Weekend With Wife

Saturday, September 29th

Sheila Marie arrived late Thursday night - just in time! We hadn't seen each other since St. Paul.

Friday we walked around downtown Denver. Our first stop was the Colorado State Capitol. Denver's famous mile high elevation is marked on the steps of the capitol. It's actually marked on three different steps (as surveying technology has evolved, the marker has moved up and down).

Mile High JV

We tagged along with a tour group from the UK for a tour of the capitol. The Colorado State Capitol is, like the other capitols I've visited, a place with a very formal beauty. It houses the two state legislative bodies, the Governor's offices and the former chambers of the Supreme Court. It is decorated with lots of carved wood and native stone. The central rotunda is capped with a giant gold-clad dome.

SM at the base of the grand stairs in the Colorado State Capitol

From the capitol, we explored the city's "Golden Triangle". The US Mint was closed for tours (bummer), but we did visit the Colorado History Museum. The history museum featured a whole bunch of neat dioramas created by artists during the Great Depression. The dioramas served as a sort of WPA project to employ the artists and illustrated all kinds of historical settlements, forts and Indian life. The museum also had a great display of mining equipment and practices.

Friday night after the show we headed to "LoDo" (Lower Downtown - the hip, warehouse district here in Denver) to check out Denver's Oktoberfest celebration. For the event, several blocks were closed down. At one end of the street was a rock'n'roll stage and a polka band held court at the other end. In between were several beer tents, food vendors and a midway. We settled in near the polka band and hung out with Francesca and Ryan for the evening.

Right outside the apartment I'm renting is the 16th Street Mall. The mall is a shopping district lining 16th Street. The street is closed to traffic and features a free shuttle bus running from the capitol to the river. In addition to the stores, there are all sorts of performers and carts along the mall. Right outside my apartment is a cart selling "New Orleans style Snowballs." These snowcones come in an enormous variety of flavors and Sheila Marie and I sampled many during her stay here. The mall also offered Sheila some easy entertainment while I worked. As has become customary, Sheila Marie's suitcase was a lot more full returning to NYC than it was coming out to visit.

Sheila Marie and her Snowball

Saturday between shows we were able to catch the end of MSU's victory over hapless Notre Dame. So fun to see East Lansing on TV and to be able to celebrate with another Spartan. (Actually, I have a couple of Spartans on tour with me: Chris Sutton (Prince Herbert) graduated from the theatre department just ahead of me and Justin (our new Head Carpenter) also attended MSU, so there are several of us keeping tabs on Saturday afternoons.)

After the show on Saturday we went back over to Oktoberfest for some more fun under the stars. I had talked the event up a bit at work and roped a few more company members into attending. We had a blast! We sat and talked, danced to the polka band, drank and danced some more. I learned the words to a new polka song: There Is No Beer in Heaven (that's why we drink it here).

Patrick and Nigel attempt to balance beers on their heads (a la the bottle dance in Fiddler)

We're dancing in a circle and toasting.

Silliness.

Nigel, Patrick, Jen, Justin, Piper, Angelina & Jager.

Sunday we laid pretty low. We went for our, now traditional, steak dinner between shows.

Monday we had a wonderful day together. We drove south from Denver through Colorado Springs and to Manitou Springs. In Manitou Springs we caught the Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway train to the top of Pikes Peak. The Manitou Springs Depot is at 6,571 feet and the Summit Depot (8.9 miles down the track) is at 14,110 feet. The temperature at the base of the mountain was 65 degrees and at the summit it was 25 degrees! Along the way the train climbed grades of 25% (an average train loses traction on a grade of 4%). The railway is specially built for these grades: the train is powered not by wheels on the tracks, but by a cog wheel locked into a center "rack rail". The rack rail locks the train to the track and pulls it both up and down the mountain.

The rack rail.

Along the way up the mountain we passed through beautiful stands of Aspens that had begun to turn bright gold. (Fun facts: a stand of aspens is all one organism. The roots spread out horizontally and sprout up into new trees but remain connected below the surface. The bark of the aspen also produces a white powder with sunscreen properties!) We also passed by several bristlecone pine trees - one of which was more than 2.500 years old! After we passed the tree line we encountered some yellow-bellied marmots. These little guys are like cuter groundhogs. When they sit up on "alert" they whistle to their buddies.

We arrived at the top of the mountain and disembarked into the cold. The change in altitude left me feeling dizzy, but the view was amazing. You can see more than 250 miles! Pikes Peak isn't the tallest peak in Colorado, but it is the tallest in the area, so you can see all the way to the Continental Divide. There was no snow left on the peak, but there was ice on some of the metal surfaces and in the cracks of the rocks.

JV & SM with the 14,110 foot marker.

At the summit with the Rockies in the distance.

At the summit there is, of course, a gift shop that made a great place to warm up. They also made some very tasty donuts and hot chocolate for our trip back down the mountain.

After our trip up Pikes Peak, we spent the rest of the afternoon in Manitou Springs. It's a cute little tourist-y town that must really be hopping in the summer season. Our visit fell at the tail end of the season, so many of the stores in town were closed, but we had a really nice meal beside one of the crystal clear mountain creeks. We bought a few souvenirs and split a malted.

SM beside the creek in Manitou Springs.

Tasting the water from one of the natural soda springs in Mantiou Springs.

