Seattle, WA

The JCS company Secret Santa!
Jason and I- the best Santa ever!
Darrel and I at the Pikes Place market in Seattle

I spent the two days before Christmas in Seattle, and it was great! It was the first time I really felt the Christmas spirit. It's hard with living in hotels and theatres. You miss out on the excitement of getting together for dinners, going shopping, planning. But Seattle was booming for the holidays. Their downtown area was filled with shoppers and Christmas trees and music. Just beautiful!

We did our Secret Santa unveiling on Saturday night, and it was so fun. We gathered around the huge tree in the lobby of our hotel, and everyone opened their last gift. You then had to guess who your Secret Santa was. Only about 7 or 8 people guessed correctly, and I was one of them. :) My Santa went WAY overboard on gifts! I got socks, bath stuff, wine, food for the bus, a Jesus change purse, and for my final gift, a great lotion package. It was my friend Jason, who was on tour with us last year! I knew it had to be someone I had known for a while, who was very generous, and probably a gay guy who knew how to shop well, so he was my first guess!

Darrel and I went to the Pikes Place market on Sunday afternoon, where they throw the fish. Great place- I bought Ernie a huge lobster tail and scallops for Christmas that I brought home on the plane! We celebrated our Christmas at Ruth's Chris steakhouse and did gifts there. It was perfect. Then off to catch my red eye home!

Portland, OR

Well here I am in Portland, in kind of a crummy hotel. I had a bad night on the bus- couldn't sleep for the life of me, so I am a little out of it and crabby today. :) We are about 2 miles from the good downtown area of the city. I plan on walking around tomorrow in between the two shows we have. I was here once before, and what I remember best is that they have no sales tax!

I am really looking forward to coming home for Christmas, especially with everything that has happened over the last few months with my uncle passing. I think I have kind of "over-booked" myself though- red eye in, lunch, running around, dinner, then three different houses on Christmas day, then appointments on the 26th, flight out at 5:55am on the 27th. Good thing all of my Christmas gifts are wrapped and ready to go!

Spokane was a cool city. Their downtown area was cute- they had a NORDSTROM (made my day) and little shops and restaurants. We went to a place right across from the theatre on Tuesday night and I was so excited because I got Continental miles there! I am signed up for their free dining program, so I check out the website for almost every city to see where I can eat for 3 miles a dollar, then I try to convince people they want to go. I am determined to go to Europe on a free flight for the third year in a row. :) There was a group of 12 of us that did lunch at The Olive Garden too. You can't go wrong for $6 all you can eat salad and breadsticks! The only problem with Spokane is that it rained. The whole time. Not fun when you don't have a car to get around!

Banff Photo

This is my favorite picture taken while we were in Banff last week. My friend Aaron took it after we went to lunch at a little pub on Saturday, and I've been bugging him to send it to me ever since. From left to right, Craig, Corey, myself, and Tiffini. Can you tell how COLD it was?!!

Adjusting

It is amazing how you can adjust so quickly when you live like we do out here on the road. I thought about this last night. It was our first night trip on the bus- 450 miles from Calgary to Spokane. I was running late for our midnight bus call because Darrel and I were enjoying the BEST dinner, so I hopped on the bus without getting ready for bed in the hotel room first. Next thing you know, I am at a Flying J truck stop, not thinking twice about bringing my bathroom bag in and washing my face with paper towels taking out my contacts, and brushing my teeth. Our 8 hour trip turned into 12 because of horrible weather, so I adjusted to sleeping in my coffin of a bunk being tossed an turned. Get to Spokane, quick change of shoes and coats around in the suitcases because it is warm here (35), and off for the day. Did I mention no food or running water on the bus yet?

I am happy I live like this right now- it has taught me to be even more organized than I already am, and kind of take what ever comes my way. There is no set schedule out here. No set anything really. Anything that is 'set in stone' can change at the drop of a hat.

I can't wait for my sister to come out here and live on the bus with us for a week in January!

CALGARY!

We arrived in Calgary this afternoon. Over one million people now live here, and there is so much to do! But I haven't done it yet. Ted, Corey and I literally ran into the hotel at 2:30 so they could do interviews with two of the networks here. We are sold out for two out of our three shows!

