Weird but Good

Hello everyone (at least everyone who is still checking our blog). We will pick up our activities where we left off at the Java House sipping our coffees. We have a few more things to share with you about the vacation phase of the end of our trip. After our delicious delicious coffee from the Java House, we set off to cook dinner for our parents since our Mom had spent the whole day teaching. She had requested that we prepare tilapia filets and also told us that there were peaches in the fridge that needed to be used. We decided to make up a recipe for peach chutney to accompany the tilapia and it turned out to be quite strange but delicious. This “weird but good” food situation seems to have been a theme on this trip. Things that fit into this “weird but good” category: hippie bunny fruit snacks (Ruth says “speaking of weird but good gummy fruit snacks, I could go for some of those right about now), garlic and herb flavored cashews, peach chutney, chocolate mint tea, cherry salsa. After dinner, since it was still about 100 degrees outside at 9pm, we asked our good friends the Stensvaags if we could come for a late night swim in their pool. John Mark and Nancy are always wonderful hosts and were welcoming to us even though they were recovering from all the activity of their son's wedding that past Saturday (the same wedding we attended). When we got home there was a new episode of the bedtime story for us that Ruth actually stayed awake for this time.

Next day...Wednesday. Ruth and I actually did some work. We got up and went to the church to do touch-up recordings for our CD. We also recorded a silly vocal version of Ben's piece since it was Ruth and Ben's anniversary and she wasn't in Hartford with him. She later emailed it to him as a joking anniversary present. Our recording session went surprisingly smoothly. Ruth says “just call us 'one-take Bergmans'...or maybe not.” On our way back from the church we were singing along to the song “Tiny Dancer.” Ruth confessed she had always thought the lyrics were “lay me down in fields of granite. I had a visitor today,” which is actually kind of the opposite of what is actually going on in the song. Ruth also took several pictures of me singing along to the song emphatically, but they will not be posted on the blog. That afternoon we had high tea at a wonderful little restaurant in Iowa City called “The Leaf Kitchen.” We found out that everyone was more lady-like than me, including Philip, mostly because I was a failure at cutting my scone without creating a mess. Our tea time at “The Leaf” included two large pots of tea (we got Ginger Jasmine and Chocolate Mint), tiny bowls of cold eggplant-tomato soup, curried chicken salad on crustinies, scones with accompanying jam and whipped cream (no, it wasn't clotted cream), flourless chocolate torte, chocolate toffees, and fruit. We felt quite decadent and satisfied.

When we returned from tea, there were flowers waiting for Ruth from her husband. They were very pretty and were her favorite colors. 

Nancy Stensvaag had actually invited us back to swim that day since it was 110 degrees. It was very refreshing and we got to meet some other people from the neighborhood who had also congregated at the pool to cool off. Here are some pictures of us having fun in the pool: 

After the pool we headed to the farmer's market to get a few things for dinner and also for me to get Iowa sweet corn to bring back to Minnesota. When you grow up in Iowa, no other sweet corn compares to that from your homeland. I have often been called out on my pretentious taste for sweet corn, as has Ruth. Then Ruth bought an enormous pile of kale to make her famous raw kale salad to go along with our dinner. Right before we got home we stopped by our neighbor's house because they had a free futon mattress up for grabs. Philip needs one to take with him to grad school so he and I carried it down the street to his van.

When we got home, Ruth began to teach Philip how to make the kale salad because it will help him to seduce cool hippie girls. He was quite pleased with the prospect. While they prepared their womanizing salad, I started frying eggplant for an eggplant parmesan, which is one of my specialties. Our last dinner with our family in Iowa City was farmer's market fresh and quite delicious! After dinner, we played a card game, and then our parents went bed as the children stayed up playing video games and then watched a movie late into the night. When the movie was over, we heard the sound of rain pattering on the roof and I was quite pleased. However, it didn't rain very much because our mother had told too many people about the powers of the Rainmaker and there was too much pressure on me. My hope is that the rain continues after we leave as it did in Ohio and Minnesota.

