Oomp-Pa-Pas and American Idol on Tour, All in One Day!

This past weekend on Sunday afternoon, my husband and I took a trip out to Oregon, Ohio for the German American festival.  We had a good time walking around the festival.  One of the things we saw was the giant Glockenspiel with live actors dancing and singing. It's not elaborate like the one in Munich, of course, but it was fun to see. We enjoyed the German festival food and liked seeing all the folks costumed in traditional German clothing like dirndls and lederhosen.  


This was as close as my husband and I got to wearing the traditional German garb.

We also enjoyed listening to all the polka music being played at various spots around the festival.  Although, at one point some of the polka music brought tears for me.  My Dad served in the air force when he was a young man, and he was stationed in Germany.  While there, he learned how to play the accordion and loved to play polka music.  He even taught me how to do the polka when I was a young girl.  So now, anytime I hear a polka, I think of my Dad and I miss him.  It was one of those times that sentiment and memories just jumps in and takes over.  


I'm not sure what this instrument is called that this man was playing, but he was having lots of fun with it.

I'd like to add a little side note here.  My husband's birthday was earlier this month.  It just so happened that I was working on the day of his birthday and because of other commitments the night before, I hadn't had a chance to bake a birthday cake.  I asked my sons if they could bake a cake for him while I was at work.


My younger son's girlfriend found out about my request and volunteered to make the cake for him instead.  This is the cake she made for him.

As you can see, she wrote the message in both German and English!!  My husband studied the German language in high school and has taught the kids some German words.  He also comes from a family that is mostly of German heritage.  She knew all of this and thought it would be fun to write the birthday message in both languages.  I really love this girl!


Back in June, for my birthday, my husband bought two tickets for us to go to see the American Idol kids on tour.  It just so happened that the concert was Sunday evening, so we went straight from the German American festival to Toledo for the concert there.


As we left the parking garage and were walking to the arena where the concert was to be held, we happened to see our dentist and his wife on the sidewalk, also heading to the concert!  It was quite a surprise to see someone from our little town of Bryan there in Toledo.  We chatted on the way to the ticket gate.  Our dentist said he had heard that Crystal Bowersox had had her teeth fixed.  He held up a pair of binoculars.  He said he brought them along so he could check it out for himself.  Oh my, that made me laugh!


One of Toledo's own, Crystal Bowersox, came in second in the finals of American Idol this year, so there was a big crowd on hand to hear her and the other nine finalists.  This picture is pretty dark, but I think you can see all those people there.

In all honesty, I didn't really enjoy the concert that much.  The music was much, much too loud for me.  I think the kids all did a great job with their performances, but when the volume is turned up so high that your ears hurt, it's hard to really listen to the music.  They also did lots of fancy stuff with lights and huge video screens and such that didn't really impress me.  

I guess my husband must have liked all the high tech special effects.  He's the one who took these pictures. When I go to a concert, I want to hear the music, not see a light show.  I know it is supposed to be part of the experience and all of that, but it just doesn't do much for me.  I must be getting old.


After we got home, I was looking at the pictures on the camera that my husband had taken at the concert, and I found these:

I asked him why there were all these pictures on the camera of the back of the guy who was sitting in front of us.  He got a rather sheepish look on his face and then grinned at me.  He said he was trying to find the button that changes the camera from photo-taking mode to video-taking mode.  He hasn't used this camera much and isn't used to it yet.  The button to switch back and forth between the modes is right next to the shutter button and all of the buttons are very, very small.  It was dark, of course, too during the concert.  So he took all of these pictures accidentally while trying to get his finger on the button to switch to video mode.  AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!


He did finally find the video button and made a recording of Crystal Bowersox singing one of her songs, but it didn't turn out very well.  I decided to post this video from youtube so you could hear her sing instead.  This song titled "Holy Toledo" was a big hit with all of her hometown fans in Toledo where the concert was held that night.  I like it.  I think it is pretty.