Celtic Spring Band ::

 

   Hello Everyone!!!
 

 

  We are on a plane heading from New York back to California after performing for an “Irish weekend” in the Catskills.  We had no idea what the event really was until we showed up at the hotel.  We were suddenly admist 500 people who had gathered to spend the weekend celebrating their culture with their traditional group dances, both ceilii and sets, dancing to the wonderful music of bands from Ireland.  We had no idea there was such a strong traditional Irish culture in the United States.  The weekend reminded us of our fiddle camps we love so much, or of our visits to Cape Breton.  The dancing went on far into the night and resumed first thing in the morning, only breaking for meals, Mass, and our performance. Our girls jumped right into the thick of the dances, knowing some of the ceili dances and willingly  learning the sets.  We have been told that this was a taste of what the Carribean cruise will be like that we will be performing on in early February, so we are all quite delighted.

We always manage to make the most of our travels, so after landing in New York  we went off in search of late night pizza in Manhattan, before driving to the Catskills. It was Halloween night and our younger children were a bit disappointed that we were not able to celebrate at home. (We did have a celebration with cousins earlier in the week!) They were very pleased when the flight attendants bestowed them with goodies, and while we were getting pizza, all kinds of costumed folk were out and about.  Maire began to plan her next years’ costume and I will have to remember to not book any shows next October 31st.

We arrived at the hotel at 4:00 in the morning, happy that we were still on California time, and amazed when we were told that we were all in one room.  We thought it was against the law to have eight people in a hotel room!  We were greeted by a suite of one large room with two double bed, four cots, and one bathroom!  It looked like summer camp.  We were all so exhausted and just happy to go to sleep.  We were awakened in the morning by honking Canadian geese and I heard Aidan praising the beautiful fall colors of the mountains.  One of the fruits of our travels is that we get to see the seasons all over the United States and beyond with prolonged versions; this fall we have been immersed in autumnal beauty since mid-September, when our September travels took us across the north of the US.

Besides performing and dancing, we fit in a hike in the Catskills, made trips to our favorite bakery, attended Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and made a visit to my grandparents house in Astoria. (I wanted them to see where my dad had grown up and where we used to visit when we were children.)  We do believe in eating the local food, so usually after a few days of feasting on pizza, bagels, and bakery goodies, we are ready for a huge California salad and a glass of fresh orange juice.

We are currently on a flight with just Greg, Elizabeth, Deirdre, and me.  The four younger children got up at 3:30 a.m. to get an early morning flight home so they could made their youth symphony practice.  They are allowed three absences and they had already missed three with all of our September performances and they were determined not to miss again.  Hopefully all has gone well and they are home in time.

I am now going to back up to our travels since last May.  We get so busy on the road performing and catching up on work when we are home, that it is hard for me to keep up. 

We began our summer performances in Ohio and finished up in Sydney, Australia and came home with our first family dog, Benedicta.  The first part of our summer I can only think of how much generous hospitality was shown to us.  We packed up our Sprinter van, “St. Michael”, and began heading across country.  Our first stop was Gallop, New Mexico where the wonderful family, the McCarthy’s, invited us to stay.  We have much in common: ancestors from the same town in Ireland,( Kiltimagh) a love of all things Irish, the fatih, travelling, and we stayed up long into the night sharing stories.  Our children said that the McCarthys reminded them much of my family, the McCauleys. From Gallop,we hurried across country towards Ohio, where we would begin our summer tour.We tried to attend Mass on the feast of St. John the Baptist in Terra Haute, Indiana, arriving just in time for a noon Mass, only to realize that we had just entered a new time zone and had just lost an hour.  We did make the evening Mass in Columbus!  (We are grateful to have our laptop and cell phone enabling us to find Mass and veggie restaurants just about anywhere.)

 We all have friends in Steubenville, Ohio and we were happy to have a few days to visit with them before we performed there. Our boys’ good friends, David and Aaron Langley, had recently moved to Steubenville, so they were very happy to have some time to spend with them. We were grateful for the gracious hospitality of our good friends, the Almeidas, and also enjoyed gatherings with the Langleys, Doroughtys, Rylands and others.  There were several parties held in honor of our visit and we were humbled by everyones’ generosity.  We performed at an outdoor amphitheater and were surrounded by large, dark, ominous clouds, but the big storm did not arrive until we were all packed up and ready to depart.

