hamilton

i've been listening to the hamilton soundtrack somewhat relentlessly for the last year, and enjoying the story, the music, and can usually be found shaking my booty in the kitchen with my kids while george washington raps to us about the battle of yorktown. so it's also been an engaging opportunity to tell my kids the story of our founding fathers, but in song. so now they'll for sure remember it.

i've thought about how hamilton died in a duel and how silly that seems. we stopped at his grave in the yard at trinity church in downtown manhattan many years ago, and quietly thought about the forming of the nation.



(as a side note, we were SO YOUNG on that trip...)


i think about this moment when we literally stumbled upon hamilton's grave just around the corner from the financial wall street he created, where we stood and talked about duels and the forming of a government and the birth of a rugged and rough new nation, a big experiment, when i sing these songs along with the broadway cast recording.

here's a little taste from the tonys.....


anyway, hamilton ended it's run in new york this fall, and started with a new cast in chicago this fall. and through some MAGIC, david procured tickets after over an hour of trying online and on his phone app. it felt like a lucky strike, and the seats were incredible and reasonably priced. so much so, in fact, that i didn't really believe we had tickets to see this super duper sold out show until it actually started in front of my eyes on saturday night.

and the show was super. absolutely 100% entertaining and engaging and full of throbbing passion and life blood, and obvious to me why it has received the attention it has since 2015.

the whole weekend, in fact, was epic. epic. EPIC. we stayed in the cool chicago athletic association hotel, which has been painstakingly restored and refurbished to its club vibe, but now accessible to everyone. it's gorgeous. and the rooms have pommel horses and other athletic stuff.


and our room happened to have a little peek-a-boo view of millenium park and the bean.


we sat fireside on the rooftop deck and smiled like fools (well, like fools who had dropped their kids off and were alone and giddy and about to see the show they've been dying to see....so, fools).


then we got dressed up and strolled the 2 blocks to the theater and tapped our toes when appropriate and cried when appropriate (the whole second half), and clapped until our hands were numb.


after that, this.


and in the morning, we visited the bean,



got the kids, and drove north until we could find some snow. the kids got some bonus mormor time while david and i topped our epic weekend with a ski spent in the sunny woods of the kettle moraine.


epic weekend.