We left England on the 9th and flew into Seattle to start what turned out to be one of the most fun experiences of our lives. The following morning we set off for Vancouver Island where we were to play at the Vancouver Island Music Festival. On the way we visited the beautiful Buchart Gardens on the Island - well worth a visit, they really are spectacular! We arrived at the Anco Motel in Courtenay in the Comox Valley on the Thursday night. The festival started the following afternoon and some of our highlights from that night were The Higgins, Earl Scruggs and that nights headliners the Wailers.
Our first performance was on Saturday morning in the barn in the 'Fiddle About' session. We had never done a session before and didn't know what to expect but they are so much fun! This particular was focused on fiddles and as well as us featured Dirk Powell & Sammy Lind, a great local fiddler Trent Freeman, Brother and Sister duo the Bachands, multiple fiddle championship winning (too many to list!!) Patti Lamoureux, and the fantastic April Verch Band. Each performer played a couple of tunes on their own and on one of ours we asked Quinn Bachand to accompany us on his guitar - he is an incredible rhythm guitarist! We also all played together as a group on a couple of fiddle tunes we all knew. The barn was packed and the audience loved it!
Also on Saturday was our main performance which was on the lovely Woodland Stage. The festival site is really beautiful with paths through the woods past stages and down to the river - very useful to cool off in with all the sun we had! The woodland stage, although one of the smaller ones, has to be one of the most perfect settings we have ever come across. It is tucked into a grassy clearing in the woods with space to sit on the grass up front and tiered seating at the back. We had a great audience and realy enjoyed playing there.
The highlight of the evening concert that night had to be the Jerry Douglas Band!
The following morning we were on the main stage, the 'Concert Bowl', in a session with two great Canadian Bands 'The Flying Accusations' and 'Shearwater'. We had great fun with this session with each band taking turns and all joining in on some songs and once again the audience was really great!
Later on Sunday we had another session on the Grierson Stage. This one was with Shearwater and Trent Freeman who we had played with before, Tao Ravao and Vincent Bucher, Todd Butler and two of Laura's favourite fiddlers Casey Driessen and Luke Bulla! This session was so much fun and a great way to end what had been a fantastic festival!
The evening concert that night included the Sparrow Quartet who played some of the most exciting and unique music we have ever heard. We were lucky enough to see them play three times during our trip!
After the festival finished we had a spare day on the island and went up Mount Washington and did the paradise meadows walk which was lovely and we were followed the whole way by a pair of Grey Jays who had taken a liking to us after we gave them a little bit of our sandwhich at the beginning of the walk! They were so tame and fed from our hands!
On tuesday morning we set out for Gabriola Island where we were to play a house concert that night. We were so glad we did this as it was a beautiful island and a really fun gig. The room was packed and it was a very different experience to what we are used to. Its nice to feel so close to the audience. Thanks so much to Dinah D for having us there and looking after us!The following day we had free to explore the island. We walked along the shore for a while and saw hundreds of huge purple starfish! Once again the weather was perfect and the scenery beautiful.
That night we left Gabriola on a ferry to Nanaimo and from there caught another ferry to Horseshoe Bay where we stayed the night ready for an early morning start to Vancouver. We had an outreach concert to play at the 411 Seniors Centre that afternoon. Although the audience was small (and the hot stuffy air conducive to sleep among the more elderly audience members!) it still went fairly well! After the concert we went to the Lynn Canyon and did some walking there.
Our first concert at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival was on Saturday on Stage 7 and that was our main concert. It was well recieved and we really enjoyed playing. Later that day was the 'Jericho Jam' on Stage 2. This really was the most fun we have ever had! The area was packed with what seemed like about a 1000 people and we got to play with two great bands - The April Verch Band who we had met at Musicfest and Outlaw Social.
Our last show (
) was on Sunday with several great songwriters. We were amazed at the endurance of our audience who sat very patiently in the full sun!
There were some great bands at the Folk Festival and some of our favourite performances that we managed to catch were: Outlaw Social, Creaking Tree String Quartet, The Sparrow Quartet, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, and Lau.
We had such a great time in Canada and owe a huge amount of thanks to Doug Cox for getting it all started!
...And now for America...
After driving back down to Seattle and spending the day there, we flew out to Denver on Tuesday and then caught the bus to Boulder. We stayed at the University Inn (highly reccomended!) for a couple of days while we explored Boulder. Boulder is a beautiful town and completely different to how we expected it. We never realised it would have so many beautiful old buildings! As well as it looking good, it also had a fantastic atmosphere with live music and buskers everywhere. We ate the first night at the Cheesecake Factory - it has over 30 cheesecakes on the menu (and the savoury stuffs very good too!). On our first day we went for a walk along Boulder Creek and around red rocks which was really beautiful. The second day we went up the the Chatauqua and did some more walking in the Flatirons where we saw our first chipmonk! We then went tubing in the river that afternoon.
On Friday morning we set out for Rockygrass. This has to be the best bluegrass festival ever - I have never seen so many incredible bands in such a short space of time!! Unfortunately there's not so much jamming as there is at UK festivals although we did manage to find few. The instrumental contests were on the Friday and after discovering that there was space left, Laura decided to enter the fiddle contest 2 minutes before it started! It turned out to be a good decision as she got through to the finals and eventually came 2nd! It was amazing to get to play on the main stage at Rockygrass... although a little scary! We met some great new friends at the festival and hopefully we'll be able to make it back next year!
We spent our last two days of the trip back in Boulder where we hired some bikes and went to see the prairie dogs as well as Boulder Canyon. And after all those ramblings... I think thats about it! 
L & C