Good Vibrations

I don’t know how many years ago, but I was probably about 10 when my mom and dad piled all the kids (and some cousins) in the car and drove us to Provo to see the Stadium of Fire. That year the Beach Boys were performing. We had so much fun! There were dancers and even, oh yeah, John Stamos was there.

Fast forward about 10 years and the U of U was trying to compete with BYU and had a Red Hot 4th (or something like that). We again went, partly because the first act was the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. You can guess who the second act was, yep, the Beach Boys.

So at this point I had seen the Beach Boys live in concert 2 times in my life. I had a good time at both events. So when we saw that the Beach Boys were going to be performing at the Peppermill Concert Hall in Wendover, we thought it would be fun to go out. It happened to correspond nicely with Mother’s and Father’s day, so we got tickets for my parents to come to.

So Friday I hurried home from work early and we quickly went and picked up my parents. Then we were on the road (the very boring road) to Wendover. We did stop in Erda (near Tooele) to eat at Matt’s Great-Grandma’s old restaurant Virgs Fish and Chips (Virg is short for Virginia). Matt had fun talking to one of the guys that used to work for his Great Grandma. The rest of us had fun eating. Food was good, but I was getting stressed out about time. It is a LONG way out to Wendover, and I didn’t want to show up late.

So after we ate we jumped back in the car and set off! The drive is about as exciting as I remember it. We were even in too big of a hurry to stop and take pictures of the beautiful art work along the way (giant cement tree). We pulled into the city at about quarter to 8 – with the show starting in 15 minutes. Almost perfect timing!

We picked up our will call tickets and found our seats. I had been told that the concert hall was about the size of a high school auditorium, so there are no bad seats in the house. It was true. I didn’t feel at all bad for being in the cheap seats.

The concert started right on time, no opening band or anything. In fact, the concert may have started before the Beach Boys were ready. I don’t want to be spreading any rumors, but I am not totally sure they didn’t lip sync the first set of songs. We were far enough away that I couldn’t tell, but I was getting the feeling that they were singing along to a CD.

I hadn’t really thought through how old the Beach Boys would be. They were talking about how they recorded this song in 1960, and I thought, WOW, that was 50 years ago! No Wonder Matt and I are the youngest people in the audience! But that isn’t to say it wasn’t a lively crowd. They were up dancing and having fun. One old guy in the front was having an especially good time. I was happy for him (and glad he wasn’t my Dad - My Dad didn’t dance in front of everyone at the concert).

But it was fun. I like the old songs. They are good, fun, Summertime songs.

The concert lasted almost 2 hours then we went to check in to the hotel. I wasn’t a big fan of the casino – mostly because of the smoke. So we went up to our rooms and let me just say I love the black-out curtains at casino hotels. I didn’t wake up until after 10 and I would have kept sleeping except we had to be out by 11.

So we packed up and loaded the car with our stuff. Mom and Dad offered to take us to the Buffet for breakfast, so we agreed. Then I did something I am ashamed to blog about. We ate at the buffet from breakfast to lunch! Yep, we showed up just in time to grab some of the last breakfast items as they were being switched out for lunch. So my first plate was a nice omlet and bacon (very appropriate breakfast) but my second plate (which is required at a buffet) was lunch food. Crazy. But Yummy.

Then when we were all full to bursting we rolled ourselves out to the car and headed home. The ride home is kind of a blur – I may have been sleeping. But before I knew it we were back home and unloading the car. It was a fun little mini vacation.