Next up for the Boyne was one of the largest cities in Pennsylvania - Philadelphia. We had an amazing week in this historical city. Philadelphia is the original capitol of America, dating back to pre-revolutionary times. It is home to many significant historical artifacts and buildings including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. While visiting, many company members took this opportunity to sightsee and brush up on American history.

It was also an amazing week just to be out and about in the city as we had beautiful springtime weather for our entire stay there. A popular destination was South Street. Lined with trendy boutiques and eateries it was a great place to go to shop, people-watch or grab a bite to eat. One of the culinary specialties of Philadelphia is the cheese steak and there was no shortage of cheese steak sellers on South Street. In fact, it seemed like every restaurant you saw was boasting that they had the 'original and best Philly cheese steak'.

While we were in Philadelphia there was a workshop going on (led by our dance captains) for prospective dancers. They were flown in midweek during our stay and went through several days of learning show material. It was fun to meet the potential new dancers and hang out and get to know them in the evenings. Hopefully we'll see many of them back next tour!

After Philly we made our first return visit of the Boyne to a town we played in about a year and a half ago, Binghampton, NY. It was very different this time because it was now spring and last time we were there it was winter. At that point there was a foot of snow on the ground and we rarely ventured out of the hotel except to fight our way through the snow to the theater.

This time the town was more alive and we were able to explore quite a bit more of it because of the warmer weather. There was a high school just a few blocks from the hotel so every day around three o'clock the main street became crowded with students excited to be let out for the day. A lot of the Riverdance cast look very young and could probably be mistaken for high school kids. The local students seemed to see this and were a bit confused by all the new 'student' look-alikes wandering the streets with them because they knew we weren't from their school.

Deirdre McDonnell strolling around Binghampton, NY

One of our favourite spots in Binghampton - really our second home there - is the Lost Dog Cafe. We discovered it on our first visit to the town and were pleased to see that a year later it's still thriving. It's the perfect place for a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, a quick sandwich before the show, or dinner afterwards. It's a cozy place with plush rugs and comfy couches to sink into which make it very easy to spend the day relaxing there with a good book and warm drink. Finding gems like this in different cities is one of the most fun parts of touring.