Week 20: Vancouver, BC, Canada

I LOVED VANCOUVER!! What a cool, fun, walkable, beautiful, food cultured, English speaking city!

The beautiful view on the flight in. I never knew how much I'd love mountains, but I can't get enough of them. 

Lovely Vancouver all lit up at night. Under that little dome is an iceskating rink, right next to a big art museum.

I found a wonderful little French bistro, Medina Cafe, that served a lavender latte! I was in love.

Same place, perfect breakfast. It was a "Tagine": spicy chickpea, onion, pepper, and tomato stew with merguez sausage and two poached eggs. Focaccia bread with hummus and raita (an Indian yogurt sauce) on the side. I loved it so much I came back and got it again! For those of you who know my dining philosophy, I am not typically a repeat offender in the food world. I like trying new things and exploring. So to order the exact same meal, especially in a city where I am only there for a week and should be absorbing as much as possible, this was a BIG deal! It's just that good.

Emily (my adventure buddy for our golden day) and I rented bikes to take in the city. We sweet talked the man by mentioning the show and managed to trade a backstage tour for a week's worth of cycling. 

The gorgeous Coal Harbor. We thought we saw a seal, but it was just a dog :)

We rode around Stanley Park, and there is a section of totem poles there. It's funny, you think you know lots of things, and then you read about Native American cultures and their mythology and origins and realize you know nothing! I am glad the world is still filled with plenty of knowledge for me to acquire. Also on a completely separate note, my biking day was outfitted entirely by Lululemon :).

A view of the rest of the city from English bay. It was truly blessed weather for our day off, because it was grey and rainy the rest of the week. So glad we took advantage of it!!

My wonderful day brought to you by this perfect bicycle, and foreign cuisine, including French, Japanese, and Italian. 

Lululemon's birthplace is Vancouver. While none of us could figure out where the flagship store is, we all peaked in the one on Robson (their big shopping street) just to say we had. The brand might as well sponsor our tour, we are such avid fans of their fitness apparel. Such a great company philosophy too, I don't mind supporting them one bit.

Lauren made her debut as Belle on our three show day here!! Lucky girl, our tour director and choreographer were out for rehearsals, so they saw her go on! Another gathering of the napkins around the understudy, we are trying to make a mini album of these shots.

And hooray for small victories! This our mic tree, where the microphones live when we aren't wearing them. Before Sunday in Vancouver, they sported old cast members names and pictures, often promoting confusion with the local crew and misplaced mics. Now our beautiful color coded pouches sport our correct names and photos.

After a busy and fun filled week in BC we returned to the states for a good while. Plenty of exciting cities I've been looking forward to, including a week in Portland, Oregon!!

Week 19: Saskatoon and Winnipeg, Canada

First return to Canada!! Split weeks aren't anyone's favorite; a bit stressful, adds lots of travel time to the equation.  Obviously February is a rather grey month across the board, but particularly in Canada. The streets were covered in grey snow, most locals used the underground systems as opposed to walking around above ground- a concept I did not grasp until our last day there. Basically both cities seemed empty and grey. We did find fabulous a Mexican and Vegan restaurant (separately) in Winnipeg, but mostly I buckled down and got through the week in anticipation of the next.

My sweet friend Brian, pretending to be a brooding little hipster pepper shaker. I think he posed for me for several photos in these glasses...which are his frames from when we saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D in Alaska (which I forgot to mention...private screening, very fun!).

Cool vaudeville theatre next door to ours in Winnipeg. Beauty played the Pantages in LA last year, I suppose it's a common enough name. But I thought this place was cute.

Delicious brownies at the fanciest hotel we have stayed in thus far: The Fairmont, Winnipeg.

Sometimes months and months go by without a single principal calling out, but when it rains it pours. Carly got to go on for the Wardrobe in Winnipeg on Sunday, just 10 days after Mandy! Here are all the napkins around her on her big day! It's been nearly a year since Carly last went on, so it was pretty funny to see her and Mandy back to back.

Again, minimal activity week. Perhaps this is why I didn't blog much? There were several weeks where life was suddenly very normal, routine. Other than being a dancing fork and traveling the country for my job, nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening. This upcoming week I've been looking forward to since I received my itinerary, and even though it meant staying in Canada, I think everyone was very excited. A week in Vancouver, BC!!!

Week 18: Spokane, WA

After the Great White North, I felt like I may never need a heavy jacket again. It was a balmy 35 degrees when we arrived and I ran outside in a sweater and jeans.

