Chihuly & Cheese Grits

Oklahoma City had way more than I expected.  We were walking distance from the hip "Bricktown" with great food, a movie theater, and ice cream mixed on a marble slab.  They had a botanical garden complete with thousands of colored lights at night. Their theater is only 8 years old after the renovation and is quite beautiful with TV's and couches in the backstage dressing rooms (was great for watching some weekend football).

But my favorites were definitely the Museum of Art that was housing the glass exhibit by Chihuly.  WOW!  This guy is amazing.  I saw his work at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, but had no idea it was him.  If you are ever near any of his work, you MUST drop by and see it.  This picture above is one of the many whimsical and beautiful works he created.

My other favorite was the Oklahoma City Memorial commemorating the OK bombing in 1995.  We were lucky enough to have a personal tour of the outdoor site by the designer, Tori.  She and her husband managed to incorporate peace into a site remembering such a violent and tragic event.  You MUST see this if you are every near as well.

This morning, I got to have breakfast with a mother of one of Kara & I's friend.  She was sweet enough to treat me to the best shrimp cheese grits I have ever eaten....WOW!!!!!!  What a great way to close out OK City.

MY HOME!: Rocky Ridge, Little Rock, and Springfield

Well, these three places were my home for the past week, BUT the house in this picture was built by the REAL Almanzo for the REAL Laura.  We were close enough to Mansfield, MO to make a morning trip over to this gem.  Having lived with this character and the Little House story for so long now, I almost cried when I saw Pa's original fiddle in the museum right next door to this uniquely and lovingly designed house.  My favorite room was the kitchen where each counter was about waist level, the perfect height for his 4'11'' bride, Laura.  All of the cabinets were well within her reach.  When they finally got electricity (a luxury piped in by their daughter Rose), Almanzo carved out a perfect cubby for the refrigerator...and I am talking PERFECT.  There was nary an inch of space between the sides of the fridge and the wooden walls of the cubby.  My father would have been impressed!  As you can see, it was a beautiful fall day.  Looking out over their land, my heart yearned to own something as peaceful one day.

This was our first and only split week, playing two towns in one week.  While it does not compare to the one-nighters I did on tour in Europe with Grease!, it still is difficult to travel and perform on the same day.  Both cities gave us some great crowds.  I have to say I was a little partial to Little Rock because of our stay in the fabulous Peabody Hotel (complete with live ducks in the fountain) and a restaurant/bar called the Flying Saucer which served not one but TWO types of gluten free beer.  It is once in a blue moon that this happens, so I made sure to taste them before I left.  :)

Our presenter, Larry, is taking care of us for the next 2 or 3 cities.  He's a good guy, so I'm looking forward to bringing the show to each of his venues.

One last picture:  Every picture that I have seen of Almanzo and Laura has them standing at least 3 feet apart from each other, and awkwardly looking at the camera.  So, Kara and I tried to recreate history in front of "our" house :)

NASHVILLE: Music City USA

Why a pumpkin, you may ask. Well, as my Nashvillian cousins would say: why not a pumpkin? !?! Well, I guess it was pretty appropriate since it was Halloween during our stay in Nashville. Can you see the theme? The eyes are "little houses"....get it? :)

But Nashville did not disappoint. In fact, it would have been nice to spend two weeks there. I think I probably had about 5 different meals involving BBQ. There was live music wafting through the streets near Broadway every night. The crowds were great, hooting and laughing. We planted trees with Habitat for Humanity one cool morning on their 7 acre or so plot. It was great to have a man there who knew about trees and how to plant them. "Almanzo" learned something new that day :) Our van driver who took us home from the Habitat plant was named Ms. Daisy, and she was proud of her city. She took us the long way back and showed us several universities, a local hospital, and of course, her favorite BBQ spot: Mary's BBQ. Luckily I had a car that week, so I made a special trip out to meet this Mary and taste some of her delicious cooking. When I asked her what she recommended, she said, "well, I don't eat it, but it's all good".

The best part about my Nashville stay was getting to see some of my cousins, aunts and uncles. I don't get to see them enough, and they were kind enough to let me crash at their place for the week. I had 7 family members and 2 friends in the audience for our last show. Luckily I did not fall off my sleigh during the show (that happened to me a couple days before for the first time since I started this show). I love my family. They make me laugh.

I will trade in the comforts of a house again to spend another week in a hotel. Let's hope it's a good one next week!