U2: The 360° Tour @ Quest Field

I had the honor to join a couple of friends to the U2 concert this past weekend. It's been a while since I had been to a concert. I know that I've been to one since, but the last loud concert I remember going to was Supertramp back in the early 80's at WAZZU. Friends that know me probably would have thought it would have been the Carpenters. My concert companions offered me ear plugs, but I chose not to use them. I kinda wish I had.

A side note: On the way to the concert I ran into Erin McClain, a friend from gradeschool thru high school. In fact, we grew up a block from each other in Fircrest. It was great to reconnect and catch up despite the time limitation and the abrupt end to our meeting. However, we were able to re-reconnect over Facebook.

Quest Field was transformed into a huge, 360° Saturn-like boardwalk around The Claw (a transformer-esque spider shape). Rolling catwalks placed band members at different parts of the circular floor. The Claw structure above the stage looked fairly innocent until the music started, revealing an awesome light show.

The concert opened with Lenny Kravitz. I know I've heard of him, but for the life of me, I couldn't entertain any knowledge of the man. When I hear the name, I'm reminded of Mrs. Cravitz, the nosy neighbor on the television show Bewitched. Needless to say, I was anxious for U2 to show up.

Once they did, the heart of the show for me was a surprise video message from Commander Mark Kelly — from space! Kelly is the captain of the space shuttle Endeavour. The band dedicated the song Beautiful Day to his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. It was pretty emotional and probably my favorite song of the night.

Another thoughtful moment was a video of recently released Aung San Suu Kyi, who won Burma’s presidential election in 1990. Wrongly imprisoned under house arrest for nearly 15 years for her stance on democratic rights, she was kept from her rightful position as Burma’s leader.

Apparently, for over a decade, the group has been leading efforts that urged for her release. The video showed her speaking as a free woman, and was followed, of course, by “One.”

State Track & Field at Mount Tahoma High School

Me and my friend Matt when and saw our teammate Will Ferfuson run the 3200 and 1600 at the state track meet this weekend at Mount Tahoma. Man, talk about energy. I can't believe the power and endurance that was represented there. Will did an outstanding job and I'm proud to have been there to see him run. Good job Will!!

Shaker Barn in Albany, New York

On the way to the Albany Airport, I passed a sign to a Shaker Museum directly across the main road of the airport. I arrived early to allow time to turn in my rental car, so I made a diversion to see what it was all about. It looked like the museum was closed. I'm a sucker for old, rusty things, so I got out of my car and took these shots before getting on a plane to sit for the rest of the afternoon.

This is my third visit to New York state. My impression of the state growing up was that of congestion and lots of people. However, there is a lot of open country and lots of barns. I had to control myself from stopping at every barn I passed by. I think I was born 150 years too late.

I did stop at several cemeteries to read the tombstones. Sounds pretty wierd, I know, but I enjoy reading the dates and bits of information about the folks. Plus, since namesakes come from this area, I hold onto the idea of maybe running into one of their resting spots.

Token Pics From Tecate, Mexico

I must say, I do still like my Panasonic Lumix camera. In some ways, I prefer it over my Nikon SLR. It's pretty versatile and takes great shots on the fly.

When I decided to go on this mission trip last week at the last minute, I thought it would be great to take my "big" camera. However, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into and I just didn't want to hassle the risk and all of the airborn dirt. So I abandoned the idea and decided to take the "little" camera. I was glad I did.

These shots are just random shots that I took during the down time in Tecate, Mexico. The horse was at a neighboring build where we stopped to assist. They ended up not needing any assistance, so I got acquainted with the horse next door.