Ok, so I've got a pretty serious obsession with Chobani Greek Yogurt. If we have refridgerators in our hotel I run out and buy at least one for every day we'll be there, and basically refuse to eat any other kind of yogurt. They have the standard flavors-strawberry, blueberry, peach, honey, plain- at plenty of places, but there were NEW flavors in Spokane at a little all natural grocery: Blood Orange and Apple Cinnamon!  It's the little things...

Due to an injury in Alaska, our Madame de la Grande Bouche, Jen, was out our opening in Spokane. Mandy got to go on for the first time!! She was a lovely and very tiny wardrobe :) 

The theater in Spokane has a tradition of taking cast pictures with a certain flyman, and they asked a few of us for some comedic shots. I started out serious, actually trying to pull the rope, but quickly realized it wouldn't budge, and gave in to being girly about it. 

And other than finally seeing Midnight in Paris (which was wonderful!), that was it for the week! Spokane is a cute little town and the show went well there. It was nice to get back to the contiguous states and thaw out for a moment. On to our next adventure: back to Canada for a split week in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, Manitoba!

Week 16-17: Anchorage, Alaska!

I don't think I've ever seen so much snow-or been SO cold! Anchorage is a fun little city and we were dead center downtown, plenty of restaurants, bars, and amusement in walking distance. Nice to be sitting down in one place for 16 days. I managed to actually unpack, do laundry and make a few touristy plans.

Our first big plan was to go dog sledding the day after we arrived. Three cars began the caravan south to Seward, but we were attempting to drive through a blizzard with avalanche conditions- in between an ocean inlet and a mountain. Our car turned around pretty quickly while the other two forged ahead, and got stuck in Girdwood while the roads were closed both ways!

Flying in from Seattle we were on the Disney plane!! "Be Our Guest" was actually playing as I boarded...so funny.

We went the to the zoo on the first Wednesday, which was probably the warmest day in our time there, at 35 degrees. After the blizzard everything was just covered in FEET of snow. The animals were all of the arctic variety so they seemed comfy enough.

Me, Jess, and Jen at the zoo. Brown, white, black, and a little green seem to be the only colors in the winter season up here in the Great White North.

This beautiful harbor seal loved us! He came and flirted at the mirror, following us as we walked around. We must have spent 15 minutes with him.

The petting zoo was closed, but the goats were very friendly and came right up the gate...where we promptly gave them lots of kisses and cuddles, and fed our map to them on accident!

We had my first Cabaret benefit in Anchorage at a fun place called Mad Myrna's. All proceeds went to the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association, and we set a new fundraising record that night! I sang "My Party Dress", a contemporary song sung by a little girl, about her favorite dress. I'm trying to upload to it to YouTube soon.

There was one day when all the trees went from snowy to utterly frozen. It was like being in Narnia.

Brittany (second from right) celebrated her 21st birthday here in Alaska!! She is our second youngest cast member, leaving only our male swing Michael to turn 'legal'. We did a little bar hop downtown and had a great time.

Our dressing rooms were really just one long room with little barricades. We loved popping over the wall and playing with one another.

Gorgeous gorgeous snowy mountains in Seward, where we went dog sledding.

I had on long underwear, leggings, jeans, two shirts, sweat shirt, snow jumpsuit, jacket, scarf, two pairs of boots, hat and gloves. Not cold at all!!

Me, Carly, her boyfriend Brian, Mandy, and our Brian getting excited about the ride.

Me and my team! I rode with the guide, so I got to drive quite a bit, as he liked to jump out and check on people. All the dogs were puppies, about 1 1/2 years old. It was so snowy that day the background is hard to make out, but there's a snow covered glacier...somewhere.

Brittany and me at our riders lunch in a little log cabin. We had lunchables of sorts: salami, Ritz crackers, cheese, trail mix, and hot cocoa.

Me and the team again. Couldn't get over how much snow there was! Must have been 10 feet in some places.

Our whole group after our long day of dog sledding. We had such a blast!

I know this will get mixed reviews from my readers (ie Robert and Susan), but part of my Alaskan adventures was getting a new tattoo in honor of my dad. It is a cardinal in shades of oranges and ochre (for subtly's sake). A few of us found an artist whose color work was beautiful and we all got tattoos from her in one day. It means a lot to me and it turned out better than I could've expected.

After our two weeks in Alaska people were thrilled to be moving further south, even if it was only to Washington state...still pretty far north for January. Next week: Spokane, WA!

Delays

I apologize for falling of the blogosphere. Time flies when you're having fun I guess! I have returned and even though I owe LOTS of episodes, I'll still present them by week.

Here we go....!

