Pops in the Park

The Tallahassee Symphony Orchesta had one of their Pops in the Park concerts today. It was to be a space-themed concert, so I thought perhaps ZBoy would be interested in going. Kids under 12 were free, and the ticket for me was only $10. I'd heard on the radio that there would be a Star Wars Battle Re-enactment Saturday morning, so we went off to Southwood to find it.


We couldn't find it. We drove round and round, then headed back to Town Center to ask someone there. Just as we pulled in, we saw Anakin, Padme and Obi Wan walking rather casually up the street... Ah... so something WAS going to happen. Just not soon, apparently. So Z and I went into Subway and got breakfast.

Then I noticed Z seemed to be looking at something out the window. I turned around and spotted Anakin and Obi Wan helping the clowns set up their tent.

In an effort to make their tent look more colorful, the clowns had brought a multi-colored parachute. Thee was just enough wind to make it difficult. At one point, I heard Anakin say "These things were designed to CATCH the wind, you know!"


I stopped and asked Padme about the battle and she told me it was part of the finale for tonight's concert, not a separate event. Ah.... So the boy and I headed back home and got on with our Saturday.


We returned to Southwood a little after 5pm. We brought a picnic dinner of Whataburger with us.

Of course, there were other offerings available there... And after we finished our "dinner," we went and investigated. There was kettle corn, caramel kettle corn, and CHOCOLATE kettle corn! Guess which one we went for?

The Sno-Ball cart was there too - the one that belongs to our neighbors (who give out free sno-balls every Halloween and at the block party). They make their own syrups, which are scrumptious - but they didn't have any sugar-free with them this time so I passed. ZBoy got guava though!

The Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme actors were wandering around the crowd now... Obi-Wan was challenged by a miniature Darth Maul (in the blue shirt with painted face) and he pretended to fight him. On the second circuit, Mini-Darth had borrowed someone's hoodie jacket to be his robes.

Padme and Anakin walked around quite a bit too. They are played by a real-life boyfriend/girlfriend couple.

The music finally began and it was so beautiful... There were themes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, all the Star Trek television program intros, Hoagie Carmichael's Stardust, and an odd, operatic rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star, and the theme from ET. And it never fails.

Big music makes me cry. In a darkened auditorium, no one sees my eyes well up. I thought I'd be okay out in the open but no... As the music swelled, so did my heart and then came the tears. Rather embarrassing, actually - but at least I was wise enough to not wear any make up!

There was a brief intermission, then the program resumed with music from Apollo 13. And then, what we'd all been waiting for, the Star Wars Suite. It was pretty dark by then, so when Darth Vader and Obi-Wan came out, light sabers flashing, it was awesome!



Sorry the pictures are so blurry... it was dark and we were pretty far away.

Z and I were pretty sure this was supposed to be the final battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan from A New Hope, so we were a little confused by Padme's presence...



There were plenty of children standing by with their light sabers at the ready, just in case they were needed...

I admit it, I loved it when my boy turned to me and declared this the most awesome Saturday ever! At least for today it was. One day, he'll make an excellent Jedi, don't you think?