Day Seventeen: Last Performance

Today went great!! Our first stop on our way to Detroit was to visit the Henry Ford Museum - "America's Greatest History Attraction"! We had tickets for both the museum and the Greenfield Village. An all day excursion was done in an hour and a half. I looked at the vehicle selection of the museum for half an hour seeing some presidential vehicles - including the limo that Kennedy was assassinated in - saw a lot of vehicles through the ages, real sized trains, etc. Unforunately, I didn't spent enough time to discover other neat exhibits for I headed over to the village to try to join a group again. I keep finding that our group is really good at disappearing into a crowd. We are suppose to be in groups of three, but in a museum we split up for personal observation and trying to get back together is impossible!! I wandered the village alone for a bit - worried I'd get in trouble being alone - then sat on a bench at the entrance until a group of dancers finally showed up. Then we spent over thirty minutes in the glass shop watching them make different things.

The Glass Shop produces more than 10,000 pieces of early-American glass each year. Artisans in the newly enlarged facility demonstrate the glass blowing process from start to finish daily in the authentic traditions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in this historic craft ...

Awesome!!

We then reported to the theatre and was able to get everything read before dinner. It was so nice to actually be able to go to dinner and that food was great!! The bishop's wife made grilled veggies - asparagus, white asparagus, carrots - grilled chicken w/ rosemary, pasta salad, homemade rolls, and grilled pineapple - for dessert w/ sherbet and mint leaves. When we returned to the theatre, Pat did spacing with his dancers until house opened. I'd say we had the best performance of tour from a technician's aspect. Stage may have been too small for dancers, but lighting looked great and we were set with time to spare before house opened. Good way to end the tour.

Day Sixteen: Performance

Well, today a small group of people were able to visit the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. With too many groups unexpectedly showing up, only ten people were allowed to tour it. I decided to stay on the bus. Therefore, all I did today was work on a performance. We were able to get in an hour early but we were still rushing to get everything done. Not our best performance in the technical aspect, but no audience ever notices that. Thank goodness.

Day Fifteen: Fun in the Sun

We had a LecDem in the morning that went really well with elementary kids. They were our most interactive kids this tour. Awesome! Next, we traveled to Grand Haven to walk around the beach and walk the pier to the lighthouse. It was a chilly day, but I got use to it fast. It was nice! I enjoyed walking around and learning about the lighthouses of Michigan. We also had way to much fun with photo ops. Gotta love dancers and their creative poses. After that, we visited the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. It was awesome! An amazing museum for all ages!! We even got to ride a restored 1928 Carousel!! Awesome place! Museum exhibits from A to Z.

Dinner was a treat by our sponsor. We ate at Arnies - which is kind of similar to Cracker Barrel. Great food! Good ending to the day w/ the company.

Day Forteen: Sunday

Well, it's the Sabbath. We went to church for two blocks then began our drive to Grand Rapids so we could make the fireside in that city. So today was church, driving, more diriving, driving some more, dinner at the stake center, then a fireside. It went well. I'm still a bit out of it. Maybe I dehydrated myself yesterday. Oooops!

Day Thirteen: Chicago

Well, we are finally at our free day in Chicago. Erin, Eric, and I spent an hour shopping as the dancers took a class. We went to several different places, walked around a lot, and I bought my new favorite piece of clothing. It is sweeeeeeeet!! (It's a trench coat style)

When the dancers got out of the class, Eric left us for his wife so Erin and I decided to head over to the Art Institute of Chicago and spent four hours walking around. Actually, we met up with Melissa, Ivan, and Pat and started together but quickly separated ways and I got myself lost in the galleries. It was beautiful!! We saw many popular pieces of art, including works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, and Vincent van Gogh. Besides the Impressionist and Post-impressionist works, there was also a wide variety of other works. We even were able to see the miniature rooms created by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. It includes sixty-eight miniature rooms of European and American styles from the late 13th century to the 1930s. Amazing!!! It was so detailed. I think I read that scale was one inch to one foot. Very impressive collection.

After that, the group met at Millennium Park to take a picture at the Cloud Gate (the big bean shaped reflection sculpture). The next stop was to head to the hotel, but a group of dancers stayed in the city to catch some night shows. A group saw the Joffery Ballet performance, while others saw Mary Poppins. I decided to see Mary Poppins - seeing that I am a theatre person and has to see a theatrical event in Chicago. Wow was that good!!! The scenic design, lighting design, even the acting! We had the original Broadway cast, and wow was I impressed. Originally, I wasn't dying to see it but bought tickets cuz I wanted to see a show in Chicago, but oh was I glad I did!! Very well done!!

After the show, it took maybe an hour and a half to take a bus and train to the hotel (we had to take a blue line to the airport, then catch a hotel shuttle to our place). I was so tired and had a headache coming on so as soon as I found my room, I just crashed til morning.

Day Twelve: South Bend

Another show today! We traveled for over five hours, was almost two hours late because the schedule didn't include time change, and set up for our fourth show. It went rather well. The venue had everything set up for us, so it was just my sound/projection set-up and focus. The crew at St. Mary's was AMAZING!!! Another thing I simply love about tour is the people I meet. These men were great to work with and great to talk to. I learned a lot more information about joining the IATSE and advice about finding future positions. I simply love being a tech.

Day Eleven: SFX Malfunction

Today was a sleep-in day!! We didn't have to get to the bus until noon so all of us relaxed at a nice hotel for the morning. Wow, are we lazy this tour! Then we had a performance this evening. It was an easy set-up. There was definitely work to do, but nothing too difficult. The problem came when we began the show. I had been running music a few times during the set-up and never heard a problem. However, as soon as we began the show, our first number was having volume pops and possible skipping every other second. It was AWFUL!!! I had just played that song before opening the house and didn't hear any problems! FRUSTRATING!! As soon as the number ended (eight minutes length), I restarted the computer and did a little switch on something that I thought may have been a problem. No more problems the rest of the night. Thank goodness!! The last two performances had slight pops now and again, but nothing so extreme. Grrrr... Erin had called Benjamin who gave the idea of just restarting the computer. Then we decided - when time permits - to facebook Mark (since he is in China yet still finds time to facebook) and hope he contacts us later. Yay for software bugs!!