Week 15: Edmonton, AB, Canada

This was a lazy daisy week! The continued lack of cellphone service has made me something of a recluse, and I've been catching up on my workouts and entertainment this week. I saw "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "War Horse",  finished Tim Kellor's "The Reason for God", read "Sarah's Key" start to finish, and started another book ALL this week....obviously have plenty of time on my hands. The lack of rehearsal helped there too. So lazy in fact, I have very few pictures, except for Sunday....

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book series is brilliant and I am always a little nervous about the film version of my favorite reads, but this was a truly stunning film. Everything from the acting to the cinematography, even the changes to the story were well suited and appropriate. I can't wait to see what they do with the next two books...I may even have to reread I was so excited!

Wonderful, fast read. Just found out there is a film version as well, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, a fabulous actress I like to keep track of.

Beautiful movie!! We were all just sobbing the entire end. Steven Spielberg really is a genius. Now I just need to see the play on Broadway!

And, the big day finally came on our last day here: I got the opportunity to go on for Belle!! Emily had been feeling bad for a few days and really needed a day to rest her voice, so she called out and I was up! It was truly a magical day, finally living that dream of playing one of my childhood heroes. I felt this peace come over me, that I did what I came to do. Playing a dream role has this whole other level of fulfillment, and at curtain call I was completely overwhelmed with what I'd done. Then I got to do it again! Everyone says your first show is just a blur and very hard to remember. I count myself as blessed for having that evening show to really have fun and play with my fellow actors. What a day!

It was my sweet friend Nick's last day when I played Belle, so he got to see it!! We will miss him so much, but he's back in New York now, and I can't wait to see where he goes next!

Getting ready for the first show, I was smiling so hard it hurt! I love her costumes so much, add the wig and the locket, I was just on cloud nine.

Me and my Gaston, Logan. All the principals were such a joy to work with, I was glad to have so much rehearsal beforehand to try and match their high standards. I'm probably the tallest Belle...potentially ever...but Logan and Dane (the Beast) both wear lifts in their shoes, so I still looked a little smaller :)

And, if you haven't already seen in all over Facebook, the Belle-allels (as my witty friend Ariel so aptly put it). I think I was Belle a few times for Halloween, but here is my four year old self and my 23 year old self, in the gold princess dress. Someone said to me that as a child I must have imagined I looked like my grown up self. What a wonderful realization of a dream!

After a relaxing week and an epic end to it, we got back on a plane heading further North and West to Anchorage, Alaska for the next two weeks! Several well deserved days off coming up!

Week 14: Calgary, AB, Canada

My first visit to Canada! Despite the locals saying there isn’t much to do in the city, we had a wonderful time!! Not as chilly as we imagined it would be until the New Year, when it was 9 degrees on January 1^st. Quite a drop from 30s and 40s! A few people made it up to Banff, a famous skiing area and gorgeous tourist attraction, but I was a little busy exploring the city. Sure looks good though, and might be a good reason to go back to Alberta.

Snow boot purchase! Sorels are the best and even though my big feet make them clunky, I've been wearing them nonstop up here in the Great White North.

There is an amazing place here called Cora's that everyone said to make a stop at for a big, yummy breakfast. They have a little sunshine on their napkins.

Turns out they do have Starbucks here, the cups are just in French. :)

New Years Eve we had two shows, and another two the following day, but the company threw together a little shindig in our beautiful hotel bar. Jen and I got all dolled up, and Dane photo-bombed our pretty shot!

The ladies at the party. I think there was an unspoken Black, White, Red, and Patterned theme.

The two Caroline Janes....

And the two March 13th, 1988 birthdays! Sometimes I still can't believe I have a name twin AND a birthday twin on this tour.  

We hung out into the wee hours, celebrating the New Year, despite having two shows the next day. Amanda, me, Terry (our drummer), and Cat (one of our lovely costume mistresses) toasted to 2012.

Cat (the bassist) and I posing in the hallway. Here's a glimpse of my full outfit. I just had this idea in my head of a long black skirt, sort of columnar look. Idea achieved! I always feel so tall in our cast, and then I run in to Cat...who is 6 feet!

Sleepy Carly at our matinee on January 1st. Those might have been the hardest shows to date after all our carousing the night before...

I've never had Pho, a Vietnamese soup, and we found a place near the theatre with a ton of options. I had a spicy beef Pho with a mango bubble tea...could probably eat that every day.

After celebrating the New Year, we headed even further North to Edmonton for another week at an identical theatre (Jubilee North vs. Jubilee South), oddly enough. Two solid weeks in Canada, definitely weird to be disconnected for a spell!