Another Week of Dancing

We started on Monday with our lesson at Studio One. We spent most of the hour reviewing a figure called Spot Turn with Under Arm Turn in Waltz. It's one that we thought we had but parts of it kept escaping. As we go through the syllabus, the steps get more complicated and take more floorspace to execute. Besides that, I have a mind like a steel sieve. We could tell that something was going wrong because after doing this figure we'd be off the beat. Richard quickly diagnosed the problem and we worked on correcting it. Then we spent a little time on a Rhumba step that Richard introduced us to recently; the Open Cross Over. This one is eight measures long and uses advanced timing. We've seen advanced timing in Rhumba before. However, on this figure the advanced timing doesn't start until measure 4.

Tuesday, Doris joined the Elks Lodge. I had never realized that Elks were party animals. We have a whole new calendar of dances to attend.

Wednesday, we have a standing date at the Officer's Club on Ft Belvoir. We always reserve a table for 4 in case someone we know can make it. This week we dined and danced with Joy and Tony. It was one of those times when you look at your watch at the end of the evening and wonder where the time went.

Thursday, we practiced in our living room. A couple of years ago we got rid of the furniture and had the floor refinished so we could have room to dance. The room is much more functional now. We use it a lot more as a dance studio than we ever did as a living room.

Last night we went to the Dance Party at Studio One. Most of the regulars were there. We had more ladies than gentlemen but we swap around so that everyone gets to dance. Dancing with other partners really helps me improve my leads. I can cheat with Doris because she can read my mind.

We may go down to Strictly Ballroom tonight. They have a 70's Disco Party and a group lesson on the Hustle. I haven't worn my leisure suit in a while. It's hard to dance in those platform shoes.

We are torn about what to do on Sunday. We can either watch the Redskins beat Dallas on TV or tape the game and go to the practice at the Dale City Recreation Center.

Another Win

We got to see the Redskins win against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The Redskins pulled out a win even though we were robbed of a touchdown because of a penalty for "unnecessary roughness". I thought that unnecessary roughness was the whole point of football.

Going to the game is an all day affair. We drive up to the Springfield Metro station to catch the Blue Line. We stay on the same train through the Virginia suburbs, across DC and into Maryland. The Metro ride last about an hour and twenty minutes. Then we hike up to FEDEX Field and across the parking lot to the Extreme Skins tailgate party. Total trip time is about 2 hours. It's worth it to see the Redskins win. The tailgate party is a lot of fun too. There is usually a good crowd even at the pre-season games.

Chief Zee usually shows up at the tailgate party. He's a big time fan and we've seen him at the games several times. We were glad to hear that his tomahawk was returned.

Weekend Dancing

We started our weekend dancing at Studio One. I can't think of a better way to make a clean break between the work week and the weekend than going dancing. Studio One has a practice dance every Friday night from 9:00 to 11:00. There was a pretty good crowd this week. This was the Friday we celebrated birthdays for September. Studio One is a good place for singles to dance. Richard encourages swapping partners (on the dance floor). This way the gentleman gets to practice his leading skills with dancers other than his regular partner. The other benefit is that when someone attends without a partner, they still get in some dancing.

Last night we attended a Ball for the Elks' Auxiliary at the Elks Arlington-Fairfax lodge. We had recently been invited to join the lodge and this was our first social function there. There were cocktails at 6:00 followed by dinner at 7:00. After a short program the dancing started around 8:00. We danced to the music of the Joe Shelko band. We have heard them before and they play very well. We saw a lot of familiar faces at the dance from both the Officer's Club at Ft. Belvoir and the Regal Dinner and Dance Club. We had to leave at 11:00 so we could get up early for the Redskins game today.

First Regular Season Game

We had a good time on Sunday, even if we didn't go dancing. We went to the Redskin's first regular season game. It really is a lot more fun when your team actually wins. We got to watch the winning touchdown come into the end zone right below our seats, too. So, the Skins beat the Saints 29 to 24, pulling it out during the last quarter.

Part of the fun in going to the game is the tailgate party. We take the Metro to the game, so we can't take much in the way of refreshments. However, the walk to the stadium helps work up an appetite. This game the big attraction was a hot dog eating contest. The picture shows the action, fast and furious. The winner got 12 dogs down in the time limit. He did pretty good, he even kept them down.

