Fun night at Kensington

Last night was the annual concert in the park with the Detroit Symphony playing a concert on Maple Beach in Kensington Metro Park. The weather was fabulous and we were able to park close to the concert venue and sit on a hill above the stage. The wife/girlfriend of the principal trumpet player was sitting right in front of us and they had picnic lunch together just before the concert. The music was great; they played medleys from both West Side Story and My Fair Lady and ended with a double encore of "America the Beautiful" and "Stars and Stripes Forever." We arrived about an hour and a half before the concert; had a nice picnic lunch; and enjoyed watching the people before and after the concert. There was one family that arrived and walked down in front of us and set up their stuff at the bottom of the hill. The husband wanted to get more in front of the stage and so found a place he thought their family would fit and tried to convince his wife and children to move over. She went over and looked but in the end prevailed and he had to be satisfied sitting over slightly behind the stage at the bottom of the hill. Mom was able to take a number of good pictures as sailboats, canoes, and other types of watercraft pulled up, dropped anchor, and watched the concert from the lake. When we went last year we arrived fairly early but made the mistake of parking on one of the large open grassy areas where there are softball diamonds. Since we arrived so early we got a good place to park but there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of cars that came in after us and parked behind us and it literally took hours (or really many minutes -- maybe 45 minutes) to get out. Last night we walked to our car, sat and listened to the Tigers' game for a few minutes, and then got in line and drove right out. It was nice that the police were directing traffic and we left the park in a much shorter time. We now know what we need to do for future concerts. All in all it was a very enjoyable evening. I'll add some pictures to let you see how beautiful the lake and boats looked.