On the way back toward Colorado Springs, we stopped to visit the Garden of the Gods. Neither of us was familiar with the place, Francesca suggested we stop. It was spectacular. The Garden of the Gods is home to some enormous pieces of sandstone that were heaved up out of the earth when the Rockie Mountains were formed. Several of them are not much wider than me, but stick up into the air hundreds of feet. The erosion of wind, rain and time has carved them in interesting ways. We were there in the late afternoon with the sun setting behind the mountain lending the light a really special quality. Sheila Marie took some amazing pictures!

Garden of the Gods

The sun setting behind Pikes Peak

SM at Garden of the Gods

We encountered lots of wildlife at Garden of the Gods: 5 groups of mule deer (including this buck who let us get within 15 feet of him), rabbits, chipmunks, rock pigeons and hawks.

Tuesday morning came too quickly and Sheila Marie was back on the plane to NYC much too soon after she had arrived. Her visits are like mini-vacations within the tour and I really look forward to them. I'm already counting down to her visit in Seattle!

JV

P.S. - Sheila Marie took so many great pictures during her trip! I posted some of my favorites here, but I also put a bunch more on Snapfish.

The Last Stop on the Baseball Tour

Friday, September 28

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to catch the Colorado Rockies last afternoon home game versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a magnificent day for baseball: sunny and warm with a breeze – the sort of day you imagine when you think of afternoon baseball.

Coors Field is a great baseball park. A lot of thought obviously went into its design. When it opened in 1995, it was part of the wave of “retro” parks. Like the Ballpark at Arlington, its field is irregularly shaped and a lot of effort went into making the park feel welcoming and more like the old Tiger Stadium than the Metrodome. The field is visible from all the concourses around the park, meaning you can see the play while you buy a hotdog. The batter’s eye (the black seats at Yankee Stadium) at Coors Field is a stand of native pine trees with a fountain that erupts with every Rockies’ homerun. Above the batter’s eye are the bleacher seats known as “the Rockpile”. The most notable feature of Coors Field, however, is the 20th row of the upper-deck. This row of purple seats (the rest of the park’s seats are green) marks 1 mile above sea level. The thinner air lets the ball travel 5% farther than at a park at sea level (like Yankee Stadium). Combined with the drier mountain air, the altitude has turned Coors Field into a homerun park.

The game I saw on Thursday had its share of homeruns. The Rockies hit 2 (including a three run shot) and the Dodgers had 2 dingers of their own, but couldn’t come back from a 6 run second inning and got swept by the Rockies 9-4. At the time, the Rockies looked to be out of the playoff picture, but they’ve been playing like a team possessed and now only trail the Padres by a single game for the NL wildcard. They’re playing some great baseball.

The group I went to the game with was a blast. Mike Berg, Fran, Dumas, Michael, Tony, Patrick, Robert and I all sat in some great seats (20 rows off the field just beyond 1st base) that they guys secured for us (for free) when they sang that National Anthem on Tuesday. We played the dollar game (everyone draws a player from both teams: if your player gets a hit, that’s a dollar from everyone – a run is a dollar and a homerun is $3) and passed around quite a bit of cash. Poor Fran drew two stinkers – she ended down quite a bit for the day – but everyone had a great time. What’s better than sitting in free field-level seats at a baseball game, soaking up the sun and a couple of beers in the middle of a weekday?

One of Fran's snaps from the game: Robert, JV, Dumas & Berg

Too bad it doesn't look like we're having any fun...

Thursday marked the last game I’ll be able to attend for the ’07 season. The Spamalot Tour has done a lot for my baseball lifetime list:

Major League Parks: 7
Tiger Stadium – Detroit (RIP – I understand they’re about to finally tear down “The Corner”)
Yankee Stadium – New York
Wrigley Field - Chicago
Minute Maid Field – Houston
Rangers Ballpark at Arlington – Dallas (Arlington)
Metrodome - Minneapolis
Coors Field - Denver

AAA Parks: 6
Cooper Stadium – Columbus
Frontier Field – Rochester
Victory Field – Indianapolis
Principal Park – Des Moines
PGE Park – Portland
Franklin Covey Field – Salt Lake City

A Parks: 2
Oldsmobile Park – Lansing
Covelski Stadium – South Bend

Unaffiliated Parks: 1
Midway Stadium – St. Paul

Though I didn’t get to see a game at Yankee Stadium this season (the Yanks have locked up a play-off spot and trail the BoSucks by only two games in the Division Race with 4 games to go!!!), I compare everywhere I go to the House that Ruth Built. With that in mind, I offer this assessment of my ’07 Baseball Tour:

The Nathan’s Famous Award for Best Concessions:
Frontier Field (Rochester) – look back at the picture of me and that hot dog plate: that is ballpark food heaven.

The Bob Shepard Award for best PA Announcer:
Franklin Covey Field (Salt Lake City) – their PA man had the rich, sonorous tones you want from your PA man. He sounded truly classic.
Honorable Mention: Midway Stadium (St. Paul) – what he lacked in classic sound, he more than made up for in enthusiasm. He really got the crowd into the game (and he sat at a folding table on top of the dugout – that’s worth something!).

The Shea Stadium Award for Dumpiest Park:
Midway Stadium (St. Paul) – there is nothing good to be said for the physical park at Midway Stadium.
Runner Up: Metrodome (Minneapolis) – I’m sure that they’ll find outdoor baseball in April a bit chilly at their new park, but I applaud the fans in Minneapolis for realizing that the word “baggie” has no place in baseball.

