Friday part 1……….

I mentioned a little 2 posts below about where i am but I'll add a bit more here. I woke around 8am and looked out of the window. I had no idea what to expect as it was pitch black when i arrived and all i could tell was my hotel room overlooked lake Muskoka. i certainly didn't expect such a nice view as what i saw! Everyone had been telling me how nice it was up here and that I'd love it, i had no idea it would be this nice though.

The mist on the lake as the sun rose this morning  and my hotel room from the pier on the lake (click pics for larger images)

 

Its just out of the holiday season up here now and most places are closing up for the winter, its VERY quiet and the boat rental stores are all closed as it would have been nice to have rented a little boat and gone out on the lake. My friend Gail and Bobs mum had told me about the tourist steam boat that goes out on Lake Muskoka and i should do that. I picked a timetable up in reception after having breakfast this morning and booked the 2 hour trip due to leave at 2:15pm.

 

I took the car and drove around for an hour this morning, drove up to Muskoka Beach and then just a few other scenic roads, i kept stopping to take some pictures and made a couple of panorama shots out of several pictures stitched together below (click the images for larger size):

As i was driving round, i realised there were a lot of the Adirondack type chairs, i have two of them at home that i use in the summer and funnily enough i actually bought them in Canada and had them shipped over to the UK. Laurens mum mentioned earlier in the year that she was looking for a couple of chairs for their garden and commented on how comfy ours were. As i was driving through the town of Gravenhurst i spotted a store that had one outside, i called in to enquire about them and might actually buy Karen & Mike a couple for their garden and bring them back with me! i took a picture of one just to make sure it was ok.

Karen, not sure if you want them natural or painted  ?(i am of course joking, just incase like Lauren you thought i was really going to bring 2 of the ones in the picture back!!) Click thumbnail for larger image:

The first two gigs…..

I haven't written a review about either of the two shows yet, to be honest after the first show i was totally speechless and lost for words!! i didn't even know where on earth to begin. Then lasts nights show being even better than the first blew me away even more!!

Its obvious from watching two shows so far that this show WILL change as the tour goes along, Rogers known for this and even last night there were a few differences in the production of it.

The first night Michael and i spotted a homeless guy with a shopping cart in the venue, a security guy was following him and ushering him out of the venue,or at least we thought he was!! I don't really want to give any spoilers away on here yet.

I will probably start typing a few reviews after seeing the three Chicago shows and being able to get my head round the whole production! i will say this though, if you haven't got a ticket and you miss this show then your missing THE best show of your life, i have never seen anything like it in my life and even though I'm seeing this show 52 times i knew from the second i saw the first one i wasn't going to get bored once during the tour and I'm going to be seeing different things in the production every night!! The amount of work Roger has put into this show is incredible, he has thought of every little thing and it all just works so well!!

Bob and Eryn after their front row experience on the opening night!:

Me and Andy’s wife Sheila  after the opening night show:

 

A few of us at the bar after the opening show:

Thursday………….

Didn't do much yesterday during the day, woke around 9am and it was pissing down with rain. I went for a drive around Toronto for a couple of hours and drove the road that follows the lake for 30 miles or so. I packed my cases into the car when i got back and drove downtown to park up as i would be driving to Gravenhurst (about 150 miles north of Toronto) for a couple of nights straight after the show.

Met up with everyone at Casey's bar around 5:30 and we all had a good chat, met a few new people and everyone else who was there the night before. My friend Zo went to the arena around 3pm to catch Roger going in for sound check ,30 minutes after he got there Roger arrived and signed his Wall album cover for him! he was pretty pleased. My good friend Joe arrived at Casey's and handed me a little envelope that he wanted me to have, in it was a small card thanking me for running the Roger Waters message board for all the years and a little something to help keep it going. I cant thank you enough Joe, your a great friend and that little note on the card meant a lot to me, cheers.

After the show i ran straight out to the parking lot and set off in the car, i was on the road within 5 mins of the shows ending and beat all the traffic leaving the venue. The 2 hour drive up to Gravenhurst went ok although i was pretty tired when i got within 10 miles of my hotel and my head started nodding at the wheel, not a god thing! I had been warned by JP to look out for Moose on the road, i didn't see a thing on the drive up and I'm sure he was just trying to scare me a little. I arrived at the hotel around 12:30am and crashed into bed within minutes of arriving, i woke around 7 this morning so the jetlags getting a bit better, hopefully by early next week I'll be on North American time.

Gravenhurst Ontario….

Where i am today (click on the map to zoom in and out):

Woke up to the following this morning, take from the balcony of my hotel. Beautiful place here, will post more about the last couple of shows, yesterday and today later on, meanwhile enjoy the pics and videos below:

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What i woke up to this morning:

Sunrise and lake Muskoka: