Greetings From Tanglewood!

Since I have Monday off for Labor Day, Jon and I decided to enjoy the three-day weekend up in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. Each summer, there is a musical festival there called Tanglewood and for the last weekend of the season, they're having a jazz fest. We purchased all-day lawn passes for today and tomorrow so this afternoon and evening, we saw concerts, and then tomorrow we'll see two more. Save for some showers, the weather is beautiful; so far the performances have been terrific; and we're having a wonderful time. We haven't gone away since before I broke my leg, so it's great to be on vacation -- even if it's only for a few days.

Before I left, I made a deal with myself that I'd enjoy some good food, but not go crazy just because I'm on vacation. So far, I'm doing pretty well. Last night, we had dinner at an Armenian restaurant, which was designed to look as if you were in someone's living room and served equally homey food. We shared the appetizer platter which came with falafel, hummus, olives and pickled vegetables. I then had the chicken breast with cucumbers, olives and couscous -- and ate about half. They also had some great desserts, so Jon and I split the chocolate-orange cake.

Today we woke up so late, we didn't even bother to have breakfast. Instead, we stopped at a cheese and wine shop and purchased cheese, crackers and fruit to dine on while we watched the afternoon concert. Then for dinner, we went to a Malaysian place. I was very tempted to get a curry dish, but those are really fattening and not so healthy. Instead, I got an interesting salad with potatoes and eggs and then got a stir-fried veggie dish as my main. Both were delicious!

As for exercise, I've been doing plenty of walking. Tanglewood has a fairly large campus, so we parked about a 15-minute walk from the concert hall. It's also very hilly here (we are in the mountains), so I had to deal with a lot of uneven and steep terrain. I've been using the walker to get over the hills and have done pretty well. At the parking lot, they offered me a ride to the hall in a gold cart, but I turned them down. I still can't walk a great distance without having to stop, but I'm able to walk for a lot longer in between rests. I was a bit nervous beforehand about walking up and down the hills and grass and rocks, but it hasn't been too bad. Honestly, I'm not sure I would've been able to do it even two weeks ago, so I'm definitely getting stronger. I still have a limp, but it almost disappears when I use the walker.

Even though I'm not 100 percent physically, I'm still glad that we came up here and that I'm at least able to do some stuff. As I said before, we've seen some lovely scenery and great performances. We also saw a TRIPLE rainbow! On our way to the evening concert, this magnificent rainbow suddenly appeared, stretching all the way across the sky. We stood watching it for a while until it finally started to get dark and it disappeared. But it was INCREDIBLE! I'm taking it as a sign that more good things are on the way.