Unsolicited Advice

I don't like getting unsolicited advice, so I have a rule that I never give any. However, since rules are made to be broken, here is some unsolicited advice to anyone considering taking ballroom dance lessons.

The first piece of advice is to figure out why you want to learn to dance. Is someone you care about getting married and you want to do more than the "high school shuffle" at the happy event? Are you looking for a hobby that helps you stay fit and is a lot more fun than calisthenics? We just wanted to be credible when we went somewhere there was dancing. We started dance lessons because my wife had always been interested in learning ballroom dance but the opportunity never really presented itself. She tried to find a studio to take lessons when she was a kid, but there just weren't any ballroom studios in Boise, Idaho during the 70's. She was looking through the catalog from the County Recreation Center a few years ago and saw that they offered ballroom dance lessons on a night we weren't doing anything anyway and they were relatively inexpensive. She wanted to go and I couldn't think of a real good argument for not going, so she signed us up. These were group classes that were held once a week at the local recreation center.

My second piece of advice is to look around for the studio and instructor that fits you. We started with group classes to learn the basics, but after a while we felt that we needed more individual attention to get to the level of proficiency that we wanted. We wanted to add to dance steps we had already learned so we found a studio that did both group and private lessons. We would go to the group lessons to pick up new steps and work with our instructor to polish what we had learned. This did build up the number of dance steps we knew rather quickly. We left that studio because of traffic and rising gas prices. One night we were scheduled to go to a group class and traffic was so bad we arrived just in time for the class to be over. We went looking for a studio that was closer to home and easier to get to. We found the studio where we currently take lessons. Our instructor is very patient and has a lot of experience both with dancing and with instructing. This is something else we have found when we have taken lessons from different instructors. Just because someone knows how to dance, doesn't mean they know how to teach. Our instructor has seen all of the mistakes that we make many times before. He is adept at being able to explain what we are doing wrong. If he sees that we just aren't getting it, he tells us in another way. If you are looking around you will find dancers who try to teach and less often dancers who can teach. It is pretty rare to find a teacher who is an expert dancer and can break down the steps in a variety of ways depending on how the student learns.

The third piece of unsolicited advice is to practice. Early on we could tell the couples who took the lesson and didn't practice the whole week until the next class. They would take up time in the class going over the last lesson. If you're spending money and time taking lessons, don't waste it by not practicing. We take our lessons on Monday night. We generally practice on Tuesday, go out dancing on Wednesday, practice on Thursday, go out dancing on Friday and Saturday night, then go to a practice session at the Recreation Center on Sunday afternoon. OK, so we tend to go overboard. Some people go to the gym; we go dancing. It gets worse. So that we had enough room at home to practice we got rid of all the furniture in the living room, tore up the carpet and refinished the floor. When we started we used to practice on the deck, much to the amusement of the neighbors.

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.

Double Header

Friday night we did a double header. We went first to the Officer's Club on Ft Belvoir to enjoy their seafood buffet and music by Special Delivery. We were seated at a table close to the dance floor so we didn't have to go far when some good dancing music was played. After that we went to Studio One for the Friday night practice. There's always a good selection of dance music there. We were also treated to an exhibition of the samba routine that Laurie and Richard have put together for the showcase a Lioudmila's this weekend.

We slept well Friday night after dancing for the better part of 4 hours.

Adios Argentina

We are home safe and sound. It kind of feels like the day after Christmas when you wake up to an empty tree. All the anticipation is over. We got on the plane about 9:00 yesterday evening and got into Dulles about 7:00 this morning. A very long flight.

We spent the morning of our last day packing. We went out to lunch and decided to go back for one more pair of shoes. They already have our measurements so we only had to pick out the type of leather and color. They will be ready on the 10th of July and will be shipped to us. We met a nice couple from Boston who were in Buenos Aires on a 3 week shoe shopping holiday. They gave me a lead on another cobbler who made custom shoes.

I'm really glad that I kept up this blog as a remembrance of our first trip to Argentina. It only covers a portion of the things we did. We kept so busy that there wasn't time to cover more than the highlights. We really enjoyed staying at Lina's Tango Guesthouse. Lina made us feel at home. We've already decided that we'll be going back. We are looking forward to staying with Lina again.