This morning we had a lovely breakfast outside on the patio because it had cooled off slightly from the rain the night before. After a leisurely morning with a few final rounds of Crash Team Racing, we met up with our Dad for lunch at Lou Henri for some famous onion rings. Ruth had devil eggs (Huevos Diablo...not to be confused with deviled eggs). Also, Dad and Philip both got giant pork tenderloin sandwhiches as can only be found in good restaurants in Iowa. You know us Iowans...we love to eat pork and sweet corn. After lunch we had to pack and say goodbye's so that we could hit the road back to Minnesota since Ruth is flying back to Connecticut from the Minneapolis airport tomorrow afternoon. Now we're on the road somewhere near the Iowa/Minnesota border. We're looking forward to eating dinner with Jessica and Charles in a couple of hours.

Here is a video of Philip narrowly beating Ruth at Crash Team Racing. Enjoy: 

Bonus Post: Mad Lib Highlights from the Road

(For those who don't know what Mad Libs are, they are stories containing blank spaces where words are left out. One player selects one of the stories and does not tell anyone what the story is about. She/he asks the other players to give her/him words. These words are used to fill in the blank spaces in the story. Hilarity ensues. Mad Libs have been a traditional Bergman road trip activity for many years.)

• From Are you Really Ready for Marriage?: "I am sheepishly appreciative of the spiritual similarities my baby and I share. I am thrilled with our cat-like expressions of romance, passion, and our ability to laugh at each other's goats. I share my partner's beliefs about the number of water slides we would like to have and how to raise the little dish scrapers."
• From Livin' La Vida Sola: "Loving the single life? The perks are plenty! You are your own esteemed bungalow manager...And if you spot a toothful guy, you can flirt morally with nary a care. Or if you feel like staying in, you can plop your achilles heel on the couch and watch movies like When Harry Met Leah or Pointy Woman for 1 hours straight.
• From You Know He's Mr. Wrong When... : "If he does any of the following, slither in the other direction: 
• He wears your mini skirts.
• He tells you he has 2.7 active restraining Shirley Temple's against him.
• He repeatedly tells you to feel how muscular his lips is."
• The entire Love Potion #9: "Legend has it that if you make this potion and serve it to your cheese castle, he will be your fruity love forever. This carcinogenic recipe has been passed down through XI generations. To make it yourself, combine two cups of pond water, one teaspoon of granulated sawdust, 0.26 ounces of sexy chocolate, and a dash of dragon. Then, stealthily blend all of the ingredients together, stirring the dilapidated potion in a voluptuous direction for at least 827 minutes. Pour the liquid into a wooly glass and top with an eyeball. Serve to your significant sewer, sit back, and watch it take effect. You'll shamefully enjoy the moldy results!"
• From Whet your Whistle: "Looking for a refreshing drink to cool you down on a brainwashed spring break night? Let's see what's on the menu:
• Mustard-flavored Daiquiri: a spring break classic. With chunks of fresh taco meat, a hint of lime Pibb Xtra, and a cocktail banana on top, you'll keep coming back for more!
• Pina Colada: This mix of cream, talons, and breast milk goes down unpleasantly and tastes like a slice of Little Poop on the Prairie. Try it with a paper factory on top."
• From What I Learned from Spring Break: "Sometimes you must embrace the wild Utah Guy lurking inside of you, lest it escape only to scare the fingerless gloves off your unsuspecting friends. Too much of a good thing can be unavailable - like squealing too long in the hot sun. End-table-screen is a farmer tan's best friend. Never leave roast beef sandwich without it - unless you want to come home looking like an inconceivable lobster."

Hope you enjoyed these wiggly and pepper-crusted stories!

Just Call Me Rip Van Winkle

I'm not even going to apologize for not updating the blog sooner than this, because Ruth and I have had a lovely time relaxing and recovering from a crazy couple of weeks. But now I will let you know what we've been up to for the past few days.

Sunday morning we played in our home church, First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City. We weren't sure if our music choices were going to be appropriate, but they fit the service very nicely. We also got to play an arrangement of "Be Thou my Vision" with our dearly beloved brother, Philip. That was the day that the congregation commissioned the Youth for their mission trip to Asheville, NC and right after that we played "F.C's Jig" which is an Appalachian fiddle tune so it was the perfect postlude!

