I Love Rock and Roll

Marina loves the song “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and I’m a fan of the band Heart. Both bands were performing this evening and Marina was very excited. While she has been to concerts before, we’ve never gone together.

We arrived  early but it took us a really long time to get into the building and even longer to get drinks and snacks. We finally got to our seats after the opening act, Elle King, had already started performing. Fortunately we didn’t miss her most famous song, “Exes and Ohs” which Marina really likes.

Next up were Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. They played a fantastic set and I could see Marina jamming along with each song. She was especially happy during “I Love Rock and Roll.” Joan sounded great and her guitarist was incredibly talented.

When Heart took the stage we weren’t quite as into it. While the band sounded good, the songs they picked were unfamiliar and were didn’t feel the same excitement we had with Joan Jett. We were both a bit bored through much of it.

Once the concert ended it was late and we were ready to go home. It had been a very long day.

Exploring Wonderland

About six months ago, a new hotel opened not too far from our house. This summer, they were having a Summerfest featuring Alice in Wonderland. Marina and I were interested in checking it out. Marina decided to wear her Alice costume.

We had to get up early this morning for Breakfast in Wonderland. We arrived at the hotel and found the restaurant easily. It featured a buffet breakfast with Alice, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit. We filled our plates and sat down. Shortly after we did, the White Rabbit came by our table. Marina had a nice interaction with him and at one point he ran off with her purse causing her to chase him. Alice and the Mad Hatter also stopped by to visit.

After breakfast, we found the pool area to take part in the Cheshire Cat’s Scavenger Hunt. We found a few of the clues along the way. The hotel is huge and some of the clues we got help from the employees to find. Once we got them all, Marina received a prize – a fun light up necklace.

We were signed up for the Mad Hatter’s Escape Room at 2:00 pm, so we found a quiet place to sit for a while. We ate at the sports bar for lunch and then waited for our time I the escape room. We were the first to arrive but soon we were joined by two families.

The escape room was set up like a tea party with hats everywhere and clocks all over the wall. The Mad Hatter joined us and set us looking for puzzle pieces to solve a riddle. Marina and two girls found three keys and used them to open a complex lock. That produced a blacklight, which she used to look for the riddle. It took about half an hour to solve the riddle.

After we escaped the room, we were ready to go home.

Baseball and Stranger Things

Marina is a fan of the TV show Stranger Things. When she found out the Rockies were having a Stranger Things Night, she wanted to go. Unfortunately I was not able to get us the package which included the t-shirt. But she wanted to go anyway. She dressed up as her favorite character, Eleven.

We arrived with plenty of time to look around and find our seats. Lots of people stopped Marina to compliment her on her costume. We had a really good view of the field. We watched the first couple of innings before going to the line to see Dinger. While we were waiting, the game was briefly suspended for lightning. So we had a longer wait than expected. But we made the best of our time by chatting with the people in line with us.

After we got Marina’s photo with Dinger, we picked up drinks and snacks and went back to our seats. The Rockies were not playing well and Marina’s stomach was bothering her, so we left after the eighth inning. The Rockies lost to the Pirates 9 to 4.

Fortunately we were able to leave the parking lot quickly and get home before it was too late.

Hot Day at the Zoo

Marina and I slept in this morning. And after a leisurely start to the day, we decided to go to the zoo this afternoon. It was a beautiful day but very hot. We found a place to park quickly and went right in.

We started at Predator Ridge where we found four lions resting in the shadows of their exhibit. Right next to that was an African wild dog sleeping right next to the glass. Marina loved looking at it. We walked along and saw the cheetah, kangaroos and water buffalos.

We stopped for lunch at our favorite barbecue place. After she ate, Marina wanted ice cream. She chose the Oreo flavor. Then we headed back through the zoo.

We went through the Asian exhibit because Marina wanted to see the otters. When we arrived at their enclosure they were all sleeping. It was adorable! Across the way was the fishing cat. We rarely see them because they tend to hide, but today it was prowling around. We watched it for a while and it kept eyeing us, but with each pass through the exhibit, it got closer to us. It never came up to the glass as we were hoping.

We next saw two elephants that seemed to be messing around with each other. It was fun to watch them tussle with each other. We headed to the tiger exhibit but none of them were outside, so we went on to see the seals and then the sea lions. One sea lion was barking at something, but what it was we never saw.

By the time we made the full loop around the zoo we were both very hot and ready to get out of the sun. So we went home to cool off.

Razzle Dazzle

This summer, Marina discovered a version of “The Cell Block Tango” from Chicago on YouTube. After that she was very interested in the musical. I gave her the movie soundtrack to listen to. We were both excited when a local theatre group announced Chicago as their summer musical.
Marina was unsure what to wear, so I suggested her black dress with silver sequins. All night she got comments that her dress was perfect for the show!

