Elise visits London Town

You know what's AWESOME? When friends visit in London.

Elise McKenna paid me a little visit in London just in time for Thanksgiving! 

We had a lot of fun exploring London. 

Arriving in Central London and she found this! 

 Delicious brunch at the Sherlock Holmes pub. 

This is a replica of one of the rooms inside the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Crossing the Millennium Bridge 

On our way to the Tate Modern

Installation piece at the Tate Modern. The strips displayed cliche sayings on a loop and we must have sat there for at least 15 minutes reading them all.

Yay! Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland

 Just hanging at Winter Wonderland

At Sommerset House, which is literally right next to my school

Thanksgiving dinner. Two of my favorite people.

ALFIE! We've been waiting a year to see this amazing man 

perform the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

What a great man.

Trying on crazy hats at Piccadilly Circus.

Obligatory tourist photo

I really like my friends. Rach and Elise became fast friends. On the train to Windsor!

At Windsor Castle! I am the proud owner of a Windsor Castle season pass. 

I will literally go there EVERY week. :)

The girls excited about visiting the place of the educational beginnings of many great men,

 i.e., Eddie Redmayne and Prince William

Because sometimes being delirious wins over logic or socially acceptable behaviour.

The pastry table at Portobello Market is ridiculous. I mean... how do you even choose???

So happy to finally visit!

At the Greenwich visitor's center. We all did this. 

Amazing hall in Greenwich. Absolutely beautiful painted ceiling. There is a lot of symbology and history painted into that ceiling. I loved just starring at it.

 We're on the prime meridian!

 Well, technically Elise is in one hemisphere, I'm in the other and Michael is in both.

Mandatory trip to Harrod's and more specifically the Harry Potter Shop.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

On our way to church, we passed the Natural History Museum

Dress up at the Victoria and Albert Museum! 

They had a theatre costume and set exhibit which resulted in this.

 My love Jonathan. Here he is looking quite dapper.


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xoxo,
A

TTFN, NYC!

As the time for my departure approached, I made sure to spend extra time seeing the people in
NYC that I love! It was so sad making final dinner plans, final show plans, etc...
Thankfully, I'll be back in just a year, but it's sad to think that I'll be missing out on a year of their lives.
Well, anyway, here are a few shots from the final weeks:

Bella the Wonder Nugget

Our view at the Andrea Bocelli concert in Central Park. 

During my last week, I stayed in the UES and always walked past the Ralph Lauren store.

 I don't know why, but this store always makes me so happy.

Technically, this should be filed under "Sights From the City I Love"

James!

 An blurry Elise profile. She'd probably kill me if she knew.

With Luke, future Broadway star

The gang at work! Hen, Will, me and Danielle. All people I will miss.

Cake from Mrs. B and the boys.

Me and my sweet Bella Bear. She is the best dog EVER. EVER. EVER.

TAAsha. I suppose you had to be there for this to make sense...

Festival of San Genaro in Little Italy with Elise and Tash

Some of my very favorites at my farewell gathering at Houdstooth Pub

(a proper place for such a send-off): Rob,  Luke, Laners, and Briana.

the last two months {in photos}

opening night of Sister Act on Broadway. 

Quite different from the London production, but still a great show.

Sister Act Opening Night Party with KLR

 

KLR

Opening night party with one Luke Lords.

Fancy schmancy Gotham Hall where the Sister Act Opening Night party was held.

Luke waited in line for 6 hours for standing room tickets for the Book  of Mormon musical. What a trooper.

Here he is on stage after the show... We got to go backstage to visit cast members & my pals Rorykins O'Malley (who received a TONY nomination for his role as Elder McKinley) and Tommar.

Luke and I with Ror.

Tommar, Luke and Ror

One random day, Luke and I headed out to Brooklyn (with passports on hand, of course) to go to Grimaldi's and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. It's always nice to go OUT of the city to really appreciate where I live. 

Luke and I with my writers Sam and Derek. They write some FABULOUS new musical theater pieces. I'm producing one of their shows this summer, so those of you who are around should come!

Self-explanatory

Bella Bear

Art piece #1. Pencil and charcoal. I need to get back into it. I can see I'm still having the same issue I had back when I was taking art classes... My dark values are never dark enough.

Art piece #2: Physique 57 inspired? acrylic on canvas... yet to be finished, but this is a start. 

One random Saturday, Luke and I visited Serendipity 3. Frozen Hot Chocolate. YUM.

Jeni Lynn Rudd came into town. 

Naturally, the first thing we did was go to Max Brenner and order a 

ridiculous amount of chocolatey dessert.

So proud of my little Radcliffe! He worked so hard and it shows! He was fantastic! 

Definitely worth checking out. 

St. George Temple on a gorgeous May morning. Nessa got married and I headed out to Utah for the occasion by way of Phoenix. I flew into Phoenix and then drove up with Jeni the day before the wedding. It was so great to spend so much time wit Jeni. She's a great friend and I have missed her a lot since she moved back to Arizona. We went to lunch at Cafe Rio and then headed up to Utah where we stayed in a fabulous hotel for the night thanks to Nessa's family.

The newlyweds! How classy does the look? The wedding was lovely and low-key.... Much like Vanessa. It was great to see her so happy and also to see Kylie Kay Falke. I have no other pictures, but I think Ky got a few, which I'll post later.

Heading off to take pictures

enjoying their day

The Monday after the wedding, we headed out to Las Vegas early to spend the day there.

Testing my luck at the nickel slots. Don't worry, I only lost $2.

Bellagio water show with Jeni. We had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville which was surprisingly delicious, followed by dessert at Serendipity 3. 

On the way to catch a matinee showing of Bridesmaids. Judge me all you want. 

On the way back to Arizona. A beautiful sunset.