The Waves Were Crazy Wild for Florida

Shane and I are down in Florida this weekend and we went to the beach today.  We had thunder storms earlier this morning and it was overcast when we left, but we decided to risk that it would be nice at the beach. We were wrong.

The sky was clear, but it was very windy and the waves were wilder than I've ever seen them in Florida. The Gulf of Mexico is usually flat as a pancake, but the surfers were out today.  The surfers didn't look like they were very good. We didn't see any of them ride a wave for more than a few seconds.

We only stayed about a half an hour. The wind and sea spray did not make it pleasant for beach sitting.

Seeing "War Horse" on Broadway

I took the day off on Wednesday and we went to New York City for the day.  Shane had business and I tagged along. I saw War Horse on Broadway. I went to the discount ticket booth at Times Square and was surprised that tickets for this show were even available. Perhaps since the film was release, the show isn't as hot as it had been.

Anyway, I got an amazing ticket six rows back from the stage.  The show is at a theater at Lincoln Center with stadium seating, so any seat would have been fine in the orchestra section, but my seat was ideal. Because the show was only discounted 30 percent, it was still a bit pricey, but it was well worth it.

I loved this play.  It was amazingly well staged.  The life-size horse puppets are extraordinary. The horses had so much personality that you totally accepted them as real characters in the show. If you have the chance to see it, I highly recommend it if you can take this emotional story of World War I. Tears were running down my cheeks by the end.  Yes... puppets made me cry. It is easy to understand how it won the Tony for best play last year.

Of course, my friend Elaine, an avid horse lover, would love parts of this show, but she could not take the tragedy. Years ago, we went together to see the film, The Horse Whisperer, and there is a scene where a horse is struck by a huge truck and Elaine went hysterical. You could tell it was about to happen and she slid down on the floor in panic. When it did happen, she loudly sobbed for a prolonged period. I had to remind her that it wasn't real. She would have to be committed if she sat through War Horse. Not to give too much away, but there are some equine deaths in the show (and some human deaths). The program explained that more than 8 million horses died in WWI.  Elaine... Do Not See This Show!

Though seeing this show was largely a positive experience, there were a few negatives.  If you have ever seen a Wednesday matinee of a broadway show, you know there are primarily two categories of people in the audience--high school students and senior citizens. The kids, overall, were fairly well behaved. They sometimes laughed at inappropriate moments and were a little noisy, but because this was such a great show, I think they were too involved to misbehave.

The seniors on the other hand were not so great.  I think some older people forget they are in a live theater show and not in their living room where they can freely comment on what's happening around them without bothering others. I sat between a woman with a bad cold who was constantly blowing snot for the entire performance, and an old lady who's husband and her had seen the Steven Spielberg movie of War Horse and were constantly making comments like, "I don't remember this part in the movie." I had to give them some looks. They got the message.