Concerts in the Park

The city of Huntsville sponsors a weekly "Concerts in the Park" event during the summer. The performers set up on the back deck of the Huntsville Museum of Art and people bring folding chairs and picnic meals and dogs. Some people dance. This week there were 2 acts: Mambo Gris Gris and the Rocket City Jazz Orchestra. 

Mambo Gris Gris (web page) was good fun, playing latin flavored dance music. They had a great sax player and Huntsville string master Jim Cavendar on electric bass (who's guitar work with the Rolling Jazz Review is always amazing, if you get a chance to see that band).

The Rocket City Jazz Orchestra (web page) played second and covered a range of big band and swing tunes, both with and without a vocalist. The vocalist did a great job with the appropriate tune, "Summertime, from Porgy & Bess.

Hampton Cove Kayak Adventures

• We decided to try out canoeing so we rented canoes to take a 2.5 hour trip along the Flint River.
• HCKA (facebook page) was great dropping us off and picking us up at the end of our trip. 
• The Flint River was definitely a challenge with lots of debris and fallen trees in our path. 
• We definitely had a lot of flexibility with the canoe in getting in and out of the canoe, which we needed to do more than once due to the water hazards. "Do Not Lean," however, was a mantra to Dee as we avoided spiders, submerged tree, and overgrown areas.
• Definitely a trip worth taking as long as you are aware it's not a lazy, stress free trip.