Saturday, 7/6/19

Today was the first day of planned activities. We went to bed with the intention of participating in some of the Saturday morning activities. These included meditation @8:00, Tai-Chi @8:30 and yoga @9:00. I wanted at least to do yoga.

Carol and I woke up around 7:00 and it was chilly (about 50F). Considering how hot it gets during the day, this was a surprise. The climate is desert: arid, hot in day, cool at night and the air is very dry. We did some laundry and everything dries fast. The sun is very intense. There were a lot of sunburned bodies after the first day of the pool.

Carol wrapped herself in a blanket on the couch and I went back to bed to write. Next thing I knew, it was 11:00. We could only blame some of this on jet lag.

The late morning activities included a nature walk, which turned out to be an urban scavenger hunt. Most of those participants arrived after lunch had started. It wasn’t clear to me whether or not it was mostly Spanish friends who participated. We slept through this too.

Meals were pot-luck and very laissez-faire. Around the appointed time, people would start to head to one of the kitchens to prepare food. People would sit down and start eating when there was a critical mass of food but food would keep coming out as people arrived to eat. Somehow, everything would get done including clearing the table and washing dishes.

The afternoon activities included games from 3:00-6:00, arts and crafts from 4:00-6:00 and salsa dancing from 5:00-6:00. Carol, Ray and I went back to the apartment for another nap so we missed all of these.

There was badminton and at least one pop-up soccer game. Pedro injured his knee. I am really glad I did not participate because it would have been me on the ground.

Dinner was catered and it was nice to have everything prepared and cleaned up. The only down-side was that it was the first meal with a more-or-less precise start time (6:00pm).

Annie and Lara very thoughtfully asked the caterers to prepare veggie burgers. I have not yet tried an Incredible Burger but this tasted like I think the Incredible Burgers are advertised as. They had the taste consistency of rare ground beef which might appeal to meat-eaters.

The grilled vegetables were great, including a leek-like vegetable that was accompanied by a red sauce. Sadly, I did not get a picture of it.

The evening activity was a "talent show". I told Annie they should call it a "variety show" because my contribution could hardly be considered talented. I agreed to play something on the piano. Since it was outside, the piano was an electric keyboard. Luckily, I had prepared Le Petit An Blanc with a lot of staccato. A Schuman Romance would not go over well.

At 7:30, the sound and lighting people had set things up and they were doing sound checks. I took the opportunity to play a few bars with the keyboard plugged into their PA system.

Mollie was MC for the event and she did a terrific job since she also doubled as a performer.

Here are Lara and Annie performing with some singers. I don't remember what this configuration was called since the Nice Shoes are an a capella group.

The screen behind Annie was for a light show for some of the more electrified acts.

I was in charge of setting up the lights.