Craig's Blog of Destiny

The Venues continued

In the morning we traded my work-related rental car for our personal non-work rental car and started out towards Walnut Creek, where we would be staying at an Embassy Suites and again treated like a king and queen.  Less than 15 minutes after picking up the car we got rear-ended on the freeway.  We felt real bad for the girl that hit us (traffic slowed down real fast, I got slowed without hitting anything, but she didn’t), as our car only had some scratches, but the front of her car looked pretty bad.  We waited for the policeman, got off the freeway, gave our statements and then were on our way again.  It was one of those things that did inconvenience us a little, but could have been so much worse that we actually were grateful for the experience.

After we got to Walnut Creek, and checked in, we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) across the bay to the city.  Our hotel was right across the street from the BART station, so it was very convenient.  Of course, I took the opportunity to nap as the BART went under the water, only waking up in time to unload at Market Street.  From there we walked down to the wharf area (a little further walk than we had anticipated) shopped for some socks and food before getting great sundaes at Ghirardelli Square.  We then strolled through a few art galleries and hopped on the trolley back down to Market Street to catch the BART back to the hotel.

The next morning, despite my intentions to the contrary, I got a little bogged down with work, so we ended up having lunch in Walnut Creek, then heading directly out to the concert site, the Sleep Train Amphitheater in Concord.  We got there a little early, and so were at the gate when they opened it.  We were again going to be watching from the lawn, however we where early enough that we got space right at the front of the lawn, with only the walkway in front of and quite a bit below us.  Also, they had roped off what they called a “Family Area” where there was no smoking or drinking.  As it turned out it was a great place to watch the show from and I vowed to try to sit in those type areas anytime I was going to be on the lawn.

The next day we made the drive up to Sacramento, fighting traffic getting out of Walnut Creek, then I got to take Kris to my pick for a great lunch:  Pei Wei, the new chain from PF Changs.  We ate way too much food, then headed north to the concert venue for the evening in Marysville.  Here’s a picture of me at the concert during the break:  note the lack of people in front of me.  Kristin had entered a contest on the Rush website and had won front row seats for the show in Marysville!  Front row, center.  Way cool.  I had never been that close, and it was great!  Instead of watching a band playing on a stage, it was very much just three guys making some music.  We really enjoyed being that close to them, for my part pretty much watching Geddy the whole time.  Kris noticed and pointed out that Geddy seemed to play much more to the audience as a whole, while Alex seemed to pick out individuals at the front and play to them.  Neil just stays in his own world banging away on things.  Being front and center was definitely the highlight of the tour for me this time!

The next morning Kris and I went separate ways from the Sacramento airport, she heading back home and to the kids, while I went over to Salt Lake City for some work Monday morning and the Rush show there Monday night.  Turned out that the venue in Salt Lake, the Usana Amphitheater, was only a short walk from Heather and Christopher’s house!  So David, Michael and I met up there and walked to the show.  I made sure we got there plenty early so that we could get those great seats right at the front of the lawn.  The crowd in SLC was a little strange, not as loud or demonstrably appreciative, but standing, the whole place standing, the entire show.  It was great to be there with David and Michael and have the opportunity to expose them to some really good music.

I have to mention that at the SLC show the music being played before the show started threw me for a loop.  About three songs before Rush came on, there was a keyboard (think organs!) and string rendition of 2112!  I would not have believed it if I hadn’t been there, it was one of the strangest things I’d ever heard.

Kris asked me a couple of times during the two week run if I’d seen enough yet, and every time I had to answer no, I haven’t.  That prompted some thought, though, and in all sincerity I believe I could easily go a month without missing one of their shows and still not have had enough.