The 6 Train in the Right field Gap Award for Best View of Transportation Infrastructure:
Midway Stadium (St. Paul) – Train tracks ran the length of the outfield wall and just across the street behind home plate. An engineer honked the train’s horn and waved at us!
Honorable Mention: PGE Park (Portland) – The MAX tracks ran along the outfield wall, though the engineers never honked at us…

The “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning” Award for Best View of the Surroundings:
Franklin Covey Field (Salt Lake City) - The view of the mountains over the outfield wall was spectacular.
Honorable Mention: Principal Park (Des Moines) - While Des Moines didn’t have any mountains; they showcased the view across the river and to the State Capitol.

The Crazy Squirrel on the Foul Poll that Totally Distracted Suzyn Waldman Award for Best Animal Antics:
Midway Stadium (St. Paul) - They had a pig for cryin’ out loud.

The “Thrilla from Godzilla” Award for Best Homerun Celebration:
Too close to call:
Rangers Ballpark at Arlington (Dallas) - Centerfield Pyro
Coors Field (Denver) - Centerfield Fountains
Franklin Covey Field (Salt Lake City) - “Haircut for Homerun Ball” Promotion: if you caught a homerun ball, you won a free Supercuts hair cut!
Disqualified: Minute Maid Park (Houston): -Minute Maid Train (there were no home team homeruns that day I was there)

The Tommy Lasorda Getting Hit by an Errant Bat Award for Jumbo-tron Fun Award:
Victory Field (Indianapolis) - The “Flex-cam” quickly cutting away from a rapidly disrobing Matt Allen
Honorable Mention: Coors Field (Denver) - Rather than the “Yankee Cap Game”, the Jumbo-tron hide the ball game in Denver is sponsored by a garbage and recycling company. They hide the ball inside garbage trucks that race around the screen.

The “Hey Beerman!” Award for Best Service at Your Seat:
Coors Field (Denver) - Jerry, our usher, walked through the stands offering complimentary sun block and carrying a hand-pumped water mister. Awesome.

The “Dunkin Donuts D Train” Award for Best Baseball Side Betting Game:
Tony Holds for introducing me to the Dollar Game.

The “Lemme Hear Ya” Award for Best 7th Inning Stretch:
Principal Park (Des Moines) & Jeff Dumas root, root, rootin’ for the Cubbies.
Honorable Mention: Minute Maid Park (Houston) - Deep In the Heart of Texas

The Freddy Schuman Superfan Award:

Mike Berg attended more of these baseball adventures with me than any other member of the Spamily. I might even be able to overlook his love of the Angels...

The Phil Rizzuto Memorial Award for Best Use of Baseball Terminology:
Jeff Dumas’ description of the Rangers’ Ballpark as a “bandbox”.

The Yogi Berra Award for Best Sport:
Fran Curry for laughing through her $30+ loss at the Denver Dollar Game
Honorable Mention: The Box Office at Frontier Field giving us our money back in Redwings Dollars for the rain out in Rochester.

The House That Ruth Built Award for Prettiest Ballpark:
Major League: Ranger’s Ballpark at Arlington (Dallas) – I know it was designed to feel warm and nostalgic, but it works. It’s a great place to see a game.
Minor League: PGE Park (Portland) – The place felt like a set for an old baseball movie. The timber supports for the roof and the ivy covered outfield walls were charming, but it was the giant, person-operated scoreboard that really sealed the deal.

And the Grand Prize:
The Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS at Yankee Stadium Award for Best Time at the Ballpark Award:
Midway Stadium (St. Paul): Some of the baseball was downright awful, but I had so much fun at that game. (Probably not as much fun as at Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS at Yankee Stadium…)

I’m grateful that this tour has given me the opportunity to see so many games in so many great parks. I will really miss this part of the tour for the next few months. (The tour does go to Florida during the ’08 Spring Training months…) However, thanks to modern technology, I can easily follow the Yankees quest for that 27th World Series Championship no matter where work takes me!

JV

My Salt Lake City Pictures

Thursday, September 20th

My Salt Lake City photos are on Snapfish. The first roll I call "Mountains & Temples" and I titled the second "Golden Spike & Spiral Jetty". The highlights follow:

Mom & Dad at Cecret Lake

Mom & JV laughing near Sunset Peak

Dad and Lake Catherine

Mom taking in the vista

The Mormon Tabernacle and the Salt Lake Temple

JV on the site of the Golden Spike - I have one foot on Central Pacific tracks and the other on Union Pacific tracks.

The road-trippers: Wayne, Roy, Fran and JV at Golden Spike

The drive to Spiral Jetty: high desert, the Great Salt Lake and the mountains in the distance

Fran standing on the bed of the Great Salt Lake with the weird hill dotted with volcanic rocks behind her

Wayne standing at the base of Spiral Jetty

JV

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

Portland & Salt Lake City Photos

Saturday, September 15th

Another roll of film has returned from Snapfish - you can check it out here.

Highlights:

Cigar Night - Cuz, Patrick & Graham

Cigar Night - Dumas, Karl & Tony P.

Ryan's Killer Rabbit Cake

Ryan's Birthday

Esther at the Portland Load-Out Pyro Party

The Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City

This isn't one of mine - Fran took this great snap of our trucks lined up in the crazy wide Salt Lake City Street. Fun Fact: to get to the loading dock at the Capitol Theatre, the trucks had to back through a parking garage and then make a ninety degree turn to the loading door...

Franklin Covey Field, home of the Salt Lake Bees

Bumble, the Salt Lake City Bees mascot.

The post-game view from my seat (through the screen). The mountains behind the center-field wall were amazing.

Keith and Vera's Birthday

Things have been quiet here the past couple of days. Thursday we had an understudy rehearsal. Friday I had an unexpected day off, but laid low. This morning, I met Mom, Dad, Cindy and Ben for a lovely breakfast before Mom and Dad took off for home. They had a great time over in Moab: they hiked, saw the arches and went white water rafting. They went on another mountain hike yesterday with Cindy. I think they really enjoyed their vacation.

