April showers bring May flowers!

I can't believe it's been a month (and some) since I've updated!

So many things have happened since then. We finished off our 2nd week in Dallas, then went to Palm Desert for 3 days. It was hot and dry. My parents got to see the show! I think it's the first time they've both seen my work.

A shot from the theatre's parking lot.

After Palm Desert, we had a week layoff, where I got my new iPad, Padawan. I call the show from him. I've also been sketching a lot to pass the time on our travel days.

After layoff, we went to Washington for the week. I spent the day in Seattle and visited Pike's Place. Bought some truffle cheese, chocolate, etc. It was amazing.

We spent last week in San Jose. The theatre was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright! We spent a day at the Tech Museum (well, 'I' spent the whole day there...) It was really awesome! A lot of hands on stuff and even a Jetpack simulator.  I bought a Geek poetry magnet kit from the gift shop. It's on our company fridge.

We're currently in Tucson. Another hot and dry place! This morning, we visited the Sonora Desert Museum and hiked some trails. There were a TON of cacti and animals. (Pictures to come soon.) Cool fact, you're not allowed to harm a Saguaro cactus.

We have 2 weeks of 1 nighters/split weeks coming up after Tucson. That means no day adventures :/ (except bus journeys and walmart/food stops)

Time to play tennis and head to the pool before the show tonight!
Cherie

2 week sitdown in Dallas!

LONGHORNS!
That's right, we're in Tejas!

You know what that means? Shinerbock and barbecue!

Haven't found BBQ yet... so, I had Shiner with Ham & Cheese instead,

We're in an adorable little hotel in town, and being in the room feels like we're on vacation.

On Tuesday, some of the cast from Young Frankenstein drove down from Fort Worth to come see our show. We all went out to a bar called "Barcadia". It was free play night, and they had free play on all games all night!! I was in nerd heaven. Frogger, Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, skeeball, giant jenga, and giant connect 4! After getting my gaming fill, we went in search of food. There was a place called Taqueria Lupitas a block from the Bar, and they had fantastic food! Ya know what else they had? A latino drag show. Yep! The place was packed until closing time at 2:30am.

This afternoon, a few company members and I went to see Million Dollar Quartet. I'd never seen it before, but did enjoy it. The bump cues in the opening number would be crazy fun to call! The understudy for Jerry Lee Lewis was amazing. It's refreshing to be in the audience of a show!


Pre Dallas update: My new favorite hotel is the Country Inn in Sioux Falls. I had a huge jacuzzi IN my bedroom.

Bed time! Early rehearsal tomorrow.

Ciao,
Cherie

1 nighters galore!

After our 2 week sit down in Canada, we are in the midst of 1 / 2 nighters. My favorite stop so far is Indiana University (Bryan's alum!). It's such a pretty campus, and it's lovely downtown.

I got to check out Nick's English Pub ($4 avion margaritas), Upstairs pub (AMF, $1 well drinks), and Village Deli (Cinnamon bun pancakes, cheesy potatoes, breakfast burrito). I wish we stayed a little longer. The auditorium on the hill was great, and they had a lit up display of Graffiti Pete!

They also had a really cool piano sculpture of Hoagie Carmichael outside the stage door!

Here's the noms from Village Deli!

Currently in Lincoln, NE. Off to Sioux Falls tomorrow!

Cherie

Toronto Food Blog! Guud food!

We're in Toronto until Sunday the 19th. It's a lovely city! It's cold, but most things are indoors... Toronto reminds me of Philly. I'd love to come back sometime in the not-so-cold future! The Chinatown here is pretty rad! We got some awesome Dim Sum and 6 for $3 buns there. Also, milk tarts are yummy. Never had them before.

Things I've done: take the TTC daily, walk around the GIANT mall, get lost in the Bloor mall after a failed attempt to visit the Royal Ontario Museum, buy a giraffe in the gift shop, eat at fabulous places, try to get the internet to work in our room, cook valentine's day breakfast (sauteed mushrooms & brie omeletes with french toast and strawberries), and much much more!

Here's a picture food blog of Guu Izakaya. This place is amazing. Everything from the ambiance, to the service, to the food, is worth the trip. A place so nice, we went there twice (and might possibly visit again). Everything is under $10! When you first walk in, the staff greets you loudly and welcomes you in.  There are seats available at the bar, and 3 or 4 long tables where strangers sit together.

Here's what we ordered:

Gekkeikan Hot House Sake 10oz ($8.50)
Sake Mojito - Sake, lime, mint, guu original ramune. ($6.50)
Lulu Melon Cocktail - Melon liqueur, vodka, guava juice, soda ($6.00)

Off right: Karaage - Deep fried soy sauce marinated chicken served with garlic mayo ($6.80)

Kabocha Korokke - Deep fried kabocha pumpkin croquette with a hard boiled egg inside ($4.80)

The inside of the Kabocha Korokke

Brie Cheese - Deep friend brie cheese with mango and blueberry sauce ($6.80)

Takoyaki - Deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo ($5.00)

Okonomiyaki - Deep fried japanese pancake with squid. Topped with tonkatsu sauce & karashi mayo ($6.80)

 

Yakiudon - Pan fried udon noodles with beef, mushrooms, and scallion ($7.80)

Hotate Carpaccio - Hokkaido scallop sashimi with wasabi dressing ($6.80)

Salmon Natto Yukke - Chopped salmon sashimi with seven friends -
[natto, shibazuke, takuan, wonton chips, garlic chips, scallion, & raw egg yolk] ($8.80)
Don't get this dish unless you're very adventurous.

