Baba Goes to San Diego!
We’ve gone international! We were thrilled to be invited to accompany the Suzirya Dance Theatre to the House of Ukraine Festival in San Diego, California. We flew to Los Angeles on August 31 and then by bus to San Diego. We hoped to get Baba’s toes in the Pacific that day but we ran into one of those infamous freeway traffic jams on the Friday of the long weekend and spent over fifty kilometers bumper to bumper.
The Festival Organizing Committee hosted us by the hotel pool on Friday evening and we had a chance to meet and visit with people and Baba even had a chance to go swimming – Calgary was never like this! Saturday morning we had free time so some of us went shopping and several of us including Baba took a bus tour of all the major sights of SD, and then went on a harbour cruise. SD is a very attractive city with lots of very interesting sights, as well as a large military presence as the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy is stationed here. The West Coast was experiencing a very unusual heat wave; rather than a moderate 23˚ C with low humidity which is the usual weather, it was over 30 with humidity of over 90%! Pretty hot for our heavy costumes!
We had an afternoon tech rehearsal and then a concert that evening. It was well attended and we were very well received; we were only the second or third choir in the 32 year history of the festival. We met several audience members during intermission and found some who knew our families so we were never far from our Canadian prairie roots. We ended our concert with our crowd pleaser, Baba!
Sunday morning was free so some of us went to the beach to dip our toes into the Pacific. The beaches went on for miles and we could easily have spent a week there. In the afternoon we performed in Balboa Park, a very unique park with museums and a zoo in the heart of SD. Our show was on an outdoor stage in the International Village right beside the House of Ukraine. Again we met people who knew people we knew – you’re never alone when you’re a prairie Ukrainian! The temperature and humidity was a real killer but fortunately a breeze provided some relief. After the outdoor concert, we had time for a couple of hours in the pool before the zabava. That evening was a dinner and zabava and we were able to have several sing-alongs during the band breaks.
Back home via LA on Monday but this time the freeway was no problem; Baba had the pedal to the metal all the way and we got back to the airport in two hours.
We had a fantastic time and received a super warm welcome. Thank you to Suzirya for inviting us to participate with them and thank you to Vera Skop and Katya Priestley, the festival organizers who worked with us. We’ll sure miss those palm trees! Maybe Baba can go back again for a longer visit next time.
Thank you to Cathy, our director, for all of her work in organizing this tour, to Mike Wais of the San Diego Symphony for kindly lending us a double bass and a big thank you to Marko Baran of Saskatoon who joined us to play accordion and sing tenor.
Next year in the Old Country!
The Festival Organizing Committee hosted us by the hotel pool on Friday evening and we had a chance to meet and visit with people and Baba even had a chance to go swimming – Calgary was never like this! Saturday morning we had free time so some of us went shopping and several of us including Baba took a bus tour of all the major sights of SD, and then went on a harbour cruise. SD is a very attractive city with lots of very interesting sights, as well as a large military presence as the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy is stationed here. The West Coast was experiencing a very unusual heat wave; rather than a moderate 23˚ C with low humidity which is the usual weather, it was over 30 with humidity of over 90%! Pretty hot for our heavy costumes!
We had an afternoon tech rehearsal and then a concert that evening. It was well attended and we were very well received; we were only the second or third choir in the 32 year history of the festival. We met several audience members during intermission and found some who knew our families so we were never far from our Canadian prairie roots. We ended our concert with our crowd pleaser, Baba!
Sunday morning was free so some of us went to the beach to dip our toes into the Pacific. The beaches went on for miles and we could easily have spent a week there. In the afternoon we performed in Balboa Park, a very unique park with museums and a zoo in the heart of SD. Our show was on an outdoor stage in the International Village right beside the House of Ukraine. Again we met people who knew people we knew – you’re never alone when you’re a prairie Ukrainian! The temperature and humidity was a real killer but fortunately a breeze provided some relief. After the outdoor concert, we had time for a couple of hours in the pool before the zabava. That evening was a dinner and zabava and we were able to have several sing-alongs during the band breaks.
Back home via LA on Monday but this time the freeway was no problem; Baba had the pedal to the metal all the way and we got back to the airport in two hours.
We had a fantastic time and received a super warm welcome. Thank you to Suzirya for inviting us to participate with them and thank you to Vera Skop and Katya Priestley, the festival organizers who worked with us. We’ll sure miss those palm trees! Maybe Baba can go back again for a longer visit next time.
Thank you to Cathy, our director, for all of her work in organizing this tour, to Mike Wais of the San Diego Symphony for kindly lending us a double bass and a big thank you to Marko Baran of Saskatoon who joined us to play accordion and sing tenor.
Next year in the Old Country!