California: Swimming Pools and Movie Stars...and TRAFFIC

Hello everyone!

It's 11:41am and I am currently in Tacoma, Washington getting ready to load in our set at the Pantages Theatre. We have two shows tomorrow, load out and a quick drive to Bremerton, Washington. I'm here in Washington until Saturday night. We're playing 3 venues that surround Seattle in a triangle. I think we're going to try to head in to Seattle on Thursday. Most of my castmates haven't been there and they want to see the Space Needle and stuff, which should be fun. I really like Seattle. I've been there twice with Mom and had a blast both times.

So the last week I was in California. The weather was lovely, natch. Between 60 and 70 degrees the entire time.

We played our first shows in Lancaster, which is about an hour outside of LA. The venue and the crew were terrific. Unfortunately several of our set pieces were damaged on the drive out here, so we (and by we, I mean mostly our poor technical director Jonathan) spent 4 hours trying to get everything repaired. It was not fun. Several of my cast members and I decided to make it more fun by taking pics, which can be seen at the top of the post. We finally got everything repaired and rewarded ourselves with In-N-Out Burger for dinner. It was good, but it wasn't perfect until I found out about the secret menu and ordered my burger "Animal" style on my return.

Two great shows in Lancaster, load out, on to Glendora. First night we had an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant. The next day we went into Los Angeles. We started out with a great lunch at Sushi Mac based on a recommendation from my friend David who lives in LA. All rolls were $3! Then we hit up Hollywood Boulevard and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Pictures will follow. I also got my shop on at H & M. Two super cute and cheap tees later, it was time to hit up Rodeo Drive. CRAZY!!! (More pics later) We had a happy hour drink and app at 208 Rodeo. Anthony and I split the truffled fries. AMAZING!

Then we left for our dinner reservation at Bar Brix, a tapas bar in West Hollywood. We got the recommendation on Lonely Planet and it was RIGHT ON. (I just wanna say how happy I am that I am on tour with two people who like to plan and eat good food as much as I. Love you Tony and Kirsten).

So according to our GPS, the restaurant was 8 miles away. IT TOOK US AN HOUR AND A HALF. We had to keep pushing back our reservation and calling Anthony's friend who we were meeting for dinner and telling them that we were running late.

So when we finally got there we were all ready for wine and food. Anthony, the resident sommelier, recommended Lambrusco. It was yummy. We ate crostini with butternut squash, marinated olives, sea bass with cream sauce and couscous, arancini, grilled skirt steak, maine sea scallops with a dill yogurt sauce, charcuterie, cheese, burrata, etc, etc, etc. IT WAS AMAZING. We all just kept moaning and sitting back in our chairs.

Right before we left I went to the restroom, which was a one-seater with a huge line. An older woman behind me went in to the men's restroom after her husband came out and told me to watch the door. The husband asked me if I liked the restaurant. I said that I did, until now, waiting for the bathroom, but that we all loved the food and wine and were blissfully happy. He informed me that his daughter was the owner, it had only been open for a short time and he and his wife were visiting her from their home in Baltimore. I brought them over to the table and everyone started talking and laughing and we ended up exchanging email addresses and inviting them to our shows in Maryland. They invited us to their house for dinner! Life is weird.

Anyway, that was LA. More posts and pics later.

Love you guys!