Dear blog: I’m sorry for neglecting you these past couple weeks. End of tour plus a week in Hawaii left me with not a lot of time to blog. But my mother has been bugging me to finish off the tour posts. So here I go!!

 

I suppose I last left off when we were in Courtenay…well, after Courtenay, we headed to Victoria! I have wanted to go to Victoria for YEARS so I was so incredibly stoked to go there. And we stayed in a BEAUTIFUL hotel to boot. It was a beautiful suites hotel right downtown and B and I shared a stunning 16^th floor 2-bedroom penthouse. We were living the high life.

 

Our show in Victoria was in the evening so we were fortunate enough to have most of the day off to explore the beautiful capital. B and I got up early and headed to a really cute breakfast place (I think I have filled my life quota of breakfast dates with her alone on this tour) to eat. We then spent the day wandering, shopping, taking pictures…and yeah. What a stunning city. I loved it so much.

 

After our show that evening, B and I went out dancing and had an absolute blast. We also met some really cool people and ended up staying up well into the morning…despite our 7 am call time. Needless to say, the ferry+drive to Kelowna that day was a little brutal. As soon as we got to our hotel in Kelowna (which was, quite possibly, the grossest hotel of the tour - a far cry from our Victoria paradise…), we all just crashed hardcore.

 

That evening, however, it was James’ birthday so we all went to this really lovely restaurant called The Yellow House (which was, in fact, an old yellow house converted into a restaurant) and had an amazing meal. The next day, B wanted to sleep in so I got up early and went for a long walk around Kelowna. I hadn’t been there since I was about 10 or 11 years old so it was nice to be back with a new appreciation for it all. Plus, it was gorgeous out. I had another amazing moment of being so thankful to have this opportunity and being able to see so much of the country.

 

After Kelowna, we headed to Calgary for our final full show. We, once again, had most of the day off and B had to get her passport stuff done so I spent the majority of the day running errands with her. Our show that night was amazing though. We were at the EPCOR Centre and had a 1300-person audience in a beautiful theatre. We also all got our own dressing rooms (well…except for B and I. Shocker, haha) and our stage manager had flowers waiting for us in the rooms when we all got there. I started to get really sad as it was beginning to sink in that it was our last show. It went really well though – a great way to finish off the tour.

 

…kinda.

 

The next day, we drove to St. Albert to do 2 mini shows at the mall. However, I didn’t really count them as real shows as not the entire cast was in them. They went well though, despite the terrifyingly tiny stage, and Corey and Beth came to watch and brought their new baby! AND I GOT TO MEET HIM! Oh man, words cannot describe how happy it made me. Just knowing 2 people so well and seeing them get married and then pregnant and then finally meeting the little one…amazing. I’m so happy for them.

 

After our shows in St. Albert, my mom came to pick me up and I cleaned my stuff out of the van and finally came HOME! It was a little weird at first…I had a good cry…but then got myself together to go out for the “last supper” with my cast. We went to New Asian Village and had a wonderful meal and a wonderful time. I’m really gonna miss all of those crazy people. It’s funny how close you can get to people in such a short amount of time. I suppose, when you spend so much time with them it’s unavoidable, but I truly made some sensational friends that I hope I have for a long time. We had a great cast. Amazing people. I’m so so SO incredibly thankful for everything.

 

The next day, everyone started making the trek back home to Winnipeg and I washed my clothes and re-packed my suitcase to head to Hawaii the next day. I then was able to numb my post-tour blues with a week of beaches and booze but now I am home. Fighting off a little bit of jet leg (I was wide awake until about 4:30 am last night) and kind of in this weird in between place.

 

We have confirmation of the show going back out in the fall so I like the security of knowing my time with those people and the show isn’t really over yet, it’s just on hold, but October is still a long ways away. I have to start looking into getting a summer job of some kind and that is slightly less than thrilling…but life could be worse. Life could be a lot worse.

 

I guess I can finish this all off by saying, once again, that I am so happy I did this. So grateful for the opportunity as it has been, by far, one of the best experiences of my life.