Fun In Phoenix

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to Phoenix with my sisters, Megan and Erin. The sole purpose of it was to see Glee Live! We love the show and jumped at the chance to go see them in their first tour. I didn't even know there was such a tour until last month. Erin knows all when it comes to Glee. She follows the actors on Twitter, she hunts down extra tidbits of behind the scenes stuff, and was aware enough to know that the cast's plans for the summer included a limited 4-city live tour. Erin was initially embarrassed to suggest the idea of going to it, knowing how expensive it would be for travel. Meg was instantly up for it when Erin brought it up, but I had to think about it and weigh my options for a couple hours. I decided I would miss the experience if I passed it up way more than I'd miss the money spent to do it. I'm glad I went. It was so fun and exciting! The kids did great while I was away, staying with my parents while Ryan worked and with Ryan when he wasn't at work. It was a much-needed little respite for me.

We flew out of Boise on Friday afternoon. We had seats together, but Meg got the window seat. We were right by the emergency exit, so I went ahead and let her, the most proactive of us all, sit by the door. Normally I love to sit by the window so I can spend pretty much the whole flight admiring the gorgeous views. I had Meg take a few cloud pictures. How pretty.



Near the end of the flight we started experiencing some major turbulence. Meg was concentrating all her efforts into not having to utilize the barf bag. I don't typically get airsick, but I was beginning to feel more than a little icky for the last part of the flight.

Meg trying not to lose it.


After we landed and exited the plane without incident, we rented a little reddish car and ventured out to figure out what to eat. We couldn't find anything for a good 30 minutes. We found some really run down areas of town which were kind of depressing. It seemed pretty quiet around town for a Friday afternoon in downtown Phoenix. A fire truck raced past and blared its horn, which sounded just like a Wookie! We all thought the same thing and had a good chuckle over it.
We finally happened upon an Applebee's, and we were so hungry we stopped there for fear of not being able to find anything else for miles around. Meg and I both had the steakhouse burger and Erin had some chicken cordon bleu thingy.
We went to check in at the hotel and then we headed back out to locate the concert venue. We wanted to be familiar with it for the next day, the day we'd been mutually salivating over!
After we scoped it out, we went to DQ for some yummy dipped cones. Meg and I had cherry, Erin had chocolate. I almost forgot how seriously good they are. Whenever I do go to DQ anymore I get a Blizzard, so I neglect the other menu choices. Guess I need to get over there more often, right?
On the way back to the hotel we dropped by Walgreens to get some bottled water, candy and microwave popcorn. We're chronic snackers, what can I say?


The next morning we slept in a bit, then had breakfast in the hotel. Then we lazed around more, then went to the pool for a short time. The water was too cold!

We all got clean and gussied ourselves up for the big night! We needed to be there by 5:30 for the "VIP" pre-show party and to get our tickets. I'd never been a VIP before. We still had to wait in line for a while, so I guess I still don't know what it feels like to be very important. =)

We had just enough time to go out to eat before we had to be at the venue, so we chose Hard Rock Cafe, mostly because it was close and we knew where it was. The food is never anything special. We did have some dessert shooters after our meal, and they were really yummy.

Here we are waiting for our food.



Cool ceiling ornament. Seems like a waste of perfectly good guitars though.



My chicken club. It was pretty good, but I shouldn't have ordered it- toasted bread always scrapes up the roof of my mouth. =(

This was the third time in a row I got the same thing Megan was having. Apparently I don't have a mind of my own. I think it was more a case of "great minds think alike".



As part of our VIP package we got a tote bag, t-shirt, water bottle and complimentary photo of us on a green screen with a projected Glee-themed background of our choice.


I look like a complete dork with my unsure smile. I think it was because there were lots of people watching.


We got the barf bags as a gesture "from Sue Sylvester" at the beginning of the show. She and Will Schuester introduced the cast via pre-recorded video. Sue thought the audience would need barf bags to make it through the show. I wish I could remember exactly what she said. All the Cheerios passed them out to everyone.


This guy was at the pre-show party. He was wearing the weirdest shirt I've ever seen. It's covered in little wheel-bedecked fruits... with push handles... It was interesting to see the wide assortment of Glee fans out there.


Cory Monteith (Finn) came out for a few minutes to say hi to the crowd during the party.
With all the crazed teenyboppers swarming about him we didn't get to meet him, but I was fine with that. It was fun to see him kind of up close. He's a very cute boy and he seems very gracious.



