Don't Take Beauty for Granted or Jeff Bridges in Niagara Falls

For my birthday (which is next week) Sarah got me tickets to see Jeff Bridges and his band The Abiders (aka The Crazy Heart Band) play at the Fallsview Casino last night. For those of you that know me and read this blog you will know that I have a man crush on Jeff Bridges. Actor, musician, photographer, artist and The Dude. Yes, that Jeff Bridges played right in our own back yard for 2 nights. They were the bands first "official" shows. No idea why Niagara Falls but we certainly took advantage of it. I heard, after the fact, that he landed at the Buffalo Airport on Monday night. Jeff isn't your typical movie star turned musician (ie Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis, etc). He's the real deal and this is part of why his film for which he won the Oscar (told ya!), Crazy Heart, was as good as it was. He isn't the best musician ever nor was it the best show that I had ever been to but it was Jeff Bridges! Anyway, they played music from the film and several covers of songs of friends of his. All in all it was a magical night and I can't believe we were feet away from the dude, man! I tossed a card up on stage for him from Sarah and I. As they walked off the stage I yelled "Jeff!" to his attention and then said "look down." He did, picked it up and off he went. It has this blog's address on it so maybe he will post a comment. Yep, I'm a dork!

This photo is from the show. Kind of blurry but the security guards were hyper strict about not taking them so I could only sneak this one.

It was his first time visiting the falls and he was blown away by the beauty of it. Having taken a ride on the Maid of the Mist earlier that day he liked it to a religious/spiritual experience second only to "being intimate with his wife." He told us not to take this beauty for granted despite it being right in front of us. So true, this is the same felling I have every time we visit the falls. It blows me away every time as if it were the first time.  Thanks mom and dad! Because of you and dad I don't take NF for granted. You always made a point of taking us there as kids and showing us the beauty in our own 'backyard.'

This was the view that woke me up this morning. Thank you for this trip Sarah! When I got up and looked out at window at about 9am this is what I saw. Sarah wanted to sleep "for a few more minutes" but I said you have got to see this! You know, not take it for granted. Mind blowing! PS-we stayed at the Embassy Suites. Highly recommend it. Million dollar view.






Sleepy heads taking in the view...

Today, priot to heading home we stopped at one of my favorite places, the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens which is home to the School of Horticulture and The Butterfly Conservatory. We walked around the grounds of the Gardens for about an hour and a half getting ideas for our gardens at home. If you have never been here and you are into gardening or nature you should go! It is 99 acres of pure beauty. Don't take this for granted either.

Here is a photo of Sarah walking under a natural arbor.