Chicago was being performed in a space we had never been there before, so we needed a little help finding it. It turned out to be a covered entrance which led to an elevator. We took it up to the fourth floor which led us to the theater space. It was a nice area with a small lobby with a bar which led to the theater.

In the lobby we met up with, the director of the show. I had met her before and I introduced her to Marina. We told her how excited we were to see it. We got drinks before finding our seats.
The stage space was small and it was set up like a jazz club. Seated next to us was a man and his ten year-old daughter. Marina seemed to connect with them easily. So we all chatted until the show started.

The performance was spectacular. Our seats were in the front row so we were practically in the middle of the action. During the song “Razzle Dazzle” our friend who was splaying Billy Flynn, actually knelt down in front of me and touched my hand! Even though the content was often mature, Marina handled it well.

After the show, Marina said she loved it. We waited in the lobby to see our friend. He was gracious a always. And despite having a lot of people waiting to see him, he spent quite a bit of time with us. There was a dog in the cast and it was in the lobby as well. Marina was so happy that she was able to pet the dog. I think he liked her too!

Marina had hope to meet the actress who played Velma. But she didn’t come out. But as we were leaving, I ran into the actress who played Roxie. She and Marina had quite a nice talk. After that we headed home. We both thought it was a fantastic show.

Unicorn Palooza

Marina and I had plans for today, but unfortunately the event was cancelled. So we had an open morning and afternoon. Today was Unicorn Palooza at a local outlet mall. So we decided to check that out since we also had some shopping to do.

We had a big breakfast and then headed out. It turned out that Unicorn Palooza was very popular so there were large crowds around all the activities. Marina and I walked around to see what they had. We walked by the Mermaid Lagoon and saw one of our friends was there. We waved to her but he line was really long.

We decided to let the lines die down while we went shopping. After we finished our shopping, we stopped at the food court and got smoothies before going to check out the Unicorn activities. We stood in line for the petting zoo first. It moved quickly and Marina really liked getting close with some animals. She liked the donkey and emu in the pen, but her favorite was the rabbit they had there.

Next we went back to the mermaid lagoon. The line was much shorter and it moved quickly. We spent a few minutes chatting with our friend when it was our turn. It was such a hot day we felt bad for her!

Marina was ready to go home, but we still hadn’t seen Tinkerbell. Her spot was at the end of the unicorn stalls. The line for that was huge, so we asked if we could just see her. The actress recognized us right away. We were able to sneak in for a few photos before we left.

Painting A Whole New World

It has been quite a while since Marina and I have attended a paint and sip class. With the release of the new Aladdin film earlier this year, our favorite paint and sip studio scheduled a few paintings based on that. Marina and I were even more excited when we saw that our favorite instructor was leading the class.

We arrived early for the class and found a group of women who made up the rest of the class were already there. When we saw the instructor, she remembered us and gave us each a big hug. She said she’d looked for us at other Disney paintings, which was so sweet!

Since everyone was there, the class started a bit early. The painting was a bit more complex than previous ones we had done. We had to make a moon and the sky with clouds, the magic lantern and the figures of Aladdin and Jasmine in the background. It took longer than the two hours allotted. But overall we liked how they turned out.

By the time we finished out paintings it was late and we were both very tired and ready to go home. So we hugged the instructor before we left.

Corteo

It’s been a few years since Marina and I attended a Cirque du Soliel show. So we were both excited to go to Corteo this evening. After I picked Marina up from school, we had dinner at home before heading out to the arena. We ran into some pretty awful traffic, but fortunately we had left early, so we arrived in plenty of time for the show. In the lobby we ran into a former coworker of mine who we talked to for a while.

Before taking our seats, we stopped to pick up popcorn and drinks. We had a good view of the stage. The past two shows I brought Marina to were inside a large tent in the parking lot. This show was actually inside the arena, so if didn’t feel as close as those others.

The performance started with aerialists performing on chandeliers. Marina loved that part. It also featured trampoline stunts, juggling and acrobats. It was a very strange storyline, but we enjoyed it. After it was over, we were both tired and fortunately we arrived home quickly.

The Tale of Sweeney Todd

Marina has been a Stephen Sondheim fan for a while and looks forward to seeing his shows. One of my favorites is Sweeney Todd. It’s labelled as a “musical thriller” since it is about a serial killer. Marina decided that she was finally ready to see it.

When we arrived in the mountain town and found the theatre easily. We looked around for somewhere to eat and ultimately decided on a brewpub which bragged about its chicken wings. We ordered drinks, wings and nachos. The food took quite a while but fortunately we were right across the street from the theatre and we arrived with plenty of time to see the show.

