The Hotel Hershey

Darrel and I stopped in Hershey on Friday night to see some friends and go to dinner. Even though we have been there a few times, we had never seen the famous Hotel Hershey, because it was not within walking distance on tour and we never had cars. Turns out we went to get check it out on the perfect day- they spent 65 million dollars renovating it, and the renovated parts had just opened the day before!

Unfortunately we could not stay there for the night (rooms started at $365), but when we win the lottery, we will for SURE be going back here. It was wonderful! And for anyone with kids, it would be an amazing weekend vacation. The pool at the hotel is like a wonderland, and it's literally across the street from Hershey Park. I'm pretty sure they have a chocolate spa there too. Enjoy the pics!

In Shock

A big THANK YOU to The Paulk Family for sharing this amazing blog with me, called It's Hip 2 Save. You have to check it out.

If you have the time to really go through it and you are organized, you will save a TON of money. I just hit Target, CVS and Walgreens for things Darrel and I needed. My total should have been $45.77. Thanks to this website, I spent $15.98. The hard part is being patient with trying to find certain items to get the good deals.

I picked up some gift certificates for local restaurants over the weekend on restaurants.com. They are worth $75.00 in food and drink. I paid $6.00.

This unemployed girl is in heaven!!

Roanoke Island, North Carolina

When we were on vacation in the Outer Banks, I really wanted to try and take a day trip or two. Since I had never been there before, I didn't really know that there are not a lot of things to DO down there- it's more about hanging out with family and friends at the house you rent. Playing games, visiting, sitting out on the deck and beach... But, there was one place about an hour away called Roanoke Island that Darrel and I decided to go check out.

Roanoke Island is all about the "Lost Colony". The story goes that there was a settlement of about 300 people there, and they literally all just disappeared one day. People wonder if they set out to explore a nearby island and didn't make it, but no one really know. They have a show about it that you can go to, but it doesn't start until June, so we just read up about it before we went.

We visited the Elizabethian Gardens, which is a botanical memorial to the Lost Colony. They were beautiful! Unfortunately it was a little early in the year for all of the flowers to be out, but we spent time walking around and checking them out.

We tried to walk around the town a little bit, but is was just too windy. I got ice cream, and my hair was literally blowing into my mouth and into the cone. It's like we were forcing ourselves to be out doing this because it was vacation, but I looked at Darrel who didn't look too pleased, and we decided to head back after only a few hours.

It was a nice little trip to get out of the house for a few hours on a windy day!

Beach Time

We FINALLY had a good weather day on our vacation! We spent a few hours on the beach yesterday- we could not go in the water because of some rip tide advisory, but at least I'm coming home with some color!

We drove NINE hours today to Hershey, PA to see our buddy Phil at our favorite restaurant. Quite a hike for some great Italian food and company, but it is only adding on about an hour of driving time when you look at the big picture. The traffic and construction from D.C. to here was horrible. But the great news is not only do we have a great dinner coming our way, Phil worked for Marriott for like 20 years and got us a free hotel room for the night! Yet another reason why we love Phil, and Hershey.

Avon, North Carolina

We have been down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week with Darrel's family. Our weather has not exactly been stellar, but we've been having a good time! The biggest problem has been the wind. One day in the sun out of five... oh well. It has made us play a lot of Monopoly, listen to music, read, watch movies, play beer pong (yep)- just hang out.

The house is great- five bedrooms, three stories, two decks with a hot tub- RIGHT on the beach. The table is big enough for all 12 of us to eat together, and the living room is big enough for the Whitney Clan to have dance parties! Here is a little taste of how we have filled up our nights in Avon:

Williamsburg, VA

Darrel and I are here in the Outer Banks, in North Carolina, for a week. His family rents a house on the beach every year, and this is the first time in about 10 years that Darrel was able to make it back down! We sucked it up and made the 12 hour drive to come down here and have a fun week. But not without a stop in Colonial Williamsburg!

Williamsburg was about eight hours from Cleveland, and would leave us with four hours left to drive the next day. The best part about our stop? For sure the hotel! I found a place called the Wedmore Inn online. It's located on the Williamsburg Winery property, and it was even better than the pictures they had on their website! I wanted to live there. We even put the robes on over our clothes, just to get some good use out of them.