At one of the parties held on our friends’ farm a new litter of rat terriers had been born, and Maire and Aidan fell in love with them.  We said good bye, promising to pick one up on our return across country, after Australia.  Now we all are very attached to our dog, Benedicta.

From Steubenville we returned to the Celtic Fling festival in Pennsylvania for the fifth year.  The festival is always a great one for meeting up with old musician friends and making new ones.  We were happy to meet up with Ed Milller, a wonderful Scottish singer who we knew from many years at the Valley of the Moon fiddle camp.  We also were happy to meet up again with Scythian, another great band who was also headed to Australia to perform at World Youth Day.  We shared the stage with the Makem Brothers who sang the songs of their father, Tommy Makem.  I was raised on the music of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

We camped in Amish country before heading back to Ohio for a performance in Ashland. A favorite outing in Lancaster, PA is to the Lapp Family Farm to eat homemade ice cream.  The boys figured out that it was cheaper to split a quart than to each get their own cone.  They ate coffee ice cream to their hearts’ content.  On the way to Ashland, we visited more friends, the Hoyts, who served us tea and showed us around their farm and beautiful home they had built.  We learned that we would be meeting up with some of them at the Leahy fiddle camp a week later.

 Ashland was another outdoor amphitheater with some very dramatic weather.  It was raining as we showed up at the theater for the sound check, and we were wondering why we were still performing outside.  We were told that the radar indicated that the storm would pass at precisely our performance time.  If that were California, no one would show up, but being Ohio, the crowds came out, the weather cleared, and we had a wonderful evening.

Then on to Ontario, Canada for the Leahy family’s fiddle camp.  We usually have a few days after the camp to visit friends, but this year, we had to fly out from Toronto to LA to Sydney, Australia the morning after the camp would end.  Sean insisted that we go to Ontario a few days early so we would still have time to visit friends.  We did and we had a wonderful visit with the most gracious and hospitable of friends, the Corkerys.  We met the Corkerys at the previous two Leahy camps and we bacame fast friends.  The Corkerys have seven children, and love: music, books, good food, their fatih, and life out in the country.  We spent a timeless visit cooking, eating, talking, playing and listening to music, and delighting in each others’ company.  Days and nights blended together.  I would worry that the Woods were keeping the Corkerys up way too late, so I would try to get our gang moving towards bed, only to realize that the Corkerys had no interest in ending the nights. 
We visited with their friends, the Beresfords and the Pembertons.  We greatly admire the life that these families have carved out and long to buy land in Ontario and have a farm. 

Camp began and so began more music and dancing under the wonderful tutelage of the Leahys, Natalie MacMaster, and Natalie’s band members.  One of the highlights for me was when I was in my piano class and Donnell’s fiddle class came over to the boathouse playing a beautiful classical peice of Fritz Kreistler, Schons Rosmarin.  There are no limits to Donnell’s desire for virtuosity for him and his students.  It is always very inspiring being around the Leahys, and all the people that attend the camp. Our dear friends, the Dautches came from California, as well as Hoyts, Rylands, Corkerys, and the wonderful Martin family.We met a wonderful family of musicians from the Northwest called the Konzelmans.  They were a handsome, kind, and talented group and we really enjoyed getting to know them.  Look for them on America’s Got Talent next season, as they are interested in audititioning, and we highly recommended them to our AGT producer, Sharon Nash.

The last night of camp we were busy packing up far into the night, exchanging  our summer clothes for winter attire and set the alarm for an early rising to head to the Toronto airport, where we would leave our sprinter while we were in Australia.