We got 5th row seats! It was awesome! We had the first row of cushy seats. We had an aisle right in front of us, and the four front rows were folding chairs. Of course we had a big, tall guy in our way when he stood up. We had to do our best to just look around him.


Killing time before the show.


Finally, the show started. LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) opened for them. They were amazing!

Sue and Will came on the screen and did their bit and introduced the main event: New Directions!!! =D The crowd went WILD!

They performed SO BEAUTIFULLY! Their dances were well done, and they all sounded great! It was so good to see them really singing and not lip syncing like on the show!
We all screamed pretty much the whole time. It was such a rush!


Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". The costumes were fabulous! I can't wait until next week's episode with this number in it. =)


Chris Colfer (Kurt), center. We love him.



"Like a Prayer"


"Jump!" They looked so cute in matching pajamas.



"Defying Gravity"


At the beginning of one song, the cast came in from the back and went down the middle aisle, the girls branching off in one direction, and the boys (Finn, Puck, Kurt, Mike and another dude) heading down the aisle right in front of us! All the way they were slapping hands with audience members who were lucky enough to be within reach, including us! How exciting! Even though some of them have only been famous for less than a year, and we'd only learned of their existence when the TV show started, I still got a little starstruck. I'm just silly that way, I guess.



"Sweet Caroline"

(I posted a video clip of "Bad Romance", and for some reason it displayed on the bottom instead of above the other pics of that song where I wanted it to be. I uploaded it in between groups of pics. One of these days I'll figure out how to properly blog...)

After the show we went to the hotel where the cast was staying and nonchalantly waited out front for a little while. We saw Cory get dropped off and I instinctively whistled at him and Erin called out, "Good job, Cory!" He turned around, smiled and said hi as he and two of his "people" went into the hotel. The whole exchange was very brief and harmless. We waited to see who else we might see get dropped off. It was cool because no other fans were there. But our luck ran out as another delivery of cast members pulled up. A couple of large, loud gals had trailed them there and parked right behind the van and jumped out and blurted to the security guy, "It's just two of us, please!" Yeah, right... who wants to get out to that? A hotel employee came out and told the driver to take any additional drop-offs to the "other" entrance. Brittany got out anyway and casually walked behind us, but we didn't dare say anything to her. There was a silhouette of someone else in the van, but we'll never know who it was. Oh well. It was a little juvenile for us to be staking out their hotel, but I thought we were very under control. We had paid big bucks for the trip, so we were trying to make the most if it! ;) We weren't going to just call it a night and go back to our hotel.


And now for a few random photos I didn't want to leave out...

Here's the very cool, totally see-through US Airways Center. It looked extra neat at night. There is a crapload of wasted space in that building, but it's a work of art anyway.



We stayed in room 222.



There were these really pretty pink flowered shrubs all around, and I finally made time to get a pic with them after we checked out of the hotel, but it was too sunny and the photos don't do justice to the blooms. =(


On the flight back, we had a short layover scheduled in Salt Lake. The plane in Phoenix had a last minute technical problem that turned out to not be an issue, but it took long enough that by the time we landed in Salt Lake we had mere minutes to make our connecting flight home. We had to jog, wearing flip-flops, all the way across one (long) wing of the airport. Halfway there we heard, to our horror, "We are now completing final boarding for flight (whatever) with service to Boise..." NO!!! I wasn't sure if Meg and Erin were giving up the race or what, but I kept running. For once, I felt like I possessed the power to save the day. We even got to run on one of those moving walkways. Ironically, when Erin and I had been leisurely walking around the Phoenix airport, I had commented about how fun it might be to sprint on one such moving walkway to see how far it would launch me when I leaped off the end. Little did I know, I'd get to try it out later that day... :P I hope the other airport patrons enjoyed watching our spectacle. Who knows, maybe our panic-stricken sprint is somewhere on YouTube by now. I know I looked pretty determined.

We made it there just before we were out of luck. The employees at the desk near the gate saw me careening toward them, with Erin and Meg straggling in close behind. I knew my sporadic jogs would come in handy someday, one way or another! Anyway, the workers were very speedy and helpful in checking us in and getting us on the dang plane. I don't think the other passengers were too pleased with us as we hurriedly made our way to the very last row of the plane, gasping for air and pink with perspiration. It took a few minutes to gather our composure. As a treat to myself I called dibs on the window seat. I was excited about getting the coveted spot at last. As I settled in for the conclusion of our trip I opened the window to look out. And this is what I saw-- a breathtaking view of the engine.