Tomorrow we'll pack up the show and move over to Denver. Tomorrow evening will also mark the final performance for one of our "tall girls": Siobhan Santapaola. Happy trails, kiddo. She's returning to NYC to get married soon! Her replacement, Jen Mathie, has been rehearsing during our stay here in SLC and will make her debut on Wednesday in Denver.

JV

Golden Spike & Spiral Jetty

Wednesday, September 12th

This morning, I met up with the Spamalot Wardrobe Department (Wayne, Fran and Roy) for a road-trip adventure. We rented a car and drove 90 miles North and West of Salt Lake City to the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory Summit, Utah. On May 10, 1869 the Intercontinental Railroad was completed at the site. The Union Pacific (coming West from Omaha) and the Central Pacific (coming East from Sacramento) met in the hills above the Great Salt Lake 6 years after the construction of the cross-country railway began. (Fun Fact #1: Until 1872, railroad passengers could not cross the Missouri River at Omaha on a train, they had to disembark, ride a ferry and then get on another train in Omaha for the rest of the journey.)

The site is in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town, Corrine, is 30 miles away. The railroads were racing for the Salt Lake Valley, as there was significant money to be made in controlling the trade in and out of the Salt Lake City region. Union Pacific won the race, but the Central Pacific set the record for most track laid in a single day: 10 1/4 miles of track were laid in 12 hours on April 28th, 1869 - a record that still stands today.

Much of the site has been recreated. The old line was decommissioned and the tracks were actually taken up in 1942 and recycled as part of the war effort. The grade and right-of-way remained, however, and in 1957 the National Historic Site was created. The tracks were relaid and a replica of the California Laurel-wood tie was placed at the site of the original. Two replica steam engines were commissioned and are drawn up nose to nose to recreate the event. The original Jupiter and Union Pacific Number 119 were each scrapped at the end of their useful lives, but are recreated to tolerances of 1/4 of an inch. They are spectacular machines and we got to see them run! When we arrived, they were idling nose to nose across the ceremonial tie, but just before we left, Engineers fired up both engines and took them for short trips. To see, hear, smell and feel these machines in operation was cool.

I used my new found ability to capture video on my cell phone to produce these short clips:

Union Pacific #119 has been stoked with coal and is building up a head of steam.

Backing away from the Jupiter.

Steaming past me on the passing track.

Creeping back into position: nose to nose with the Jupiter. (Fun Fact #2: Steam engines like these do not have brakes. Their tenders have mechanical brakes, but the engine is more than capable of dragging the tender. The force of the steam must be used to stop these engines, just as it drives them.)

We took lots and lots of photos between the four of us - I'll post the highlights as soon as I have them!

From the Golden Spike, we ventured even further into the middle of nowhere to see Spiral Jetty. Spiral Jetty was created in 1970 by the artist Robert Smithson. It is composed 6,550 pounds of earth and basalt rocks arranged in a 1500 foot long by 15 foot wide black stripe spiraling into the Great Salt Lake. The materials and the design are simple, the effect on me was anything but.

To reach the jetty, we drove 19 miles Southwest from the Golden Spike Site across open scrub land. The road began as a two lane, gravel country road and steadily devolved until it was an impassable jumble of stones. We passed over 4 cattle guards and across acres upon acres of grazing lands abutting the Great Salt Lake. The jetty is situated at Rozel Point at the base of a large hill composed of black basalt rock. The rock is obviously volcanic and is unlike anything else we saw on the trip. Big black hunks of rock protrude from the hill like cubes of sugar sprinkled over a child's birthday cake. The lake at Rozel Point is red due to some combination of algae and minerals. Today the lake was quite low, leaving the shoreline encrusted in inches of salt. Much of the jetty was on dry land also encrusted with inches of white and pink salt. Some puddles of pink water remained inside the jetty and just beyond its outer swirls. The whole effect was surreal.

The place didn't look like anywhere else on Earth I've ever been. It looked more like a picture from the Mars Rover. The ground was brilliant white crystals - so white and sparkly I almost couldn't look at it. It was solid, however, not sandy at all. The combination of weird nature and man-made art was provocative. I had no idea what to expect when we went to visit this place, but I was really moved by it. It was definitely worth the trek.

This is a sort of stock art history shot of the spiral jetty. It gives you the idea, but not the effect of the piece in person.

I shot this video standing out on the jetty and looking across the lake and then back toward Rozel Point.

Among the things that struck me about Spiral Jetty was its complete lack of any commercial angel. There was no one collecting admission to see it. There was no gift shop. There wasn't even a box to leave a donation. Just a very long, very bumpy and very dusty road leading to this amazing piece of art. It is unlike anything else I have experienced on the tour. There have been plenty of free things to see and to do, but they were all presented by an institution or commercial enterprise. Spiral Jetty was just there. Not that paying for something takes away from the experience, but it added to the profound nature of this experience that it was just there to be experienced.

We drove back toward civilization singing along to the songs of the 70's on XM channel 7. Every other song was some one's favorite... We had to pass by the plant where they make the rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle, there wasn't enough time to stop! We did pause long enough to enjoy some "home cookin'" at the Golden Spike Cafe in Corrine. We rolled back into Salt Lake City just in time to go to work.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. I had a great time with all three of the folks in the car with me. I also really enjoyed both of the sights we visited - on very different levels. A wonderful road-trip.

