Family, food, and long, long walks...

Things are going well in San Francisco. Audiences are still loving the show & we're getting all kinds of great response. Last week our resident director was in town & we had the first full put-in for understudies. It was with full costume, lights, tech, and the entire band. Considering we understudies had only been through any scenes twice (and through the show as a whole only once) we did pretty well. And it's good to have gone through it once.

Meanwhile, we've been sampling some of the local fare. Up in Nob Hill, where we're living, it's a mostly residential neighborhood, but there are some restaurants that occupy the one, first floor corner unit. One of our favorites is Allegro Romano, situated on top of a nearby neighborhood called Russian Hill that slopes down in all four directions. They only serve dinner, and the host there chats with everyone, makes suggestions, fills everyone's glass with port at the end of the meal. Their prices are very reasonable, and there are probably only fifteen tables, so even if it's full, it just feels like a big family room.

On Saturday, my cousin Lisa, her husband Leonard, and their daughter Alyssa came to see the show. Afterwards, we all went out to The Grand Cafe, just a few doors down from the Curran Theatre, where we're performing. Great food (and a great selection of scotch). We had a really nice evening, and it was fun to spend some time getting to know this side of the family (Lisa is my Uncle Don's daughter), as I've never met Lisa (as an adult) before this week. Hopefully, Lisa & Alyssa (and Lisa's mom) are going to come back to see the show in a couple weeks. And it was fun for them to see their cousin-in-law do her thing (as I do the slacker thing downstairs)...

We had a great day off, this last Monday. At Lisa’s suggestion, we went to visit them in their grand palais in Tiburon, a gorgeous little community just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. We drove up late Monday morning and went straight to Stinson Beach, a dog-friendly beach just west of Muir Woods.




We walked the whole length of the beach & back, encountering a sunbathing sea lion on the beach, just lying out. We thought it maybe looked a little thin & weary, but locals assured us that sometimes they just come & hang out, particularly when it's empty, like it was on Monday (one of the advantages of having Monday as your day off). (The flowers were left there by someone who wanted to beautify the sea lion's respite, apparently).



We spent the night at Lisa & Leonard's swank-ola pad, enjoying their jacuzzi for a late-night soak before nodding off at the unheard-of early hour of 11pm. That morning, we went for a hike in the hills just behind the house.



And also the view of San Francisco, from the summit of the hill.



It was a long, 2 1/2 hour hike, up the hill & over the other side. The whole weekend was really pretty, but that day in particular was a little warm. Not to mention how windy it was and how steep the climb. You can see here the view back at Lisa & Leonard's house. Lots of dramatic scenery along the way.




And man, Butley was WORN OUT when we got back.



Back into San Francisco Tuesday afternoon & we unloaded our things and one verrrry pooped pup back at the apartment & went to the show. Week Number Five, coming up...