Once again, for those who want to skip my normal long-winded travelogue, here's the Cliff Notes version.  The show was terrific, even better than the Syracuse show.  The girls were having a great time and Máiréad once again did ten spins during Coast of Galicia.  That seems to be her new standard, up from nine in the Spring when she was injured.  Being in the orchestra pit, we got quite a bit of attention from all of girls.  The Meet & Greet was with Lisa and Alex.

OK, now for the long version.  Wednesday dawned rainy, but it didn't really matter since we would be doing inside stuff today and the forecast called for it to stop by evening.  Ralph was again our host, since he is a Rochester native, and he had planned some interesting sight-seeing stops for us.

We met him around 10am at the George Eastman House, which is the estate of the founder of Kodak and the inventor of roll film.  It has been lovingly restored and is quite an amazing place.  He had electricity (with a backup generator), central vacuuming, central heat, and many other things we take for granted today, but this was all in the very early 20th century, well before it became commonplace.  He had two pipe organs with the pipes installed in the walls of the house and if he wanted to listen to music when his organist wasn't there, it would play music rolls like a player piano!  The house and grounds are beautiful with many architectural innovations.  Adjacent to the house, under the gardens, is the Eastman library where scholars have access to a wealth of historical photographs.  Speaking of the gardens, they are impeccably maintained and quite striking.  I took quite a few pictures for Scott, to be used as potential backgrounds for his future wallpaper efforts.  Stay tuned...

After a break for lunch, we headed to the Rochester Science Museum to visit the Titanic exhibit.  This is a traveling exhibit of actual artifacts recovered from the Titanic wreck.  It is amazing to first see a bent and broken drive shaft and then a whole set of perfect dishes that had been in a protective box which has since disintegrated, leaving them lined up neatly on the ocean floor.  There are exhibits of personal items accompanied by that person's story of how they came to be on the ship and whether they survived or not.  There is also a large display listing the names of all of the survivors and victims.  It is simultaneously very interesting and very moving.

Later, we met Ralph and his lovely sister at Olive Garden for dinner and then headed for the theater.  Parking was again quite reasonable, only $5.  We met Bruce again as well as Brad and his wife.  The pit at the Auditorium was improvised with sets of two level risers that had regular chairs on them.  We were in the second row which put us on the higher level and gave us a great view of the stage, as well as giving the girls a great view of us.  The house appeared to be a near sellout.

This time I wore my Fiddler Crossing shirt which Lisa quickly spotted.. Once they knew where we were we got lots of attention.  Like last night, I got a personal “Thank you” from a certain fiddler.

The audience tonight was better than in Syracuse, although they still needed a little coaxing in the right places.  Ralph can rightfully be proud of how his hometown fared against other shows.

During the intermission, a PBS representative walked through the pit area talking to individuals and thanking them for their contribution and support.  I thought it was a very nice touch.  After the show we were led to a side room where the Meet and Greet would be held.  We hung back and brought up the rear as all good forum members do.  Soon we found out that we would be meeting Lisa and Alex.  Because of our location we could see them walking down the hall and could see the full beauty of their special M&G gowns.  Lisa was, of course, her usual bubbly self and I told her what a great show they had done.  She remarked about my shirt and signed a few things.  Alex was quite outgoing although, as usual, I have no recollection of what we chatted about.  I wish they would record these so I could watch them later and find out what, if anything, I said!  They both signed my new group photo which now only needs Lynn's signature.

After the show Ralph and his sister headed back home; we would see them again on Saturday in Buffalo.  Scott and I had much bigger plans.  There was no show on Thursday so we planned to go to New York City and visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty which neither of us had ever been to.  Due to distance and scheduling constraints, we planned to drive halfway Wednesday night and the rest of the way Thursday morning.  So after the show we hit the road for Binghamton, NY, arriving around 2am, still juiced from the wonderful performance we had witnessed.

The original review is here.