After relaxing for a few days in the quiet town of Yakima we moved on to another Washington city. Seattle is the largest city in the state and is known for its rainy weather. Although it is one of the northernmost states in the country it rarely gets cold enough to snow due to its proximity to the ocean. But because of this location it rains most of the days of the year. The day we arrived was very wet and gray but luckily the city was in for a sunny spell and we had perfect weather for the rest of the time we were there. One of our dancers, Sam Nicholas, is a Seattle native so he was as excited to show us around the city as we all were to have our very own tour guide.

It stretches for several city blocks and houses stalls for local produce, flowers, crafts, honey, baked goods, meats and, of course, fish. In addition to these things, there is an entire gallery of small shops that runs underneath the market. It would take hours on end to explore this area in its entirely which is why, for many of us, it was a great place to go every day.

Another thing Seattle is known for is its coffee houses, most notably Starbucks. The original Starbucks coffee company is located in the market area. Given the fact that the majority of our company practically lives at Starbucks when we're on the road, this was a must see (and get a latte) attraction.

From Seattle we headed over to Stockton, California for a few days. The theater in Stockton was a bit small to accommodate our entire cast so they had set up trailers outside for us to use as dressing rooms. Unfortunately the local crew had not anticipated rain during our stay and, consequently, didn't build any kind of covered walkway into the theater for us. Our first day there we didn't get just a brief rain storm but a torrential downpour for the entire day. It wouldn't have been so bad if just the walkway to and from the trailers to the theater got wet but the trailers also flooded. Seeing as there was no way for us to use them the decision was made to move the entire cast indoors into the dressing rooms there. It would be crowded but we could make do. When they went to do this they realized that one third of the dressing rooms indoors were flooded as well and the cast would have to be moved into a smaller space. It was very tight for our run in Stockton but everyone took it in their stride and with good humor and we made it though. It makes for a good survival story anyway and I think we all feel just a little bit closer after the experience. We're just lucky that we have such a great crew that was able to rearrange us into a new space while cleaning up all the leaks and putting in the set for the opening night performance.