Last Camping trip of the summer

So even though we were in nature's playground this summer, we really on got a couple of camping trips in. But we did get one last camping trip of the summer the weekend after Labor Day up in Door County. We have only camped there once or twice because of their awful reservation system. It is very difficult to get a site in the summer without paying a fee that is almost another night of camping just to make the reservation.

Anyhoo... we drove up after work on Friday, we got out of town at a decent time, just not decent enough to make it to the campground before dark! So we set up in the dark, which was fine because there are 5 campgrounds at Peninsula state park and because it was after Labor Day, we had the place practically to ourselves! It was a beautiful site and huge!

It was a little cold on Friday night, after our experiences camping this summer, I may want to look into a little propane tent heater for next summer. But we got both dogs piled on top of us and it was warm enough to sleep. We woke up Saturday to what sounded like kids throwing rocks at our campsite. In reality it was a bunch of rowdy squirrels throwing pine-cones down from the trees to collect later. They were merciles and had deadly aim, all we could do is hide out in the tent until they were done! Saturday was gorgeous and we drove into Fish Creek to have some of Smilin' Bob's Bar Room Chili and some deep fried Door County Cheese Curds. (Yes a lunch that should only be accompanied by a trip to the cardiologist!) We wandered around Fish Creek for a while until we had haunted each of the shops and then headed back to camp to relax from the effort.

Our friend Lee had gotten us tickets to their sold out show "Guys and Does" so we drove into Ephram as the sun was setting over the Bay to see the show. It was cute, alot like Guys on Ice but in a hunting cabin.

After the play, we rushed to the Drive In to see District 9. It was a good idea and I'm glad that we did it, but we were not as prepared as we needed to be. we had our chairs and our cooler, but because we were running late we missed the beginning of the movie and couldn't get out of the car and set up the way we needed to. Plus, watching the moving from inside the car, our windshield was dirty and we had not washer fluid!! It was still a fun experience and we can red-box the movie if we want to follow it better!

Sunday was all about relaxing in the site until it was time to pack up and go. After we were packed, we did drive the long way out of Peninsula State Park so Pete could take some pictures of the scenery. We also climbed to the top of the tower. It was fun, but I did not stay up long! I wanted to try the Sweetango apples, so we stopped at a couple of farm markets on the way back including the one with the Corn Maze that we actually got lost in!

We stopped at Friar Tucks for dinner as we passed through Manitowoc and had the second perfect weekend in a row!

Then we followed the Cardinals home to Milwaukee

After a great weekend in Pittsburgh, we had tickets to the Labor day game at Miller Park. We had originally intended to tail-gate, but after the late drive we thought it would be better to sleep in! We had great Club Seats at the Labor day game it was a beautiful day for baseball.

We thought we had a chance of seeing a no-hitter, Carp had a great game going, the no-hitter was broken up by a cheap bloop hit to left field, but he still got the shut-out.

Tuesday, I went back to work, but Gail and Tom had invited us to a Brewers v. Cardinals game that evening. We again had great seats and it was a really fun game! The Cards were losing through most of the game and we got a chance to see the Hell's Bells entry of the Brewers closer, but the Cards made an amazing comeback on a Matt Holliday home run and we ended up winning the game! After the game, we had a late supper at McBob's, it was a lovely evening.

And it didn't hurt that we got a win!!

Anniversary Present

Since this was the first year since Pete and I have been together that we didn't get to spend our anniversary together, we planned an anniversary weekend for once I got back to Milwaukee. We also were afraid of not being able to see a new major league baseball park this summer. All of that was solved when we discovered that the Cardinals were in Pittsburgh labor day weekend!. Pete took a personal day on Friday and we took a 4-day weekend. Our plan was to drive to Pittsburgh on Friday, check into the hotel and finda bar where we could watch the game. We had tickets for Saturday's game and then we would drive back on Sunday so we could listen to the game and catch the Cardinals at Brewers on Monday (Labor Day). It was a good plan.

We did drive on Friday. We got out a little later than we thought we would, but it was a long game and we were still able to watch a few innings of the game. After we got checked into the hotel and got the dogs settled, we headed out to find a bar where we could get some dinner and watch the end of the game. We came around a curve and right in front of us was a Primanti Brothers restaurant. One of the guys at work had recommended that we eat there while we were in Pittsburgh and there it was with TVs big enough that we could see from the street that the game was on! It WAS a great sandwich and the Cardinals won!


