Star Trek Encounter in Stratford

We’re falling a good bit (as opposed to a wee bit, which I now comfortably use in conversation!) behind, and the situation is just going to get worse. We were at Kristian and Rachel’s wedding over the weekend, which deserves a post and a half, and we leave tomorrow morning for a week camping adventure in Iceland. During the 4 days of recovery time between international trips, we’ve had a friend from Pittsburgh, Ross, staying with us!

Despite our complete exhaustion when we got back Monday, it was wonderful to see Ross. He’s on his first international trip, and his enthusiasm and wonder helped us to again see England through fresh eyes. We showed him around Birmingham on Monday, and then he explored Stratford and Warwick Castle on his own Tuesday and Wednesday, before heading out Thursday morning.

Ross was especially excited to see Stratford, because he is a trained thespian. Nick and I have been looking for a good excuse for a while to get to a show by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and this was the perfect opportunity. We met him in Stratford to see 12^th Night in one of the company’s more intimate theatres. To our surprise and delight John Lithgow was in the performance! He was fantastic as Malvolio, and it felt like such an honor just to be so close to him, let alone witness his equal parts comic and tragic turn as the character.

During intermission we were in the lobby talking about the utter coolness of seeing John Lithgow, when Ross said, ‘Oh my Gosh. OH MY GOSH!’

I replied, ‘What, is John Lithgow standing behind you?’

and he said, ‘No, it’s Sir Patrick Stewart!!!’ And sure enough, it was! He was in the audience to see the show, and was standing less than five feet behind us with a drink in hand. It was amazing for Nick and I, but even better for Ross, because Patrick Stewart is one of his favourite actors and personal heroes of all time. Ross went up and introduced himself, shook his hand, chatted to him about the next show he’ll be doing, while Nick and I stood smiling in the background. Oh, and Patrick totally looked over and smiled at me at the end of the conversation – we shared a moment.

Hopefully our next post will be in about a week saying we made it back from Iceland safe and sound and frostbite-free!