It was strange to land in LA after having been away awhile and know that our home was only 90 miles away and we would not be heading there. (Our home is always inhabited while we are away so we knew we could not even go home if we had the time.) Greg and  I and the younger children were flying to Sydney the following evening while our older children had a flight to Sydney that night.  We got settled in the same Sheraton that we had stayed in during America’s Got Talent, and set out for one last meal together before parting.
We did not have a car, so we set off on foot for a Mexican restaurant, strangers in our own land.  LA is not an inviting city for walking, so we sympathized with the foreigners who begin their visit to the US in LA.

Elizabeth, Deirdre, Sean, and Patrick were joining the Franciscan University of Steubenville pilgrimage group to World Youth Day in Syndey, Australia, while the rest of us were flying over separately, renting a van, and meeting up with the group.  We were all staying at the same place, the Port Hacking Christian Camp in the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. 

For us, and I am sure for our children, the excitement began while we were awaiting our flight to Australia at the gate at LAX.  It seemed everyone on the plane was either a young person, a priest, or a leader, all with bright orange and yellow daypacks, heading to World Youth Day.  We immediately recognized Franciscan Friars of Renewal from New York City and happily greeted them.  Already we heard unrecognizable languages! 

We had a long but uneventful flight to Sydney, arriving on Tuesday morning  a whole day later.  (Crossing the international dateline, we lost a whole day, gaining it back upon the return.) Upon arrival at the Sydney Airport the pilgrims were greeted with singing and dancing, and thousands of young people were all congregating, all with their orange and yellow daypacks.  We rented the van, purchased a cell phone, consulted a map and my map-quest directions,headed out into the cool, wintery air, and eagerly headed off to meet up with our other children. 

Our delight grew as we ventured in to the Royal National Park, a  large nature preserve full of Eucalyptus trees, cockatoos, kookaburras, lorikeets, bushy-tailed opposums, and wallabees, and the rest of our children.  As we drove up to the camp we spied Patrick immediately, as well as all the yelling, colorful birds.  We found the rest of our children, the house that we were to stay in, and unpacked.  The camp was on the water, one of the many bays that surround Sydney.  The sun shone golden, and all kinds of birds perched in the trees.  We were in a lovely spot.

That afternoon was the first World Youth Day event, the opening Mass at Barangaroo.  We all headed  off to the opening Mass said by Cardinal Pell, Cardinal of Sydney, where he welcomed the young people and where began the invitation to the young to receive the Holy Spirit so they could go out in the world to be witnesses to Christ.

What struck us most about the entire week of World Youth Day was how hundreds of thousands of young people could come from all over the world to gather because of the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI, all in peace, joy, reverence, and respect, and with fortitude and hope.  Pope John Paul II, who began the World Youth Day celebrations, placed great hope in the young people of the world and they have answered that call to be witnesses to hope.  It was a deeply moving experience to witness what transpired during that week.  The media had predicted that the event would be a failure, that the young would not make the long pilgrimage to Australia, and that those who would come could cause trouble.  Instead what they witnessed what a transformation of their city into a celebration of joy.  There were police and security everywhere and they had nothing to do except to smile at the young folk and perhaps provide directions or answer questions.

We had five performances scheduled during the week and Greg and I had to make sure that we had all the logistics figured out for each performance, such as getting all the sound equipment, costumes, and instruments to and from each site. We wanted the children to participate as much as possible as pilgrims, so each morning they would head off with the Steubenville group on their buses, while we packed the van for the day with the equipment, with plans to meet up with the pilgrimage group for the events.

 We quickly learned that a few aspects of the week would be challenges: parking in Sydney was extremely costly and hard to come by, and althought the events were very well organized for the pilgrims, the performers had to surmount a multitude of obstacles, and Maire discovered on the day of our first performance that she had left her dance shoes in our van in Toronto in her hasty packing up at fiddle camp. Thankfully, Maire discovered her missing shoes early enough that we could go on a treasure hunt to find replacement shoes.  On the morning of our first show,we had told her she could go on the pilgrimage bus into Sydney for the morning catechesis, but that she should have all she needed for the performance in our van.  While assembling her performance items, she discovered her missing shoes.  We quickly changed plans and with the kind help of the Port Hacking staff found a dance supply store in Sydney that could come up with a substitute pair of tap shoes.  We were surprised just how well they worked!