New Shoes

We picked up our tango shoes yesterday. Doris had 4 pair made and I only had 2 pair. We tried them on and they fit well and looked great. After getting our shoes we got some lunch and went back downtown on the subway. There were some sites where we wanted to get more pictures. We came back to the hotel to say goodbye to Magda. She went back to Montreal yesterday.

We took the subway downtown to go to a tango practica or practice session later in the afternoon. This was our first experience with the subway during rush hour. Lots and lots of people use the subway here and they sure can pack them into the car. The real bad part was that we never did find the right address for the practica. When we got back Lina told us of another restaurant to try. We went to the Cafe San Juan and had the best meal of our stay. They do cook some good steaks here.

Another Tango Show

We had another Tai Chi lesson yesterday followed by tour last Tango lesson with Pablo. We really got a lot out of our lessons with Pablo working on the milonga style of Argentine Tango.

In the afternoon, we took the subway up to the Plaza San Martin and took a stroll along the Calle de Florida. We are happy to report that capitalism is alive and well in Argentina. There are many high end stores and, of course, 3 or 4 McDonalds.

Later in the evening we enjoyed another Tango show. This was the El Querandi restaurant that featured a tango show that goes through the development of tango from its beginnings in the brothels of La Boca to its modern form.

City Tour

We took a tour of the city Monday. Our guide was Regula the wife of Pablo, our tango instructor. It was great to take a tour with someone who was very knowledgeable of prominent sites and their history.

We began the tour by taking a city bus to Plaza de Mayo. The plaza is the historic core of the city and is the political heart of Argentina. It is bordered by government and public buildings including the Casa Rosada, the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Cabildo, which was the original seat of the city government. The Plaza de Mayo serves as a forum for demonstrations and protests. We saw parts of a demonstration last Wednesday. We were eating lunch in a local restaurant and saw crowds of people waving Argentinian flags and banging on drums as they marched toward Plaza de Mayo.

Following the Plaza de Mayo we went by taxi to the Cementario de la Recoleta. This is a unique cemetery that is like a city with small ornate houses and very quiet neighbors. There are about 4,800 vaults including those of many prominent figures of Argentine history such as Evita Peron.

After wandering Recoleta, we took another taxi around an area of the city known as Palermo Chico. There are many large mansions here that date from the end of the 19th century. Several of these are now foreign embassies.

We continued in the taxi to the Retiro Train Station. This station was built by British engineers at the end of the 19th century. It is quite impressive and still servers as a major commuter terminal coming into the city center.

We then went to Puerto Medero which is being developed into a commercial center. This was the major port for Buenos Aires until it proved too small to handle the large modern container ships. It was abandoned for several decades and is now enjoying a revival with many shops, hotels and office buildings being built.

We ended our tour at the La Boca district. La Boca was the main point of entry for immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Since there are no stones native to Buenos Aires immigrant houses were generally built of corrugated metal. Some of the original houses remain. Part of La Boca, El Caminito, has been developed into a tourist center with brightly colored shops along a pedestrian walkway.

Go To Market

It was “go to market“ day yesterday. We went back to the San Telmo Market first. We thought we had covered it pretty well last weekend. But, we discovered that we had missed a lot of it. We´d seen the covered part which is open every day of the week. It is like a flea market complete with butcher shop and fruit stands. Last Sunday we had also gone to Plaza Dorrega and surrounding streets. There were a lot of handcrafted items and antiques.

Yesterday we found that the Plaza Dorrega is only one end of the market. There is a street called Defensa that borders Plaza Dorrega. We followed Defensa for block after block of handcrafted items, antiques and specialty stores.

Lina had told us of another street fair to go to in the Plaza Lisandro de la Torre. This one is across town in the Matederos district and took us 20 minutes by taxi to get there. This area seemed to be less frequented by tourists and catered more to the local population. There were a lot of handcrafted items related to the Pampas and gauchos. There was also live music with traditional dancing. We spent quite a while there watching the dancing and wandering the market.

Tigre Delta

About 20 miles northeast of Buenos Aires is the Tigre River Delta. The delta is formed by the confluence of 5 rivers, where they flow from the Pampas to the Rio de la Plata. This marshy complex is full of silt and hundreds of tiny islands and is continuing to grow down the Rio de la Plata toward Buenos Aires. The Tigre Delta began development into a resort area in the 1870`s when the railroads were built.