JV

Mountains, Moose & Mormons

Tuesday, September 11th

Between the matinee and the evening show on Sunday, I met up with Mom and Dad for dinner. We were joined by Cindy (Mom's college room-mate), her husband and daughter. Mom and Cindy practically ran to each other across the restaurant laughing and squealing. It was great to see. It was also fun to see photos of my Mom sitting on the floor of her dorm room in Snyder/Phillips, smoking and playing cards! Sadly, I had to dine and dash back to the theatre to prepare for the evening performance while the former room-mates caught up.

I stole this photo of the marquee from Fran's blog (as I did many of the pictures accompanying this post), my own photos are still out for developing...

The five of them came to the 7:00 PM show Sunday night. The audience was great: there were clearly some Python fans in the audience and they were all having a great time. When Patsy went out into the audience to pick the "fortunate" peasant, I was upstage helping set some scenery. I came running down to peer around the curtain, however, when the peasant said her name was "Carol". Jeff (Patsy) had inadvertently picked my Mom out of the audience and brought her up on stage. Mom was sure that I had set her up (which I hadn't - the house seats aren't supposed to be in the area of the probable peasant location) but she played along brilliantly. During his costume change, Michael (King Arthur) said to me: "Was that your Mum? She was lovely!" Mom even made it into the show report: "Unbeknownst to all of us, tonight's peasant was Jovon's Mom!!!" I'll have to get Dad to scan the Polaroid the cast took onstage with her, it's a great snap. All five of them enjoyed the show immensely.

After the show, the show's producers took the crew and management out for a late supper and drinks at Spencer's. Spencer's is one of Salt Lake City's nicest steak houses. We were there to fete our departing Head Carpenter, Keith, and to welcome his replacement, Justin. The entire crew turned out for drinks, steaks, dessert and more drinks. Everyone got on famously and had a great couple of hours in each other's social company.

In our private dining room at Spencer's.

Monday morning Mom, Dad and I took off for the mountains. Earlier in the weeks Fran and Chris Gurr had gone for a walk in the mountains and come across a couple of grazing moose. Their encounter piqued my interest, and I did some research about where to see a moose. We started out near Alta, Utah. Alta is in Little Cottonwood Canyon. In the winter, Alta is famous as the home of Snowbird and Alta ski resorts. Without their 50' of winter snow, it's beautiful country and criss-crossed with hiking trails. Our first trek was about a mile and a half round trip. We hiked up to see Cecret Lake. We rose about 460 feet into the mountains (from 9,410 feet at the parking lot to 9,870 at the lake) along the trail. The lake was beautiful: still and ranging from deep blue to green. The lake wasn't very big: 220 yards from end to end and 120 yards wide according to Google Earth. Dad hiked all the way around it and I mostly sat on a high boulder and just took it in. The silence up there in the mountains was truly deafening sometimes. The air was so crisp and clear that I could easily hear Dad's footsteps across the lake and the grasshoppers' wings were a startling noise. There were some bear tracks in the mud at the water's edge along with something with hooves and a couple of my hand prints from a fall off a rock that left me pretty muddy.

I took this video with my cell phone while seated on a boulder along the shore of Cecret Lake.

After we hiked back to the car, we drove into town for some water and snacks before we took on a more challenging hike. We hiked from the Sunny Side Parking Area (elevation 9,375 feet) up to overlook Lake Catherine and then on up to Sunset Pass (elevation 10,500 feet) in about a mile and a third (as the crow flies). We huffed and puffed our way up the mountain questioning why, exactly, we were doing this to ourselves, but the view from the top put any doubts to rest. Looking down from near the top of Sunset Peak you could see for miles: back over Alta and the Little Cottonwood Canyon and on across Lake Catherine to Brighton and the Big Cottonwood Canyon. We descended back to the car in less than half the time it took us to climb up, passing through a couple of alpine meadows, stands of aspen, birch and lodge pole pines and all sorts of neat geological formations, but seeing nothing larger than ground squirrels, chipmunks and kangaroo rats.

Google Earth's representation of our two hikes.

Hike #1 was from the Cecret Lake Parking Area (Center) to Cecret Lake (at Right).

Hike #2 began at the Sunnyside Parking Area (Down-Left) and went up to the Picture Milepost and Sunset Peak (in the Upper-Left).

I stole this photo from a link on Google Earth, but this is the view of Lake Catherine from the spot labled Picture Milepost on the map above. We took a photo of the three of us against this backdrop that I sincerely hope turns out. The view was spectacular.

Another linked photo from Google Earth - this one looking back across the valley. The three of us treked nearly to the top of that mountain (Sunset Peak - elevation: 10,650 feet).

We headed back to town for dinner before trying likely moose area #2. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon back into the Wasatch Mountains. We drove all the way to the end of the road in Brighton and parked alongside Silver Lake. This was where Fran and Christopher had seen their pair of moose. At the entrance to the boardwalk that circled the lake, there was a sign warning of moose and advising how to handle an encounter. This was to be as close to seeing a moose as we would get. The 4/5 of a mile boardwalk was lovely, but there were quite a few people enjoying the cool evening air and no moose to be seen. There were a couple of hawks, lots of ducks and a beaver dam along with some moose tracks and poop, but none of the enormous horned mammals. I may drive up there again early on Thursday to try and spot a moose of my own, but until then let's marvel at Fran's shots - please keep in mind that I know the human who took these photos, they aren't picture postcards:

Wow.

My day off with Mom and Dad was great. We were all suitably exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel last night. We had hiked nearly 6 miles and gone up and down 1,800 feet under people power. I slept quite soundly.