Saturday we relaxed in the room and then headed in to town to explore downtown Pittsburgh. It is a beautiful area. We went to an old market type area and prowled around the shops and took a ride on an Incline. Sort of a tram that you take from the riverside area to the upper bluff area. We rode up, took a ton of pictures, got some ice cream and then took the incline back down. By this time, we needed to head to the game! The converging highways/bridges at the three rivers area are a little confusing and we somehow headed to the wrong parking lot and were on our way to a football game. But it didn't take too long to get back on the right track and back over to the correct side of the river and baseball parking. There are three bridges that cross from North to South and on game days, they turn one of them into a pedestrian bridge. It was a great walk over to the park. ON the street in front of the park, there was a street fair/ Irish fest going on which we wandered around just a little before we headed into the park.

The game was great and our seats were great and there were a lot of Cardinals fans in the park. We had Philly Cheese steaks that were enormous for dinner and generally had a great time. After the game there were fireworks and they were fantastic! Pete had been talking to a Cardinals fan sitting next to him throughout the game and after the game he asked if we would be at the game on Sunday, we said no we had to drive back. He had a sick kid at home so he had extra tickets, we must have hesitated because he said, here, let me make it easy for you and just gave us the tickets. We really thought there was no way to do it, especially with the puppies. But then we looked at the seats - they were 10th row, right behind the 1st base dug-out and fantastic. So now we were thinking about it.

Pete talked to his Dad while we were on our way back to the hotel and public opinion seemed to be that we find a way to see the game! We chatted with the hotel front desk in the morning and they agreed to give us another night for the single person rate and we found a way to go to the game with the pups nicely settled!

It was not a great game, we were ahead for much of it, but then Ryan Franklin melted down and gave it up. Blech. I'm still glad that we stayed and went to the game! The drive back wasn't even that bad. We had a plan to switch drivers every two hours, another plan we didn't stick to! But once you get into a driving groove, it's hard to give it up.

It was a fantastic trip!

Long time no see -

So I have been extremely remiss in keeping up our family blog after Pete returned to Milwaukee and left me alone in Utah. The rest of the summer went well. The show continued to be well received and I had a lot of fun hanging with my new friends. If we learned anything, we learned that six weeks is too long for Pete and me to be separated. I missed the pups too!

I did have some fun - the annual stage manager's trip to Las Vegas was scheduled to correspond with a carpenters and electricians. By the time we got there, there were 30 people from the festival headed to sin city. I didn't have a show, so I went in to town early and was able to see an Area 51s game with my friend Michael. It was a good gamea nd we had a great time. When we got back to the hotel, I curled up in our fantastic room to wait for the rest of the stage managers to show up. It was a great room, really much nicer than my apartment in Cedar City! Once they got there, we headed down to the strip for a little drinking and gambling. After a lot of confusion about where we were going and how far people could walk in heals... we wound up drinking quietly in a series of casino bars. When we discovered that it was almost 7a, we decided to head back to the hotel and have some breakfast!

Sunday we all met in Paris for Brunch which was, as usual, lovely (made me miss Pete!) and then some shopping before my friend Becky and I went to the Cirque show Beatles, Love. It was a fantastic show and I know that I will get to see it again, because Pete HAS to see it!! It was a long drive back on so little sleep, but once I got back - I had no where to bere until Tuesday, so I was finally able to catch up on my sleep!

4th of July Weekend

So since we missed our weekend in Salt Lake last weekend, we were able to get away for a three day weekend over the fourth of July. Friday we drove to Orem to see an Orem Owlz game. It was a beautiful night for baseball and the park was pretty nice. It was a little like New Jersey Cardinals in that it was about a 2 inning line for concessions (and another college campus, so no beer) but the game was fun. And afterwards... fireworks!



















Saturday we spent the day in Salt Lake City. It is a lovely city and we saw the State Capitol and the Mormon Temple. We were politely asked to leave Temple square with the dogs, but luckily we had walked the entire plaza by the time they noticed us and decided to ask us to leave. We could have carried the pups, but it was a hot day and they weren't really interested in the Temple anyway.




They were much more interested in the park half a block away where they could tromp around in the creek. We had lunch at a lovely cafe and then found a sports bar (can you believe it! In Utah!! The Zion curtain has definitely come down. Saturday night it was once again time for Baseball. We saw a Salt Lake City Bees game. They had someone there with a live Bald Eagle - what's more patriotic for the 4th than someone singing the national anthem with an eagle sitting next to him! It was an exciting game, tied for most of the evening, but in the end, the Bees were not able to pull it out. After the game (which ended at 11:30!) you guessed it; more fireworks! This was a much better show than the Owlz. By the time we got out of the game the trains were no longer running, so we had to walk back to the hotel, but it was a beautiful night and a very nice walk.





