Phantom of the Opera

I'd been writing for weeks about how excited I was for Phantom of the Opera in Cleveland. Well, Saturday was the day!

On Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:00 AM because I was so excited! Luckily I was able to fall back asleep, but only for about another hour.

The morning seemed to drag by, but finally it was time to leave! Luke was supposed to go, but wasn't able to, so Sarah went in his place. My parents also went, plus Luke's mom, two sisters, and brother-in-law. There were 8 of us in all.

We arrived a half hour before the show at Allen Theatre in Cleveland and it was so beautiful! Our seats were literally in the very last row. We weren't allowed to have cameras, but I snuck in a (blurry) picture of the theater anyway. (This was actually taken during intermission...I wanted to get a picture of the chandelier)The musical itself was amazing! I wouldn't have expected anything less. The only bad thing was that there was a tall guy in front of me, and I could barely see anything for the first half! Every time he moved, I had to readjust, because it would block my entire view of the stage. During the second half, Sarah, my mom, and I decided we were going to just stand up and kind of lean against our chairs. I guess being in the last row did have its advantages! Because I had a perfect view of the stage for the whole second half, then.

I don't want to say too much about the show because I don't want to ruin anything, but it was unbelievable! Don't miss it if you ever get the chance to see it!

After the show, we were trying to exit the theater, but no one seemed to be moving. There were people filling every last inch of the theater lobby and stairs, but traffic was at a stand-sill. It turned out that it had started pouring outside! After about 10 minutes stuck inside, we finally made our way out, and the rain had lightened up a lot. But as we neared the parking garage, we saw that the street and entrance had been completely blocked off. It turned out that I guess something had fallen down in the street (a transformer maybe? I really don't know what it was). So we had to walk the opposite direction all the way around the block to get to the entrance of the garage. It was still raining a little bit, and we had to go through a scary alley, and it was just annoying

Walking in the rain

While we were walking, Patty's (my m.i.l.) shoes both broke! The soles just sort of fell off of them or disintegrated or something when they got wet! It was the weirdest thing! And after all that, when we got to the parking garage from the other side, it turned out that they had started letting people through the way we had originally tried to come. We were so frustrated!!!

Luckily we knew what was in store for us next, so it was okay...we were about to head to Cheesecake Factory for dinner!

Our vehicle headed for the restaurant while Patty's vehicle headed to a store so she could buy some new shoes. Haha...Cheesecake Factory was extremely busy, being that it was a Saturday evening at dinner time. So we had an hour to kill, and we spent most of it in one of my favorite stores: Crate and Barrel. I love looking at all the fun, colorful things there, and the silly kitchen gadgets. Sarah and I also enjoyed riding the escalator multiple times while quoting Jim Gaffigan jokes ("see ya up there, hand!") And right before we left C&B, the shoes that Patty had just bought, broke! It was not a good night for her shoes!

Finally it was time for dinner! I had never eaten at Cheesecake Factory before, so I was super excited. I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant. It was so pretty! Here we all are at our super cool round booth (except my brother-in-law, Luke. He did not want to be in a picture)

Mom and Dad

Me and Sarah

Maria, Patty, and Diana

I decided to order the garlic noodles, and they were delicious! And on the plus side, they did not make me feel sick. Because I was sort of expecting them to. And I have enough leftovers for at least two more meals. ha!
We all made sure we didn't eat too much of our entrees, because of course we all wanted to order cheesecake! You can't go to Cheesecake Factory and not order cheesecake. Sarah and I decided to split a piece, and we got some kind of reeses chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake. It was delicious! And they even cut the slice in half and gave us each our own plate. I thought that was nice! And the cheesecake itself was absolutely heavenly. Doesn't it just make your mouth water??
After dinner, it was finally time to head home. I was exhausted after everything! I slept a solid 9 hours that night, and took a two hour nap the next day! I don't know why it was so tiring, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I woke up at 5 in my excitement that morning! haha

It was such a great day overall! I'm sad Luke had to miss it (he stayed back because he had to pull a float for the parks in a parade). But maybe next time it's in Cleveland I will drag him with me ;-)