Take Abbey Road to Harris Pavilion

Last night we went to the last dance offered by the Harris Pavilion this year. We haven't been able to go to many of the dances offered this summer by the Harris Pavilion. We like going because they usually book some great bands and it's free. The band last night was Abbey Road. They play a lot of the Beatles' music and really put on a good show.

Abbey Road plays a good selection of songs that let us practice different dances. We got to dance the Rhumba, Cha-Cha, and of course Swing. There was a good turnout at the dance. We saw some people we knew from various dance venues, including Kathy and Randy.

The Lake that Wasn't There

We had a very busy day yesterday. Since it was almost all about dancing, it was all good. We had breakfast on the patio. This is the same area that the Houseman's had breakfast when Baby's father told them they were going home early. We had a great view of the front lawn and where the lake used to be. The weather has been very good this year. It was mostly sunny and warm during the day and cooled off nicely in the evening.

Later in the morning, we went on the tour of the grounds. I think that there were more people taking the tour this year than last. We went from the front of the hotel to the cabin where Baby's family stayed. Then we went to the gazebo where several scenes were shot. Who can forget the one where Baby told off her father. After that went back to the hotel to go through the dining room and out to the kitchen. Everyone had to get their picture taken in the same spot where Baby found Penny crying. At the rear of the hotel the chef told us some of his stories from when the movie was made. He had worked at Mountain Lake that year. He told us about the time he gave Patrick "Buddy" Swayze a ride down the mountain on his motorcycle one night.


After the tour we proceeded directly to the Activities Barn for the Dirty Dancing Trivia Contest. I am happy to report that we were at the winning table the second year in a row. The contest is a group effort. It is very similar to BINGO, but called DANCE. The emcee called out a number and a letter then give a question about the movie. We would write the answer in a block on the answer sheet. We had one row almost filled when they asked what song was playing when Baby and Johnny were dancing on the log. It had us all stumped for a while. Kathy and Randy came to our rescue when they remembered "Hey Baby" by Bruce Channel for the win.

After lunch we went with Sharon and Paul to see what was left of the lake. The tour guide earlier told us that the reason the lake had all but disappeared was that they haven't had any snow for the past 5-6 years. So the boat dock was high and dry. The sign with the Rules of the Water looked kind of out of place since there was no water.


Later in the afternoon we headed back to the Activities Barn for some group dance lessons. A group of instructors from the Sapphire Ballroom and Dance Center gave lessons on meringue, foxtrot, and mambo. It's always good to review the basics. I picked up a new step in the meringue and a pointer on technique in the mambo. And it is always fun to dance.

After dinner we were back in the Activities Barn for the show and more dancing. We got there early to get a good table. We managed to get our lucky table from the trivia game. The DJ was warming up so we took advantage of the empty floor to get warmed up ourselves. The show started at 8:30 with the group from the Sapphire dancing selections from the movie. Like the show last year it was choreographed and executed very well. At the conclusion of the show the DJ cranked it up again and we danced until they shut down at 11:00.

After such a busy, but enjoyable day we slept like logs. We went down fairly early for breakfast and met Kathy and Randy going into the dining room. So we had a nice breakfast together again on the patio.

We made good time driving home. We took the Interstate to Charlottesville then went up Route 29. The weather was pretty much perfect as it had been all weekend.

Good accommodations, good friends, and good dancing. We truly had "the time of our lives."

Dirty Dancing at Mountain Lake 2

We enjoyed our "Dirty Dancing" weekend at the Mountain Lake Hotel so much last year that we decided to do it again. We had spoken about our plans to some of our friends that also dance and we ended up a group of us here. With us this weekend are Kathy and Randy, Sharon and Paul, along with Joy and Tony. It's great to be able to share good times.

We left home fairly early and took the scenic route down Route 29. We made a stop at the Burnley Winery. We hadn't been there for several years, but always remember their Spicy Rivanna as one of our favorite wines. The weather was good although we did get a little rain along the way.

We checked into the hotel about 4:00. Everyone had arrived by dinner time. We were seated next to a picture window and were treated with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains complete with a rainbow. There was a bird feeder on the lawn outside the window and several pretty yellow birds who must have had dinner reservations the same time as us.

The dancing began at 8:00 in the Activities Barn. The hotel had put in a new wooden floor since last year. There was a DJ who played all the favorites from the movie along with a good mix of other music. Everyone was having a such a good time that the DJ went over the allotted time so we danced until 11:00.

We slept real well last night.

Redskins Fever

I know this has little to do with dancing except the occasional touchdown dance in the end zone. But, we finally came up to the top of the list for Redskins season tickets. We have been on the list for 7 years. When we put our names on the list we were somewhere around number 122,000. As you can see in the photo above, we are in the "nosebleed" section near the top behind one of the goal posts. Our seats are way up there but we can see everything.

We went to our first game yesterday complete with a tailgate party beforehand. We've both signed up on the Redskins Fan site. Members of the site were invited to party in the parking lot. We drove up to Springfield to catch the Metro. We went from one end of the Blue Line to the other which took about an hour and 20 minutes. It is about a mile from the Morgan Boulevard Metro stop to FEDEX field. Then we wandered around the parking lot for a while before we found the section where the ExtremeSkins were having the party.

It was a good party and we were made welcome even though we were newcomers. There was a lot of food and plenty to drink.

Best of all we got to see the Redskins beat the Bills 17 to 14. The biggest HD television in the world can't match being in the stands to see the action.