Journey to Phantom

I, like most people, have been singing songs from the Phantom of the Opera since middle school. Last night, I finally got to see it performed in all it's glory. Doug got us tickets as my anniversary present. This is me being excited on my way to meet Doug in Olympia. Probably not the safest thing to do, take a picture of myself while I was driving, but fun anyway. We met up and headed north. The traffic was pretty bad, but we passed the time with some great conversation.
This is Doug dancing to some music in the car. We kind of had a hard time following the GPS thing, but when we finally figured it out and found the Paramount Theater we felt like...dancing.
We had plenty of time to eat something before the 8 o'clock curtain, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory. Not that impressed. The wait was pretty long, the tables were right on top of each other, and the food was not that great. We thought that since it was "The Cheesecake Factory," the cheesecake would be good. Well, it wasn't. The flavor was good, but not the consistency. Sad.
After dinner, we headed to the theater. There were so many people. They were dressed in things from ballgowns to Bermuda shorts and there was even a girl dressed up like a jester...interesting. I took a few shots with my camera and was still putting it in my purse when we came to the door. The guy taking our tickets said..."Ma'am, we don't allow cameras inside, at all." What was I supposed to do, hightail it 7 or 8 blocks back to the parking garage? I don't think so, not in the heels I was wearing. We went back outside, waited a few minutes, shoved my camera into my purse and zipped it up. We went through a different door. I was scared the other guy was going to chase after us and search my purse. It wasn't like I was going to take pictures of the actual performance. I figured that would not be allowed, I just wanted some shots of Doug and I inside the place. I was a little disappointed about that, but oh well.
The whole production was amazing. I was a little frustrated at times because I was having a hard time understanding what they were singing and saying. But, I think I got the jest of it. I was just trying to take it all in and enjoy. The singing was absolutely incredible. I mean, down right amazing. The guy that played the Phantom was an understudy and if he was that good, I wonder what the usual guy is like? Anyway, I have never actually known the entire story. Singing the songs since middle school, certainly didn't make me an expert. I was sort of glad about it though. I didn't know how it ended, so it was exciting to see. I got pretty emotional several times, I think just because of the experience. I am so glad that I was able to be there with my husband and see some amazing talent performed.
After the show, we headed back to our car. We could not figure out how to get back into the parking garage. The main entrance was closed so we walked back and forth, block after block, trying to get into the right place. We weren't the only ones. Most of the people were wondering around looking just as confused as we were. (This picture is of us walking around, being confused.) We finally figured it out, and man, were my feet happy about that. We got home around 1:30 am and I just wanted to be in bed. I had a great time. Thanks honey, it was fabulous!!