Urban Adventure

After waiting in anticipation, Saturday night finally arrived. Our friends Mike, Rayelle, and Julia Anderson were taking us to the Festival at Sandpoint to see Train with the opening act,  Better Than Ezra.

Our group consisted of the Andersons, the Bennetts, Lexi (Julia's friend), and Ron and Sharon (Rayell's Brother and sister-in-law.)  This was our first time attending a concert at the Festival.

We drove up to Sandpoint at about 2:30 PM and wound around the streets of southeast Sandpoint finding a spot to park. As we wandered, we passed a sailboat parked in front of a house, and low and behold, Jon Totten and Terry Brinton were standing there as we moved past. I waved and shouted hello. Within a couple of seconds, Jon texted me and said to stop by once we got parked.

Mike found a great parking spot and we then took our chairs and blankets over and claimed our spot in line.  Julia and Lexi held our spot and the rest of us walked over to the house where we had spotted Totten.  The house was directly across the street from the concert venue. Jon lives there in the summer.

We went inside and talked for about 45 minutes; Jon told stories and everyone laughed. He has experienced so much and is a great orator.  The band did a sound check and we all looked at each other and said "Why did we buy tickets?" The sound was so good. This house would be a great place to listen to concerts.

After a while, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to our spot in line. Julia and Lexi did a great job. The Andersons ordered pizza that was delivered to Mike across the street from the park. Soon after enjoying our pizza, we were on the move to claim our next spot, in the concert venue. It was a big rush and we were a bit overwhelmed, but we got a good spot and had plenty of room to listen to the concert and watch a little of the action on stage.

Better Than Ezra came on stage at 7:30 PM and did a good job of warming up the crowd. We had listened to their hits the day before the concert and they turned out to be a good opening band. Their sound was a little distorted at times, but what opening band ever gets a perfect sound?

With the crowd warmed up, and Ezra off stage, we waited for Train to take over.  At 9:00 PM Train appeared on stage and they were amazing. Linda and Rayelle headed to the stand-and-dance mosh pit area in front of the stage. They spent the whole concert there. Linda said she sang and danced like she was in her 20s

I have to say that the lead singer for Train, Pat Monahan, has an amazing voice. Very Impressive!

It was a great show and we enjoyed every song.

Thank you, Rayelle and Mike, for giving us our first Festival at Sandpoint experience.

Waiting for the gates to open.

Our little nest.

A concert groupie.

Better Than Ezra.

Let the party begin!

Pat Monahan, lead singer for Train.