I was here for skating a few years ago and loved it, so I am going to wake up early tomorrow and head out. There is a free trolley that runs through the city. I want to check out some of the stores (window shopping and Secret Santa shopping only) and find somewhere good for lunch. I have been glued to my computer all week, so I am going to take a few hours to enjoy life a bit. My work load is so much more than last year, and I haven't even started the merchandise side of the job yet. We don't sell merchandise for the show in Canada because it is too difficult to cross the border with it on the trucks. They also have a GST tax that we don't have.

Darrel and I have reservations at a restaurant I love on Friday night. It's call the River Cafe. I went there when I was here last time, and actually saved a pen for all these years, hoping I would go back one day. You can not get to it by car- it is on Prince's Island Park. You have to walk over a bridge onto the island. So fun. The website is: http://www.river-cafe.com/index.php. I think that the most difficult thing on this tour is going to be not spending too much money. All of these great cities, great restaurants... Last year it was easy- Denny's and Subway were pretty much our only acceptable choices in places like Padukah, KY and Great Falls, MT.

I just got the greatest news! Our musical director has my camera! Woo hoo! So you'll be seeing pics soon!

Edmonton, Alberta

The photo you see above is our new crew photo- no one told us to wear black, it's just what we wear EVERY day...

So here we are in Edmonton, Alberta! To backtrack, Banff was just beautiful. The first show went really well, and the town was so cute. It was the like Canadian version of Aspen. All of the bars and restaurants were cute little cabin-type places. People just come walking in for a beer in their ski gear. A group of us found a great place called Salt Lik on Saturday and we hung out by their fire for hours.

Edmonton is much warmer than Banff was. There are only two cities in Alberta, and this is one of them. (The other being Calgary, which we go to for the second half of the week). It is flat plains, and very congested. The company has discovered The Old Spaghetti Factory up here- the best cheap restaurant around! It is a chain, and dinner includes salad or soup, your entree, ice cream, and coffee. For about $12! I have already eaten dinner there twice, and will probably go again.

The most amazing thing about Edmonton- the West Edmonton Mall! It is the largest mall in the whole world, built by the Mall of America people. We spent about 5 hours there yesterday, and it was overwhelming. On top of the water park, submarine, seal show, skating rink, roller coaster, IMAX, Chinatown, and Bourbon Street, they have over 800 stores, and 100 restaurants. We are doing a Secret Santa, so I used my time there to take care of that, and found a great top on sale at Club Monaco. (Mom, it fits).

I LOST MY CAMERA IN BANFF! I am so upset. Thankfully I had already downloaded the few pictures from Casey's wedding I had on there, but now I need to wait about a week until we are back in the U.S. to buy a new one. I am photo stalking my friends to email me theirs, but until then, no new fun pics. :(

Our shows here are sold out both nights to audiences of 2,300. Work has been nuts- the media in Canada eat us up compared to the U.S. so I have been going non-stop. The other half of my job is selling the merchandise, but we don't sell in Canada, so I have some free time during the show. I still go to the theatre, just to support the troops.

Off to Red Deer, Alberta tomorrow, some hole-in-the-wall town where we are playing in an ice arena. Glamorous, huh?!

Starting up

I have decided to keep a blog during this leg of the Superstar tour. SO much goes on out here, and I am never able to share it outside of the occasional phone call or email.

I arrived in Banff, Alberta last night, after a 13 hour trip. Banff is a National Park, about two hours outside of Calgary. It was such a nice reunion at the theatre for me- familiar faces who I shared so much with last year. There are also a lot of new faces I have to get to know. I hadn't seen Darrel in a week, and he had not seen my new black hair, so that was fun. :)

Banff is freezing. It is a skiers heaven. It has not stopped snowing since I got here, and I have to walk everywhere I go. My hats are getting excellent use! I have not visited the town yet, but Darrel and I have dinner reservations on Saturday night. It looks really cute! All of the hotels have the log cabin feel to them, and the streets are decorated like a movie set. Things are EXPENSIVE here- the Canadian dollar has changed, but their prices have not, so a sandwich is like $10. Crazy!