This afternoon I went to visit Temple Square. A couple of nice "Sister Missionaries" (one from Spain and one from Mongolia) gave me tour of Mormon HQ. They took me into the Tabernacle where the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs and from whence the weekly "Words and Music" program originates. They also showed me the outside of the Salt Lake Temple and took me into the Visitors Center for an intro to Mormonism and some witnessing. First, the current prophet spoke (in a video) about the importance of family to the Mormon Church, and then the missionaries told me why they thought the church was so great.

The Salt Lake Temple (photo from Wikipedia).

The temple was built with granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The temple site was dedicated in 1853 and the temple was completed forty years later.

Since we arrived in Salt Lake, I've been reading quite a bit about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: their beliefs, texts, leaders and history. I had no idea that Mormonism is a relatively new religion - Joseph Smith published the first version of the Book of Mormon in 1830. I also had no idea that the Latter Day Saints movement had such a violent history; both in terms of violence against them (they were forcibly driven out of Ohio, Missouri and Illinois) and violence they perpetrated against others (The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 left 120 settlers dead). I also had little idea what, exactly, the LDS movement believed and how their beliefs differ from the Methodist Church I grew up in. I can see the appeal of the church's beliefs - especially its focus on familly and how you are bound to those you love throughout eternity. But to my eyes, some of their core beliefs appear pretty wacky (you can baptize your dead relatives to ensure that they will be with you in heaven?). I remain, however, convinced that people should believe whatever it is that gives them comfort, so long as they're not hurting anyone.

After my brief tour, I walked over to the Jospeh Smith Memorial Building to see the film "Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration." The film was an hour long retelling of Joseph Smith's life story. The film was meant to inspire the faithful and to generate interest in the outsider. It did neither for me. In many ways, the movie made me angry. I understand that the film was a recruitment tool - a piece of propaganda - but it struck me a pretty unbalanced. Joseph's visions and visitations were described and re-enacted, but some of the wackier details of the faith were glossed over. For example: the golden plates that the Angel Moroni gave to Joseph were hardly mentioned. The process by which Smith translated the ancient Egyptian characters was entirely absent from the film (by his own account, Smith used a stone placed inside his hat to translate the text, while the text itself was in another room). Also absent was any mention of polygamy in the early church. Most upsetting to my eyes, was the depiction of those opposed to the church. Those who fought the prophet were always depicted as dirty, snaggle-toothed, swearing drunkards, while the Mormons were always clean and well behaved. In any event, the movie didn't make me want to convert, it made me want to get out of there.

I'm sure that if you're one of the faithful, Temple Square is a very inspiring place. It is pretty in a way that the rest of Salt Lake City is not. It's got some pretty architecture (much of it straining heaven-ward) and lots of beautiful gardens, fountains and statues. But all of the suit-wearing men and ankle-length skirt wearing women with smiles and name tags just started to creep me out.

Tomorrow, I'm headed up north of the Great Salt Lake to continue my railroad history tour at the Golden Spike National Historic Site. Live steam engines - hooray!

JV

Too Much Time on Our Hands

Sunday, September 9th

Below is a video created by some members of the Spamily. It is "loosely based" on their group home in Portland. Nigel wrote and directed:

The Portland House

Salt Lake City:

Mom and Dad are here. We met yesterday for dinner between shows at the Red Rock Brewing Company. Lovely. We also met up for pre-show breakfast and a big catch up session this morning. Always good to sit with them and catch up! They're coming to the show tonight with some friends who live in Salt Lake City. They're staying in town to hang out with me tomorrow and then venturing off into the dessert for a few days.

Otherwise, it's been quiet. I had rehearsal for at least part of every afternoon this week, so I haven't seen much of Salt Lake City beyond the things in the immediate vicinity of the Residence Inn and the Capitol Theatre. I'm looking forward to remedying that in the coming days...

JV

Kayaking Photos & Salt Lake City

Thursday, September 6th

I got my roll of film from the kayaking adventure last night. Some highlights:

Preparing to paddle: Random Girl, Vera, Suzanne, Tim & Cuz

Tim & Suzanne

JV Mid-River

Cuz and a paddle-wheeler

The Portland skyline from the river

Group two paddling out: Nigel, Amy, Piper and Patrick

Before I begin reporting from Salt Lake, it occurs to me that I completely left out one of the more fun events from Portland! Ryan celebrated his birthday in second week of Portland. On Friday night we took a group outing to Ground Kontrol an old school arcade with video games, pinball and a bar. Lots of us turned out to drink and play. I was excited to see some old favorites: Paperboy, Pole Position and Battlezone. I desperately tried to remember how to play Joust. The most wonderful surprise was on the upper level: an entire floor of pinball games! Tucked away in a corner of the balcony was this gem:

Is there anything more satisfying in the world of pinball than seeing that red spinner light come on and hearing the policeman's voice intone: "Pull over buddy!"? I must have pumped ten dollars into that machine trying (in vane, it turned out) to hear that loud CRACK of a free game. The whole time I was thinking, "Dad could have played this whole time for a quarter." I had a great time.

On to Salt Lake City:

I took the early flight to SLC in order to be here in time for the final game of the Salt Lake Bees' regular season. It was nearly a hundred degrees at game time as the Bees took on the Las Vegas 51s. I had a great seat two rows behind the screen at home plate. The field is angled away from downtown Salt Lake City, so beyond the outfield walls are arrayed the mountains. It's really beautiful!

The view from my seat.