On the day of our arrival we were told to show up at the World Youth Day Office and pick up our Performers’ Passes that would enable us to access all the peformance sites.  We naively went to the office on the first day to pick up the passes.  I waited in line for about forty five minutes and gleaned during that time that performers had been in line for hours and passes just did not exist.  When my turn came I requested the passes and learnt that our’s too had not been issued but that we should try again the next day.  Our first performance was at the Domain Site the next afternoon.  We returned to the office the next morning and still no passes existed.  I heard some rumor that we should just go to our performance site and passes would be there.  We arrived at that site, security let us in without the passes and still no passes existed.  We had heard from the Leahys, who had performed at World Youth Day in Toronto, to expect sound issues.  We set up our sound, began our show, and all seemed fine until into the show Patrick noticed smoke coming from our mixer.  (Greg had spent much time in the US purchasing the seemingly correct equipment to enable us to use our electronic sound equipment in Australia.)  I was literally watching our expensive mixer go up in smoke!  Patrick immediately disconnected the equipment, our sound was off, and a frantic effort was made by the sound crew to rig something up using their equipment.  With a lull that for me seemed forever, but in reality was, as Greg tells me, about two minutes, we were again up and performing.  We had never had something like that happen, but our audience acted like nothing had happened and were delighted with the show.  (We had our own home parish pilgrimage group in the audience as well as Stuebenville plgrims.) 

The next day was the Papal Welcome at Barangaroo, when Pope Benedict arrived by boat to meet with the young pilgrims for the first time. Their were large screens set up all over so all could watch the Pope arrive, and listen to his talk.  Again, I was struck by the love, attentiveness, and respect of all the young people. 

That evening we had a performance at the Palm Grove stage, a wonderful site right along the harbor.  The crowd was large and very enthusiastic and we witnessed the universal language of music. After the show we met some pilgrims from New Zealand who were also fiddlers and they had studied fiddle with Alasdair Fraser’s brother, Ian.  The world is a very small place. 

Later in the evening we had a show at the Love and Life Site, a stage that ended up being our favorite stage during all the events.  The stage was in the Notre Dame College courtyard and was run by the Sisters of Life, a thriving order of young sisters from New York City.  The courtyard was enclosed at one end with the stage, the opposite end by a beautiful Gothic chapel with perpetual adoration, and another side with a “coffee shop” that served food to all the pilgrims who came to the site.  We loved that site best of all because of the many sisters who were always joyfully welcoming the pilgrims and always ready to engage in conversations with the young people.  Also, performing there were our favorite Franciscan Friars of Renewal, also from NYC.  (We had performed for their performance series in NY last fall.)  Also to be found there were some of Mother Angelica’s nuns who we had met last spring when we attended Mass at their chapel near Phoenix.  And finally, our performing friends, Scythian, were also performing at that site.  It was like a heavenly reunion!

On Friday, Sydney was turned into a living Way of the Cross.  The Stations of the Cross were reenacted through out the city and projected on large screens throught out Sydney.
The whole city was turned into a living Jerusalem and the young and old gathered throughout the city to witness the event.  It was so deeply moving and realistic that all who were present wept.  One of the most striking moments was when Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross--- he was an Australian aborigine, and it was clear at that moment that Christ is for the entire world. 

Being Friday, we knew that the pilgrimage to the final event: the vigil, campout, and Mass, would happen the next day, and that we were supposed to be performing after the Mass at Ranwick Racecourse.  We knew two things, that we must get our equipment to the Racecourse on Friday night, and that we would not get anywhere near the stage, which was next to the altar, without passes.  We decided we better make one last attempt to get the passes.  Greg and I headed back to the World Youth Day Office one last time.  We explained our plight to one of the staff members and waited a long while.  Finally,
I was escorted into the inner recesses of the office where the head organizer sat at his computer.  He was printing out our passes at that very moment.  Each pass had to have the pass holder’s photo, and he was downloading our photos from our web-site.  These passes would enable us to access the backstage of the Papal Mass site.
We performed again at the Love and Life site on Friday night.  We were happy to have many families in the audience, and we learned that word had spread amongst the homeschoolers in the Sydney area that we were performing.  We met many beautiful families and learned that homeschooling was thriving in Australia.  After our show we joined the Franciscan Friars at a Holy Hour in the chapel.  Adoring Christ in a Holy Hour led by the Friars is a deeply awesome event and we were deeply honored to be present.

