Founder's Day 2008

It's been a while...job searching and settling in is keeping us very busy, and we've managed to fit some fun in as well.

Friday night we walked over to Main Street to check things out - Verrado's annual Founder's Day weekend was here and they were setting up in town for the next day's events. Just about everything was ready to go, and they were doing screen and lighting checks. It was pretty quiet with very few people around - less than 24 hours later it would look completely different.

Saturday was incredible - perfect weather and the celebration right in the town square and up Main Street. The festivities started at 2 and included vendor tents with all kinds of food, drink, and things for sale, classic Woodies (following the "beach" theme), and a different band playing every hour up until 8 when The Beach Boys would take the stage. They even set up a "beach" of sand alongside the stage (third pic above). Shawn and I had been kind of bummed since the bands that had played in the past included Train, Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler, The B52s, etc., plus I had seen TBB several times at Great Adventure as a kid, but they put on a great show. Our friends Mary and Val and my goddaughter Julia and her exchange student Mina from Korea joined us, and it was fun to share the experience with Mary being from California and never having seen them before.

The lawn worked on the honors system, so you just showed up earlier in the day, laid your blankets down, and wandered in and out throughout the day. It worked out well for us since we were invited to our neighbors Tom & Kim's place later on in the day. Great wine, friends new and old, and the concert ended a great day. Sunday was the closing event of the weekend - a BBQ lunch in one of the parks - and then we headed off to see friends in the east valley for dinner. The weekend is designed to foster a sense of community, and it really works. We met some new people at the concert who are also new in town who pushed us to join clubs to meet people, and we have our first dinner for one next week. Everyone is so friendly here that it is almost impossible to NOT meet people.

That's the latest news. We're hoping to get away for some camping with our friend Eric up in Sedona this weekend before it gets too cold up there. We'll keep you posted.