We had lovely brunch and visit time with our family and prepared ourselves for our last concert. There was a strange s'mores bread pudding for dessert that we all tried but all thought was odd. (Actually, Ruth says she didn't try it. Smart girl).

After a quick costume change at home, where Ruth once again got yelled at for not wearing her sparkly shoes, we were back to the church to warm up for our final hurrah. Philip will narrate for you how our concert went:

"They...came on stage. They...said some words. The words were informative. They played the musics. The musics were awesome. Then they took a break. Then they played more musics and said more words which were also awesome. Then people clapped heartily and they played a raucous rag as an encore. Then everyone was happy and there were hugs. I think that's all I have."

Here is a picture of Philip while he is narrating the concert. Notice how uncomfortable he looks because we made him do this on the spot.

After the concert we got to visit with many friends from our Iowa City past. Ruth had a lovely reunion with her fox. Let me explain. When Ruth was 10 years old, she starred in the musical "The Little Prince" at Riverside Theatre. A man named Rip Russell played the role of the fox. They had lost touch but this year got back in touch through the magic of facebook, and he showed up to our concert! Here's a picture of their reunion:

We also got to talk to our friends the Minots for a long time after the concert. George told me that he was very happy that we spoke about each piece before we played because, in his words, "I don't always understand music very well. But you explained it using words, which I do understand." Overall, we were very pleased with our last concert, and happy that we got to visit with so many good friends.

We went home and ordered a Chicago style pizza because we were too tired to think about making any other type of food. After dinner we played a delightful card game with our family but were barely awake. I read our bedtime story (Ben's sci-fi novella) to Philip and Ruth, but Ruth fell asleep on the couch and didn't hear the newest installments. Philip really enjoyed it though. Then it was night-night time for all.

That was Sunday.

Monday morning we got to sleep in!!! (Ruth says, "woop woop woop woop!" with her hands in the air in delight). We ate delicious caramel and cinnamon donuts that some Amish lady made and brought to the Farmer's Market for our mother to purchase. Ruth and I played some Crash Team Racing which we love to do when we're at home relaxing. We made some nachos that were delicious. We watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos with our Mom of Free to be You and Me. We learned a lot about Rosey Grier. We also watched this. We played more Crash Team Racing with Philip. I fell asleep and napped for the afternoon. Ruth made Honey Ginger Lemonade to whet our whistles. Ruth played more Crash Team Racing with our Dad while I was napping. (There was apparently a lot of Crash Team Racing while I was sleeping. Just call me Rip Van Winkle). We had our Mom's famous pesto chicken sandwiches for dinner. Philip grilled the chicken to perfection for us. We also had pineapple upside-down cake for dinner. Then we watched "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" and Ruth fell asleep on the couch again (Philip says: "Just call her Rip Van Winkle).

That was Monday.

Today is Tuesday. Once again, we slept deliciously long. Leah even slept in longer than Philip. Our Mother made us lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast. We had a relaxing morning of drinking coffee and chatting. Philip made us a lunch of asian stir-fry. It was spicy and delicious. Philip kept saying, "everyone is sniffling so I know I did my job right." Then Mom started teaching lessons so Ruth and I retired to our room to listen recordings of our concerts in an effort to construct a CD for our fans. We were pleasantly surprised by many of our recordings. We also got some laughs from strange audience sounds that the recorder picked up. Now we're writing this blog post while sitting at our favorite Iowa City coffee shop, The Java House. We are drinking delicious espresso beverages and trying to remember the happenings of the last few days for all y'all. Here we are with our coffees and smiles:

Well, our tour is officially over. We will update our blog at least once more before Ruth heads back to Connecticut in a few days, but probably will not do it every evening. Thanks to everyone who has been following us and supporting us throughout this adventure!

Final Destination LXCVI

Things have been a little crazy over the past couple of days, so once again I must apologize to my faithful readers for not updating the blog last night. I hope you all understand.