For Pete's last week here in Utah, we have been madly seeing shows - Monday afternoon we saw a preview of Foxfire, Monday night Pete saw the opening of my show. Tuesday night we saw Henry V and this afternoon we saw a preview of Secret Garden. With all of that under our belts, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Milt's steak house about half way up the mountain to Cedar Breaks. After dinner, we continued up the mountain to Sunset point and watched the sunset. I think Pete used 3 rolls of film in addition to the 50 or so pictures he took with his digital camera! It was a beautiful sunset. Afterwards... back down the mountain and Wednesday night Eucher. We actually Won a game this week!!

St. George Dog Park

Even puppies need a little vacation! Since we were stuck staying close to home in case I needed to be in rehearsal, we looked for an off-leash dog park where the puppies could get some exercise. There aren't any in Cedar City, but there is one in St. George - about 40 minutes away. So we hopped in the car.

The bank we passed driving into the city said the temperature in St. George was 108 degrees (yeah, but it's a dry heat... like a blow torch to the face!)

The park was nothing like our beautiful Grandville Dog park in Milwaukee, but an acre or so of fenced grass with lots of smells to sniff and a wading pool in case it just got too hot! The puppies had a great time. There were even a few other dogs braving the heat. The big dogs had little interest in our two mutts, but once they left, a family with three little dogs arrived, so we moved to the little-dog half of the park and the running, barking and sniffing started all over again.

Once they crashed in the grass and Mojo in particular, looked like he'd had all the fun (and heat) that they could handle, we loaded the pups BACK in the car and headed back to Cedar City. All in all, a lovely day and we were rewarded with two very sleepy puppies when we got home.

Vegas and Vegas

Pete and I had two trips to Las Vegas in one week! The first, we took my room mate Laura to the Airport when her contract ended so she could fly back to Milwaukee and would not have to suffer the shuttles from Cedar City to St. George and St. George to Vegas. Since I had no rehearsals that day and we were in town anyway, we decided to have lunch and see the Bellagio fountains which we had not gotten a chance to see the last time we were in Vegas two summers ago.

We had lunch at the buffet in Paris where Pete's parents had taken us for our anniversary a couple of years ago. It's pretty wonderful, the whole thing is broken up by province and the food is fantastic. After lunch, we walked across the street to the fountains and although it took three tries, we finally saw a whole song of the dancing water.

The end of this same week, we were supposed to go up to Salt Lake City and Orem, to see the Bees and Owls baseball teams. But the stage manager that I am understudying got a flu bug that has been going around the company so we decided to stay close to home in case I had to cover any of her rehearsals. Luckily, it was only a 24 hour flu and she was better the next day.





So instead of Bees and Owls, we drove to Vegas on Sunday and saw an Area 51s game. I wasn't sure if we would get a game in, and it wasn't a big deal because we saw the 51s a couple of years ago, but it was a perfect day for Baseball. It was 102 degrees, so we got seats in the shade which also had misters and ceiling fans. The Area 51s beat the Sacramento River Cats and all in all, it was a great day.

We were HOT when we finally made it back to Cedar City, luckily, there is a pool right on the other side of our apartment!!

Some nature

Even though I have been a little busy with my show, Pete and I have still found some time to enjoy the nature here in Utah. We spent one Sunday afternoon at a reservoir called Sand Hollow - it was beautiful. Though the water was cold! It felt good on a hot day. We just lounged on the rocks and read or tried to make our way around the rocks and sandbars under the water. It was a beautiful day and Pete took a ton of pictures (I'm sure they will make it onto Flicker in a month or so!)

We got the best camping tip ever from James, the scenic director here at the Festival. He said his favorite campground in Utah is Oak Grove. It's about 40 minutes away on the the highway, but then another half hour on a winding, one-lane, gravel road. It was well worth the trip. We were lucky enough to get the last campsite in the place and we had a spectacular view of the mountains that surrounded us.

It was warm during the day but cool at night (not Cedar Canyon cool, but all-dogs-in-bed cool.

Mojo started something that he hasn't done for a while - he dug little dens for himself all weekend. By the time we left on Sunday afternoon - there were 4 little Mojo size holes around the site and both dogs needed baths from all the dust. Not sure if you can see him behind Pete in the second picture, but he is in a little den under the bushes staying cool!

There was no place in the site that we couldn't look without seeing a beautiful view. It was just a fantastic campground and we had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Comedy of errors Follow up

We had our publicity photo call for The Comedy of Errors last night and I thought it would be fun to compare the renderings that I posted a couple of weeks ago with the (near) finished product. PS. follow the link to the right to Kathi's Pix to see the renderings and finished products side by side. It's fun!



I think they look great! Last night during the photo call, someone described the show as "Disney on Crack" I think that's a pretty accurate description. Although I haven't posted any pictures of the ladies in the show, they do look an awful lot like Disney princesses - think Beauty and the Beast or Aladin. It's pretty funny.


Below are pictures of the other set of twins, the servants and a picture of both sets of twins together. It's going to be a funny, funny show.