This production of Sweeney Todd was intense and creepy, but not bloody. Marina enjoyed the humorous parts and really got into the story. After the show she said she really liked it. As we were leaving she asked me about meeting the cast. I wasn’t sure how to do that since I hadn’t been there before. But when we entered the lobby we found the entire cast doing meet and greets still in their costumes. Marina was happy to meet the actors who played the main characters. She especially liked Toby. She spoke with him for a while.

The drive home was a long one and Marina tried to sleep but had trouble doing it. We arrived home very late and she went right to bed.

The Last Defender

For Marina’s birthday last year, we tried an escape room. We both enjoyed that, so we decided to try another one. This one was called The Last Defender. It was set in the Cold War era. From what I read, we would be given a series of puzzles to solve to try and save the world.

We arrived a bit early, so we sat and waited. As the rest of our group arrived, we chatted with them. We ended up with eight in our group. The other people seemed really nice.

To start the game, we each were assigned a name and a locker. I was “Mainframe” and Marina got “Heavy Duty.” We had to put on flight suits then we got into an elevator. We didn’t seem to move until I spotted a small door in the elevator. I pulled out a cartridge and a set of keys and then the door opened.

We went into a technical looking room. Each of us was assigned a part of the room to look around in. I went to Storage. Marina and I were both in the Engineering Department, and we were assigned a series of tasks that had us running around the room. Then we watched a video which gave us our real mission.

Marina figured out how to get the numbers for a code. Those numbers were for a safe I saw in storage. We found the manual with the cartridge I gathered earlier. Then we unlocked all the puzzles around the room. While those were assigned, I worked with two of the guys to unlock the control panel.

Marina had a task in the sleeping quarters and I went back into Storage to find the goggles. The goggles led me to a piano where I had to play a code. That opened a secret room where I h

ad to put metal balls into slots to determine the code. Marina helped me sort that out.

We were running out of time, but the team only had two codes to find. Marina and I went to help on different ones. Unfortunately, we ran out of time. We were all disappointed because we were so close to solving it. Despite that, we all had a great time.

After the game, we picked up some cold drinks and walked to the train. We didn’t have to wait too long before it arrived. It was a fun evening, but we were wiped out by it.

Anastasia Musical

Marina has been very interested in the animated character Anastasia. That interest sparked when I bought tickets for us to see the Broadway tour of the musical. I got the tickets about a year ago, so we had to wait until today to see it.

Marina wore her Anastasia costume to the show. We had tickets for the matinee performance. As we made our way into the theatre many people complimented Marina on her outfit. She was pleased with that.

The show ended up being very different from the movie. It was darker with all the magic elements removed. Added to the storyline were references to the murder of the czar and the Soviet government that took over. Despite all the changes Marina enjoyed the show.

Star Wars at the Stadium

The Colorado Rockies Star Wars Night is an event Marina and I have enjoyed the past few years. We were looking forward to the game tonight. Marina wore her Rey costume again and I dressed as Qi’ra. We left the house two hours before the game, hoping to get to the stadium early.

By the time we parked the car, rode the shuttle to the stadium and got through security, we weren’t as early as we hoped. We went immediately to the parade staging area so we could take part in that. As we waited for the parade, we talked with the people around us who were all very nice.

The parade was fun. We walked through the inner hallways of the stadium until we arrived at the entryway to the field. We walked all the way around the ballpark. Marina and the kids around her gave high fives to the people in the stands. Marina was so sweet, making sure to greet everyone who reached out to her.

After the parade was over, we walked around the stadium to find cosplayers and take photos with them. We also picked up our t-shirts. Marina was happy that they are purple this year. By then we were a bit hungry, so we got a snack and then got into line to see Dinger. We were early, so we were close to the front. When Dinger arrived, we got through the line quickly.

Marina wanted ice cream, so we picked some up on our way to our seats. By then it was the third inning. The game was a close one, but the Rockies lost 6-5. That was a bit disappointing. We left the game as quickly as we could. The game had been nearly four hours long and we were ready to go home.

The Full Monty

This evening, we had tickets to see The Full Monty at a theater near home. Marina said she wanted to see it because one of her Broadway Showcase teachers was in it. As it got closer, I explained to her what it was about and she seemed a bit concerned about it, but we decided to go anyway. When we arrived at the theater we found we were in the front row. That made Marina even more nervous. We were given a handful of fake dollar bills to throw onstage at the end of the show.

Marina was not the youngest person there. We met an eleven year old girl who was there with her mother. There was also a sixteen year old behind us. I think that made her feel better.

The Full Monty was longer than most shows we see but it went by quickly. It was very funny and Marina was laughing throughout. At times she looked a bit embarrassed – there was crude language and situations, but she clearly enjoyed the show.

The cast of the show were in the lobby afterwards. Marina made a point to speak with the actors who played her favorite characters. And, of course, we talked with her teacher for a few minutes. It was late when we finally made it home, but it was a really fun night!