About 10 years ago, I worked right by the Ferry Building in San Francisco, in the historic building that houses One Market Restaurant. It was a lovely place to work, with a view of the San Francisco Bay from my 6th floor office. My team (which was later all laid off in the dot com bust) lunched, did yoga, drank sangria, watched movies, dined, played beer pong (after work, I swear!), frequented the farmer’s market (Tuesdays, was it?)…oh, and worked, in this idyllic setting. This spot is even right near BART and MUNI, so we easily trained it up to and around the city for work and play.
This is where Peter Pan The Show and Neverland are set up right now in San Francisco, running through September 5. A tent (which reminds me a lot of a Cirque du Soleil show tent) erected on the grass at Ferry Park serves as the venue. But you have no idea what you’re in for. Don’t think this is a little Peter Pan kids show.
There is WINE served there. Wine, people! And not just wine. Good wine. Although Samantha, I and our respective kids had grabbed lunch at Mijita in the Ferry Building Marketplace, we still arrived about an hour before the show and enjoyed a glass of vino and some kettle corn there. A nice way to start a family show, no?
Into the theater, which was pretty intimate as tent shows go. Although there is no bad seat in the house, since the theater uses threesixty technology, I though we had pretty good seats. I didn’t realize this until Peter Pan, Wendy, Tinkerbell, John and Michael started flying. When they all go up in the air on their “strings” (“Pssst! Mom, they are on strings. I SEE them!”) and start flying to Neverland, images are projected around the top of the tent, so that it actually looks like you are flying with them. Think IMAX, but in 360 degrees. And since we were sitting such that we were looking at the actor’s flying feet, it looked like we were flying TOO. Or, at least, to me (wine-induced?), it did.
My kids and I thought the show was fantastic. It originates in the UK (Kensington Garden, to be specific) and many of the actors are from the original cast there. No, they weren’t faking their English accents, as we thought in the beginning. We know this because we met them after the show for cupcakes and tea with several other bloggers.
Ava had her first go-around getting autographs. Lily was a little shy, but loved the fairy dust and cupcakes. Ben ran around with Akemi’s boys (together, the lost boys?), each of them wielding a sword, $5 items at the gift shop.
We didn’t get to meet some of our favorite characters – the crocodile and mermaids, imagine that? – but loved meeting many of the cast members, Nate Fallows as Peter Pan, Abby Ford as Wendy, David Poynor as John, Arthur Wilson as Michael, Shannon Warrick as Mrs. Darling. Thanks to SHNSF for the tickets*.
*Disclosure: I received four free tickets from SHNSF to see Peter Pan. I am not obligated to write about the show, but if and when I do all opinions are my own.
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Four days later….Now the kids and I have flown all the way across North America to visit my sister and my parents in Newfoundland, Canada. My sister has lived here for almost 8 years now, but my kids haven’t been here since they were babies. My parents drove here from California, starting about 6 months ago. First passport stamp for the kids! Reunion! Vacation! Sleepover central! We’ll be here for almost 4 weeks (although I’ll be taking a little trip to NYC and BlogHer’10 next week) and are excited to cook, play, read, tell stories and see the province of Newfoundland.
