Northwest Tour: Day 2

Day two actually begins at the end of day one. After a late-night drive from Vancouver, we arrived in Aberdeen around 12:30 a.m. My parents met us in the McDonalds parking lot to guide us to Roger's house, where we would be staying. Roger, a 65-year-old single man, was out of town and graciously allowed us to stay at his place, with his cat Chablis (which we affectionately called "Jobless"). After an incident that involved circling around the neighborhood about seven times (we eventually had to stop at a gas station for bathrooms while Dad continued to search for the house), we found Roger's place and settled in for the night.

Next morning we arrived at the 7th Street Theater in Hoquiam at 10:45. After some jollyness from Santa we went on. A couple of hundred kids and parents gave suggestions and laughed at our antics. Of course, we were competing with Santa in the lobby so our crowd dwindled toward the end. The newspaper photographer snapped the photo above of Hunter, Dianne and Jared doing Arms Expert.

After the show we enjoyed a nice slow lunch at Jennifer's Cafe. Jennifer is from Jamaica and showed us some Island hospitality. The slow service (we think it's meant to be that way) allowed my parents to meet each member of the Horses in depth. I loved how we all pitched in as each of us told our story. Then the members turned questioning to Mom and Dad and found out where they went to college, what they studied, how they met.

Of course, I had to take the gang to the "Sweet Nothings Popcorn Factory." This place makes luscious varieties of popcorn, including Chicago caramel, rocky road and Reeses peanut butter cup. The owner talked to us for quite a while about our act (she'd read about us in the paper), and ended up buying two of our t-shirts.



After a wonderful nap, we returned to 7th Street Theater at 6 p.m. To our delight, our name appeared on the marquee. Lane, the man who opened the theater, explained the history of it. The 7th Street theater used to host the likes of Al Jolson, Three Dog Night and Dolly Parton the Daily World wrote this about the theater:

Dubbed “Hoquiam’s Theatre Beautiful,” the theater opened in 1928 and was one of the first theaters in the Northwest specifically designed for talking pictures. The “Spanish garden” interior, with its towering, rounded ceiling punctuated with twinkling stars, is one of the last examples in America of what is known as atmospheric design.

We felt honored to be performing in this fabulous theater. Even though we only filled 60 of the 500 seats, we had a great audience and put on a good show. One person came all the way from Seattle (OK, she used to go to church with us). After the show we stuck around and talked to the audience members. One girl had come to both shows and said, "Are you guys coming back next year? You were WAY better than the magician they had last year." She'd brought her six brothers and sisters, so we considered that high praise.