Lina has a small house on one of the islands. She took us on a day trip for a picnic there yesterday. We took Lina`s car and a taxi to where she hires a boat to take her out to the island. We had to take the second vehicle as we had Magda and two new guests that had arrived yesterday. The new guests are friends and one lives in Brooklyn and the other on the Big Island of Hawaii. We stopped along the way to pick up a picnic lunch; a roast chicken, salad, and papas fritas (french fries).

We got on the boat and motored out to the island where Lina has her house. Many of the islands we passed had houses on them. We unloaded the boat and set up a table and chairs in the front yard. There were a couple of dogs who live on the island who joined us for lunch. They were pretty well mannered but eager to see what we brought to eat. We had a relaxing picnic with nice conversation and good food.

On the way back to Buenos Aires we stopped at a Panaderia that sold wonderful baked goods and coffee. The coffee here is very good. They serve it strong and very hot. We usually order cafe con leche (coffee with milk). This is about half coffee and half milk and tones the coffee down to what we are more used to. We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon. We had a few hours to rest before we went out dancing.

Club de Tango

Doris had her first belly dance lesson yesterday. She got to do this one on her own. I have a bad back and the wrong gender to make some of those moves. Right after her lesson we had our third tango lesson with Pablo. We are not learning new steps from Pablo. He is working on basics and style with us.

In the afternoon we went with another guest to lunch. Magda is a student from Montreal taking a break before returning to work on her Masters in Anthropology. While we were eating lunch she mentioned that Lina had told her of a good place to buy tango music. Music is one of the things we wanted to get while we are here, so we asked if we could come along.

We weren't sure what to expect, but this was definitely not a Sam Goody. We took the subway to the downtown district. There were a lot of shops and many of them music related. We assumed that this shop would be a store front on the street.

Club de Tango is located in an office building on the 5th floor. We rang the bell on the office door and the lady that runs Club de Tango let us into a small office suite with 2 rooms. They must publish a periodic magazine as there were bundles of magazines stacked on shelves in the first room. There were also a display rack of tango records. These included 45's, LPs, and even Victrola records. Any other available space was covered with reproductions of tango sheet music covers.

We went through to the second room where the walls were covered with racks of CDs. I had no idea that there were so many artists playing tango. There were also books in a variety of languages about tango and DVDs of instruction and shows. We were fortunate that we were with Magda. She had been making a list of artists and songs that she heard on the radio that she liked. We followed her recommendations and purchased several CDs of tango music.

Subway Travel

We had a rainy day yesterday. Generally, the weather has been fair and cool in the 50´s and 60´s. The first day of winter is tomorrow. We thought it was a good day to try the subway. There is a station just 2 blocks from the hotel. We took the subway down to a shopping mall. The Abesto Mall would be very familiar to anyone who has been to Springfield or Tysons Corners Mall. This mall is in the same area of town where we went to the tango show on Saturday. In the area around the mall are many shops that cater to the tango trade. Doris even got another pair of tango shoes.

The subway has 7 different lines, color coded like the Metro in DC. They radiate out from the government center. Tickets are purchased from a person not a machine as in DC. This is a definite improvement from the fare card machines we are subjected to. One other difference is that here you pay to get on the subway. On the Metro you pay to get off. The fare for both of us was under $3 pesos or under $1 US. We got a farecard that is fed into the turnstile like on the Metro. The car we were on looked more worn that the DC Metro. Lina told us that parts of the subway here date back from the early 1900´s. Some of those cars are still in use. We rode in one of those cars. It looked odd to have wooden paneling in a subway car. It´s like going back in time.

The cars were crowded, even midday on a Thursday. With the narrow one way streets and busy traffic in Buenos Aires, I can see that taking the subway is probably the best way to get around.

International Finance

We had our second tango lesson with Pablo yesterday. We went out to lunch and back to the bank again later. Going to the bank didn´t take as long this time. We practiced our dancing later and went to a milonga in the evening. Lina invited her guests to have dinner with family and friends after the milonga. We had an excellent meal, a lot of great wine and an evening of interesting conversation.

