October 26: Date Night!

 Yesterday, Daniel and I got to get away for a night for an early anniversary celebration trip to St. Louis.  The purpose of the trip was to see Les Miserables at the Fox, but we also spent the night, did some shopping and enjoyed four kid-free meals.

My mom and my sister (and her baby) came over to watch the girls.  I think they all had a good time.  Here they are watching a movie.

Les Mis was amazing!  Though we almost didn't make it in time for the show.  We thought we left ourselves enough time to get there, but we ran into traffic less than a mile away from the theater.  Then there was the problem of finding somewhere to park.  If you are late to the show, you have to wait outside for the first 12 minutes until they let you go find your seat.  We paid a fortune for these tickets, so I was determined that we should not miss a single second of the show.  We ended up getting into the theater right as the music started and the doors were closing.  We then had to find our seats in the pitch black while the show was starting.   The Fox seats over 4000 people, so getting to our seats in the dark and in the middle of all the people was not an easy task.  But we made it, and it was worth the effort!

This was our sixth trip to the Fox (previous shows:  West Side Story, Wicked, Lion King, Mamma Mia and In the Heights).  We have sat in a different part of the theater each time, and I have learned that in such a huge theater it is worth spending the extra money for better seats.  If you end up in the middle/upper balcony seats, the people and the stage are super tiny.  I just don't think it is worth going to the show for that view.  So we paid for top notch seats in the mezzanine, and it was a great view!

The show was great; I would highly recommend it.  This is the 25th anniversary production, and they have made some changes to the set and the music.  There were some really cool effects towards the end, and all of the vocal performances (with the exception of Fantine, neither of us were a fan of her voice) were exceptional.  If you get the chance to see this tour, go see it!  (It will be in Chicago for about three weeks in November).  And if you can't see the live show, the movie version is coming out this Christmas.  It looks like it is going to be great as well!

We went to the 1:00 matinee of the show (because it was $10 cheaper per ticket).  So that left the rest of the evening open.  We checked in at our hotel (Residence Inn in Clayton, a great $55 Priceline deal).  Then we went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and did some window shopping at the Galleria and Crate and Barrel.  We were too full after dinner to eat our cheesecake, so we brought it back to the hotel to enjoy after our shopping.

Before we left this morning, we did a little shopping at The Container Store, World Market and Trader Joes.  We had a yummy lunch at Five Guys, then came back home to see our girls!

It was a great and relaxing little trip.  It has been almost two years since we last spent a night away, and it was definitely time.  Now, we just have to remember that this was our anniversary trip and that we spent all our money on this trip.  So when our real anniversary comes around (December 20), we have to remember that we don't get to go out and celebrate again!