Valentine's Day - Part 1

Greetings, All.

I have once again taken over my wife's keyboard to bring you the latest adventure from the Daniels Family. This year, we decided that instead of flowers, or chocolates, or other such American traditions, we decided to stimulate the economy in 0ur own way.

The original plan was to go see a show somewhere locally, and cook a fine dinner - similar to what we did last year. We kept our eyes open for a show that we might be interested in, and found a one-night only showing of 'Hairspray'. I went to the ticket office one day at lunch, only to find out that the only pair of seats left were in the very back row, off to one side. We could have gotten seats much closer, but been nowhere near each other. So, we scratched that one off the list. Lana kept looking, and found a show called 'Stomp' in Richmond. No, it wasn't a live performance by Godzilla. I personally had heard of the show, and knew a few things about them - but never actually seen them. Lana had heard about them from way back when, and really wanted to see them. We watched a few clips of them on YouTube, and decided it was worth the drive to see them. We bought tickets for it that night.

Now, neither of us liked the idea of driving three hours there, and three hours back just for a two hour show, so we decided to make a day of it. With a little research (And a little help from her friends), we found a few good suggestions for restaurants for dinner, and some sights to see before the show.

We had a plan.

Our Richmond adventure started out yesterday morning. We got to sleep in, and had a nice waffle breakfast. We lounged around, and generally had a very relaxing time. We loaded up the car, and got ready to go.

We were 150 miles from Richmond, had half a tank of gas, it was dark, and we were wearing sunglasses. Well, it wasn't dark when we left, but still. The drive there was uneventful. The scenery whizzed by, and the music and conversation flowed freely. We had a good time.

Finally, we got to Richmond. Lana was the navigator, and used the iToy to its fullest. She got us to the 'Fan' district in Richmond, and found the museum. It was easy enough to spot. It was a big concrete dome in an area full of two-story commercial storefronts. Obviously a museum. Parking was free, and I managed to get Lana's little car into a tiny parking-spot that I was sure would annoy someone.

We wandered around that museum for hours. Three floors full of displays. Astronomy, puzzles, Biology, fossils, and even a live corn snake (Very non-poisonous. Unless you are a rodent) that was available for petting. We wandered around that museum looking at all the displays. There were lots of interactive ones. There were a few that we saw that had obviously gotten more attention than they were designed for. On those, you could hear the metal scraping along as kids moved various bits around. But the whole thing was amazing. One of the neater displays was the Mind-Bender section. This was an area of the museum for solving puzzles. There were wooden block puzzles, rope puzzles, and all sorts of mind-bending experiences. As you moved through it, you were encouraged to gather clues to help solve other puzzles. If you solved enough, you could get your picture taken and added to a hall of fame. We solved enough of the puzzles to get our picture on the wall, but decided against it.

Soon enough, our stomachs told us it was time for dinner. We still had two hours to kill before our show, but you can't argue with your stomach. So we found our car (undamaged, and intact) and headed downtown. Of all the restaurants that we had for options, the Strawberry Street Cafe sounded the most interesting. Their claim to fame was that they were mentioned as a Jeopardy Question one time. Something about being a famous Richmond restaurant with their salad bar in a bathtub. I had never heard of them, but to all who are going to Richmond - I recommend it highly. The service was excellent, the food was superb, and the dessert was big and yummy - And they have Sweet Tea! I had the Pasta Jambalaya, and Lana had some kind of Spinach Lasagna. Mine was superb. So good in fact, we tried making it from scratch tonight for dinner. We almost got it. Anyway. Dinner was good, and cheap.


After dinner, Lana navigated us to the theater. We got there a little early, but that was okay. There were a few other people who were waiting outside, so we weren't too bored. Then we noticed the kids. Maybe five or seven years old. Excited about seeing Stomp! They had me a little leery - I hoped we weren't in line for Elmo or anything. But we talked with the parents, and the excited kids and found out that it was going to be a very cool show.

We were finally seated, and anxiously awaited the start of the show. Soon enough, a guy walked out on stage with a broom. And the show started. They were halfway through the second 'song' when Lana looked over at me. I caught her eye, and realized that I hadn't stopped smiling since the first rhythm was tapped out. And it only got better. Not only was this a show involving a lot of tap-and-dance with improvised instruments - but it had characters. There was the generally odd and generally picked on weird guy - One of his performances involved him loosing his shorts. There was the include-everybody-and-everything-in-the-fun guy - including the audience - and a few serious-men. Women too. Some songs were solos, but most of them were simply amazing group events. They used everything they could get their hands on to make rhythm. Brooms, metal trash-bin lids, buckets, and signs. One scene had them swinging from the ceiling to hang next to a wall covered in potential noise-makers. They even included the kitchen sinks. Four of them to be exact. Full of water, strapped around their necks, and making fun noises - All in rhythm, all in perfect time. They even did their signature 'song', they had three guys with large 55-gallon barrels on their feet - stomping across the stage like a freakish triplet of Godzilla's - all in perfect time. There was another song where three of the performers passed a trash-bag back and forth. They would dive (literally head-first) into it looking for potential noisemakers. The final song of the night was performed with the help of the audience. All through the show, the include-everyone guy had been 'training' the audience to copy him. And for the final song, he showed off his perfectly trained audience to the other members of the troop. Of course, there were a few people who did their own 'interpretive' additions to his instructions. But it sounded cool anyway. And before we knew it, they had done over a dozen songs, and it was time to applaud. The troop got a standing ovation, and at least two more fans.

But then, we had to go home. The fun was over. It was going to take another three hours to drive home. But we were both excited. It was a great show, and a great ending to a valentines day - part one. On the way home, we saw at least 15 deer on the highways. Two particularly stupid specimens were hanging out on the pavement. We didn't hit any of them, but it was enough to keep us awake. It wasn't just a drive home - it was a "How many can you spot" event.

We finally made it home about 1:30 in the morning. We were tired, happy to be home, and a little sad that the day was over. But it was worth it - it was an excellent trip.

Valentines day - part deux will happen next weekend. We are doing some fan-say cooking.

Until next time,
-Matt