The hills are alive...

...with what else but the Sound of Music! The purpose of this post is two-fold:
1. I love the Sound of Music wicked big time and I could talk about it for days if someong would just let me
2. I want everyone out there to love the Sound of Music too!

Ok, the basics:
The movie is about Fraulein Maria (as she will come to be called) who leaves her post as a nun to follow her dreams of becoming a governess (kidding, it wasn't her dream, the Reverand Mother made her go). Anywho, she goes to work for the Von Trapp family, the patriarch of which is Captain Georg Von Trapp. He has seven kids (Liesl, Frederick, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretel) and they have been kind of a pain in the tuchus to their previous governesses which they attempt again with Maria by playing harmless little pranks on her. Couple that with the Captain's "no fun" rule and you have the makings of a wonderful musical! So it's kind of clear from the beginning that the Captain and Maria are crushin' on one another but PROBLEM he is engaged to be married to Baroness Schrader (who is a very lovely woman, but let's face it - just not as good for the Captain as Maria is). There is a lot of singing and dancing to get through before (SPOILER ALERT) the captain and Maria finally get together and have a big snazzy wedding at the abby where Maria was once a nun. Unfortunately for them, the Nazis want the captain to serve in their Navy and since he refuses to do so, the family must escape Austria and climb over the alps to get to the safety of Switzerland which as we all know, just stays out of things.

Ok, on to the singing and the dancing:
 There are many beautiful songs in this movie (which was originally a thatrical musical and then moved to the big screen in the 1960's by director Robert Wise) that it would be hard to pick just one but here are a few of my faves:


A scene from the song "I Have Confidence"
with the REAL Maria Von Trapp circled in the background



A scene from the song "Edelweiss".
A beautiful song and my mom's favorite



"So Long, Farewell" sung at the end of the party scene
which ended tape #1 of the movie (for those that had it on VHS like I did!) 

Ok, now on to the truth:
It saddens me to say that the events as they unfold in The Sound of Music are not exactly what you would call historically accurate. The basic story holds true. Yes, Maria was their teacher (not even really a governess). Yes, she married the captain. Yes, they lived in Austria, but Agathe Von Trapp (one of the Von Trapp children portrayed in the movie) will tell you, "the family did not cross the alps to escape Austria. They crossed the street and boarded a train". The captain, was also not portrayed in a favorable light. In the movie he was played by the great Christopher Plummer as cold and serious but in real life, he was very loving and very musical (which is why in the second half of the film, the captain gets all lovey dovey when he hears the children singing).
In reality, Maria and Georg and their brood packed it up and moved to Stowe, Vermont where they started a farm which they would eventually turn into a hotel. Long story short, they built it, it burned down, they built it again and there is stands today, The Trapp Family Lodge. Oh it is a glorious glorious place. I was fortunate enough to go visit it for a short while this past summer while spending the weekend in Stowe and all I want to do is go back and actually stay there this time. Seriously, go to their website and tell me...does this not look like a fabulous place to visit and relax? No matter the season, it looks perfect!

I'm kind of surprised it took me this long to get a Sound of Music blog post up but here it is, I will no doubt post about it again, hopefully one of those posts will be my review of my stay there (fingers crossed that the hubs is reading this and wants to take me).

P.S. Here they all are on Oprah!


P.P.S. Thanks Colleen for inspiring this post!

Source - http://www.trappfamily.com/