The month of March blew by in a whirlwind of exciting news (Junos!), memorable shows (yay!) and LOTS of travel prep. We recently returned home from an amazing week-long tour on northern Vancouver Island filled with ferry rides, vocal warm-ups in the van and not nearly as much sleep as needed to remain sane. We started the week with six shows in 72 hours throughout the communities of Sointula, Alert Bay, Port Hardy, Port Alice and Port McNeill. 

 
Check out a student blog post from Mrs. Watson’s class at A.J. Elliot Elementary in Sointula for a peek at some of our musical adventures! http://mrswatson123.edublogs.org/2010/03/22/bobs-and-lolo/ 

Highlights of our trip:
1. A nice visit and home-cooked meal with Lolo’s sister, Katie!
2. Riding on the bridge of the BC Ferry from Alert Bay to Port McNeill. Special thanks to the crew for the warm welcome and kind hospitality! Thanks for buying a few CDs too…we treated ourselves to dinner out that night!
3. Signing autographs at Robert Scott Elementary in Port Hardy – Lolo actually attended Kindergarten and Grade 1 here!
4. The long, winding road out to Port Alice. A beautiful drive!
5. Randomly discovering the world’s largest burl in Port McNeill!

 
We ended our short road trip with a couple of shows at the Errington Memorial Hall. Big hugs to the Errington Co-op Preschool for inviting us to share our music and programming with the community. We enjoyed meeting families from all over the island and even some out of province visitors too!

Now it’s back to reality with a few days of admin catch-up before we dive into more musical adventures over the long weekend.

 
We hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring and that you have an eggs-ellent long weekend!  Next stops for us:

Science World (Vancouver, BC) – April 4 & 5
Autism Speaks Fundraiser (Abbotsford, BC) – April 10
Coldstream Elementary (Vernon, BC) – April 12
Lavington Elementary (Vernon, BC) – April 12
Kids’ Jam (St. John’s, NL) – April 17 JUNO AWARDS!

Full details available on our events calendar: http://bobsandlolo.com/blog/the-big-calendar/

See you soon!

Bobs & Lolo        

Our mini-tour in British Columbia and Alberta has definitely started off on a high note! With more than 1200 kilometers covered and 7 shows down, we’ve definitely set a crazy pace for the first part of our tour. The adventures began in Vancouver with our first challenge being the task of fitting all of our gear into the car!

We eventually got everything to fit, and our first stop landed us in Kelowna, BC for a couple of shows at The Natural Baby Shop. A huge thank you to Angie for hosting us for our debut performances in the Okanagan! We’re looking forward to returning to the region for the Okanagan Children’s Festival next spring.

We tackled the long drive to Edmonton the following day – 10 hours! We’ve already completed 5 performances in the city, and we are having a great time introducing our music to families all around town. Highlights of our visit so far include:

1. Loads of new faces!
2. Fabulous singing & dancing!
3. Wonderful hospitality from the Chapters/Indigo staff!
4. Whitemud Drive – we’ve been driving that route A LOT!
5. West Edmonton Mall!
6. Crisp, frosty mornings and gorgeous, sunny skies!

We are really enjoying our mini-concerts at the local Chapters and Indigo stores. Special thanks to all the families that have come out to join in on the fun! We’re looking forward to our next stop in Calgary…more stories and photos to come soon!

We’re looking forward to our next musical adventures!

Bobs & Lolo

P.S. Special thanks to Isaiah (West Edmonton Mall) for taking the time to come up after the show and thank us for “coming to Canada”. You’re still making us smile today:)

We recently received a very beautiful letter that inspired us to write this blog. The letter was from a mother with two young daughters, and it definitely reinforced the power of positive role models for children and the strength of friendship. Our special thanks to Yasuko for sharing her thoughts with us…

Many of you already know that “Bobs & Lolo” first met at a Girl Guide Camp on Vancouver Island. After a weekend of campfire sing-a-longs, delicious snappy snacks and silly pranks, we knew we were destined to be best buds forever! We often share stories from the early years of our friendship at our live shows, and we were extremely flattered to learn that Yasuko found our story inspiring enough to take the time to send a letter on our behalf to the Girl Guides of Canada’s head office in Toronto, Ontario.

As a result of Yasuko’s support and initiative, the Girl Guides of Canada organization is currently promoting a Bobs & Lolo Prize Contest. Click here for more information about the contest and to learn more about the organization. The prize package includes a Sea Notes CD, Musical Adventures CD, On Your Feet DVD, Bobs & Lolo t-shirts and more! Contest deadline is September 30, 2008.

Before we sign off from this one, we also want to give a big shout out to our Moms for being such incredible role models to us…as well as being two of our first Guiders! We love you Momma Pond and Momma Hardy!!

So we travel on together,
Through the bright and stormy weather,
Striding forth in work and game,
We are joined by the Guiding spirit,
The world is ne’re the same
- Sisters in Guiding (3rd verse)

And one more final treat…Lolo in her Brownie uniform (circa 1985):