Last night, I went with my “other” family to see Wicked in San Francisco.
I, truly, have wanted to see this musical for years. It played in Orlando about 4 years ago. My mother lives near there and went to see it and told me it was a “must”. At that time, the closest city it was listed to tour in was Chicago – a bit far to travel to for a show (though I would love to visit Chicago someday). So, I opted for reading the book instead – waiting patiently for the tour to come closer to the Bay Area.
A couple of years ago, the show started playing in Los Angeles. I actually bought Pops and I airplane tickets (love Southwest for flying throughout the Western US) and even purchased tickets to the show there, but we couldn’t make it down (old lady brain, and utter disappointment prevent me from remembering what the incident was). Fortunately, I was able to sell those show tickets on Craigslist (love Craigslist too!)
Well, last night was my night! Actually, the show’s been in San Francisco for months, but somehow there’s always been a reason we couldn’t go (our lives are like that)…and then Pops decided he might not want to see it…so I was at a loss until, a co-worker went to see it with his wife and raved about it at work. My other co-worker, Leilani (who’s daughter Janaya is my Goddaughter – the family link) mentioned wanting to see it and would I want to go to.
I called Pops to see if he was interested in going with us, when he said “go ahead, have a girl’s night” I immediately got online with Lei and we purchased tickets. I didn’t want to wait and have something come up!!
(side note: of course when I called Pops at intermission and told him how wonderful the show is, he said how now he’d like to go and why didn’t I force him to join us – as if forcing him to do anything is an option – haha I’m sure you’ll notice more on this kind of ongoing funny banter he and I have throughout this blog – good news is, I might just get to see the show again!)
The music, the costumes, the special effects, the singers – oh yes the singers – AMAZING!!! It was fabulous. Oh, and, of course, the story and how they tie into The Wizard of Oz is simply so creative. I loved watching Lei’s reaction as the story all started tying in and making sense. I don’t want to give away too much in case you haven’t seen it….but…
if you haven’t seen it…go…go now…go as soon as you can….really, see it!
On a side note, before the show, we went to dinner up in the city. Our group consisted of 4 adults and 1 child (my beautiful Goddaughter Janaya). Of course, I’ve lost my “city” touch, and didn’t even worry about making reservations. The first restaurant we showed up at Soluna looked so inviting and the menu looked delicious and it smelled scrumptious and there was no way we were getting in to eat for at least 2 hours…ugh.
When asked for another close restaurant, the hostess suggested California Pizza Kitchen. It’s close, yummy, kid friendly and quick – meeting all our criteria. And, this is key, we were able to park right out front (we had definite parking angels on our side last night).
Now, I’m not really a “dessert” person. I don’t not like dessert, but, truly, if I have any, I’ll usually just have a bite or two of someone’s as getting my own is not usually desirable. My friend Lei, is a dessert person….a big dessert person. The kind of person who grabs the menu and checks out desserts before even considering what she’ll have for dinner. I suspect her dinner choice is based on how much room she’ll need to leave for dessert. Last night was no different. She immediately checked the desserts, and chose Red Velvet Cake.
Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever even had red velvet cake before. Something about it being “red” is bizarre to me. So, I didn’t give it much thought at all.
Let me tell you something, it was DIVINE!!! I would say, the best, dang dessert I’ve ever had…and I mean EVER! Now, I’m very dismayed I even know about this cake. Actually, it was in the top 5 things I told Pops about this morning. And already, our hike to day is planned for going up to Palo Alto where they have a California Pizza Kitchen so he can try this dessert. Gosh, now I hope it lives up to my raving!
Off to prepare for the hike now – motivated for working hard knowing that piece of heavenly cake is going to follow.
Maybe I am more of a dessert person than I suspected.
