Spring Break Stories

Despite being ill for half of it, I had a great break. My mom and I are avid gardeners, and we ended up going to two major flower shows.

We left home before the sun rose on the 7th and drove up to Philadelphia for the weekend. It was our second time seeing the show (the last had been ten years ago), so we weren't sure what to expect.
It was amazing! Philadelphia hosts the largest show in North America, covering eleven acres in displays, vendors, and millions of blooms. This years' theme was New Orleans, so masks and beads were in abundance.
The weather in Philly was wonderful as well. Spring seems to have arrived there...it was in the 50s, sunny and breezy, perfect for walking.

Came back to Buffalo in high spirits, but with a scratchy throat. This developed into a nasty cold that took me the week and a gallon of OJ to get rid of. Oh well. I'd rather be sick when I have time to recover. :)

On Saturday we went to the movies...to see an opera!
For the last two years the Met has been offering live broadcasts of different operas to movie theaters around the world. It's a great opportunity to see a show at a reasonable price, and the broadcasts are well-produced and subtitled. The Met generally schedules 1-2/month, and offers a wide range of composers. We saw Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. The story is based on an 18th century English poem about a fisherman in a rural village who is ostracized over the death of his young apprentice at sea. This incident is deemed accidental at the inquest, but is not believed to be so by the gossiping villagers. It was our first opera sung in English, which was initially jarring; we were used to focusing on the expressive qualities of the singer's voice and body language over actually hearing the exact words they were singing. Once we adjusted to this, it was a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

We spent St.Patty's in Toronto, which hosts the 2nd largest flower show in N. America. This show was spread over six acres and three floors in the Convention Center. Quite nice, but I wasn't as impressed. It wasn't just the size factor; the Toronto one seemed to have displays that were more geared towards advertising- pamphlets, salesmen, and business cards were everywhere. The Philadelphia show was less commercial; a sign would be posted at each display, but business cards in a holder was the extent of the sales pitch. They let their work speak for itself.

All in all, a nice Spring Break.
Now all I want is for Spring to arrive!