Florida Pt. 2: Melbourne, Sarasota, St. Pete/ RECAP

As I said in the previous entry, the last leg of the tour had been going severely slowly due to my anticipation of being home.  That was all cured during this past week of tour, however, when our first two hotels of the week were right on the beach.  The days just seemed to disappear….

Arriving at the hotel in Melbourne/Indialantic was quite a refreshing shift from Miami.  Even though I had been to the beach in Miami, this town was a lot smaller, with a much less-populated beach.  There was strong wind and the waves were huge, allowing for a pretty good workout trying to fight against them.  I later found out that section of beach was one of the most dangerous in the country due to the unclear, choppy waters; sharks often misinterpret humans for other animals in their diets.  I got to experience the beach in the morning, all day, and at night after the show.  It was beautiful.

King Center, Melbourne, FL

I hadn’t thought it possible while in Melbourne, but our digs in Sarasota were even more awesome than Melbourne.  The beach was more expansive with white sand and calm, crystal waters.  When I went looking for shells, I found a hermit crab and a sea slug and made them race.  They were totally against that, however.  Some of the cast/musicians played a game of beach volleyball, which was a blast- I’m actually still sore.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota, FL

Our last day in St. Petersburg was pretty exciting just for the fact that it was the last show we’d have to do in 10 days.  I had my own hotel room with a king-size bed, giving me plenty of space to practice my karate-  you know, just in case I’m greeted by hordes of zombies upon my return to the QC (a lot can happen in 3.5 months).  I was greeted at the show by Adam Lounsberry’s parents with tidings of Christmas cookies.  It was really nice to see familiar faces; they had a blast at the show.

Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL

And now, I’m on the plane home (via Detroit).  So, I thought it would be interesting to throw out some random facts to recap the first half of the tour.

# of cities, theaters, hotels, beds:  22

# of states:  12

# of shows:  107

# of miles traveled:  about 12,000 (including to and from home)

# of comic books read: 26 individual, 21.5 graphic novels- or 181 individual comic books

# of TV shows watched:  8 seasons of scrubs, 4 seasons of South Park, 1 season of The Office, 1 season of True Blood, and all of the current seasons of The Office, Big Bang Theory, and Glee

# of movies watched:  40 (13 of them were X-Mas movies)

# of times doing laundry:  3 (and I didn’t even smell that bad….)

# of major bodies of water experienced:  3- Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico

# of times ill:  1 (not including many random sinus issues- really acts up going from place to place....)

# of hangovers:  2 (I partied, but usually not very hard)

# of haircuts: 2

The list just gets less interesting from there…..So that’s the first half of the tour!  Merry X-Mas, everyone, and I’ll be back on the road in about 9 days.

Florida Pt. I: Fort Myers/Return to Miami

The last three weeks before the holidays (aka layoff) are in Florida.   Two weeks ago was Fort Myers, last week was Miami, and this week is Melbourne, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg.  I've been referring to this entire period as the "home stretch".

We flew directly from Chicago to Fort Myers- talk about a shift in climate; we easily packed on another 50 degrees in temperature.  We performed on the campus of some easily-forgettable college.  It was a nice facility, the weather was beautiful, and we were within walking distance of essentials.  The Wednesday of that week, I went to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre for a matinee performance of White Christmas.  Many of our cast members knew performers in the show.  Little did I know that I worked with the director, Ann Nieman, on A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline.  I enjoyed the show thoroughly, and reveled in how appropriate and applicable it was.

Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Fort Myers, FL

Miami had little spurts of excitement, such as eating at Pollo Tropical (essentially tropical KFC), going to the beach, and performing in the country's second largest performing arts center, the Adrienne Arsht Center- the first being Lincoln Center in New York.  The week as a whole, however, was very exhausting.  It takes a lot out of you being in a place that's so populated, expensive, and culturally different.  I'm glad I got the chance to return to Miami, but I was over it pretty quickly.

Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, FL

Miami Beach

These last couple weeks of the home stretch have been going so incredibly slowly; I'm very eager to come home to friends and family.  Also, it doesn't feel like December with the temperature in the 70's and 80's, making it hard to get into the holiday mood.  But all things considered, I shouldn't be complaining too much:  As I type this, there's a nice breeze and sounds of waves rolling in with the tide as I'm looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean.  More on this in Part II!

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