Virginia and I first went to the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1973. She drove down from Lopez and I flew in from Hawaii. We really enjoyed it, and then spent some time traveling a bit before I returned home. At first, I would check with her every year to see if she wanted to go again, we would look at the line-up and decide to do it. Eventually, we stopped even asking about the line-up. We knew we would enjoy it no matter what – they always had some well known jazz musicians as well as lots of new introductions. One of our favorite shows was the Sunday afternoon youth show where high school students from California would audition and then get to play with great musicians  on stage after a week of workshops with them. What a fabulous experience! Now this has morphed into the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and auditions are open to students from all over the world.

This became our special time together. When I lived in the Bay Area, Virginia would drive down. When i lived on Lopez and after I had Kelley, we would fly down just for the weekend. After I purchased my first RV in 2008, it became our 2+ week road trip from Lopez to Monterey and back. On the return trip we tried to go a different route each year. Some years we went up the coast, others we went inland thru Nevada, Utah and the lava fields, Montana and Glacier NP.

We grew up with Jazz as the music of our parents and thru the MJF we saw artists from the biggest names, to those just starting out. One of my favorite memories was having Kelley in a front pack and standing at the side of the stage dancing while Dizzy Gillespie played!