Tuesday, August 11, 2015

A much needed weekend in Tucson

We spent the first weekend of May in Tucson and then didn't go again until the weekend of the 4th of July.   My parents were out of town that weekend though, so it had been since May that we had spent any time with them at their house. We decided a few weeks ago that we would go down the first weekend in August for no reason other than to go.  Once we decided that my mom bought tickets for us to go to a musical on Sunday, so our trip felt like it had a purpose.  Now it looks like we might not go again until October.  We almost always spend a weekend (or two) in Tucson each month so I think we're seeing the very beginning of the kids' activities interfering with that schedule.  

I got a ride to work with my friend/co-worker Ellen so that Michael and the kids could just pick me up on the way out of town.




We drove through a nice monsoon storm on the way down. 



We went straight to Michael's parents house when we got into town.  We ate dinner there and then left the kids to spend the night.  We went to my parents house, unpacked and got ready to go to the movies.
We went to the Roadhouse theater and saw Trainwreck.  Roadhouse has a reverse happy hour that started 20 minutes after the movie started.  I have to say that sipping half price cabernet whilst watching a movie in a reclining leather seat is the only way to live.  

I got up early on Saturday and worked out before my mom's friend Terry came over for breakfast.  Terry is a speech language pathologist and used to work with my mom before my mom retired.  We all ate breakfast and then Michael and I headed out for a day date.

Our first stop was to see Jurassic World.  We hadn't been to the movies since April, so we had a lot of catching up to do.  
After the movie we went to Walmart to buy a Star Wars shirt for me.  I have a The Empire Strikes Back shirt, but not a Star Wars one.  The reason why I needed it will be revealed momentarily.  We found these U of A flip flops at Walmart and couldn't resist. 

After Walmart we went to lunch,

and then stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy an immersion blender.  I've been wanting one for some time and our regular blender quit working this summer.  My first reaction was that we just barely got it and it should still work, but then I remembered it was a wedding gift and it's actually nearly 14 years old.

Our last stop before we went to pick up the kids was the Roadhouse theater again to see Ant Man.


On Sunday we all got up and got ready in our Star Wars best.  That's the shirt I got the day before.
Then we headed to The Gaslight Theatre for their production of Space Wars.

This is what you need to know about the Gaslight Theatre: 

For over 35 years, The Gaslight Theatre has provided Tucson the finest family entertainment in Arizona. We have musical comedy melodramas 6 nights a week, and 5 different shows per year. Westerns, sci-fi spoofs, our famous Christmas Shows, and everything in between- you can find it all here at The Gaslight! Cheer the hero and Boo the villain while enjoying your favorite beer or soft drink, pizza, ice cream, and mountains of free popcorn! We also have concerts every Monday night! Here at The Gaslight, we’re about great entertainment, great food, low prices, and giving you a fun place to forget about your troubles, sit back, relax, and laugh!
Space Wars is obviously based on the Star Wars movies.  They used bits and pieces from all of the movies and plot points from all of them as well.

Spencer was pretty excited about the show.

There is a live band.
(I pre-apologize for the poor quality of pictures.  Flash photography was not allowed and we were sitting in the very back.)

The characters all had silly, play-on-word names.


Darth Vader was Dark Visor.

C3PO was MP3PO and Princess Leia was Princess Layla.

R2D2 was WD40

Darth Maul was Dark Braul.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was Sobe Kaleidoscope, Han Solo was Lance Jericho and Luke Skywalker was Duke Starfighter.

Chewbacca or Chewey was Shuebacca or Shuey.




Yoda was Yoga.




Jabba the Hut was Java the Cup.

After the main musical the Gaslight Theatre always does an "Olio" which just means a variety act or show (I googled it).

This time they did an entire collection of beloved Disney songs.

The Little Mermaid 

Ariel (I promise it was a mermaid sitting on a rock) singing "Part of Your World".

Sea creatures singing "Kiss the Girl".

"Under the Sea"
Frozen

Anna singing "For the First Time in Forever".

Olaf singing "In Summer".

Elsa singing "Let it Go".  Spencer rolled his eyes.

All of them singing something I don't remember.

Mary Poppins singing "Spoon Full of Sugar".

Pirates singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me". 
Random characters singing something from Beauty and the Beast.  Seriously, this was not Belle and I have no idea who the girls in the back were supposed to be.

Gaston and men singing "Gaston".

More random characters, including a can of spam, singing "Be Our Guest".
It was a wonderful show and I'm so glad we all went to it.  Elliott got a little restless after an hour, but he enjoyed the whole thing and Spencer absolutely loved it.  The Gaslight is doing a Harry Potter spoof next and I'd like to go see that.  I'm also going with my friends to see The Addams Family in Scottsdale in October, and Spencer and I are going to see The Secret Garden in Mesa in November.  My friend Lisa and I are also going to see something after the holidays.  We decided on a show, I just don't remember right now.  I used to go to "the theatre" a lot before having kids and I'm quite excited about being able to go again after an almost decade long dry spell. 

There was a little wrestling with Grandpa before we left to drive back home on Sunday evening.




Oh, and Ginger found a little comfy spot for a nap after we packed her bed.

1 comment:

Valerie said...

Was your mom a SLP before she retired as well??

What a fun weekend!! That theater looks like so much fun.