Brian has been traveling a lot for work and is usually ready to relax on the weekends. My work travel is limited to the 2.5-hours a day I spend commuting to and from downtown Seattle, which is a considerable amount of time each week, but not exactly mt idea of ‘travel.’ By the weekend, I’m ready to get out and explore.

I’ve been trying to be more reasonable about our weekend activities lately knowing he’s exhausted, but I can’t help feeling a little cabin fever at the prospect of spending an entire weekend at home.

In an effort to compromise, I’ve been trying to limit my planning to just one day of a weekend versus an entire weekend.

I would say I’ve been partially successful.

This weekend he was a complete champ, helping me introduce my cousin to downtown Seattle, and accompanying me to our first Pow Wow. That should have been plenty of activity for one weekend, but there was one other thing I really wanted to do while we were down by Ballard– see a summer concert at the Locks!

I don’t remember if someone told me there were free summer concerts at the Chittendon Locks or if I read it somewhere, but I had added it to my list of local things to do. We were at Discovery Park in the morning to see the Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow and basically had to drive through Ballard to get home so it only made sense to stop and check out the afternoon performance.

This particular Sunday’s performance was by the West Seattle Big Band– we had to go! I love Big Band music, and we both played so much of it in band together that we really appreciate and enjoy hearing it live when we can.

It was a warm afternoon, but we took our lawn chairs and water bottles across the Locks and over the to the green space by the visitor center where they were setting up and found some seats in the shade. There were a ton of people there, many with picnics, who were there for the concert, and other people who were there to see the Locks would stop off to listen to a few songs before carrying on.

We had a really nice time–the band was good, the singers were great, and the older couples who got up and danced around the green were adorable. Even Brian admitted it was much more relaxing than he had anticipated, and he’s recommended it to a few people since.

The concerts are on Saturday and Sunday afternoons now through mid-September–I highly recommend you check them out. Take some chairs, take a picnic, and prepare to enjoy a relaxing and entertaining Sunday Funday afternoon.