We´ve learned a little bit about international finance on this trip. Before leaving we made sure we knew the PIN for our credit card. It´s also a good idea to check what extra charges the credit card company will impose for the exchange rate and what network they are on. We also notified the credit card company that we would be traveling. It wouldn´t be nice to have a card turned off this far from home.

We bought a little amount of pesos before we left for Argentina. We wanted enough for the taxi from the airport and anything that might come up before we could get to a bank. We were glad that we didn´t get a lot because the exchange rate is more favorable here. Credit cards are commonly used but it is good to have some cash.

So, we had some dollars that we wanted to exchange for Argentine pesos. Monday was a national holiday here so we had to wait until Tuesday for the bank to open. We don´t have a car here so we are getting around by shoe leather. The first bank we went to didn´t exchange money. They sent us down the street to another bank. At this bank there were several lines. We couldn´t tell which one we needed to be in. I stood in line and Doris went to see if it was the correct line. It wasn´t. We moved to the right line and when our turn came around we talked to a nice young lady who didn´t speak English. Since our Spanish is very poor, this presented a little challenge. We found out that we needed our passports to exchange money. We had photocopies of our passports, but that wouldn´t do. We walked back to the hotel to collect our passports and returned to the bank. While I got back into line again Doris went to try the ATM. The first credit card she tried didn´t have any indication which network to use. There were several options. Some obviously wouldn´t work for us like one named Uruguay. The first network she chose didn´t work. The instructions were in Spanish and seemed to lead her around in a circle that either came back to the start or spit her card back out at her with no money. She pulled out her backup credit card. It did say which network to use, so that one worked.

While Doris was going through this, I got through the line to speak to the nice young lady again. She entered some information from my passport into her computer and sent me to an even longer line. Doris soon joined me after winning at least a partial victory in her skirmish with the ATM. We finally got through the line, got our pesos, and were able to go get some lunch. Things would go so much easier if we could remember some of the Conversational Spanish class that we took.

Buying Tango Shoes

Yesterday was a busy day. We had a Tai Chi lesson in the morning. Then we had to go to the bank to exchange some dollars for pesos. This took a lot longer than we expected. After a late lunch, we went shopping for shoes. In the evening we had a light dinner and went with Lina and Wendy from South Africa, to a club called Jazz&Pop. Lina�s boyfriend was playing Argentine folk music that night. We went with Lina, Raul, and Wendy for drinks afterward.

We figured that the perfect souvenir from our trip would be to get some tango shoes from Buenos Aires. Lina sent us to a place where the shoes are custom made. We have very little Spanish. The salesgirl had very little English. There was a wide selection of options for the design of the shoes. It will be interesting to see what our shoes actually look like when they are ready.

We went into the store. It was a small shop with a small display of some shoes and a selection of ready made shoes. There was also a desk for the salesgirl and a bench for the clientele. First we were shown a book with photographs of various styles of shoes. We discussed at length different kinds of heels for ladies shoes. Our discussions involved much pointing at samples and hoping.

I picked out 2 shoe styles. Then I had to choose the color and type of leather for the uppers that I wanted. There were too many choices but I finally narrowed it down. Then I had to let the salesgirl know what I had decided. This involved more pointing and hoping. Then I had 3 choices for the heel that I liked. Finally, I had 2 choices for the sole leather. The soles here are different from the suede that we find on ballroom dance shoes. One was a dark almost suede. A little thicker but with some texture. The other was light in color and harder. We think that this sole will be good for the milonga on Freedom Plaza in DC. Now that these decisions were made, the salesgirl measured my feet. She traced the outline of both feet on a piece of paper. Then she measured my foot 4 different ways with a tape. Finally, she recorded all of our choices on the tracings.

While I was doing this, Doris almost had enough time to come to her decisions. She ordered 3 pair of shoes. She then went through the same steps for her shoes. Our shoes will be ready for pickup on the 25th. Just in time for us to pack up when we leave the next day.

One of my pair is a smooth salmon with black patent leather. The other is a gray almost suede with black patent leather. One has a high tango heel. The other is a little lower. Doris� shoes include one pink pattern and solid fuchia. The next pair is silver with black patent leather. The 3rd pair has a red pattern with gold accents. Her heels are about 2 1/2 inches high.