Wild, Windy, Wintery, Wicked Week...

So anybody who knows me may know that I love the Broadway show Wicked, and lucky enough for me, I've recruited some other pretty big fans. Now I understand that I have seen it 3 other times (New York, Seattle, and Denver) and that should be enough for most people, but, we are not your average fans. When my mom and I heard it would be playing just a short 7 hour drive away in Portland, we could hardly resist the temptation. So after 3 days of making babysitting arrangements, rearranging doctors appointments, buying preschool snacks and 2 nights of dinner preparation - Jenny, my mom and I were footloose and fancy free. Now the only thing between us and a night of singing and dancing are the Blues Mountains. Some of you may not be familiar with this particular mountain pass, but as we're climbing to the top and all the trucks are stopped along the roadside 'chaining up' we knew it couldn't be good. It was pretty hairy up there for several miles as we tried to 'keep between the two fences with the greasy-side down', as my grandpa would say.

We managed to white-knuckle it through the pass, and safetly down the other side, until the next weather hit us. Wind. Now wind is one thing, but the thing that set this wind apart from other wind storms, was the fact that it was driving tumble weeds in droves across the road. I have never seen it before in my life. The tumbleweeds would sweep across the freeway like herds of sheep, and it was all you could do not to swerve to miss the little guys. They'd come at you as if on a mission to knock you off the road, and you felt as if you were playing Frogger on the freeway dodging tumbleweeds. Some cars didn't fair so well and had huge clumps of tumbleweeds stuck to the fronts of their cars like broccoli stuck in their teeth. We spent a large amount of time laughing and pointing at other cars, not knowing the extent of what was stuck under our own undercarriage.


We finally managed to make it into Portland into rain which was sort of a relief after the other extremes. We only managed to make one wrong turn before we made it to our hotel with less than an hour to get ready and walk to the theatre. My Aunt Alane met us at the theater with her two girl friends that she brought from Richland. The show was as good as ever, and Elphaba stole the show. We sang along, and all-to-soon it was over, like a dream.


Wicked Sisters




We spent the night in the very posh downtown Westin Inn with some of Dax's free hotel points. We woke up to more rain, and after a rather disappointing trip to Chinatown, and a near gas crisis, we made our way to Ikea to say our goodbyes to Alane and to do a quick shopping trip before making the trek back home. I'll spare you all the details of the weather on the way back home, only to say we schlepped through a torrential downpour into a blizzard storm back over the Blues. I've never been so glad to be back in Ontario and dry roads.
























Despite the weather, it was all worth it - and you bet we'll be back to see it again. Because we are, after all - WICKED.


Thanks Alane for the darling souvenier.