We left the Love and Life site around 11:00 p.m. and headed to Ranwick Racecourse to drop off our equipment for our final performance.  We knew this was not going to be an easy process, but we knew that at least we had our official passes.  We found the street access but it was full of security guards and road blocks.  We would approach the area and ask the officials where we were to enter to drop off our equipment.  One would send us to one gate, and then that set of officials would send us to another gate, then back to the original gate.  Though we had passes for our bodies, we did not have passes for our vehicle, and we could not walk our equipment for miles to access the gate by foot.  (There were many gates!)  What we did learn was that the police were hired for the event from  quite far away and many did not know much more that we did, although they were extremely friendly. They did know that they were to not let anyone in, and they were very good about following those directions.  We finally were directed to a gate that we could walk through, that was still a very long walk, but doable.  This gate would x-ray us and all of our equipment and then let us in.  We finally got to the backstage area well after midnight, and found noone that could tell us where to put our equipment.  We found all kinds of interesting places--- like where the orchestra for the Mass was to put their instruments, and where the altar boys were to wait.  Greg even found the red carpet that led to the room where Pope Benedict would be before the Mass.  After much searching, he found a set of tents where there were all kinds of labels for various people involved with the Mass and performances, and we placed our equipment in one of them, and made the long walk back to our van and then the 45 minute drive back to the camp.

Saturday dawned and so arrived the highlight of World Youth Day--- the pilgrimage to the campout with the Pope.  All the pilgrims make the seven mile pilgrimage walk over the Sydney Harbor Bridge to Ranwick Racecourse to participate in a prayer vigil with Pope Benedict, listen to performances, camp out, and wake up to attend the final Mass said by the Pope and concelebrated by thousands of priests and numerous Cardinals and Bishops.  We were just so happy to not be encumbered with our performance equipment and we resolved to follow the Steubenville pilgrimage buses to North Sydney, park, and join the pilgrims for the walk.  That walk will forever be a highlight of our family life.  To see and hear and walk with the hundreds of thousands of young peope from all over the world, who were singing, and praying, and talking all their different languages was amazing.  I liked to walk with the Portuguese pilgrims who were always singing.  It was also wonderful to get to know the members of our pilgrimage a little better,especially the priests, Fr. Gregory, Fr. Brad, and Fr. Dave and our children’s friends, Melanie Fedoryka, the sister of some of the Scythian musicians, and Anna Mae from North Carolina. 

As we entered the Racecourse every pilgrim was presented with a cloth bag full of food for the weekend.  Like the preceding events, this too went very smoothly and peacefully.  We found the area designated for the Steubenville pilgrims and settled into our “spots.”  Everyone put down space blankets and sleeping bags all side by side in endless rows for as far as the eye could see.  We ate, talked, walked around,and watched performances until the vigil began.  I was extremely pleased when I found a good friend from home at the drinking fountains.  Mary Teichert had come with her brother, Joseph, to World Youth Day from our hometown of Ojai, and we were so happy to have run into each other amid the huge crowds.

The prayer vigil began at nightfall, and everyone held candles.  There was a sea of candlelight as all prayed and sang.

Greg, Elizabeth, Maire, Aidan, and I were not camping out.  I was a little concerned that it would be too cold and damp for our little people, and Elizabeth likes to be in her best form for performing.  The others would not ever miss an adventure like camping out with young people from all over the world.  While we were making the long trek back to North Sydney via bus, subway, and foot, the others were dancing to the music of Scythian. I think we finally ended up in our beds around 2:00 and we heard that the campers settled into their sleep around the same time.  They were wakened at dawn, and we slept in a little longer.  But we had another long drive back to Sydney for the Mass.

