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Hello to all from beautiful Eugene, Oregon and welcome to the second half of The Wedding Singer National Tour. I have some catching up to do, with my world travel over layoff and the past week back on the road.
For those of you who may not be up to speed, I headed immediately from Salt Lake City, our last tour stop before Christmas layoff, to New Zealand to visit Sean. I was very lucky and had no difficulty with connections or timing on my flights. I even made it through customs in Auckland so quickly that I was able to catch an earlier flight to Queenstown. I spent eight amazing days on the South Island exploring Queenstown and the surrounding area with Sean. Highlights of my time in NZ include trips to Bluff, Arrowtown and Milford Sound, a romantic evening at a hot spring and a gondola ride and amazing buffet meal overlooking Queenstown. Be sure to check out all of my New Zealand albums. The views were truly stunning.
Flights home from New Zealand were also pretty smooth, minus a long (planned) layover and a crying baby on my red-eye from California. I arrived home to NYC at 6:30 AM Christmas Eve, already missing Sean but happy to be spending Christmas with my family this year. I spent most of Christmas Eve resting and hanging out with Mom and Dad since Dev and Anthony had a show. We had a nice relaxing afternoon and then I headed out to Long Island to have dinner with Sean's family. It was great to see everyone and dinner was wonderful. Sean skyped with us during dinner, which made it even nicer. I stayed at Devin and Anthony's that night, and the whole family hung out at their house Christmas day. The boys were great hosts and cooked both wonderful breakfast and lunch for all of us, and Mom and Dad made a tasty prime rib dinner. Even though we missed Grandma and Grandpa, I was glad that we were together.
I rode to Cleveland with Mom and Dad on the 26th, and once again was glad the the travel was pretty quick and painless. It was nice to be home that night and sleep in my own bed in my own room for a few days. While in Cleveland we celebrated both belated Christmas and early New Year/Birthday with Grandma and Grandpa. A special thanks for the yummy oyster stew Grandma made for "New Year" and the plum duff of course. I also got to spend time at Faith and Luke's playing with Noah and Mia, with was great fun after missing them for nine months. The time at home just flew by, and before I knew it, I was flying back across the country to Seattle for the second half of tour.
Matt, our company manager, was kind enough to book us rooms at the Renaissance, Seattle for New Year's Eve. Although we didn't have a show that night, he had to be sure that everyone was ready to drive to Yakima and perform the next day. My friends Ashtia, Keith and I had dinner at McCormick Fish House and then joined up with many of our cast mates ringing in the 2010 on the 28th floor of our hotel. Since everyone was suffering from a bit of jet lag and we had show the next day, it was a pretty early evening.
New Years Day we traveled over the pass to Yakima. Having not been old enough to remember the last time I was in Washington state, I loved the natural beauty of the drive over the mountains. We had a great time playing Yakima the 1st and 2nd. Not only did they provide a punch and pie reception after each show and wonderful catering for the cast, the audiences were also enthusiastic and thoroughly enjoyed the show.
On Sunday the 3rd we spent 12 hours on the bus headed to Redding, CA. Since the following day was a travel/show day, I decided to celebrate my birthday early. A group of us had dinner at a Chevy's across the street from our hotel, and it was wonderful to spend time with friends old and new. And yes, I did have to wear a sombrero. Our bus call on Monday, the 4th was early, but we got to Bakersfield sooner than expected, which was a nice birthday gift. I had time to run some errands, banking etc which is hard to do on tour, before our call for the show. I also had a package from Sean waiting for me, which made me smile. Our venue in Bakersfield was an arena, but they did a great job making it feel like a theatre. It was a wonderful birthday show. After the show we beat feet to the movie theater next to our hotel and saw Avatar 3D. I loved it!
Tuesday was spent driving back up to Redding, where we actually performed Tuesday night to a great crowd. Yesterday was spent on the bus headed up to Eugene, OR. I have never been to Oregon and fell in love with the lush green countryside and forests. Once again we were blessed with a great audience last night. Today we had a half day off, which was much appreciated after sleeping most of the beginning of the week in my nest on the bus. Becca, Tiffani and I spent some time at the mall and now we're getting ready for another show. Tomorrow we head to Boise, Idaho for the weekend. Hope you enjoyed catching up and I'll try to write again soon.
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