Seafood Spoons - 2 Tuna spoons, 2 octopus spoons with rice. ($5.80)

Salmon Tataki - Seared B.C. salmon sashimi with ponzu, wasabi mayo, and garlic chips ($6.80)

Attack!

Ebimayo - Deep fried prawn with spicy mayo ($7.80)

You also get a raucous"goodbye" greeting when you leave!



All in all, an AWESOME adventure.

Anyway, I have to get up early for understudy rehearsal tomorrow. Somebody has to cover Sonny tomorrow. "Chillax, you know you love me"

Good night!
Cherie

Macon Food blog!

Macon, macon, macon... What can I say about macon...

- Apparently, a member of the staff got drunk, went up to the grid/thunder room to sleep, and died. (It happened a long time ago, but there is an outline of where he died.)
- There is a jim crow seating mezzanine (Some of our cast got a tour during our understudy reh and said that the acoustics are amazing.) See this blog post for pictures.
- A homeless guy wandered in the stage door (which were by the wings) during "No Me Diga". He was promptly chased out by the big burley stage door man.
- DON'T try and order sushi there. If they ask you what chirashi is, just hang up.
- Don't walk alone at night

One gem from Macon was "Michael's on Mulberry". Everything we ordered was DELICIOUS. We split everything, and it was about $25 per person. Friendly staff, and the service was faster than the burger king down the street.

Crab cakes. A lot of crab meat. So yummy!

Creole Nachos.

Spinach salad and hot bacon dressing. Yeah.

Pecan crusted chicken, pesto mash, and green beans

Pasta of the day. Creamy & yummy

Hot fresh pecan pie with a scoop of ice cream

Will post about rockets, and hobos, and huntsville (oh my) tomorrow!

Cherie

Chicago Bar blog! (And Lexington)

A week behind... But better late than never!

We hit up a lot of bars while in Chicago - Hopleaf, Pops for Champagne, and Green Mill.

T-bone introduced us to Hopleaf. I had the D'Achouffe and shared mussels & frites with Mouse. It's a hipster place, but the beer and food are good! On our way North, some idiots pulled the emergency brake on the red line, and the train stopped for 5 mins while all the doors stayed open. Thank goodness Mouse and I were bundled up.

Pops for Champagne was right by our hotel. (It was my first time in a champagne bar.) I was VERY impressed. So impressed that I went back twice! They have about 10 champagnes available (by glass), and even the "cheap" champagnes were GREAT. They had live music both times I was there. I highly recommend the frites (which come with a house made ketchup and some sort of japanese style mustard.)

Green Mill is a prohibition style jazz lounge that had a live big band the night we went. Our bass player and drummer got to sit in and play a few songs. It was great! It was also freezing that night... There was swing dancing on the tiny dance floor.

I already miss Chicago. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their schedule to show me around town!
I'll try and visit again in the summer!


We are leaving Lexington in about 6 hours. It's a cute little town.
There's a Tequila bar across the street from the theatre! Highly recommended. The tacos and guac are muy delicioso. If you're hungry late at night, Goodfella's pizza is open til 3am.
There was a basketball game yesterday morning. The town was FILLED. People were drinking crappy beer in the hotel lobby at 11am.


This blog was more of a "bullet point" post... I would write more in depth, but I'm currently watching 30 Rock, The Simpsons, and Once Upon a Time...

Off to NC tomorrow & Tues, followed by Macon, GA, and then Huntsville, AL for the weekend! We're in the South, y'all!

Off to shower, pack, try to sleep, and then get up in 5 hours for our luggage call.

Cherie

Chicago Food blog!

Chicago is a wonderful city! It's been my favorite stop on the tour so far. The restaurants here are amazing.

On my first night here, I went to Sable and had a small order of Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Waffles bourbon maple syrup, as well as the Deviled Eggs with truffle oil & black trumpet mushrooms.
Jim and I went back last night had he got an order of Seared Scallops with tomato chutney & madras curry oil and Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds with spicy ketchup. We shared a War of the Roses cocktail (Pimm's, Bombay Dry Gin, St-Germain, mint, fresh lime), as well as an order of the Dark Chocolate Souffle Cake with Peanut Butter Sauce & Salted Caramel Ice Cream, which was DIVINE. Everything at Sable is AWESOME.

Yesterday, Kat and I went to Three Happiness Restaurant for Dim Sum in Chi-town's Chinatown (which I call Chi-town). It was alright. For such a well known Chinatown, I expected a little more. We got an order of the Shui Mai, Sticky rice in leaf, Turnip cake, char siu bao, and pan fried pork buns (Which was Kat's suggestion, and personally I think it was one of the better dishes we got... wah wah.) Check out the haiku here!

This morning, I met up with Kay and headed to the Orange Restaurant. It's contemporary brunch with "a peel". I got an order of the Frushi, that's right... Fruit Sushi! (Nigiri - Coconut rice with a slice banana, topped with pear and raspberry jam. Maki - Pineapple/Grapefruit rice with bits of apple on the inside, topped with jam. Dish served over mango sauce). And off the kid's menu, I got the Fruity Pebble Baby Cakes (Five silver dollar buttermilk pancake made with fruity pebbles inside and topped with fruity pebble infused butter). The pancakes were good, but not amazing. The Frushi is definitely worth trying!

5 show weekend! I can't believe we're leaving Chicago so soon. The weather was fabulous for the first few days we were here. (40/50s). I visited Millenium park and played the ukulele by the face fountains. Also visited the bean (pictures to come soon)

I'll try and visit in the Summer, windy city!

Time for a 2 show day!
Cherie