Quebec City

The last two days we've been docked in Quebec City. The first day the trio went out and walked around a small part of the city, seeing sights like the Plains of Abraham and the Castle of Frontenac. It was a beautiful day and there were street artists in abundance as well as many art galleries in the open air and the restaurants all had their outdoor seating filled to abundance.

Today after yet more training, two of us took off again into a different part of the city. We browsed through a local grocery store, a couple music shops, and a beautiful Catholic cathedral. We also saw a couple parks and walked down several quaint neighborhood streets. It was another beautiful day in Quebec City, and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

We have been playing every night and it's been going quite well. I've been fortunate to sell several cd's already on this first cruise. If that continues than I'll sell out of what I brought which is my goal of course. I don't want to bring any cd's back with me. We have a consistent group of listeners and I've had the chance to speak with several of them and they're quite nice. The best part is that we only have to play 3 hrs a day; not 5! It makes an enormous difference. I feel like I can give my all on the stage instead of conserving energy to make it through the night. We've also been sight reading a lot. At least half of what we played tonight was sight reading and I feel lucky to have a group that can and will sight read on stage. We rehearse every sea day though (there are lots of sea days) and some port days.

We're still going through lots of training. I have two more trainings in the morning and there are more the following days. Because my schedule is upset I've only managed to go to the gym once. But the crew gym here is nice. It has 2 of nearly every thing and is open all the time. The only problem I have is that I usually make it through an hour on the eleptical by watching a tv show on my netbook. Unfortunately my battery won't last that long anymore and just a couple days ago the computers transmission/connection to the earport terminal crashed so I can't use headphoned now :(

But life is good; no life is great! I'm really having fun performing with this trio and I'm looking forward to exploring more new cities and countryside. There's lots to be done still. I have much research to do on the new music and we have lots of music yet to rehearse and add to our repetoire. There are plenty of trainings left and there are still a few kinks to work out but life is beautiful!