We spent the last few days up in Chicago for the Dave Matthews Band Caravan and had a great time. Taking Trey to his first real concert experience was overall a very positive experience. As we expected he didn’t make it all the way until the end of the show any of the days, though we didn’t leave until the encore break on Friday night. He actually slept through the entire DMB set that night. Traffic ended up being terrible even after leaving early, so each night after that Kim took Trey back to the hotel earlier to avoid the traffic. My friends had arranged for limo bus transportation back downtown and I took advantage of that those two nights.

Family Photo

The music was a really great lineup. Big surprises of the weekend for me included Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Ben Folds, and Mariachi El Bronx. I figured Ben Folds was going to be good, but I forgot just how many great songs he has in his catalog. The other two big surprises came from my friends’ suggestions and they were awesome performances. The only real let down for me was the Flaming Lips playing The Dark Side of the Moon, which I thought was going to be really good but was just really weird instead.

Chillin' On Day 2

Another disappointment for me came from the site that was selected for the show. “Lakeside,” as they have called it, is really just the site of a former steel mill that was shut down in 1992. Since that time it has sat vacant with most of the buildings removed but not all the bricks, stones, and other artifacts that were left behind. In front of each stage was a large mulched area, but getting between stages could be a little troublesome, even with our super three-wheeled jogging stroller. This can’t compare to the large green lawns I’ve sat on at other festivals. Besides the ground of the grounds, the traffic nightmare from Friday night was the worst I have ever seen. We sat in the parking lot for well over an hour before moving from our row of cars and this was before the show was even completely over.

Trey Making Friends

Not everything was poorly organized though. The food stands were actually much better than the average carnival food. Also I appreciated having around a dozen craft breweries on site for purchase. Free water was available if you had your own containers, but not enough booths were there. One of my friends waited over an hour. We brought in our own disposable bottles,which I wouldn’t have done if water was easier to get. With all of that said, some issues are to be expected from a first time festival, and I hope that if they do this again that other changes will be made. We still had a great time and would consider it again in the future.

Ready For DMB

These photos all came from friends’ phones. I have more photos from our own camera, so I’ll get those posted later this week.

For the first time since I moved away from Cincinnati in 2003, I played hockey with my good friends Ken and Jon last night. I played hockey with them both while in high school and both of them were in my wedding party. They are playing a summer session of adult hockey with a team at the Northland Ice Center. I probably would have joined them for the entire session but my hockey equipment was trapped in storage somewhere waiting for our move-in day at our new house. Once our boxes were all unpacked, I told them I was ready to play. Their team had a game last night and needed substitutes, so I dusted off my equipment and found the old rink.

Nothing much has change at Northland, the first rink I played at in Cincinnati. Though the glass on top of the boards has been replaced as needed, the same old benches are still in the lobby, and the concessions looked the same as ten years ago. They do have some newer locker rooms, though I think those were completed before I left town years ago. The rink was really warm and the ice was really soft, which I am not a fan of. Regardless I had a blast playing hockey with my old friends once again.  We tried to play on a line together and succeeded for most of the game. All three of us had a goal in our 4-1 victory. The playoffs start next week and I believe I will be back on the ice with them!

To celebrate the Fourth Of July, and to show of our new house, we invited our families over for some appetizers and drinks before moving up to the nearby Ault Park to catch the fireworks. Even though we still have some boxes lying around, by Monday we had a majority of the rooms in our new house setup and looking somewhat presentable. My mom snapped some pictures of the party, though they are mostly just pictures of Trey. She must have really missed our little man while on vacation all of last week.

The fireworks in Ault Park were a nice ending to a really busy weekend. I didn’t get any pictures of my own, but aultparksunrise.com has some excellent shots from the evening.

Last weekend my wife and I stopped at Findlay Market, my first time through Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market. We arrived around 11 in the morning and walked through a mostly deserted market, which I think is a rarity here. We bought some turkey from Silverglades and some sausages from Kroeger & Sons, but the real winner from our shopping was the waffle I had from Taste of Belgium.

Liège Waffle

I ordered the waffle topped with strawberries and whipped cream, but the sweet waffle doesn’t need to be topped with anything. The waffle is a Liège waffle, named after a city in Belgium where it was invented. This style of waffle uses a special sugar in the dough that caramelizes on the outside when baked. The flavor of the waffle from Taste of Belgium is very close to that from The Liege Waffle Factory that was available in our grocers freezer in Denver. Having a freshly made waffle of this style was glorious and I will definitely be back for more.

After an unsuccessful closing on Wednesday night, we finally closed on our new house last night! Kim is at the house now as the movers are taking all of our stuff inside. I cannot wait to get settled in.

Below is a photo that Kim took during our final walk-through of the house.

Additional photos from the listing website can be viewed below. I will try to update my blog as we finish furnishing the rooms with our own stuff.