Phoenix Festival In The Desert

Over the week of October 10th - October 12th, Dave and I went to Phoenix to attend the "Festival In The Desert". This started out just as a quick little get a way for Dave and I, and ended up being a family get together. Dave's brother Bruce and his wife Gretchen joined us for the Festival and we stayed at their brother Robert's house. It was a really fun weekend. And we got to me their sister-in-law Sheryl's new fiancee'. Robert and his wife Jeanne has a cook out for everyone on Thursday night and we all sit around the pool and talked and laughed until late at night. The weather was great on Friday - 95 degrees, and the acts were wonderful, (Brian Culbertson, Jeff Kashiwa, Steve Cole, Kim Waters, Euge Groove, and Patti LaBelle). On Saturday the weather was quite a bit cooler only 78, but the acts were even hotter, (Eric Darius, Warren Hill, Dominic Amato, Ky-Mani Marley, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, The Temptations, Norman Brown, Paul Taylor, Chante Moore, Alex Bugnon, Peter White, Gerald Albright, Jeff Golub, Mindi Abair, and Smokey Robinson). Dave and I didn't stay for Sunday's performance, since we had to be back to work Monday morning. But Bruce and Gretchen went for Sunday's acts, (Jerome Calia, Sahnas Brothers, Craig Chquico, Guitar Shorty, Chuck Hall Band, Dr. John, Los Lobos, Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Pat Benatar, Neil Gjraldo, and Boz Scaggs).

Dave arranged for a meet and greet with his all-time favorite sax player, Mindi Abair. He also, at the last minute, arranged for Bruce and Gretchen to join us backstage also. Earlier in the day, Dave purchased a small gold sax in a red velvet lined box and had Mindi sign the inside of the box for him. He now has it in his office. I always tease him about Mindi being his "girlfriend". Mindi's road manager even took photos of us with her, she is such a nice person. I think that Bruce and Gretchen were a little "star struck". But, Dave has done several of these Mindi meet and greets, and he is at ease around her and talks to her like an old friend. I told Mindi that Dave's starting to become her roadie stocker... she just laughed...

I bought the shirt that Dave's wearing in the photo, at the festival, as one of his anniversary gifts. Anyways, we had a good time, and when we got home on Sunday evening, we were so tired, but we have good memories of the trip.