Though the Bees won their division title and are moving on into the playoffs, they couldn't win the final game of the regular season at Franklin Covey Field. The 51s absolutely pounded the Bees' starting pitching. The reliever that the Bees brought in to stop the bleeding got hit with a comebacker and had to be taken out himself. After the 3rd inning, the game calmed down a bit, but the 51s won the game 12 -5. The Bees are the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem (the stupidest team name in all of sports) and are currently fielding some recognizable names. Bartolo Colon started game one of the playoffs for the Bees. He's down on a rehab assignment.

Monday and Tuesday were rough days for the crew. It was an 800 mile trip from Portland to Salt Lake City, meaning that (in theory) the first truck would arrive at the Capitol Theatre at 1 PM on Monday. 1 PM is later than we usually start the load-in, but with a good crew and a little pushing, things should have been fine. Traffic, mountain passes and flat tires delayed the trucks. The first truck arrived at 2:45. It wasn't the truck we usually begin load-in with - that truck arrived at 5 PM. The crew worked til midnight on Monday and started the day on Tuesday well behind schedule. They gained ground all day and worked through dinner to have us ready for a 7:30 PM opening night. The first night audience was a bit more reserved than we're used to, but we received a standing ovation. Things ran smoothly from a technical perspective and it seems like the crew is great.

The city itself is a little bit strange. Most noticeably, the streets are enormously wide. When the city was laid out, the streets were made 132 feet wide (that's two lanes of traffic in each direction, a turn lane, a bike lane in each direction and a lane of parking on either side) to allow "a team of four oxen and a covered wagon to turn around." The wide streets are imposing to a pedestrian. The other side of the street is awfully far away. The blocks are also very long; roughly equivalent to Manhattan's avenue blocks (each block here is 3/20 of a mile; to Manhattan's 1/20 of a mile for street blocks). In fact, the blocks are long enough that many have a cross walk in the middle. The street is so wide, however, that the city provides orange flags in buckets on either side of the street for pedestrians to carry across with them! Few things in life have made me feel like such a tool as carrying one of these flags across the street with me, but the citizens of SLC really do seem to do it.

I haven't seen much of town. Monday was Labor Day, so almost every thing was closed. I was at the theatre all day on Tuesday. Wednesday I covered the first couple hours of rehearsal at the theatre - we're putting in a new ensemble woman (welcome Jen Mathie!). I took a walk yesterday afternoon first to the grocery store (which was closed due to a power outage related to some crazy thunderstorms on Wednesday night) and then to their big shopping center: the Gateway District. It's a very nice outdoor shopping mall with office towers, residential space, an IMAX and a planetarium. It also includes Salt Lake's original Union Pacific Depot and some of the infrastructure from the '96 Winter Olympics. On the way back to work, I passed the walled compound that includes the Salt Lake City Temple.

The city is surrounded by mountains. While the landscape is beautiful, it's also a little forbidding. We're 4,300 feet up and in the desert. While the dry air has been great for my allergies, I feel dried out all the time. I hope to head up into the mountains a bit while I'm here. Growing up in Michigan, this landscape is really intriguing to me.

My Mom and Dad are coming out for a visit this weekend. I'll catch up with them for dinner between shows on Saturday and Sunday and then we'll have the whole day together on Monday. Tuesday, while they head out to Moabe, I hope to see the sites on Temple Square and hear the giant pipe organ in the Mormon Tabernacle. Next Wednesday, I'm headed out to the site of the Golden Spike where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. It appears that between rehearsals and sight-seeing, Salt Lake City will be pretty busy!

JV

PDX Pictures

Wednesday, September 5th

I got three rolls of film back from Snapfish today! They encompas my first week in Portland.
Roll #1 (chronologically)
Roll #2
Roll #3

The customary highlights:

Around Town:

The Chinese Garden

My Tea Ceremony

Keller Auditorium (where we performed)

Keller Fountain - across the street from the theatre.

On hot days, the fountain turned into a community swimming pool...

My Birthday:

The Portland Rose Garden

The waterfall in the Japanese Garden

The puffer fish lights above the bar at Thatch.

The Volcano Bowl: Vera, JV & Jeff

Elaine enjoying a Chi-Chi

Tropical Vera

A very special birthday cake: the Maple Bacon Log from Voodoo Doughnuts

Nate's Barbecue:

The grill masters: Piper and Berg grilling up something good.

The Spamily digs in to the bounty.

Adam and Satine

Jonathan and Piper on the tree swing.

Christopher and Lynn take on Adam and Piper.

The boce game begins....

JV

Portland, OR

Monday, September 3rd

Portland rocked. I really liked it there. I was genuinely sad to leave this morning.

Last Wednesday, Amy arranged a Spamily kayaking trip on the Willamette River. Naturally, I signed up as soon as the sheet went up. As the trip got closer, however, I started to get nervous about it. I’d never been in a kayak. I didn’t have any idea what was appropriate clothing for a kayaking trip. I don’t own any Tevas and I didn’t bring a swimsuit on tour with me (thus far neither of these things has been a problem). I started to worry that though their website claimed that the trip we were going on was suitable for people of all skill levels, I would prove them wrong. As I walked down to the water on Wednesday, a string of big barges and a dinner cruise ship sailed by. I hadn’t even thought about other traffic on the river! I was certain that I was making a mistake that would lead to my drowning death.