It almost looks like a castle, and every room is decorated and named after a wine region in Europe. They only have about 25 rooms, and 12 of them were booked when we were there on Friday night, so we kind of felt like we were the only ones there. To give you an idea of how nice it was, they actually had REAL keys for the rooms, and robes. Yep. Swanky. Yet it really was not that expensive, which surprised me. For a little bit more than a motel, like the Holiday Inn, we were able to stay at this amazing place, a bit off the beaten tourist path, and it came with a tour of the winery, a wine tasting, and breakfast.

We went to dinner at a good seafood place on Friday night, and then stopped at one of the taverns in town. All of the people that work there wear period clothing, they had peanuts on the tables, and guys singing ridiculous songs with mini guitars. Very tourist-y, but we loved it.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to do the Colonial Williamsburg thing. We wanted to be back on the road by no later than 2:00 to make it to the Banks by dinner. We figured we would start at the Visitor's Center and go from there. Turns out you have to buy a day pass for about $35 to see anything in the town. You literally cannot even go into the church without the pass. It wasn't worth it to us due to our limited time, so we just walked around for a few hours. There was an awesome farmer's market where we bought cheese for $5.00 that came in a tub about the size of a silver dollar. I told Darrel he needs to use it sparingly because I feel like we are eating gold. $5.00??!! Anyway, we would love to go back when we have more time- there seems to be so much to do there!


Off to the beach to watch Darrel boogie board!

A Blog For BA

This is really only posted for my sister- I don't think anyone else will care to watch these videos! Darrel and I just spent four days up at our house in Canada and did some work at our neighbor's house, which got hit pretty hard by a storm over the winter. BA- here's what you missed!

Name Changes?

Now that the Superstar Tour is over, I am trying to figure out if, and what, I should change the name of my blog to. Maybe. "Unemployed and Traveling"? Or, "At The Pool For The Summer"? Or, "Dipping Into Savings"?

Hmmmmmm.... maybe I'll just keep it as is for a while.

I am going to pick up keys for an apartment/half of a house that Darrel and I are renting here in Shaker Heights, OH (the same suburb my mom lives in) for the summer. It was advertised as furnished, and while it's a nice house and a nice area, it is far from what we consider furnished. A double size futon does not equal a bed. So we have some serious work to do this week to make ourselves comfortable until August!

The End

After three years of touring with Jesus Christ Superstar, I am hanging my hat up. Darrel and I are ready to move on in life- he will be going back to school in the Fall for teaching, and I will hopefully continue to work in the entertainment business. Keep your fingers crossed that Madonna or U2 call for their next big project. JK!

Here our our stats from September of 2006, through May of 2009:

• 622 Performances
• 236 Theatres
• 235 Cities
• 48 States + DC (we did not play Hawaii or Vermont)
• 6 Canadian Provinces
• 2 Countries
• 1 Show

And here is a picture of the six of us (out of about 45) that started at the beginning, and ran it the whole three years. Darrel, Ras, Ted, Craig, myself, and Matthew. God I love them.

The best part of this job was being out there with Darrel (and meeting him). We were so adventurous together, and really took advantage of seeing all of the places we went. I mean, I got to fly in a plane over glaciers in Alaska!

People often ask what my favorite and least favorite cities of tour have been. That is such a difficult question to answer. I would have to say some of my favorites, outside of the big ones I have been to before like Chicago and D.C., were Portland, ME, Athens, GA, Madison, WI, Greenville, SC, Portland, OR, San Antonio, TX, Hershey, PA, Savannah, GA and Philly. Some of the worst were Orange, TX, Waco, TX, Red Deer, Alberta, Reno, NV, and Binghamton, NY.

I think I have to post this now, before I cry!

St. Louis, MO

We had a stop over in St. Louis this past week, and MUCH to our surprise, we were staying in an amazing hotel. (My friend even called me from the lobby to ask where we were staying, because surely it could not be here). It was the Union Station Marriott. I'm assuming it's an old train station that they converted into a hotel- check out the pics, and stay there if you ever go there! There was a mall with a food court attached to it too- the mall kind of stunk, but it still looked cool.

It was the perfect place for me, Darrel and our friend Craig to play our favorite game, Rummykub, in the late afternoon with a glass of wine. :)

That night, Darrel and I met up with my college friend and roommate Katy! I had never met her fiance before- such a great guy! We went to a local brewery, and then she showed us where their reception is going to be in October. Can't wait!