Somebody asked me the other day what the highlight of my trip to the Middle East was. I've had about a week to think about it and to be honest, in an adventure where every day was a highlight it is a hard call. I had a ten-hour stay over in London on the way to the Tel Aviv and got to see Big Ben, the Tower of London, 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Had a great meal in a first class restaurant there but… that wasn't it. We landed in Tel Aviv and we were driven to Jerusalem. There we woke up every morning to the skyline of one of the most important cities for three major religions, dominated by the Golden Mosque and the Wailing Wall. We saw Gesthemene where Judas betrayed Jesus, the path he walked to be crucified, Calvary where he was executed and the Church that is built on the ground where he was buried but… that wasn't it. We were then driven to Masada where 1000 Jews held out defying the Roman Empire. We floated on the salty waters of the Dead Sea. In Jordan we saw Petra the Temples carved into the Sandstone Mountains filmed in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They were awesome but… nope that wasn’t it. We went to Egypt and saw the Sphinx and the Pyramids and cruised the Nile witnessing some of the oldest works of art and architecture that still survive today. It was awesome but… that wasn’t it. I'd have to say the highlight of my trip was my sister. She can make me laugh like nobody else on the planet. We had a great time reconnecting and peed our pants for three weeks at inside jokes, some new, many from the twenty plus years we shared our parents home. That was the highlight of my trip and I will remember that for the rest of my life.

I’m off to the WSOP (World Series of Poker) July 4th. Its one of the unchecked items on my bucket list and I’m thrilled to get the chance to play Texas Hold’em with the best poker players in the world. I have no delusions of grandeur, of outplaying the Daniel Negreanu’s, Phil Ivey’s or the Doyle Brunson’s, but as any poker player knows, luck gives even the least of us a fighting chance. It’s not the money. If I win anything, its going to charity. No, it’s the adrenaline rush of re-raising a guy who’s got you beat with nothing more than a flush draw and watching him fold his hand. It’s knowing that each time you play a hand there’s a good chance it could end with you getting up from your seat and hopping a plane home. Poker is a brutal game. No limit Texas hold’em is as Doyle Brunson says “the Cadillac of Poker” because its an unforgiving test of wills and skills where one mistake and you’re on you’re way home minus your money and your pride.  Gotta love it!

The weather was great in Montreal and Ottawa. The people were fantastic and I had a bushel fun. I’ve never been to our nation’s capital before. I had a blast playing to a packed house with talented Ottawa songwriters Tony Turner and Tom Lips. In Montreal, I shared the stage with “Plain Folk” a great quartet who’ve been together in one form or another for many years and I met a lot of nice folk afterwards when we all got together for pizza.

I finally have the pleasure of spending my first full month at home before I’m off again to Las Vegas for the WSOP in July. It’s a good thing because I need the time to put the finishing touches on Dragonfly, my musical about street kids, before we start rehearsals. We’ll be staging it every evening at the Youth Emergency Shelter during the Fringe August 12-22. Hope to see you there.

I just got back from San Francisco where I had a great time with my daughter and performing with talented singer songwriter Mike Ehlers in his backyard, Northern California. I’d been to San Francisco before a couple of times but never any farther north. This time I played Napa, Gilroy, Caspar, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Ukiah and got to see some beautiful scenery. Mike showed us the beaches he used to surf on, my daughter did some wine tasting and overall we had a wonderful time.  I’m back for a week then I’m off to Montreal and Ottawa to play the Side Door Coffee House in Pierrefonds, QC at 8 PM May 14th and Elmdale Tavern in Ottawa 7 PM May 16th. If know anyone who’s going to be in the neighborhood tell them to drop in and say hello.

No matter how badly you itch to get away, after a long stay abroad, it’s always great to come home. Don’t get me wrong, I had the time of my life. I went to the Middle East with my sister and we laughed, sometimes uncontrollably, as we were dazzled by the places we read about in Sunday school. We were left in awe by wonders like Masada, Petra, the Sphinx and Pyramids and so much classical art and architecture that we’d be hard pressed to name a highlight. More importantly, we got a chance to reconnect. I guess because we’d spent the better part of the first twenty years of our lives together, we soon found it was easy to travel together. We also had a lifetime’s worth of inside jokes that still make us pee our pants, enough to last us to the final day of our three week stay (ok there were a few repeats but some classics just never get tired?). We were both happy however to return to the place of our birth where the people we love are. I’ve spent a great part of my life wishing I lived somewhere where it didn’t snow for half a year but lately I’ve realized that although those places may be warm that’s all they are. There’s nowhere else on this globe I’d rather live than here where I was raised. I’m thrilled to be home!