Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Currently in San Francisco... We arrived here on Friday, and spent yesterday doing a bus tour of the city, checking out the major sights like the Golden Gate bridge before heading over to Alcatraz on the ferry in the afternoon.
On my way to the infamous Alcatraz Island...

Dave tests out solitary confinement at Alcatraz

Today we're out south in San Mateo, spending the day with Kelly's family and friends... We met her Mom when she was over seeing 'Beauty and the Beast' a few months back, and she said we should come visit. (She's probably regretting it now that 7 Kiwis have arrived on her doorstep!)

Kelly's Mom (Carolyn) and Romero took us out to Stanford University for a look around the campus there, and then we nipped by the Stanford Mall for some souvenir t-shirts and stuff... We also made a quick stop into the Abercrombie & Fitch store there to pick up a few more supplies (it would have been rude not to ;-)

Prior to San Fran, we spent a week in New York City. We stayed in a budget hotel right on Times Square called the Hotel Carter (well known to us summer campers!)... not the flashest place you've ever seen, but it's cheap and super close to everything.

Cool! Kiwi cops don't carry guns like that! ;-)

We did a bunch of touristy things like the Statue of Liberty, as well as a heap of shows... Best of the bunch were 'The Drowsy Chaperone' (kindof a piss-take 1920's style musical), plus Wicked and Avenue Q. Disney's Tarzan was visually pretty spectacular and impressive, but the music and show were a little bit 'pants' (ie. not that flash ;-)

Saw Monty Python's Spamalot again... It wasn't nearly as good as last year, but the others still enjoyed it...
A lot of time was also spent shopping around the city... Checked out the big 4-storey Abercrombie & Fitch store on Fifth Avenue (which only opened late last year), and also spent a lot of time in Steve & Barry's University Sportswear.

The Stephon Marbury (NY Nicks) range of shoes and clothing ("Starbury") had just been launched thru S&Bs, and there were huge lines every morning for the shoes (the Starbury One hightop basketball shoes sold out within 15 minutes every day!).

I stood in line a couple of days, but missed out each time on the Starbury Ones.... I did tho manage to get some black and white lowtop sneakers, and some tan casuals, plus some t's and trackies.

Also managed to catch up with a few friends in the city over the week... Three Polish mates from Stagedoor Manor summer camp days - Radek, Michael, and Alicja...
We had a great catchup in a bar just below the Empire State Building one night, and then on my second last night Radek and his wife took me over to Brooklyn for a look around there, and a bit of a Polish meal.

We also caught up with a couple of former Stagedoor campers who are doing well for themselves...
Jonathan Lovitz met us after one of the shows - he's here in rehearsals for the national tour of 'Joseph'... he's about to leave for a ten month nationwide tour (he's playing Naphtali and understudy Pharaoh).


Caitlin Van Zandt also met us mid-week at Ollie's, a super-fast Chinese restaurant just around the corner from our hotel... she's flat out, juggling her work on the daytime soap Guiding Light, plus dressing at Radio City Music Hall, and a little bit of college when she can fit it in ;-)

Half of our group is staying a few more days in San Fran, while I lead the rest of them to LA for a couple of days of theme parks and stuff... Really looking forward to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios!