André Rieu's Oakland Concert With Kay ...

Is there anything left to say? I think I’ve run out of adjectives. Each concert I see I think is the best one so far…until the next one. What made this one so special is that we (daughter Jennifer and I) met John & Bobbie for an early dinner prior to the concert and were able to visit with them both before and after the concert. They know many of the orchestra members and singers so they introduced to us some of them.

We met and talked to Franco and Gary before the concert, then waited by the busses after the concert and watched them all file out of the venue, a few at a time. Gary, Franco, Bela, Vincenzo and Mirusia all came over to talk to us and several others waved and said hello. This was very exciting for Jennifer and me since we had never met any of them before. They’re all such lovely, normal, down-to-earth people. We even saw André walk to the bus. He was preoccupied and speaking with someone as he was walking so he didn’t come over to us, but he did look our way, nod and, I think I heard him say hello. I almost missed him. Jennifer had to nudge me saying “Mom…Mom…it’s André!”

The audience was very responsive and enthusiastic, especially after the balloons dropped. Another first for us was sitting in floor seats under the balloons. It was hard to walk while tripping on all the balloons as we made our way to the stage for the encores. The concert was the same as New York and many of the others. Even the same 8 encores were played, but André was a little more animated, jumping up and down and swiveling his hips during Marina (which drew quite a reaction from many of the ladies in front of the stage!). Many people jumping, dancing and waving their arms…left me with a black & blue toe, but it was well worth it.

André has obviously been practicing throwing the Polaroid photos from the stage since in New York there were few that made it past the first row. Last night he threw them all past the first 8 rows. The lady sitting behind me caught one, then handed it to me and wished me a happy birthday. Those of you who have seen this concert know that André asks who has a birthday today, and since I’d seen this before, I raised my hand even though my birthday was over two weeks ago. The nice lady behind me thought it was actually my birthday and wanted me to have the photo. How sweet is that!! I thanked her over and over and asked if she was sure she wanted to do that, but never had the nerve to tell her it really wasn’t my birthday. It’s an excellent photo of him. And his thumbprint is on it.

Tomorrow is the Fresno concert. Ten of us are meeting for a late lunch before the concert. Will this one be even better??? My feet won’t be touching the ground until long after Maastricht!