Salt Lake City Photos & Denver Update

Wednesday, September 19th

Mom & Dad returned safely home to Michigan on Saturday afternoon. They sent me a couple of photos from the trip that they deemed "blogworthy":

Mom's "Peasant Pic" - Onstage with the cast of Spamalot

Hiking up to Cecret Lake

Cecret Lake

Perched on a boulder at Cecret Lake

Mom & I on our way up to Sunset Peak

I have, of course, grabbed a few photos from Fran's blog. These are from our Golden Spike / Spiral Jetty adventure. (I'd like to say, again, how great that whole day was. My traveling companions were a blast. Live steam engines!!! The spiral jetty was such a special place. I really was affected by the combination of art and landscape.)

#119 - The Union Pacific's representative at the wedding of the rails.

The Spiral Jetty

Roy, JV & Wayne on the bed of the Great Salt Lake (we might as well have been on the moon - it bore no resemblance to anywhere else I've ever been on earth).

In my continuing series reporting on Pyro Party Sunday:

Sunday in Salt Lake City, we had a lot of extra pyro to destroy. The company the supplies the pyro sent 2 weeks of the wrong stuff for the rabbit mound. This meant that we had 24 flashpots to blow up on Sunday (in addition to some other odds and ends). Mike, being the genius that he is, wired these 24 pots into two groups of twelve and mounted them to a length of board.

Before

During (you might want to turn down your speakers...)

After




Mike also had some spares of the pyro from our chandelier. This is three of those gerbs wired together. (Mike is a licensed professional...)

Denver update:

We arrived in Denver around noon on Monday. I'm renting an apartment here (as opposed to staying in a hotel). The apartment is fantastic. I'm 3 blocks from the theatre and right in the heart of things downtown. Outside the front door of my building is the 16th Street Mall. It's a mall in the old school sense: a shopping street lining a pedestrian and bus only mall. Denver feels much more urban and vibrant than the cities we've played lately. There are people out and about on the street after the show. There seems to be a nightlife nearby. I'm excited to spend three weeks here (and have two days off).

Load-in and opening night went reasonably well. There were a few minor hiccups, but the audience sounded like they enjoyed the show. The theatre is large and modern - they even feature oxygen tanks next to the water coolers on stage. We're playing in the Buell Theatre which is one of ten theatres in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. They have more than 10,000 theatre seats in the complex and the whole place is owned and managed by the City and County of Denver. The presenters even through us a really nice opening night party last night.

Tomorrow, I'll wrap up the Baseball Tour with a visit to Coors Field. I very nearly wrote an obituary for the Baseball Tour after the Salt Lake Bees game, but the rehearsal schedule worked out in my favor this week and I'll spend another afternoon at the ballpark. The Rockies will take on the Dodgers in a game that could have ramifications for the NL wildcard. Speaking of baseball division races: LET'S GO YANKEES!!! The boys in pinstripes are 5 games up in our own wildcard race and only trail the BoSox by 2.5 games as of this writing!

Tomorrow also marks another exciting life development: Sheila Marie comes to the Mile High City. It has been far too long since we've been in the same place (6 weeks ago in St. Paul). She's been getting lots of suggestions about what to see and do in Denver via her friends at work, so I'm glad we have all day on Monday and the afternoon on Friday all to ourselves. I can't wait!

More pictures from Salt Lake City just arrived in my inbox, so I'll sort through them and get them posted shortly...

JV