We once again experienced the very friendly and helpful police that were hired for World Youth Day.  We were trying to find a parking place that was not too far from the Racecourse, and were told by a policeman that we could not park on any of the streets in the surrounding areas, but he said that it would be fine to park in a lot that belonged to a business since the businesses were closed on Sunday.  We were told that there were buses to the racetrack, and the policeman called and requested a bus for us.  We ran to the bus stop and were soon on a bus heading to the racetrack.  Upon arriving at the right gate, but still across the street and being herded a long way around to the gate, I told a policeman that we wanted to cross the street right into the gate.  He began talking to me and I expected him to say, “Why do you think you are any different than anyone else?”  Instead, he said, “When the light turns green, just run across.”  These were the most friendly, inofficious police I had ever met.  We arrived just in time for the Papal Mass and were happy to be reuinted with the more rugged of our family members. 

(Now Deirdre has taken over the journal, so you will hear from it from a young person’s perspective). 
Yes. Sean, Patrick, and I camped over night at the Racecourse.  No one slept in tents.  It was freezing cold, considering that it was winter there.   We were hungry, since  each pilgrim received one bag of food for the weekend, and, being vegetarian health freaks, there was not too much to eat.  Further, there was live music going on the altar seemingly all night.  That resulted in a short rather uncomfortable sleep.  Yet, one amazing aspect of the WYD was that these discomforts were nothing in comparison to the joy and enthusiasm that pervaded all of us during the week.  We awoke to chanting at sunrise.  It was morning prayer.  It was beautiful to wake up to sunlight and warmth.  It reminded us of the light and hope that Jesus brought to the world through His death and resurrection.  The Pope arrived via his popemobile around 9:00.  I was extremely touched by seeing him pick up a baby from the crowd and hug it!   It is that kind of unconditional love that constitutes a true disciple of Jesus!  The final mass, the climax of the WYD, was akin to a high glorious Easter mass.  Yet, it was a bit funny for the congregation to be throngs of sleepy disheveled enthusiastic youths.  I think that it illustrated, though, that Jesus has called every ordinary person to be His child and His beloved!  A disciple of Jesus  does have to be the stereotypical  quiet pious saint!    Sean, Patrick, and about twenty other pilgrims climbed on top of a roof of a temporary structure to get a better view of the altar during the mass.  During the mass, we prayed to receive the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit even more fully.  It was such a gift to be able to worship God with the Pope, the hunreds of priests, and with other young people from all corners of the earth!

As soon as the mass ended, we rushed back stage to prepare for our performance.  It was odd to switch modes: we felt ourselves as no longer pilgrims, but as performers.  It was a long trek to the back of the altar.  We had to pass a number of security check points.  There was an awesome feeling to show our “performer all access pass” to the guards and to continue to head toward the altar, where the Pope was speaking.  When we arrived at the official back stage to the altar, we were informed that we had to wait there until the Pope and all the Cardinals and secular dignitaries had exited.  There were already other performers waiting outside the gates, including the “rapper priest”, Fr. Stan Fortuna!  We waited at the gate as the Pope announced to the crowd that the next WYD was to be in Madrid, Spain.  We heard endless cheering as the Pope bade his farewell to the youth of the world.  Eventually, an endless stream of Cardinals and Bishops came out of the gate and passed right by us.  Everyone was so friendly!  We kept our eyes peeled on the crowd of Cardinals to see if we recongnized any of them.  As the Cardinals passed by, I was thinking how almost the whole Church was here;  there were the lay people, the sisters, the priests, the bishops, the cardinals, the Pope, and God Himself!  After the stream of cardinals and bishops walked by, escorted cars began driving by.  These cars held political dignitaries and more cardinals and bishops.  At one point , a large black van drove by with many police on motorcycles escorting it.  We think that it was probably the Pope leaving the racecourse!  It was such a privilege to be back with all these dignitaries!  Once the cars had all left the altar, we made our way to the back stage area.  We quickly transformed ourselves from bedraggled tired pigrims to lithe professional performers.  Once we were on stage,  it was an amazing feeling to be on the altar.  We got to see the Pope’s view of the WYD crowd.  It was just such a privilege to be performing at WYD!  We performed for about twenty minutes.  Once we finished our performance, the WYD week had ended.  In some way, the magic of WYD seemed to fade a bit.  We gave to the fact that we were exhausted, freezing, achy, and, honestly, getting sick.  Luckily, there was nothing else on the agenda for the rest of the day.  We drove back to the camp outside of Sydney and slept. 