Since our concert yesterday wasn't until the evening, we were able to finally have some downtime and not have to feel like we were rushing around. I actually got a gig singing at a funeral at Zach's church in the morning so I woke up and did that. Ruth had lunch with her very first violin teacher who is now a Suzuki teacher in Minneapolis. After lunch, Ruth and I took the doggies, Andye and Sam, on a walk to a cute little coffee shop a couple of blocks from my house. The rain had once again followed us into Minnesota and it had rained in the morning but by the time we went for our walk the sky had cleared and it was a lovely day, which was good because our concert was going to be outside that evening. After our caffeine break, we headed down to Woodlake Lutheran Church (incidentally, the same church I had been at that morning) to practice and see the space where we would be playing. Ruth finally got to meet my dear friend Zach, who organized the concert at the church and created a lovely little space for us to play.

The concert in the courtyard was a lot of fun. The audience was great and even laughed at all of our jokes!

After the concert we planned on going out to dinner with friends and Jessica and Charles. Everyone met at our house and from there we were going to walk to a dinner destination. Unfortunately there was a minor disaster awaiting us at home. While we had all been at the concert the foster dog, Sam, had somehow escaped from her kennel and broken into my bedroom, locking herself in. She chewed up the contents of my trashcan, had strewn a bag full of beads all over the floor, chewed up my baton, and peed on Ruth's suitcase. It was not a very pretty scene. The clean-up set our dinner plans back quite a bit so we decided to just order in pizzas and have a little party in our living room.

So that was Friday.

This morning we had a later start than planned due to a couple of alarm clock mishaps. Despite this setback, we made great time driving down to Atlantic, Iowa for our friend Jonathan's wedding. We thought that we were getting to the wedding with 6 minutes to spare until we realized that Ruth had put the address of the reception into the GPS instead of the ceremony address. We ended up getting to the wedding just in time, but the wedding party was already lined up and we didn't want to intrude. We waited until everyone had entered the sanctuary and then snuck in to watch the ceremony. It was a beautiful wedding full of love. At the reception, we met up with our parents and Philip, and Ruth got to visit with her high school prom date, Dan. We got in a few dances before having to leave early to get some sleep back in Iowa City since we will need to wake up early to play in church tomorrow morning.

We are looking forward to playing our last concert tomorrow for our friends and family in our hometown, but I'm sure that it will be bittersweet once this whole experience wraps up.

The Best of Times Start in Stanley

Upon waking this morning, we discovered that the rain had followed us to Wisconsin. Not the huge storm, power outage kind of rain, but it definitely cooled things off for the day. Since our concert today was at 1:30, we had to get ourselves up and around pretty quickly so we were off to Manitowoc to rehearse shortly after breakfast.

After acquainting ourselves with the space at St. John's and practicing a little, we went to lunch with Jim Klein at a local deli. After a quick lunch, we were back to the church to get everything ready for the concert.

We had a great audience, especially considering it was a daytime concert during the week. There were people in the audience from the church, as well as people who had just seen posters up around town, and friends who had traveled from Sheboygan and Milwaukee. Here is a picture with one of our most dedicated blog followers who was also an expert zoom button presser, Andrew Joseph:

The church threw us a reception after the concert where we got to mingle with everyone who came. We met a family who lives in Iowa that happened to be vacationing in Wisconsin and saw our poster up in their hotel and decided to check out our concert. Their daughters played viola and cello and they seemed to really enjoy our playing as well as bonding over our Iowa connection! We also met a member of the church who had been attending St. John's for "his whole life." We were told that he was a retired clock maker, so Ruth asked him how our rhythm was, and he smiled and said that it was very good! Here's a picture of us with Rev. Jim Klein who did a lot of work for us for this concert. Wisconsin people should check out his play at the church this weekend, we hear it's very good and very funny!

After the concert and reception, we loaded up our car and headed straight from the church to Minneapolis (well, technically we went straight to a Starbucks...), but not before taking a picture of the church sign advertising the Sorella Duo headlining for Jim's play:

And then we were on the wide open roads of Wisconsin, hopped up on caffeine and taking no prisoners. For dinner, we stopped in the coolest town ever: Stanley, Wisconsin. Here are some pictures highlighting our time there:

 (We dedicate these pictures of this lion water fountain to Penelope, 

who was sure that she heard lion sounds in the Biber sonata)

 (Ruth was very excited to get cheese curds at A&W 

because they are not available on the East Coast)

After our dinner and sightseeing in the great town of Stanley, we were really loopy, as one might imagine we would be after playing multiple recitals and driving halfway across the country. Here's a picture that Ruth took after I pointed out that we were passing a car with a Utah license plate. We call it: "YEAH! Thumbs up, Utah guy!"

