We scurry around on road trips to see our extended family between our missions. It felt so luxurious to FLY to Houston in January to see Patrick and Annamarie, on the occasion of the Houston Grand Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” Patrick has sung in the opera chorus there for many years, but we had never seen one of his performances. This particular opera is a bit light on scenes with the chorus, but we just had to take the opportunity to go during the winter.
We sat in the highest row of the balcony, hearing and seeing perfectly, with the stage and orchestra almost straight down from us. The principal singers were magnificent, heart-breakingly beautiful. The chorus remained in character, moving the story along. Of course they hid Patrick’s curly hair to make him “oriental,” but it was lovely to see and hear him in that context. We sat with Annamarie; his parents and cousin were several rows down from us.
Before the opera, we feasted at Birraporetti’s, one block away. The rain stopped before we took time to tour the display of “Madame Butterfly” costumes on our way to the balcony. There were actually several entrees available to eat in the opera lounge as a pianist played. Houston Grand Opera is going out of its way to attract new audience members. Several of those sitting near us said it was their first time at the opera. We had an extraordinary evening.
Earlier in the week, we went out to dinner with Patrick’s grandparents, and spent part of Sunday in their home. We found we had lots in common and were so glad to finally meet them!
Since both Patrick and Annamarie work long hours each week, we arranged an apartment less than a mile from their home. The last time we visited them, Patrick was in Boston finishing a course in piano tuning — so this visit was way overdue. Because we were nearby, it was easy to go walking with Annamarie:
I was grateful for the wide open breezeways at our apartment, which allowed me to put in my daily three miles without risking the rain. Rachel had mailed a new puzzle for us all to assemble — which took most of the week:
This is a very delightful, complex puzzle. Our main difficulty was that Annamarie currently has no table at her home; and our adorable rental apartment featured only this coffee table…
Sunday is generally the busiest day for Annamarie and Patrick, who sing five services at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. They suggested we attend the 6 p.m. service, which was full of truly beautiful music. (We are grateful that we can usually hear church solos by Annamarie or Patrick on youtube. They also alert us to especially beautiful musical numbers. During the pandemic, there were weeks when the two of them were the entire choir…)
Because we are accustomed to church at 9 a.m. we asked to tag along with Patrick’s mom to First Baptist Church Houston. Imagine an amphitheater with stages and multimedia and bands… It was easy to sing along. We enjoyed the sermon, and then joined a smaller Sunday School group. We were not surprised to hear announcements in that smaller group inviting people to help feed the hungry and provide assistance to immigrants. We felt right at home. This church campus is located at a major freeway intersection. We parked at a parking garage within a short walk of our apartment, then boarded a Baptist bus to get to the mega church. We remembered how many times in Missouri we had wished we had a Baptist bus to help transport all our members to Church. It really was a sweet way to get to church!
We left as Patrick’s schedule was about to settle down again. We were so glad he and his mama could join us to play a few rounds of Azul. We expect the extended Perez clan will enjoy this game as much as we have.
Houston is so very far away from us… but just a few hours of flight time brought us back to chilly Billings. We are so glad for the opportunity to spend quality time with Patrick’s parents and grandparents and Annamarie.
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