We had one day at the camp to rest before exploring Sydney one last time, and then heading to New Zealand.  Everyone explored  the forests around the camp and went boating or climbing.  We went sailing on the clear blue waters of the bay.  Both Sean and Patrick were in boats that capsized!  Tuesday, the next day, we loaded onto buses and headed into Syndey.   This was our last chance to explore this beautiful modern city.  This city is marked by its cleanliness, its sunlight, its clear blue water, its modern structures, and its pedestrian friendly lay out.  We got a tour of the renowned Sydney Opera House.  It was an unusually structured building, with regal decor inside.  The opera house was right on the water, which was very beautiful.  After our time at the opera house, we had lunch on a cruise boat.  The boat sailed around the bay, giving us spectacular views of Sydney. 

On Wednesday, Elizabeth, Sean, Patrick and I continued on to New Zealand with the Franciscan group.  Meanwhile, Mary, Greg, Aidan, and Maire spent one more day in Sydney, before flying back to California.  We stayed in New Zealand for about four days.  New Zealand was very beautiful.  It was the most green land we’d ever see... an unusual mix of Ireland and Costa Rica.  We stayed in the northern island, in the town of Mt  Maunganui.  Our highlights of this whirlwind trip included seeing numerous kiwi plantations, seeing geysars, swimming in natural hot pools, hiking Mt. Maunganui, and visiting a Maori community.  The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.  The Maoris still live rather traditionally in communities.  They had elaborate welcoming ceremonies when we arrived to stay with them for dinner and over night.  The ceremony involved singing,  processing, and then a personal greeting between every Maori and every person in our group.  Each person had to touch noses and foreheads with the Maoris.  As you can imagine, this greeting was slightly awkward and took a long while.  The Maoris were incredibly hospitable!  They served us a Thanksgiving like feast, during which they sang and played guitars for us.  We Woods had the honor of sharing our music and dance with them.  After the feast, about twenty of us Franciscan pilgrims cleaned up the dining room and kitchen and washed all the dishes.  That was as enjoyable as the dinner, itself.  We were all singing and laughing and getting each other soapy!  Later that evening, a lovely Maori man told us about their history and taught us the hukka, a warrior dance.  That night, we all stayed in one intricately decorated, colassal room.  We spread mattresses all over the ground.  It was a unusual but wonderful experience to have about 100 persons piled into one room.  There were people on either side of me, as well as at my head and at my feet! Over all, our experience in New Zealand was an experience of the hospitality of the people and of the wild beauty of the land.

On Monday, we all flew from Aukland back to California.  At the airport in Aukland, we took out our instruments and jammed.  Everyone still had that joy that had pervaded WYD!
Upon arriving back in Los Angeles, we four shuttled back to our little rustic town of Ojai.  As soon as Sean walked into the door of our house, then he repacked his belongings and headed up to a two week summer school at Thomas Aquinas College!  That evening, we met Maire and Aidan, who had flown home, then had been staying with our aunt and cousins in Ojai.  The following day, my parents arrived home.  They had flown from Sydney to Los Angeles. They had then continued on to Toronto, Ontario, where we had left our van.  From there, they had driven across the country back to California. 
We had about three weeks at home.  During this time, we visited with friends and family, picked our fruits and vegetables, cooked food, and just enjoyed our few weeks of summer in Ojai. Attending Valley of the Moon Scottish fiddle camp, in Northern California, was our last adventure of the summer.  We spent the week playing music and dancing all day and virtually all night, (with a few hours of sleep here and there). 

We left for an almost one month tour a few weeks after Valley of the Moon.  Those adventures will have to be recounted a bit later......
 


            To be continued..... (=