Then Ruth tried to take some pictures of me that didn't look ridiculous and were also perhaps not the safest plan while driving. Here's how that went:

So, eventually we calmed down and made it to my home in Minneapolis where we were greeted by some crazy guy named Charles who jumped onto the hood of my car and started yelling about how excited he was that two Bergman girls had just driven into his driveway (said crazy guy may in fact be our brother-in-law).

We were greeted not only by Charles, but also by Jessica, our dog Andye, and the dog we are fostering named Sam who Ruth promptly fell in love with. We're working on convincing Ben that he needs an adorable pit bull so Ruth can bring her back on the plane. Here are Ruth and Sam bonding (Ben, please take note).

Well, there you go. That's what happens when you coop a couple Bergman sisters up in a car for 24 hours over 3 days with a camera and a blog to write. Concert in Minneapolis tomorrow night and then we're off to Iowa!

And on we go.

(Once again I kind of lied to you. I wrote this yesterday, but wasn't able to access the internet until this morning, so here's last night's post)

There's not a whole lot to report since we posted the blog for yesterday this afternoon. Before we left Grandma and Grandpa Bergman's house we did get to see another local celebrity appear on the Today Show. A guy from Defiance found a rare set of baseball cards from 1910 in his aunt's attic that were in excellent condition and worth millions of dollars.

After that we headed out to Naperville (outside of Chicago) to meet Ruth's friend, Ryan, for lunch. We almost didn't find the restaurant, but after walking up and down the streets of downtown Naperville with my cello in tow, Ryan finally found us and took us to a delicious Vietnamese restaurant. It was nice for me to meet him and he and Ruth had a nice visit. We of course forgot to get a picture with him for the blog. At least he is not as famous as Ned Garver...yet.

After lunch we headed North toward Wisconsin. I do not recommend driving through Milwaukee during rush hour on the day of a Brewer's game. That is all I care to say about that.

We got pretty behind schedule so we missed our chance to see the dress rehearsal of the St. John's church play, which Jim Klein directs. We did however get to have a good visit with Ruth's niece and nephew and their parents. It was nice for us to visit with Nick and Amanda and I really enjoyed meeting their kiddos. They are adorable and Rowan made the sounds of all the animals for us to help us study for playing the Biber Sonata on our concert.

I am the Rainmaker

Ok, so I know I just promised that I would not miss an evening post, but as you will read, circumstances beyond my control prevented me from updating the blog last night. So now I am composing this post as we drive along the Indiana toll road, which, as we learned yesterday from our Grandma Caryer, is owned by “some foreign country” (Spain and Australia).

Woo Doggies, let me tell you about yesterday! We woke up and ate breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Bergman. After breakfast I was sitting chatting with them when Grandma saw a car drive into the driveway and Grandpa said, “Oh, you're in luck. You get to meet our local celebrity.” A few minutes later, in walked legendary major league baseball pitcher, Ned Garver. Ned went to high school with Grandpa and they have been good friends for a very long time. Ruth and I had a great time sitting and listening to Ned telling some very entertaining stories, interjected by exclamations of “woo doggies!” and “son of a biscuit.” We wished that our brother Philip had been there to hear Ned talk about the “golden age of baseball” (which he joked was not a great name for the time, since ball players in those days got payed far less than the millions they make today). We realized too late that we should have taken advantage of being in the presence of baseball history and gotten our picture taken with Ned, but we were too starstruck to think of it at the time. You will just have to take us at our word. His advice to us on our concert: “Same thing I always told myself before a game. Just hope they don't boo you.”

After our delightful visit with Mr. Garver, we headed down the road to Grandma Caryer's for lunch. Over a huge bowl of fresh fruit salad, she told us about how they have gotten so little rain in northwestern Ohio that her garden is getting all dryed up. All the grass in the area is brown and dying as well. I told her that rain usually follows me wherever I go, so hopefully they would get some rain while I was there...

