dancers. She is now officially a senior at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, as school ended on June 22nd.

"She will have a full summer trying to fit in a little beach time between scooping ice cream, ballet classes, assistant-teaching ballet, volunteering in the Early Childhood Program that is located at her high school and writing college essays."

Father's Day at the ballgame

Hugh and Dolores spent Father's Day weekend visiting daughter Julie and her family in New Jersey.

On Sunday, they took in a Somerset Patriots baseball game. It was great day for a ballgame, with partly-cloudy skies and mild temperatures.

The game was tied 2-2 from the third inning until the ninth. Then the Patriots capped the day with a line drive hit that scored a runner from second. That gave the home team a 3-2 victory and sent the crowd home happy.

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Julie and 250,000 other Girl Scouts fill DC Mall

Julie traveled to Washington on Saturday to take part in the Girl Scouts of America's 100th Anniversary Sing-Along on the National Mall.

Thousands of Scouts, leaders, family members and friends gathered to sing camp songs, listen to musical entertainers and celebrate their pride in Girl Scouting. Organizers estimated the crowd at 250,000.

Washington Post photo. More photos here. Story here.

Julie made the trip on a bus with Scouts and leaders from Scotch Plains and Fanwood, where she continues to volunteer although her own troop has graduated. The day was very sunny and hot, and after a while she and her leader-friends found a spot to rest in the shade.

Others cooled off in the spray from fire trucks that were brought in to provide "cooling stations."

CNN photo

Click the logo below to visit the event page, featuring more photos.

Doug, Lisa will sojourn in Virginia

Doug's job as a manager of design-build projects for Parsons Brinckerhoff has taken him to Norfolk, Va.

He's overseeing the engineering firm's work on the Midtown Tunnel Corridor Project, which will expand the Norfolk- Portsmouth Midtown Tunnel by adding a second two-lane tube, and make improvements to the Downtown Tunnel and other roadways.

Doug and Lisa have picked out an apartment in a new building in downtown Norfolk, several blocks from the Elizabeth River waterfront and adjacent to a light-rail stop. They expect to move in during July and be there anywhere from six months to a year.

Seeing pandas and more at the National Zoo

 Marie, Brian and Xander visited the giant pandas and other residents of the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park on Sunday.

Naturally, Xander immediately enlisted as a zookeeper. Here he shows his dad through the giant panda exhibit as his mom takes pictures.

They were lucky to get a good look, since the pandas are sometimes hard to see.

The National Zoo's current resident pandas are Mei Xiang (female) and Tian Tian (male). We're not sure which one this is.

Uncle John, Aunt Genevieve meet Baby Reuben

John cradles his new nephew, Reuben, born Friday to John's sister, Lindsay, and her husband, Marc. Below, Reuben meets Aunt Genevieve.

Welcome, Reuben, to our extended family!