Myyyyyy goodness…it has been a long time. So, this will be a long post…
Following the first Carnival LIVE, we had two more (Martina McBride and Chicago!), and while they were very exciting and cool to work, from a blogging standpoint, there wasn’t much more to add to the first post other than “We did the thing again! With different boxes!”
After that, my life was consumed with WEDDING. And cross-stitching (lol)
In the midst of getting together what I could while I was still on the ship, we were “kidnapped” on Cozumel for a joint bachelor/bachelorette party by our cast. We were given capes and crowns, and people had segregated them according to our last names.
We had to perform various tasks for “House Points,” such as “proposing to someone else (as sappily and emotionally as possible):”
Various trivias (with the help of our teams):
And a twerking contest:
[IMAGE REDACTED] 😛
In the end, we tied, because “marriage isn’t a competition,” or some nonsense like that. 🙂
It was a good day.
Then we came home, and hit the ground running…and…
…as of 2:28 pm September 6, 2014, I married the love of my life, on the nine year anniversary of the day we met. Hooray!
For our honeymoon, we decided to stick close to home (while still spending an exorbitant amount of money), and traveled to the Big Apple for a week. The original plan was to see 4 shows, and go to museums, and then just sort of play it by ear.
The first day, we had no evening plans, but when I discovered we were staying only about a block away from the Ziegfeld Theatre, I decided we just had to see what was playing there (provided that it wasn’t a horror film). The last time I’d been there I’d seen StarWars Episode 3. This time, the fare was considerably better: Guardians of the Galaxy. Hardcore recommend, but you will cry.
I started us out pretty busy the next day. First VideoGamesNewYork, a tiny little shop that is literally floor-to-ceiling vintage and modern video game paraphernalia.
From there, we moved on to Nintendo World, one of very few Nintendo shops in the world. Or, we tried. We found the LEGO Store first.
Those are drawers floor-to-ceiling full of LEGO bricks!
I tried to make a LEGO me and LEGO Frank at the “Build a Character” station, but there was no blonde hair for me, and no brown short hair for Frank! Sad.
We were in Rockefeller Center at this point, and made a point to look around.
We finally got to the Nintendo Store. WE GOT SO MANY STREET PASSES.
Easily my favorite part was the mini museum they had set up with their awards through the years, and display of handheld gaming systems.
After a short lunch break, we explored the city more and found M&Ms World.
Glorious.
Across the street is a Hershey’s shop.
And then we walked all the way back up Manhatten to see FAO Schwartz, where we found a Jim Henson Puppet display/shop
And GIANT candy
That evening we saw the first of our planned shows: Matilda
.Lovely. Highly recommend. It’s more based on the book than the Danny DeVito movie (lol), but it should be.
That evening, I was already not content with the amount of shows we were seeing, and I had just seen a show listed that was star-studded. With Frank’s blessing, I booked a matinee for the next day, and we were suddenly seeing two shows in one day. That’s a long time to be in dress-up clothes. But we did it!
First:
Comedy gold, if not a little self-indulgent. There was a good amount of “inside” jokes, if you’re a theatre person, along with name dropping; Nathan Lane dropped his own name at one point!
We filled the gap walking around, and eventually found the Fashion District by accident, purely because I saw a HUGE button and needle statue, and needed to find out what it was
And take a picture with it.
Then, we went Off-Broadway:
I’d seen a version of this before, but it’s hilarious every time.
Our third day, we intended to take a break from theatre. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We walked through Central Park, and stopped to see Balto.
At first, I thought we could see the entire museum, but by the time we finished the Ancient Greek bit, it was lunchtime. At that point, with 5 hours left, we decided to pick and choose the rest of the way.
We spent a long time in the music section. Frank plays guitar, and I played clarinet from grades 4-12.
Then moved on to Arms and Armament
Stopped by the Egyptian exhibit, where there’s an entire ancient temple
And some tomb stuff
Are you my mummy?
The Asian section was complete with a little rooftop garden
The American section was a bit of an afterthought for us, but did not disappoint.
Along with all the other great stuff they have to represent us, there is the most patriotic frame ever on this painting of George Washington. The top is cut off, and the rest is difficult to see through the glass, but the top is an eagle with two flags, and there are cannons down the sides.
We would have gotten a better picture, but we were politely being reminded that the museum was going to close in ten minutes, and if we could please get the hell out, that would be great, thanks.
Also this “WTF?” bust.
Seeing how it was only 5:30 when the museum closed, and we didn’t want to spend ludicrous amounts of money in the gift shop, we were left wondering what to do for the evening. I heard about 20at20 the evening before, which is a program in which you show up to a participating show 20 minutes before the show, and if there are seat available, you get tickets for $20. Pretty good deal. One really stuck out to me: Drunk Shakespeare.
We were across town, but made it in time to get ticket for this show in a bar. It turned out they were doing Macbeth, which is my all-time favorite of the Bard’s plays. The premise is that one of the actors takes 5 shots before the show, and then…they do the show. Abridged, obviously.
“Somehow” we ended up with “Mackie B’s” letter to his wife.
Needless to say, it was hilariously fun.
The next few days, we actually took it more easy on the sightseeing. We did go to Central Park a couple of times, and the Zoo once.
We saw Les Miserables
I’d never seen it, even the movie. It was incredible.
The last show we’d planned to see was Book of Mormon. I’d heard nothing but good things, but I had reservations, because the writers were the same from South Park and I’m not a huge fan of the show. However, I’m totally obsessed with that show now
Our Elder Cunningham was Benji from Pitch Perfect. Wonderful casting. I wish I had the recording of him.
The last full day, we had no plans, so I dragged us into the TKTS line to see if we could squeeze in one more show.
We could! I couldn’t resist. Idina Menzel was great, and the story and design we phenomenal. It’s really amazing what you can do with a big budget (light up, revolving stages!).
It was so wonderful to see all these great places and shows. My mom originally thought that it would be like a Busman’s Holiday, but it wasn’t. We both really enjoyed ourselves.
We’re also really anxious to get back to work, partly for a paycheck, but mostly because we have some exciting prospects coming up!
(New contract resolution: update this blog more!!!)
Backstage Travels 