Sunday Musical Afternoon Series Hits the Spot!!!

There are so many reasons to be proud of our little corner of the world...from the beauty and history of Frenchtown itself, to the businesses around town that welcome outsiders "into the fold" and encourage them to come back to our little town, to the local residents who go out of their way to support our local establishments and be a part of our community.

Today, we have the pleasure of hosting another session of our Sunday Musical Afternoon series. It's a day that we have been anxiously awaiting for a few weeks: Mike Pfeiffer will perform from 5 - 7 p.m. upstairs in our Restaurant & Bar. If you have been fortunate enough to catch him during our Thursday Open Mic Night series, then you know you have to come to The National Hotel today. What a performer! Just super. I'll try to capture some of it today on video & will post it to The National Hotel NJ youtube channel. In the meantime here's one from an impromptu jam session where musicians jumped in at The Rat:

For us, having recently celebrated our one-year anniversary of the date we took ownership of The National Hotel, it's just another gift Frenchtown has given us. One year. Oh yes, we remember the renovations in the dark, using flashlights to make our way around the shuttered building because JCP&L was busy restoring power to homes who had suffered losses during a recent storm, and was therefore unable to establish new lines...and the water that had been turned off and took yet another week to have in our building. Oh yes, we remember cleaning borrowing buckets of water from our neighbors...But no matter the challenges, we are so pleased with the result today--especially, because The National Hotel has become family to so many people who come through its doors frequently to enjoy wonderful food, great drinks, and above all, that sense of community, that warmth you feel when you see familiar faces, old friends and new.

Yesterday was Frenchtown's National Night Out, an annual celebration and "give-back" to the community, where the Frenchtown Police Dept. organizes a special day in town with lots of activities for the children, good food, and fun for the whole family, together with the Lions Club. Pete and I stopped by to share in a little bit of the fun, and we were greeted by SOOOOO many people that we felt as if we were floating. The music was fun, the food hit the spot, and the Birch Beer was awesome!

We loved seeing the kids enjoying themselves in gigantic inflatable bounce houses and slides...and to see their anxious faces when the raffle drawing came, each one waiting to see who would win the bicycles and helmets, raffle tickets in hand...incredible fun! Congratulations Frenchtown!

Alright, lots to do today...off to the races...getting ready for this afternoon's performance, while actually still having warm memories from last week's fabulous performance by The Royal Arboretum, featuring Lee and Kristen. I'm not done editing, but will share clips soon...