4 posts tagged “wicked”

Well my weekend in Portland and Seattle (which incidently is called the Emerald City) was fab-u-lous. I got to see some good friends of mine (all of whom migrated out of California and moved north...hmm) and I took in a lot of northwestern culture and also enjoyed watching Wicked (my second time seeing it). There are just so many stories to tell about my adventures that I don't even know where to start! I'll probably add more photos into a collection later as my friends send their photos to me, but for now I'll leave you with a shot of us outside the theatre before the show.

 

 

Well as you know, I'm back from my long weekend trip, so now its time to blog about it because that's just the way I roll. Er...yeah.

So anyway, my husband and I drove down to Anaheim from Sacramento on Saturday morning-EARLY saturday morning actually. We woke up at 3:30am and left the house by 4:30am. After a couple of coffee breaks (in regions of California where the air actually smells like poo) and an obligatory traffic jam or two once we hit Los Angeles, we arrived at the Hyatt (hello $70 bucks a night on Priceline) at around 11am and checked in early. We then napped until about 3pm when we started getting ready for the show.

We met up with my friend Anna over by the OCPAC at Macaroni Grill where we had a fun Italian dinner all dressed up and ready to see Wicked. The show was absolutely incredible. It was funny and beautifully designed and the actors were great! Julia Murney played Elphaba and Kendra Kasselbaum played Galinda. They were both so much more amazing to hear in person than I thought they would be. We also had pretty good seats and I could make out the facial expressions of the actors on stage, which is always a plus.

On Sunday and Monday, we went to Disneyland and had a really fun time. The new changes to Pirates of the Carribean were great as I always wanted to see Jack Sparrow in the ride and now he is there, but you have to find him. The Fantasmic show was totally awesome and the fireworks show was like nothing I've ever seen before. I'm not usually all that impressed with fireworks, but Disney really put a lot of effort into making it an incredible show and I was totally blown away. Since it is the 50th anniversary this year, they had a new fireworks show that they described as an "E ticket in the sky", so the show was based on taking a tour of all the most popular rides at the park and there were fireworks and music to go along with each "stop" of the tour.

There's a new Monster's Inc. ride over at DCA where you are seated in a taxi cab and you drive through Monstropolous to see the ensuing chaos over a child running loose in the city. It pretty much follows the storyline of the movie and while it was cute, I wasn't all that impressed except for the sushi restaurant that actually smelled like ginger and the room with all the doors. It's basically like the rides in Fantasyland, but with new characters and better scenery.

At my husband's request, we popped over to Downtown Disney to check out the ESPN zone restaurant for lunch. I'm not much of a sports fan, but Tim was in heaven there. There were TVs all over the place with at least 3 different things going at once. I even went to the ladies room and was surprised to discover tv screens above each stall so you wouldn't miss a second of a game! Upstairs is a big arcade that has sports video games and a rock climbing wall. We played up there for a bit shooting hoops and throwing footballs, but it was pretty expensive (aren't all arcades?) so we didn't stay too long.

My husband and I also really love Mexican food and being in LA means we are that much closer to finding really good authentic Mexican food to eat. Lucky for us, there was a place right across from our hotel called La Casa Garcia. It was so good and so authentic that we even went there twice! Once for breakfast and once for lunch. I highly recommend it to people visiting Disneyland who are in search of cheap, satisfying meals that taste homemade. The service is great (heck the owner was THERE) and we never spent more than 20 bucks for the two of us and that included our drinks and a tip. It's on the corner of Harbor and Chapman and tucked back behind a shoe outlet. So seriously, go there. It's sooooo good.

It was a really fun weekend (although I seem to have caught a cold from one of the bloody children at the park) and we are thinking about maybe purchasing annual passes to go there since two trips a year would pay for themselves. But anyway, Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth and if you haven't been down there to check out the 50th anniversary celebration, I strongly suggest you go and enjoy it for yourself! Also, I highly recommend watching Wicked (it is on tour, on Broadway, in Chicago, and soon to be opening in London and Los Angeles) especially if you like the Wizard of Oz. I'm planning on seeing it again at the end of September in Seattle.

No the good news isn't that the Wicked Witch of the West is dead. In fact, she is alive and quite well on the stage in the Broadway musical Wicked, which producers have just announced will begin an open ended production in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre in February 2007.

Anyone who is a fan of the Wizard of Oz will love this fresh take on the witches of Oz and a different perspective on what happened before Dorothy 'dropped in' on Oz. I'm actually going to go see the show next weekend in Orange County, but I am so thrilled that an open production will be running here on the West Coast.

I think this calls for an audio file from the soundtrack a video clip from the Tony Awards! I'm sure many of you have heard this before, but if not, this song is performed at the end of the first act where Elphaba (aka wicked witch of the west) realizes that the Wizard isn't as wonderful and great as everyone thinks he is and she decides that she isn't going to go along with everyone else, but instead defy gravity - in more ways than one.

My travel plans for later this summer and early this fall are finally coming together. In August I have a weekend camping trip with my family (I'm hoping my mom has an extra tent though!) that we go on almost every year. My mom is from the Philippines and she is part of a Filipino church group that gets together for a big Filipino potluck and camp out each August. I always like to go along because the food is so good and it is nice to mingle with people from the Philippines so that I can at least still get sense of my cultural roots.

Later in August, I've got tickets to see Wicked the musical in Orange County and I figure since I'll be down there, I need to go to Disneyland for a few days while the 50th Anniversary celebration is still going on. I've been procrastinating reserving a hotel room, but by this weekend I should have my research done and my hotel booked. Priceline has always been kind to us, so that may be the way I go with it.

I also have my Labor Day weekend plans started.  One of my close friends from high school is coming to visit from out of state and he suggested we all head to the California State Fair on the Sunday before it closes. I think I've pretty much been to the State Fair every year of my life, and it always pretty much sucks, yet I still continue to go. I think it is more of a tradition that I go, rather than it being a fun and exciting day. I always like to check out the hypnotist show and all the county exhibits, but other than that it is usually a hot, miserable, $7 soda kind of day. But hey, at least I'll be in good company and that is the most important part of all.

At the end of September (being the fanatic that I am), I have tickets to see Wicked again at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. I'm excited to go see a show at the Paramount because it is supposedly the most beautiful theatre west of Chicago. I just booked my airline tickets today and got an incredibly good deal ($50 each way).  This trip will be one where I am staying with friends though, so no worries on the hotel room. I'm actually flying up to Portland where my friend Carrie lives, and from there we are driving to Seattle to see the show with two other friends who live up north there. Now if I could just find a fabulous green dress to wear to the shows so I look like I'm fresh out of the Emerald City. Anyone know of a good place I can get one in Northern California for less than $100? :)

One of my goals this year was to get out and travel more (even if it was to nearby locations). I think with my next two months planned, things are looking pretty good. I'll probably squeeze in one more big trip to the Northwest to visit my husband's family for the holidays. In the longer-term travel future, my mom is planning a trip to the Philippines in Feb '07 and I would REALLY like to go, but I'm not sure yet if I will have enough vacation time to cover a big trip like that. If I don't go on that trip, I am definately planning a month-long Europe trip next summer. Yay!