I needn’t have worried. I was fine in my chucks and shorts. I didn’t come close to drowning. I had a great time and I shot a whole roll of film while we were out on the water. I went with the early group – we paddled away at 10 AM. I shared a tandem kayak with Tony Pittsley, who is an experienced kayaker. Our guide was very cool and a patient guy. He even had a spare paddle handy when Cuz snapped his in half while splashing others in the party. The river was smooth and our guide kept us out of traffic. We paddled for about two hours: upstream, around an island and back. We passed a blue heron, some amazing floating homes and a sizable gravel operation. We went just far enough to have the city disappear from view and then back toward the skyline. It was great.

After we pulled our boats out of the river Tony, Cuz and I went and had lunch at the marina. We ate at a floating restaurant within sight of the kayak docks. While we waited for the later group to put in, we enjoyed local beer, local oysters and each other’s company. The day had warmed up quite a bit by the time the late group put in and we watched them paddle out, we were happy that had gone when it was still a bit cooler.

Thursday we had a Spamily outing that could not have been more different than the kayaking: a bunch of guys went out for cigars and bourbon after the show. Graham arranged this outing – we went to the cigar lounge at El Gaucho the steak house in the Benson hotel. Karl, Jeff Dumas, Patrick, Cuz, Tony, Graham and I settled in around a big table in the lounge and had an evening of guy talk. Our waitress was lovely- she gave as good as she got – and she really took good care of us. We talked about poker and baseball in between drinks and ended the evening listening to Jeff’s stories about Hal Prince. Not somewhere stories in the cigar lounge at El Gaucho usually end up, I’d bet. On the way out, the steaks smelled so inviting that we made a reservation to come back for dinner later in the week.

I’m awfully glad that we made that reservation, the steaks were delicious. We went back between shows on Saturday and indulged a bit more. The only shame of the meal was that we had to go back to work! Our waitress from earlier in the week even dropped by to say "hello".

Friday I had lunch at Jake’s Famous Crawfish. Jake’s is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year and my meal made it easy to see why the place has endured. I sat outside, but the inside of the restaurant is charming: very old school with a brass railed bar. (Crawfish also live up in the Northwest – not just in the Mississippi – who knew?) I had some more local Yakima Bay oysters. They were just so tasty and fresh that I couldn’t pass up one last bunch (I probably won’t be eating a lot of local oysters in Salt Lake City). Then I had an endive salad topped with fresh local pears. All of this was accompanied, of course, with sourdough bread. I don’t know what it is about the sourdough in Portland, but everywhere we went they served up big boules of delicious bread. My main course was “Cajun Mac’n’cheese”: penne pasta in a cheese sauce with andoullie sausage and tiny bay shrimp. Perfect. And since it was lunch time, the whole meal set me back (with a glass of Oregon Pinot Gris) less than $30!

After lunch, I went across the street to Powell’s Books. They bill their main location as a “City of Books” and they’re not kidding. Powell’s is an entire city block of buildings knit together with stairs and passages into an enormous independent book store. Francesca gave me a gift card for my birthday and I hade no trouble spending it. Besides their enormous selection of new titles, Powell’s buys and sells used books. I came out with a grocery sack of books for next to nothing! Of course, now my trunk is that much heavier – I’ll have to lay off the Law & Order in the next couple of cities and spend more time curled up with a good book.

Among Roadfood’s recommendations for Portland were a couple of bakeries that I couldn’t resist. The names of each make their specialties clear: Saint Cupcake and Voodoo Doughnuts. At Saint Cupcake I had a red velvet number with a cream cheese frosting. It was lovely, but it made me miss Bleecker Street and the Magnolia Bakery. Voodoo Doughnuts, however, is unlike anywhere else. They offer weekly classes in Swahili. They will marry you (it’s completely legal) in the shop under the “Holy Doughnut”. They also make some of the craziest doughnuts you can imagine. On Sunday, Piper brought me a “Mango Tango”: filled with mango and topped with Tang. For my birthday, I was presented with one of their signature creations: “The Maple Bacon Log.” A maple glazed doughnut topped with strips of bacon turns out to be a great idea, once you get past its appearance. The “Voodoo Doughnut” is made in the shape of a voodoo doll and filled with red jelly – you’re invited to torture it whatever way you might like. The whole Spamily stood in awe, however, as Callie took on the “Cock and Balls” doughnut. It’s triple cream filled – you can imagine. A link to their menu.

Saturday I awoke early to watch MSU trounce the hapless Blazers of the University of Alabama Birmingham. Awesome. What a great way to make a break from the past couple of seasons of Spartan football – I hope they can keep it up! I met several more MSU alums in Portland on Saturday (amazing what wearing a green football jersey can do). As I boarded the Portland Streetcar on my way to work, a woman said to me: “Does Michigan have a big game today?” When I explained that Michigan State did, she said: “Looks like you have a friend” and pointed out a father and son at the other end of the train also decked out in green and white. While I was standing in line at the Quizno’s waiting for my lunch, a nice gentleman from the class of ’64 approached me – turns out he was coming to see Spamalot that afternoon! There are Spartans everywhere. I might have to look up the Salt Lake Alumni on Saturday; this week’s game isn’t on national TV…. Of course, Saturday was a nearly perfect day in college football: State won, Dame lost and Michigan was embarrassed by a 1AA team on national television live from the “Big House”!

This morning I was up bright and early to make the trip to Salt Lake City. (I was in a cab at 5:45 this morning.) While I’m excited to see Salt Lake City and the cities that come after it, I was sad to leave Portland. I dug that town a lot.

I took tons of photos in Portland; I’m sort of surprised none of them have come back yet. As soon as they do, I’ll post my photo essay…

Until then, a stolen picture from Fran's blog:

The bocce game at Nate's barbecue. That's right, we had the tape measure out - this was serious stuff!

JV