SLACKER ALERT! Catching up on the month and a half!

Ok, ok. I had such high hopes of writing in this thing every week, but life gets crazy, you know?

So when we last saw our hero, she was leaving Jacksonville, FL...


Our next stop was a week sit-down in Wilmington, DE. Being in the downtown area, there wasn't too much around us, so my cast-mate, Tripp, organized a trip to Ramsey Family Farm to get us in the fall spirit! It was great to spend the day outside. We took a hayride around the property to learn about the farming practices and some history of the area, got to pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch, then did an 8-acre corn maze! The corn maze was definitely my favorite, I could see how someone could be in there for quite a long time.

After our week in Wilmington, we set out on our first set of split weeks. This would be a good time to go over some tour travel lingo..

Sit-Down: When we stay in one location for a period of time, usually a week.

Split-Week: When we are several places in one week, usually sitting for a couple days.

One-Nighters: The most dreaded part of tour, where we are a city for only one night, then leave the next morning for the next city.

Our first two split weeks took us all over the northern Midwest. To be honest, some cities I have to really struggle to remember them. In our first split week, we stopped in Sioux City, Iowa for a night and played at the beautiful Orpheum, with one of the most stunning lobbies I have ever seen.

The Safe House

We spent the weekend of our first split week in in Milwaukee, WI. Two and a half days (with 5 shows) doesn't really give you time to get to know a city, but we had a fair share of Milwaukee beers, and my friend from college, Dusty, showed me a bit of the Lower East Side and Lake Michigan. My favorite place that we found in Milwaukee was The Safe House, a spy themed speakeasy, located down a random alley. You had to know the password to get in, but if you didn't know it, you just had to do something embarrassing to get in and everyone could watch you on the TVs located all around the bar. It was complete with secret rooms and levels, trap doors, even a secret exit through a telephone booth. An unfortunate event happened in Milwaukee and my cast-mate, Jenny, landed on her foot funny during rehearsal and broke her foot! She's home healing and we can't wait to have her back.

Dusty with Katie and I after the show

Our next week involved driving and performing through the Dakotas and into Colorado.  Our drive from Bismarck to Fort Collins was so long that we needed to stop half way for the evening, and conveniently enough we stopped in Rapid City, SD, right by Mount Rushmore! We stayed in Fort Collins for the weekend, which again, with another 5-show weekend, was difficult to really get to know, but I did find an amazing vegan restaurant called Tasty Harmony. I love seeing the creative things that people come up with to do with vegan food! The main drag of the college town was littered with bars, restaurants, stores, and coffee shops, and is definitely a place that I would like to spend more time some day.

Brian and I.. in the same outfit 

The highlight of tour for me thus far has been our stay in Austin. My brother, Brian,  is a runner for University of Texas and has been living in Austin for the last 4 years, so I've been down a few times to visit him before, but our worlds really collided as South Pacific played for a whole week at the Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus. He always has a big race that weekend, so both my parents came down and it just so happened that the girl playing our lead left town for a wedding that weekend, so I got to play the role of Nellie Forbush for four performances and my family was there to see it! It was a really special weekend, one that my family will always remember. Here are some pictures that my cast-mate, Robert, took backstage as me as Nellie:

Besides that excitement of the week, Austin is one of my favorite cities, and it was awesome to get to spend the week there. We saw a lot of good music and partook in the craziness (and shuffleboard) on Sixth Street, shopped the unique shops and boutiques on Congress Street (especially antique shop Uncommon Objects), and ate our way through the city. Favorites were Chuy's (happy hour included a queso bar!), the began breakfast platter at Kirby Lane, vegan cupcakes from the Hey, Cupcake! truck, burritos at Freebirds, coffee and desserts at Mozart's, and dinner at the Congress Street Cafe.

Mom, Rachel, Brian, and Dad

The next week we had another split week before heading home for Thanksgiving. On another stop-over night in Jackson, MS, I got to meet up with my friends Kate and Ariana from the My Fair Lady tour, who were playing Jackson that week! I really enjoyed the one night we spent in Oxford, MS, cute town with great shopping and chill bars. The next night in Baton Rouge, our leading lady was battling some awful allergies and I got to go on for Nellie Forbush again. On our last day, we drove into two shows in Orange, TX, where in between shows the locals cooked us one of the most amazing meals I've ever had, I'm surprised we all fit into our costumes for the second show.

Ariana, Kate and I in Jackson!

After a series of split-weeks and a lot of time spent on the bus, we were all definitely ready for week off and I was very happy to spend time with family and friends in Albany, NY.

Stay tuned for New Orleans and Orlando!