We were feeling the effects of our 12 hour drive from the day before, so we stopped at Biggby's coffee shop next to the Defiance college campus to grab a pick-me-up. The girl that was working there was really excited to hear that we were from out of town and was interested in our concert and why we had decided to perform in Defiance. We enjoyed our chat with her and I recommend a drink called the Sugar Bear, which is also a favorite of the coffee shop girl.

From there, we headed a few more blocks down the road to the Stoede Center, which was easy to find because the sign in front had our names displayed on it!

It's a very nice small performance space in a converted old church. It has stained glass windows, a large wooden stage, and professional lighting, not to mention the pews with 70's orange cushions that match Ruth's new violin case and my canvas bookbag (as well as my awesome aviator sunglasses that I thought about wearing for the performance). We were greeted by our uncle Lynn who was our main agent on the ground in Defiance, and by Curt Aldrich the tech manager of the space. Curt and Lynn were great and made sure that we had everything that we needed for the performance. Then we got to try out the space and stretch our car-wearied string playing muscles.

Back to Grandma and Grandpa Bergman's for dinner, and then immediately back to the Stroede center for the performance. I wore my sparkle shoes, but Grandpa was disappointed that Ruth didn't have her silver sparkly shoes on.

We arrived early and started warming up in the space but then found that our audience was trying to bang down the door at 7:03 for the 7:30 performance. We hadn't realized that the door was still locked when we got there and were pleased that our audience was so excited that they showed up early. They were not so excited however since it was about 100 degrees outside. When Ruth started running to let them in she heard someone say, “look a little girl is coming to open the door for us.” After little Ruth let our audience in, we retired to our green room which had all of the amenities, including a coffee maker, mirrors, a bathroom, and a refrigerator with a magnet “to do list” instructing us on important procedures for our performance.

There may have also been some pre-performance green room shenanigans.

We had a great turn out for our performance thanks in part to our supportive family members who showed up and brought friends and to Lynn for giving us great press in the local papers. Our great aunt Gloria even brought a bus full of people from her retirement home. We had a great time performing in that space for such a loving and attentive audience. Everyone responded very positively (and I don't think it was just because some of them were related to us.) And Ned Garver would be pleased to hear that no one booed us.

(Here we are with some of our audience members--Grandpa Bergman, Gloria, 

Grandma Bergman, and Grandma Caryer)

On our drive back to Grandma and Grandpa's there was a storm a-brewin' on the horizon. The wind was picking up and the air was heavy with the promise of rain. The sky lit up with great bolts of lightening. Animals were running for cover. Suddenly, a small skunk ran across the road in front of our car. With little warning, I was unable to swerve out of the way. We think that the poor creature met it's end that night. We will dedicate the slow rag to the memory of said skunk at our performance on Thursday night.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house before they did because they had to take aunt Gloria home. The house was dark. Rain had started and the wind was blowing with more vigor. Branches were flying through the sky. I checked the front door to see if it was unlocked. It wasn't. As I started to walk to the side door to check it I mentioned to Ruth that the scene was the makings of a horror movie. We returned to the car for shelter as we waited for our grandparents to arrive home. As we waited, the sky opened up. It was as Ruth says, “crazy town.” Grandma and Grandpa drove up not too much later and we made a run for it into the house, but still got drenched by the torrential downpour. As I was helping Grandma serve up some cake and ice cream for our post-performance treat, the house suddenly went dark. We were formulating a plan to find a flashlight when Ruth appeared from upstairs with the light from her cell phone to guide our way. We ended up having an elegant candle-lit dessert.

As has been foretold, I brought rain to the dry lands of Ohio. I'm glad that the rain brought some relief from the dry spell but I think the storm that followed me went a little overboard this time. After Ruth and I went upstairs to get ready for bed, the mayor of Ney (who also happens to be our uncle Tom) came around to check on everyone to make sure they were ok.

My crazy sister Ruth got a little carried away with the talk of horror movies and was sure that upon entering her room with a dimly lit candle she would find a dead guy slumped in a rocking chair, lit up by a lightening strike. The dead guy would look like this:

We also made some creepy ghost faces with the candles that look like this:

As you have read, this unexpected power outage was the reason that I could not update the blog last night as previously promised. There will be another post later about the happenings of today.