Itzhak Perlman & Letterboxing

Chuck and I have been busy the last few days. Between hanging out with long time friends and making new friends we managed to go see Itzhak Perlman in a rehearsal with the Russian National Orchestra at Mizner Park. Obviously, he's an incredible violinist and it was really cool to see him playing there in front of us in just his street-clothes. Although everyone is playing the same music they would be playing for the performance, it feels a bit more personal to watch them when they're not trying to put on a show.


One of the other things I liked about it was that we got to see them actually work on the pieces. At first they played straight through everything without stopping. But after that they went back and focused on particular parts. We were too far away to be able to hear what instructions the conductor was giving to the orchestra (and I think we was speaking in Russian, so we wouldn't have understood anyways), but I think at one point Itzhak suggested a different fingering for the violin section. So they all played it the new way and scribbled their notes in the music about the change. They're just like a regular community-orchestra! Only much, much better...



We also discovered a scavenger-hunt-like activity called letterboxing. Basically people have hidden "letterboxes" all over the country (and the world even) and list the location online. Then others can go and find the letterbox, inside of which is a stamp and a little notebook. Ideally you have your own signature-stamp that you stamp in the little notebook, and you bring your own logbook to put their stamp-mark in. Kind of like signing a guestbook. I know, it may not sound that exciting, but it was fun to follow the clues. Something along the lines of: "Go to the 7th trail marker. Turn left and go to the big rock. Continue past to the lone palm tree. Go left to another big rock." Etc


We went to find the Salem Sue box that was hidden in the High Ridge Scrub Natural Area. We've driven by the park a couple of times, but never actually stopped. It's mainly a habitat for Gopher Tortoises, but houses lots of other critters too (like grasshoppers, which were buzzing around us at every step). It was surprisingly pretty. "Natural Florida" landscape doesn't sound like it would be very nice, but it has it's own charm and beauty - if you can get past the heat. So hot! So not only did we find a letterbox, we explored an area we might not otherwise have thought of visiting! I think that alone makes it worth it.

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