Friends in Town

Some months ago, my old friend from college reached out to let me know she and her husband were planning to come to Chicago to see Hamilton. I may or may not have invited myself along to be their third wheel. So we made plans and then, as things go with this show, we waited.

Finally the weekend came for them to fly into town. They got in early enough for us to meet up on Friday night for dinner. It was up to us, the locals, to find a place. They were staying up on the north side of the loop, so I picked a place on the Riverwalk. I was excited to go check it out; the Riverwalk has been something the city has been improving over the last few years, but I hadn't had a chance yet to see the upgrades.

So, we met up and it was a lovely evening; leisurely dinner, great company... We ate down at a table overlooking the river; it was a warm night but the breeze kept it nice. As we were finishing up, we were discussing the possibility of walking up the Riverwalk to find some ice cream, when suddenly the heavens opened and dumped rain upon us. It didn't look to be a storm that would just blow over in a couple minutes, so we decided to call it a night. However, we all still had to get home........ so, we took a deep breath and plunged into the wall of water.

After a crazy trek through the underbelly of Lower Wacker Drive, we squelched and squirched our way to our car and headed home.

The next day dawned rainy but, by the time I met up with my friends, the rain had tapered off. We got lunch near the theater and then it was time to head over to see the show.

Musicals have long been a passion of mine, and Hamilton ranks up there as a favorite... It definitely lives up to all the hype (in my humble opinion). Since this was my second time seeing it, I was able to relax a little and widen my observations from the initial flood of imagery and sensory that is this show; it's such a physical presentation.. the dancers in the ensemble are on the stage nearly the entire show, everybody - cast and ensemble - is fantastic.. it's a total spectacle in all the best ways.

I may or may not have gone total fan-girl on this show (and the creator's other show), so I have it memorized and have read articles and watched documentaries and such, but my friends had not. So it was a total treat to see their reactions as they were coming in fresh.

They both enjoyed it (though, she wasn't fully prepared for the emotional roller coaster that is the second act), and said it was totally worth flying in from Denver to see.

Also, I couldn't resist leaving a Hamilton-themed kindness rock outside the theater.

As we said our goodbyes, I told them, should they choose to celebrate their anniversary in a similar way next year, I wouldn't say no to an invitation to join them. They said they'd take it into consideration. Then, as I was heading home, the sun decided to finally come out from behind the clouds and gave me a cloud show,

 A lovely end to a fun weekend!