Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend
Tuesday, May 29th

First of all, the weather in Houston has sucked. It has rained, at one point or another, every day since I arrived a little more than a week ago. It has ranged from warm to downright hot and the humidity has been high. Not my sort of weather at all.

Friday, Sheila Marie’s plane dodged the thunderstorms, bringing her to Houston for a long weekend. We shared a late supper (I love be able to cook at the Residence Inn!) before we crashed for the night. Saturday morning, she helped me finish up the potato salad I was preparing for the Spamily Barbecue (I boiled 10 lbs of potatoes and a dozen eggs on Friday afternoon) and then helped me schlep it to the theatre. We walked the ½ mile or so to the theatre under cloudy skies, but by the time I had shown her around the theatre, a downpour had begun – so a cab was necessary to take her back to the hotel. A second cab brought her back to the theatre after the matinee for the Spamily Barbecue. Karl (with the help of the local crew) through us a Texas Barbeque to celebrate the Spamalot Tour’s 500th performance! The guys from the fly rail grilled up brisket and sausage outside the loading dock and many people brought sides and cakes. We had a really good time hanging out and enjoying the delicious variety, despite the showers. Saturday night I got to spend a rare evening with Sheila Marie! Since Ken was preparing to leave for his vacation on Sunday, Brian Bogin was in town to sub. Four Stage Managers was more than we needed to do the show, so Ken let me leave early and hang out with Sheila Marie; a welcome surprise.

The 500th Show Commerative Cupcake (thanks, Fran).

The grill meisters under their big umbrella.

Fran, Francesca, Angelina, Brian & Tim enjoy the barbecue on the loading dock.

Ken, Karl, Nate, Jonathan & Sheila Marie

Julie & Amy commandeer the grill to whip up a grilled banana dessert.

Sunday, we had more backstage goodies at intermission of the matinee as it was Karl’s (our Company Manager) birthday. At his request, Piper got Red Velvet Cake as well as a Double Chocolate Cake. Delicious! Casey arrived in time for a between shows meal. Sheila Marie and I had explored downtown Houston a bit in the morning – there’s not much in the immediate vicinity of my hotel, but there’s some life closer to the Buffalo Bayou – and found a couple of restaurant options. We had a nice Italian meal at Birraporetti’s before I had to dash back for the evening performance. Casey got the quick version of the backstage tour before the show then he went to visit a friend in Houston while I did performance #503 and Sheila caught up on some work she’d brought along for the trip. After the show, we met up with some of the Spamily at Little Woodrow’s for after show drinks. Little Woodrow’s had an awesome beer selection and a huge outdoor patio. We lounged in the more comfortable night air and enjoyed the company into the early morning of Memorial Day.

Casey & JV backstage during the preset.

Casey & Sheila Marie at Little Woodrow's.

Mike & Esther

JV & Nate

Mike modelling Nate's hat.

Sheila with a gardenia in her hair.

Mike & Sheila (If I'm ever killed in a horrible fireworks accident and Sheila Marie runs off with an un-identified man, this is him...)

We woke up late on Memorial Day to find gray and rainy skies. Our original plan of a drive down to the Gulf of Mexico didn’t seem like such a great idea in the rain, so we headed to the Houston Museum of Natural Science instead. On our way, we stopped off for some tasty Tex-Mex and margaritas. Apparently, many of Houston’s families had the same idea we did as the museum was jam packed. We bought tickets for the butterfly exhibit and the planetarium. At the entrance to the butterfly house was an exhibit on all types of insects. The variety and sheer number of insects is amazing as is their adaptability to all sorts of niches. Just before we entered the butterfly house itself, there was a display of chrysalises and hatching butterflies from all over the world. Again, the variety of shapes, sizes, materials, and appearance (some were metallic looking) was really surprising. The butterfly house was a great big greenhouse heated and humidified to be a rain forest setting. Inside, there were butterflies and moths from all over the globe flitting around, feeding, and just hanging around. The room contained a waterfall and all sorts of tropical plants with winding paths throughout. We had to walk slowly and look everywhere as many of the butterflies were quite well camouflaged when at rest, only to be brilliantly colored when they opened their wings to take flight!

The Butterfly Conservatory

After a disappointing show at the planetarium (it was more of an Imax sort of “wow look at that animation” movie than educational sky show), we headed off to the mecca of Houston shopping: The Galleria. No sooner had we arrived and gone in one store, then the mall closed early for Memorial Day. Fortunately, there was a giant movie theatre nearby and we all took refuge from the continuing rain with Shrek the Third. It was enjoyable and diverting. After the movie, we indulged a bit with a bottle of wine and steaks at Ruth’s Chris. Ruth knows how to treat a steak. The sizzle of butter, sautéed spinach and a good piece of beef, mmmmmm.

This morning, Casey and Sheila Marie were kind enough to take me grocery shopping (a car makes it a lot easier to buy a 12 pack of soda). Then we had lunch in a Vietnamese café downstairs from the Residence Inn. Houston has a large Vietnamese population and a multitude of all kinds of Asian restaurants. The spring rolls were light with shrimp and vermicelli noodles. All three of us enjoyed our varied dishes and I sampled a coconut milk, egg yolk and soda water beverage (sweet, and fizzy with the very distinctive yellow taste of eggs). After lunch, it was time for Sheila Marie to head to the airport (boo!). Casey was nice enough to take me along on the trip to Bush Intercontinental Airport to say goodbye and then to drop me back at the hotel before he headed for Austin.

We had a fun weekend. Good to have another hunk of my real-life family here for the day off. Also good to be able to spend so much time face to face with my wife.

Not sure what’s on the agenda for this week in Houston. With Ken away, there’s no rehearsal scheduled, so I have all my weekday afternoons free. Houston is really a great big driving town, making getting around is a bit of a challenge. I’m determined to see an armadillo before I leave Texas and the Houston Zoo’s at the other end of the light rail that runs near my hotel, so perhaps there will soon be an armadillo photo on the blog soon…

JV